User:Kjheeta/sandbox

What is Social Seating or Intelligent Seating

Social Seating or Intelligent Seating allows users to choose their seatmates based on their social network profiles. It is an optional seat assigning system that uses data from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks to assign seats. It to allow users to look at people with similar interests and then book a seat accordingly. Some might think this program which was initiated by few airlines as ultimate social networking dream but some might think this as an invitation to stalkers and privacy issues. Its use is not just limited to travel industry it can be implemented in other industries like trains, theaters, sport events, gatherings etc. Who is offering this feature:

At this time only few airlines are experimenting with this concept. When passengers book their flight through the airline's web site. The airline will have the "Social Seating" program which will ask the passenger's permission to share their Facebook or Linkedin profiles with other passengers. The system won't read the full profile but only the options selected by the user (If they wan to share the picture, name and other information) Passengers will have option to choose what part of their profile they want to share. The seating map will then display the seat choices of other passengers who have participated in the "Social Seating" for that flight. If the passenger opts out of the program at the last minute before the flight then the information is deleted from he system. No where in the process any information is shared without user's concent.

"Whether passengers will want to share their flight and seat info is a big and controversial question. Eran Savir, CEO and co-founder of Israeli-based SeatID, says everyone has a bad flying story thanks to an awful seatmate. That experience is what inspired the founders to start the company, Savir argues it’s better to sit next to a friend, a friend of a friend, or someone with common interests or business connections, rather than a total stranger, which is the case now. Savir says while the service could be used for social and dating purposes, the more popular scenario is the business use case" References:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/13/seatid-launches-service-to-book-a-flight-based-on-your-social-network http://www.seatid.com/ http://travel.usatoday.com/digitaltraveler/story/2012-02-27/Is-this-seat-taken-Airlines-add-social-seating-programs/53270826/1