Figured with my first post I would start with an introduction. My name is Kent Weare, I live in Calgary, Canada and work in Information Technology. I have been blogging about technology since 2007. My blog posts have largely consisted of Microsoft System Integration and Cloud computing. My two blogs are at http://kentweare.blogspot.com and http://www.MiddlewareInTheCloud.com. I have also had the opportunity to co-author 3 books, once again about technology.
In June 2016, I started to get interested in Crypto-currencies. I had heard about Bitcoin for several years but never sat down and looked into(really kicking myself for that). Recently I had the opportunity to hear Alex Tapscott speak about Bitcoin and Blockchain. I have been reading Alex (and his father Don's book called Blockchain Revolution) and the chapters where they talk about Uber and AirBnb really hit me. They discuss that the "sharing economy" is for the most part not about sharing, but rather aggregation. You still have "middlemen" collecting fees, commissions or accumulating wealth on the backs of participants and most likely their data. It started to get me thinking about Tripadvisor. Since 2007 I have been a member of Tripadvisor and have made 35 contributions. I made the contributions in the spirit of "paying it forward". I do leverage the site when booking trips and contribute so that others may benefit from my experiences. It is give and take, and I am fine with that. The issue I have is that in the meantime, Tripadvisor is not doing this out the the goodness of their heart, they are making money off of my data and experiences.
I have no problem sharing, but I also don't a problem with receiving some level of appreciation for content that others find valuable. So when I heard of Steemit, this really was inline with my goals. So moving forward, I plan on documenting my travel experiences on Steemit instead of Tripadvisor.
I hope you find my contributions interesting.
Kent
