mocoNews.net - Taking The Social Out Of Social Networking: Travel Channel's 'No Reservations' Falls Flat

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Dianne See Morrison

mocoNews.net
Monday, February 23, 2009; 5:59 PM

It must have sounded like a great idea when it was first floated. Last year, Zero Point Zero Production, the company that creates the Travel Channel's popular TV show, No Reservations, starring celeb chef Anthony Bourdain, approached mobile content company Mobicious to form connections with its viewers by posting behind-the-scenes, candid shots from the show on its mobile photo sharing site SnapMyLife. The crew has since posted some 340 photos to the site's free, ad-supported public albums.

But according to Xconomy.com, which took an in-depth look at how the venture was faring, the albums are curiously "unsocial." The crew of the show can post photos, but users can't post their own photos to the stream. And, while users can comment on photos, the crew doesn't typically respond to them?out of 340 photos, there were only four comments from the crew. The pictures themselves apparently still look like "studio-produced publicity shots." It seems that the explanation comes down to legal issues. The show can't post a pic on the photo-sharing site unless they have legal sign off from all the people in it, and as such is "extensively vetted by both Zero Point Zero and the Travel Channel." So much for spontaneity and the mobile advantage.