TOM LOFTUS
tommyloftus [at] gmail [dot] com
I launched Truth.Travel, a blog network and community space for Condé Nast Traveler, in September 2009. As far as corporate web sites go, it was quite unusual. It was built outside of Condé Nast’s digital realm—I hired an additional programmer and designer/user interface guru—launched on time and way under the minuscule budget I was provided. Built upon a Movable Type platform with custom Javascript, this 'rogue' project has yet to fail. I might add that Truth.Travel is hosted with a third-party provider. Everything, from the design and coding to community functionality and story editing to social networking/marketing to backups and dialogue with the host providers is provided by myself and a very small rotating staff.
Last month I launched our largest update to Truth.Travel, a community of travel specialists called "Not Your Typical Travel Agents." Users can now search for specialists based on needs/geography and add their comments to specialists pages. In turn, every comment made by travel specialists on the network, surfaces on their profile page, thus broadcasting their expertise.