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Nearly three short years ago, the buzz word du jour in tech was arealtimea. Real time discovery. Real time search. Real time serendipity. The explosion of interest in social sharing tools like Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed (remember this was early 2009) had people (myself included) saying that aDelayed news will no longer be acceptable for early adopters, who will gravitate to the quickest sources of news, wherever they may be.a In practice, while this has occasionally been true, Iave found a completely divergent innovation to play as big a role in the way I (and others) consume news content and entertainment – that of time shifting, which has remained valuable at a time when most real-time search engines have pivoted or vanished.

Best exemplified by TiVo and other DVRs, preceded by the creaky VCR, the act of consuming media at a time much after its initial airing is so commonplace that live viewings are so uncommon that friends often tiptoe around current storylines for top shows. In some social circles, only the most breaking drama series get the aday it actually aireda treatment – like Breaking Bad, Dexter or Homeland, while everything else goes to TiVo, to be consumed later. (Obviously, I saw the season finales for Dexter and Homeland last night)

News, with some exceptions, can be similarly stored away for later viewing, be it through RSS readers or on your social network of choice. One must not be glued to the real time stream to make sure you donat miss anything. Instead, the RSS reader traps your own hand-picked links, ready for viewing when you get the opportunity, not necessarily tied to their time of posting.

On the big screen, movies may bank on a massive opening weekend, but with consumers having so many options for entertainment sources, itas common to see people mention theyall await for Netflixa, which could be months or years away, content to save a few dollars while also getting the comfort of watching in their own home. And if you do find yourself suddenly interested in a show your friends have been seeing which has been out a few seasons, donat fret, as you can, in almost all cases, catch up – tapping into many options, be they Netflix, Hulu, Xfinity, iTunes or Android Market.

This fall, I made it a personal mission to watch all of Mad Men, after hearing people go on and on about its quality. I powered through it with many late-night Netflix marathons. After finally ordering Showtime, I caught up on this seasonas Dexter on Xfinity, and then did the same for Homeland. If my wife misses her favorite shows, she can do the same, tapping into the various video repositories on the web, including the big three networks, typically slower to adapt to the innovation of the web.

I watch my evening talk shows 3 to 5 in a row, from Jon Stewart to Conan, fast forwarding through commercials and skipping uninteresting guests – efficiently getting the best and skipping the rest. Itas almost the same approach I take to my RSS reader or activity on the social networks, skimming, reading, clicking and leaving no prisoners. Even if Iam not constantly connected, and I do a good job of getting close, I donat feel this sense of missing something.

Realtime reactions to breaking news events, kicked off by an initial discovery, and then rattling around search engines and social media, canat be duplicated by time shifted content, but for most buckets of content, be they text, audio or video, the drive to be first and in the mix of the story as it is interpreted and curated, is not essential. Advents in information and content sharing over the last few years have instead made aon demanda a reality, getting me what I want when I want it, not when someone else decides for me.

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Last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings set off a tech media firestorm with the announcement of a split between the company’s streaming business, which would bear the original Netflix name, and its DVD by mail business, now known as Qwikster. Much of the discussion centered around two parts – the first being Netflix’s price increases announced this summer, and the second, focus on the name of the new business, which sounded way too much like Amway’s sub-brand, Quixtar. But both flareups circumvented the real trajectory of Netflix making a choice to decrease its attention on the physical media world, one I publicly said I walked away from this Spring. With a smart combination of online video properties, including Netflix, YouTube, iTunes and Hulu, you can have your entertainment needs satiated practically any time. However, there remain gaps of content and availability from site to site, thanks to exclusivity deals with entertainment owners, copyright and who knows what else.

