Epcot

NOTE: I realize this post might be a little "out there" for a Tech Blog, but I've been fascinated with Disney since visiting there last Spring. How they provide such a quality experience to so many people is an inspiration. Please indulge me...
On October 1st, Disney's Epcot celebrated it's 25th anniversary. From the beginning, Epcot's goal was to provide people a place to explore the future and the world around them. While learning a little history about Epcot and the various pavilions, I've noticed a few themes common with those I've been exploring.

Mickey Mashup??

In it's original form, the Journey Into Imagination featured Dreamfinder, an interesting character whose goal is
collecting the stuff dreams are made of.... sounds, colors, ideas... anything that sparks the imagination. And I store these sparks... and recombine them into new ideas and inspirations.1
When I heard Dreamfinder describe his ambition, I immediately thought of web services and how these "sparks" of information are also combined together in the form of a mashup to provide new and interesting insights and understanding to the information we have. It's the reason I'm so excited about this technology.

Agile Disney??

In the early days of Disneyland, I've heard that Walt Disney himself would sometimes stroll the park asking guests how they were enjoying the park or ideas of what new attractions they might like to see in the park. Today, Disney makes extensive use of surveys and taps into a very active online community. Keeping in constant touch with it's guests, Disney is not only able to gauge what it's public wants, but what it's willing to pay for. This is similar to the Agile principle of staying in touch with your users to determine and prioritize feature requests.

Some other agile thoughts I've been able to pick up on are:
  • Not overbuilding. By not building attractions which would generate little public interest, Disney saves a lot of time, money, and valuable real estate.
  • Continuous improvement. Disney is always looking for ways to improve it's current attractions. Often this means making tough decisions to upgrade to replace popular attractions (Horizons is an example of an attraction that is missed by many Epcot fans, but was replaced by Mission Space which is widely popular)
When it opened in 1982, Epcot introduced the wider public to the power and potential of computers, helped pioneer the "live via satellite" news coverage that is prevalent today, and gave a broader look into the future of transportation and exploration (space and sea). Today Epcot still strives to educate the public on the cutting edge of conservation, technology, and world awareness. Amazing!

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