Ideas for Improving the Airport Security Experience

Ah, yes... a familiar sight... and the bane of my jet-setter existence...

Airport security has been a hot topic this week, and rightfully so. Ever since I used the JetBlue All-You-Could-Jet pass in September I’ve been determined to find fixes for this nightmarish operation.

Here is what I’ve come up with:

1) Line discrimination based on travel history.

What if we could designate different security lines based on frequency of travel? Number of flights would be used as the criteria, rather than miles (since a traveler could rack up 2,500 miles with one flight from LGA -> LAX or ten flights from LGA -> BOS).

Example: A business professional who takes eight flights per month would qualify for a “High Frequency” or “Frequent Flyer” line, while a family that travels three times a year would be sent to another line.

(This would, of course, be more of a service to frequent travelers, and might unfairly discriminate against inexperienced but efficient travelers... if they exist)

2) Automate the X-Ray conveyor belt sooner.

The conveyor belt starts about 1.5’ before your bag enters the X-Ray machine. Yesterday that meant I had to stand and wait with my carry-on baggage and push it into the X-Ray machine. Not a big deal, unless the person ahead of you neglects to do so, creating a pile-up of bins and bags.

What if there was a gently sloping ramp down to the X-Ray machine, so the bins rolled onto the conveyor belt without a push?

(I have also noticed that there is often one TSA agent assigned to push the bin through if a traveler forgets to... the ramp innovation could free up that agent to do more important things).

3) Discourage people from redressing alongside the conveyor belt.

See if this scenario is familiar:

A traveler passes through the security check-point. She stands on the other end of the X-Ray machine waiting for her belongings to pass through. When the bins are spit out she starts pulling items out of them: her belt (which she puts on immediately), her shoes (which she puts on next), her coat (which she puts on last). There is a pile-up of bins behind hers and the conveyor belt has to stop. Everybody behind her has to wait.

Though there is an area behind security where people can collect themselves, it is not an inviting space, nor is it easy to carry the cumbersome bins (plus carry-on bags) back to the designated area.

What if the slope idea continued here, and rather than having your belonging come out on a straight, roller-based belt, they came out more like they do in baggage claim: at knee-level height, in some sort of round-about? Then people would have to bend down and pick up the belongings. The round-about (probably a half-circle) would bend the line around to clear the way sooner and discourage a pile-up.

And how about bins with handles, or a conveyor belt that ends in some sort of automatic bin collection?

What other improvements can you imagine?

Caren Explains the Advent Conspiracy

Need to buy some Christmas presents, but don't have any ideas? There's a good reason: Most of us have all we need.

But not everyone.

Instead of buying a gift that he or she will probably forget about after December 25th, why not give your time or money to a cause?

Join the conspiracy:



Still need some ideas? Here are a two causes I am donating to this Christmas season:

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Caren Explains Where the 10 Red Balloons Were

As you may have read last week, I teamed up with some students and professors from HBS on Saturday to try to win the DARPA Network Challenge for the (RED) campaign. We reached over 2 million people in three days, but were beat by our rivals across the river (congratulations, MIT).

"So where were the balloons?" you ask.

Here is a map of the locations.

(Side note to my Atlanta friends: Not ONE of you noticed the red balloon in Centennial Park???)

Following the challenge, my classmate, Rafael Corrales, asked me to write some reflections. His own post is pretty extensive, especially about our strategy and analytical findings, so I'll use this opportunity to share some lessons I took away on social networking and online behaviors.

1) It's easy to hide behind broadband barriers.

As I followed the Twitter trend for #redballoons on Saturday I saw numerous reports and pictures being posted. However, it was difficult to discern which were real and which were fake (and a number were, in fact, fake).

One example is this picture which did not have a location description attached to it. I recognized it to be from Union Square in San Francisco (because I've shopped at that Macy's before) but could not confirm it. Instead I called on our professor Misiek Piskorski, who was in SF, to see if it was real (which it was -- good catch, @nancyborden). In another instance, I learned that a balloon report in Chicago was a fake, after a friend checked out the scene for me.

When all you can see about a user is their screenname and any personal information he/she/it has volunteered, you have to be skeptical of what you read online. On the Internet, anonymity circumvents accountability.