Apple’s initial foray into renting movies (and later television shows) online, combined with the release of Apple TV units, made it easy for me and my family to select movies on demand, and watch them almost instantly. After some buffering, the selected title would be in our living room and could play that evening. Back in 2007, when Netflix was not streaming, the opportunity was available, in my opinion, for Apple to seize the market, through introducing a subscription service. (See: How Apple Could Crush Netflix Now) But it didn’t happen. Apple didn’t go the subscription route, Netflix evolved, and no doubt Hollywood studios were afraid of Steve Jobs having as much power over their titles’ success as he did in the music business. In time, Netflix figured out streaming, kept the subscription model intact, and presented another choice for online video. Even better, Netflix did something that Apple chose not to do – embracing the Web by allowing for in-browser movie plays, and releasing mobile apps for practically every phone and tablet. (See: Netflix Edges Closer to Making the Perfect Web Video Site)

While Apple did a great job of bringing films and TV into my living room or laptop, Netflix did a better job of making them portable. In addition to box office wins, I’ve seen full seasons of shows like Dexter and Mad Men through Netflix, available on any laptop and through most connected TV devices, such as Google TV, TiVo and the Nintendo Wii. Netflix gets the Web, and is so simple to use that my 3 year old twins spend a lot of time running the Netflix app on our iPads. I’m often amused to see the recommendations that come my way from Netflix after Matthew or Sarah have spent an hour with Nickelodeon and Sprout shows for toddlers.

Similarly, YouTube’s tie-in with the Android Market has also embraced the cloud for streaming video. As I wrote in June, you can rent films on the Android Market, and watch them on YouTube from any computer. That too is very convenient, and there’s no entrance fee requiring subscription. Meanwhile, Hulu has access to some shows (like my personal favorite, Peep Show) that you can’t get anywhere else – and there’s the catch. Much like in the old days of instant messaging, where services were splintered without standards for interoperability, consumers are left to have multiple accounts from multiple places and remember which shows and titles are where. An evening’s entertainment can come down to which device you have in which room, which services are supported and which titles are available for which place. It’s easier to deal with for the cloud-backed properties, like Netflix and YouTube, but less great for the others. Nobody’s yet got it 100% nailed.

Additionally, what all of these services miss is the opportunity to satisfy the home viewer who wants to see movies currently playing in theaters. I’ve been begging for this for more than three years now. (See: Think Apple Would Dare To Take On the Movie Theaters?) As a parent of three kids three and under, planning for a babysitter to cover the hours when my wife and I would attend a movie is a challenge, one that will no doubt cost much more than the face value of the tickets. So most of the time, the theater experience is unavailable. Meanwhile, most families’ home theater systems are getting even better. I would have to bet the availability of in-theater titles to play at home would have real value and I know I would pay a premium for it. I would have seen Moneyball this weekend, if it was available, but being homebound means either we have to wait, or we have to seek out illegal downloading alternatives – which aren’t ever a good option.

Spotify delivered the reality of a near-infinite music library on demand. Practically any title in the world (or so it seems) in high quality with no downloads or delays. The movie equivalent is still missing. No doubt this is a harder quest, but it’s one worth conquering. Any time you see knowledgeable people debating Netflix’s streaming movie inventory online, you hear concerns about its library. The company is closing deals to make that better, but they’re quite expensive. Apple hasn’t budged on a subscription model. YouTube remains best known for amateur videos, while that’s expected to improve. And who knows what’s happening with Hulu? Not me.

As broadband becomes more ubiquitous, and traditional entertainment leaders get innovative on their own about reaching customers, partnering with all services, I expect the portable cloud model to win, as it always does. Things are much better now than they were two or three years ago, but there’s much more room to go. I hope in two or three more years in the future, we’ll be laughing about how hard it was to get the titles we wanted anywhere.

Disclosures: I work at Google, of course, and you can decide if that impacts how I discuss Google TV, Android, YouTube or any of Google’s perceived partners or competitors.

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However, I’d joined Google+ the month before, had been using the service, and at that time I think about 10,000 people had me in circles. (The growth on Google+ has been remarkable. On Twitter, some 8,000 people follow me and that’s been constant for awhile. On Google+ at the moment, 245,590 people have me in circles, up from 10K in early August and 0 in early July. I have no idea why there’s such rapid uptake on Google+ or why the huge disparity with Twitter, which I’ve used for five years.) For this reason, 26-year old Matt Dickhaus, head of U.S. marketing for Viventura, emailed and asked if I wanted to “participate in a South American tour,” possibly for free.

