March, 2006 - Nr. 3
New portal a one-stop info shop for World Cup visitors
TWIG - For millions of fans expected in Germany for this summer’s soccer World Cup, a whole world of information about the tournament and its host country is no further than the nearest mobile phone.
That’s thanks to Servingo — a free service available on cell phones, PDAs and laptops catering to visitors of the month-long soccer extravaganza.
The new portal, found at
www.servingo.de and available in four languages, is a one-stop online shop for information ranging from restaurant reviews to a navigation system that points the way to a near-by gas station.It also provides event listings, hotel bookings and up-to-the-minute reports from news outlets like Deutsche Welle and the sports weekly Kicker.
"A lot of this information is available from various sites on the Internet, but there I have to find it all myself," said Daniel Holweg, a scientist who has worked on the site.
"The advantage of the portal is that it combines all these items in one place. Visitors receive information tailored to the wishes and interests set out in their personal profile. And they only have to log on once."
In order to use the portal, soccer fans submit a personal interest profile online. With this information, the system compiles an individual plan for the day and reminds its user of dates and appointments.
The portal, which is partly sponsored by the Germany’s Ministry of Economics and Technology, is the product of a research project aimed at developing an IT-assisted infotainment and logistics service platform.
The Servingo project was coordinated by the Germany’s ZGDV
Computer Graphics Center and supported by the Fraunhofer Institutes for
Computer Graphics, Material Flow and Logistics.
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