2) Beware of search sabotage, which might even be self-inflicted.

I noticed within the first few hours of our Google AdWords campaign that we'd run through our entire campaign budget. Drilling down into the data, I saw that the keywords "DARPA" and "DARPA balloons" generated the most clicks. Since you'd have to know that the red balloons were associated with DARPA to search those keywords, my guess is that the clicks came from competitors who either 1) clicked our ads to find out what our team was doing, or 2) wanted to run up our advertising bill. We'll never know.

In hindsight, we might have omitted some keywords to make sure the SEM campaign reached the intended audience, not our competitors.

3) "The currency of real networking is not greed, but generosity."

On this point, I recall what an HBS alum told me about networking: it often seems fruitless, but then you'll get that one connection who introduces you to another and another, and suddenly things start happening.

That was true here. A number of "cold connections" came through for our team and helped our network extend far and fast. One example is the HBS alumni network, especially the DC and Northern California chapters, who sent our message to over 7,000 alums. Brad also helped us get an article with ABCNews.com.

You never know who is going to go the extra mile for you.

4) Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.

I wasn't surprised when HBS classmates asked me (in person) about Project (RED) Balloon. What did surprise me was hearing from old college friends across the country, some of whom I have lost touch with over the years. These were people who saw my posts on Facebook and jumped at the chance to help. Such interactions were a reminder that, even though I only regularly interact with a few dozen people via social networks, some 700+ Facebook friends are casually observing my comings and goings.

Social networks can turn passive relationships into active ones again with the click of a mouse.


Thanks to Brad, Kyle, Rafael and Professors Lakhani and Piskorski for an interesting experiment.

Caren Explains El Bulli, Of Montreal and the Art of Selling Out

World famous chef Ferran Adria visited my marketing class at the end of the semester. The class centered on a case written about his restaurant, El Bulli, which has been recognized as the best restaurant in the world and also the hardest to get a reservation at... only 6,500 people per year have the pleasure of dining there, despite 1-2 million reservation requests.

The crux of the case is that El Bulli does not make money. In fact, it hasn't been profitable since 2000. At 250 euros per meal (30 small dishes/drinks/desserts), Adria could certainly charge more money... but doesn't.

In this way, Adria said he is free to create without having to cater to customers wants. Instead, he has attempted to "buy his freedom" by selling El Bulli cookbooks. He also tried his hand at innovating fast food and potato chips for Lay's (but abandoned those ventures, as they didn't seem to fit).

Business loses to art in this case... dramatically and daringly. Within the case, Adria also refers to a quote by Jacques Maximin: "to create is not to copy."

I had the opportunity to ask Adria about this in class, more specifically, how we (as people trying to copy his recipes out of the El Bulli cookbooks) could learn to be creative. He said the secret is not to want to be #1. If you want to be creative but want to be the best, you will drive yourself mad. If I understood correctly, he said that this is the reason there are so many depressed artist types... the people who fret because they will never be Picasso... but of course they will never be Picasso -- there was only one Picasso, and he didn't certainly didn't aspire to be "PICASSO!"

This tug-of-war between business and art made me think specifically about Of Montreal's song "Wraith Pinned to Mist and Other Games"...

... for an Outback Steakhouse commercial:



OM frontman Kevin Barnes wrote an insightful rock'n'roller essay about the decision last year. Here's a little of what he had to say...

Why commercialize yourself? In the art industry, it's extremely difficult to be successful without turning yourself into a cartoon. Even Hunter S. Thompson knew this. God knows Duchamp and Warhol knew it. Some artists are turned into cartoons and others do it themselves. I prefer to do it myself.

Read the full interview on Stereogum's archive site.

Interesting to think of two very innovative, creative artists, each with a different view of their work and its marketing.

Leslie Feist liked my joke

Thanks to Rachael for catching that the lovely Feist linked up to my "Breaking News: Feist sued by Seven and Eight" post on her MySpace page! Read it in its entirety at PasteMagazine.com

Then read the comments here... they are hilarious... about 1/3 of the people get it, 1/3 think it's real, and 1/3 think Feist herself wrote it.

I am beyond humbled to be noticed in this vast space called The Internet.

CK