With apologies to Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, thus began my Six Stages of Colombia.

Stage 1 – Incredulity. People don’t offer me trips to South America every day. I was intrigued but skeptical. I don’t stay at “free” hotels that require a time-share pitch, and this seemed like a possible branch of that tree. Also, I have an 8-year-old, Tyler, who, when you pick him up and shake him, feels only somewhat ready for international travel – not quite ripe, in other words. Leaving him home wasn’t an option, nor did I want to.

Stage 2 – Excitement. Matt and I started emailing and speaking by phone. Tyler adores animals, and has been obsessed with the rainforest since age 3. We honed in on Colombia. Viventura had never had young children join a tour (they generally recommend travelers be at least 14), but Matt and his team began putting together a new itinerary: “a kid friendly journey with a focus on the beautiful beaches and extraordinary wildlife Colombia has to offer.” Plus, what Viventura wanted from me was something I’d want to do anyway: post pictures, share the experience online. Viventura could accommodate up to 9 people on a tour, so I started asking friends with kids if this was something they could see themselves doing. I offered to spread my “free” trip across all the travelers so what it would amount to was a slightly deeper discount than the 10% off they would already receive. I asked local friends. I asked relatives. I asked Evan Brown. I asked Rick Klau. Many were interested but it’s a lot for people to drop everything and haul their kids to South America, and our travel dates were right up against the holidays.

Stage 3 – Panic. By October 3, I was serious enough about the trip to be looking into nitty-gritty details, like air fare (expensive and indirect, from Los Angeles), and safety. Our anchor city for much of the trip was Medelln, which no North American adult can hear without also immediately inserting the words “Drug Cartel.” U.S. State Department advisories about Colombia are somewhat encouraging (“Security in Colombia has improved significantly in recent years” and “The incidence of kidnapping in Colombia has diminished significantly from its peak at the beginning of this decade”), but also chilling:

[T]errorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other criminal organizations continue to kidnap and hold civilians for ransom or as political bargaining chips. No one is immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Kidnapping remains a serious threat, with two kidnapping cases of U.S. citizens reported since August 2010. One kidnapped citizen was rescued within 4 days and the other case resulted in the murder of the victim. Kidnapping in rural areas is of particular concern. On July 2, 2008, the Government of Colombia rescued 15 hostages, including three U.S. citizens, who had been held for more than five years. Although the U.S. government places the highest priority on the safe recovery of kidnapped U.S. citizens, it is U.S. policy not to make concessions to or strike deals with kidnappers. Consequently, the U.S. government’s ability to assist kidnapping victims is limited.

[Link mine.] Matt and I emailed. He’s originally from Florida. He has lived and traveled in Colombia without incident for two years. They’ve been running tours for 5 years with non-U.S. customers (primarily Germans) without a single issue: no thefts, let alone a kidnapping. Matt’s the poster child for the country’s official tourism campaign, The Only Risk Is Wanting To Stay: he went there on vacation and decided to stay on.

At this point, the exponential growth of Google+ was starting to creep me out. I was now in over 50,000 people’s circles. I told Matt that if we did this, I didn’t want to post during the trip. Someone could readily follow along with our online itinerary and have an unpleasant surprise waiting at our next destination. No problem, Matt completely understood, and sent me more information about Colombia, crime, drugs, and kidnapping. Bottom line: I was reassured.

Stage 4 – Excitement. This trip was sounding amazing. Pacific beaches, Caribbean beaches, the historic city of Cartagena, a mud volcano, probably more animal and plant species than in any other country on the planet regardless of size? Tyler and I were so in. And, it turned out, so were were my great friend and neighbor Lorri Megonigal, and Tyler’s best pal on earth, her son Ryan. We started organizing. Rick Steves travel satchel? Check. Packable beach toys? Check. Shots and pills…?

