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As I mentioned on 2 April 2008, Aloha Airlines is still flying cargo flights in the state of Hawaii. It hasn’t been easy. Aloha flies 85% of the state’s air cargo, including postal mail, bread and other time-sensitive items. If Aloha stops flying, Hawaii’s economy will feel the effects within two days.

A report posted this evening on the newspaper’s web site says that GMAC has agreed to provide US$3 million in bridge financing while the Air Line Pilots Association and Aloha management are still negotiating.

UPDATE: here’s the full article from the Star-Bulletin’s 9 April 2008 print edition.

The main issue is which pilots will be retained when the cargo business is sold at auction on 24 April. Aloha management wants junior pilots, while ALPA favors the current collective bargaining agreement and senior pilots.

Cancellations and allegations

Meanwhile, Aloha canceled 7 of its 16 cargo flights today after pilots staged a sick-out. Mail and other time-sensitive cargo was shipped, but the situation will only get worse if the sick-outs continue.

An earlier report in the Tuesday print edition has more details. In the article, ALPA representatives claim that Aloha is blocking pilots from flying to Oahu for job fairs by confiscating their ID cards and turning off some information systems.

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) will hold a hearing of the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Thursday, according to this Star-Bulletin report. Inouye chairs the committee, and he will examine the current state of the airline industry in Hawaii.

Aloha Airlines president David Banmiller and the state’s three other Congressional representatives have been invited to testify. Banmiller has become more vocal in recent days, as he provides more information about how state officials refused to assist Aloha Airlines during the last two years. This Pacific Business Story has more details.

No backup plan?

Meanwhile, USPS spokesman Duke Gonzales stated that there is no contingency plan for interisland mail service if Aloha stops flying. Aloha flies in all of the mail for the islands of Hawaii and Maui.

Hawaii residents have enough problems already, as Kilauea producing an increasing amount of vog. The Honolulu Advertiser reported this afternoon that Volcano National Park has been closed as air quality deteriorates.

Yesterday, the Hawaii Superferry started sailing between Honolulu and Kahului, Maui after a two-month repair cycle. See this Star-Bulletin story for more details. The Superferry can handle large delivery trucks and their cargo, but the company has been unable to maintain a reliable daily schedule since the service was launched in August 2007. The departure of ATA and Aloha Airlines gives the Superferry a fighting chance to hit breakeven, which is possible with about 400 passengers and 110 cars per voyage.

UPDATE: The Star-Bulletin ran a long article on the Superferry in the 9 April 2008 print edition, with a timeline and plenty of details.

On Saturday, 5 April 2008, I discussed the issue of stress in the blogging industry. In this billso.com article, my topic is how I use my blog as a teaching tool.

My interests in technology, privacy and management are a good fit with two graduate courses that I teach at Hawaii Pacific University. My IS 6100 course is an overview of corporate information systems. I teach an advanced course called IS 7010, which focuses on technology strategy.

After several attempts at blogging, I’ve learned that I can’t write a headline-driven blog that comments on up-to-the-minute issues. As I mentioned on Saturday, I can work a bit ahead of the east coast news cycle by reading the major newspapers online, just after their web sites are updated for the next day’s print editions.

While I can write and post an article in less than an hour if the topic is timely and appropriate, it’s not fun. Writing on a tight deadline is the kind of stress-maker that I’d like to avoid. I used that model for most of my blog articles until 2 months ago.

Now, I jot down some story ideas, and edit the piece a few times before I put it on the site. I always have at least 10 stories in my inventory, and they are in various stage of editing and development.

I stumbled into this system of writing after years of printing, filing and using examples from magazines and journals in my courses. By posting articles and examples on my blog, I can point students to a growing selection of topics.

Social bookmarking

I’ve made thousands of bookmarks and favorites in my web browsers, and every year or so, I was archiving these to files. Back in 2004, I started using Bloglines to keep track of articles I had read on the Web. Bloglines had a very limited commenting tool that I started using to post blogs for my courses. I’ve been importing the best of these old articles in my billso.com blog, so I can keep using these posts in my courses.

I also started using a social bookmarking service called del.icio.us to keep track of my bookmarks in their web site. I can add or use my bookmarks from any computer, which has become a big time saver for me. Social bookmarking services also suggest new links for their users, based upon their interests. Lately, I’ve been using a similar service from eBay called StumbleUpon to save and find new pages and videos.

Knowledge management

In January 2007, I decided to move my course-related blogs to billso.com so I could create my own little knowledge management system for my courses. I don’t expect to make a living from this blog. The ad links on my site barely generate any revenue. I use this blog to test and evaluate features and enhancements. To remove the ads, I may move my course-related posts to different domain names later this year.

For now, it’s easier for me to post assignment announcements and readings for my students to this web site. The assignments are almost always papers. I haven’t been using discussion forums in my courses. Forums are an interesting tool, but my students are scattered around the world. Synchronous chats are hard to schedule, and deadlines can be difficult to manage. That’s why my assignment deadlines are listed in Hawaiian Time (GMT -10 or HT).

Also see my 28 March 2008 billso.com article on blogging as a business model.