Stage 5 – Dread. The next U.S. government Web site to throw cold water on the proceedings was the CDC. You don’t go to the beach and jungle regions of Colombia without innoculations for yellow fever, typhoid, and Hepatitis A and B. And with malaria, of course, there’s no vaccine (have you read State of Wonder?), you have to take preventative pills.

Ugh, two 8-year-olds and a battery of shots and pills. It was a testament to how much the kids wanted to go that they sucked it up and did it. Not without tears and trauma, but they did it. My son had never swallowed pills before, and we learned that capsules (assisted by water through a straw) are easier than tablets, and tablets (even foul tasting ones) are easiest with peanut M&Ms. Yellow fever shots make your arm sore. They make a little kid’s arm considerably more so.

The sales clerk at my local Ace Hardware is a dead ringer for Sofia Vergara, a decade or so from now. I asked her where was she from.

“South America.”

“What country?”

“I don’t talk about that.”

“Is it Colombia? Because we might go to Colombia.”

“Djyehs.”

End of discussion.

We spent Thanksgiving with good friends, one of whom travels often to Medelln and Bogot for business. While there, he is constantly accompanied by armed private security and uses armored ground transport.

There are land mines in various parts of the country, we learned. Not on our itinerary. But still.

Stage 6 – Excitement. We paid our initial deposit, bought travel insurance, checked our existing insurance for what it covered, bought international phone and data plans.

I started cruising Clicker.com for Colombia videos. Anthony Bourdain did a great one on Medelln and Cartagena. Music Voyager made me want to salsa, and further assured me visits could be fun and safe. Globe Trekker showed gorgeous Cartagena and described its pirate past. I shared these with friends (including my travel companion) and family to help them feel better about our decision; nearly everyone I told about the trip expressed something between surprise and alarm. I read about smuggling subs in Wired, saw that the FARC leader had been taken out, and noted the myriad videos about drug and FARC violence were mostly out of date.

I met a sweet woman with no English, and her daughter, my son’s age, with some, at a fall craft fair. She was a talented artisan and made beautiful leather goods. They were from Colombia.

Another is from Colombia, Barranquilla. At their holiday party, her sweetheart of a mother gushed about the country and offered to teach me some salsa.

Someone reminded me to dig up Romancing The Stone. (I’ve yet to see Colombiana.)

By November 12, we’d booked air fare, paid deposits, and were definitely going. If we didn’t know anything else, we knew it would be an adventure.

Disclosures. I’ve been following the discussions begun several years ago by Jeff Jarvis and renewed this month by Rafat Ali and Jeremy Head, about bloggers, travel, exposure, and junkets. I’m also well aware of my obligations under the FTC Endorsement Guides and regulations. As I think you’ll see in coming posts, the arrangement between me and Viventura wound up being more of a beta test than a junket. I traveled, I gave feedback, and now I’m writing. In order for you to assess my objectivity, or lack thereof, for yourself, here are all the benefits and incentives Viventura provided.

• 1 tour package, ordinarily priced at $1,745.00 U.S.,
• 10% discount for those traveling with me (children priced same as adults),
• 2 surprise Salsa lessons in Cartagena,
• 1 surprise 1-night hotel upgrade, following some flight arrangements gone awry,
• 2 small wooden boxes of coffee candy as farewell gifts, and
• 4 days traveling with Matt Dickhaus as interpreter, guide, all-around good guy, and child-whisperer.

Other than the meals included in my complimentary tour (4 dinners and what wound up being 7 breakfasts, for 1 person), we paid for all our own food and drink, our air fare to Colombia, hotel incidentals, some taxis, entrance fees for Tayrona and El Piedra del Peol, and horse rental fees in Tayrona. For more on what is and is not included in the tour, go here.

Next up, our first day in Colombia: staying in Medelln, and traveling to La Piedra del Peol y La Reserva de Guatap (The Peol Rock and The Guatap Reservoir).

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