This piece first appeared in the business blog Trak.in on 26 October 2010
Remember the good old college days? When time flew, and money was scarce. How many of you borrowed from your friends to fuel endless chai, smokes and dates? You gave back the money when you could and you earned favors when you did the same for your pals. It was a mutually beneficial scheme where trust and faith were currencies on which small sums of money were exchanged.
Fast forward to now. What do you do when you need a small sum of money? Like this morning when I needed 150 bucks to pay for a flat and did not have the desire to go to the ATM on the other side of the road? Would it not have been nice to have a bunch of friends on my mobile phone who could chip in 150 bucks that I could return later in the day when I topped up my wallet? Social Lending? Peer powered cash?
What if there were virtual currency that one loaded onto the phone that one could send out to trusted friends when they needed small sums of money? Not actual cash but redeemable tokens which can be cashed in at cafe chains, restaurants, movie halls, book stores, petrol pumps, or any place that you can think of.
The service could do deals with the outlets and buy the products / service at a considerable discount - for example a cup of coffee at CCD for Rs 45 could be bought at a margin by the service provider and be made available to the consumer at the retail price. If worked upon there can be many models here and it creates a parallel economy of sorts that functions like a virtual wallet. Maybe eventually this can get extended by integrating banking services.
Which brings us to an important application which was the basis on which this piece was being written. There are millions of people without a proper bank account in India who manage to get a cell phone. The very basic cell phone without GPRS, camera and so on. To understand this you need to get that nose out of the metro India and into the interiors - places like Nira in Pune district, which falls off the radar ever so often. Imagine being able to load Rs 100 onto your phone like you deposit money in a bank, earn a small interest on it like you do with a bank and be able to pay, transfer and all that using just your sms enabled device. One might argue that there is too much effort involved in teaching the guy to use sms. My counter to that - trust the common man on the street to evolve faster than you and me. His needs are far greater than ours and he knows he needs to learn fast to survive.
For this idea to work, the telecom companies, RBI and postal service will have to synergise. Every large village has a post office - a perfect place where money cards can be bought and loaded onto the cell phones - like a prepaid card which is used for the calls and smses. I do not have a perfect model on how the relation between telecom ( I keep typing in telecon - a purely Freudian slip :)), postal service and consumer. But I am sure that this is something that will work. Imagine how big this economy can be. Imagine how valuable it will be for the FMCG guys who are trying to expand the rural market.
I am excited with the progress made by the telecom, banking and services sector in the last decade, but the real explosion is yet to come. The rural consumer, the consumer who does not have a banking service is the last HUGE mountain that will need to crossed and the sooner someone cracks it the earlier his IPO!!
This in my mind is more valuable than the hazaar apps and app stores that we spend good time and money building and trying to sell. But hell I am known to be wrong.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Help! I am a dial tone now and I do not mind it
Techcrunch reports that Pincus the man behind Zynga says that in 5 years time we will all be dial tones. Not just that, we will have a dial tone for our friends, for music, for games and so on. Reading through the piece and the comment I read this one comment by TahoeBlue who also happens to be the moderator of the forum. It says and I quote him here : "When I first read the remarks ("we'll all be connected to each other", and "we'll all be dial tones"), my first reaction was that Pincus was suggesting that individuals and entities on the web would be talking peer-to-peer, and not through a "social portal", in 5 years.
Given the pace of change in both the resources and capabilities of networking, the prospects of each person maintaining their own 'network' of friends, colleagues, and services on computing infrastructure domiciled on servers dedicated to, and controlled by, individuals and not monolithic portals like Facebook would seem to be both attainable and desirable."
The first thought that came to my mind is Diaspora (joindiaspora.com seems to be down at the moment, it could be a localised problem with my internet connection too. You can read about diaspora here) and a few lines below his original comment TahoeBlue also agrees with the thought.
People owning their own social networks is a powerful thought and in time it might become a default standard like owning a telephone or a cell phone connection. One might want to snigger at the mavens at KP and their large $250 million fund, but the truth is that the connected mass of people will become more and more social and it will not just be about poking someone or liking a story or even recommending the a new cafe. Social networks make it easy for people to keep in touch without the costs of keeping in touch. It is similar to the way email changed communication. Only this time the people will also want to share their thoughts and ideas and issues with people they know. Eventually there will be two kinds of social networks - an individuals private space meant for family and close friends, another for their co workers and finally one for their outer circle. Social networks mimic the real world and the quicker we realise this the easier it will be for us to adapt and adopt.
In time this dial tone world will learn to pick out the lines it wants to connect to and ignore the rest. If Google and search gave the connected world the sum total of intentions of humanity. The next generation of social networking platform will give it its voice. We can already see it being reflected in the status messages and the tweets around us, but imagine a global connected thought, of grief and joy and rising. It feels complex and at the same time feels liberating.
Mark Pincus thinks in 5 years the world will change again and these dial tones will be the signal flags of the global connected human mass. It sounds profound, and to imagine when Google started, search and then social networking seemed like geek toys!
Think of how it will change the consumer, consumption, media planning, buying, selling advertising. Each will need new models and new initiative, either the incumbents evolve fast or a new breed of people will start knocking the doors of the VCs for funds to power themselves.
What fun!
Given the pace of change in both the resources and capabilities of networking, the prospects of each person maintaining their own 'network' of friends, colleagues, and services on computing infrastructure domiciled on servers dedicated to, and controlled by, individuals and not monolithic portals like Facebook would seem to be both attainable and desirable."
The first thought that came to my mind is Diaspora (joindiaspora.com seems to be down at the moment, it could be a localised problem with my internet connection too. You can read about diaspora here) and a few lines below his original comment TahoeBlue also agrees with the thought.
People owning their own social networks is a powerful thought and in time it might become a default standard like owning a telephone or a cell phone connection. One might want to snigger at the mavens at KP and their large $250 million fund, but the truth is that the connected mass of people will become more and more social and it will not just be about poking someone or liking a story or even recommending the a new cafe. Social networks make it easy for people to keep in touch without the costs of keeping in touch. It is similar to the way email changed communication. Only this time the people will also want to share their thoughts and ideas and issues with people they know. Eventually there will be two kinds of social networks - an individuals private space meant for family and close friends, another for their co workers and finally one for their outer circle. Social networks mimic the real world and the quicker we realise this the easier it will be for us to adapt and adopt.
In time this dial tone world will learn to pick out the lines it wants to connect to and ignore the rest. If Google and search gave the connected world the sum total of intentions of humanity. The next generation of social networking platform will give it its voice. We can already see it being reflected in the status messages and the tweets around us, but imagine a global connected thought, of grief and joy and rising. It feels complex and at the same time feels liberating.
Mark Pincus thinks in 5 years the world will change again and these dial tones will be the signal flags of the global connected human mass. It sounds profound, and to imagine when Google started, search and then social networking seemed like geek toys!
Think of how it will change the consumer, consumption, media planning, buying, selling advertising. Each will need new models and new initiative, either the incumbents evolve fast or a new breed of people will start knocking the doors of the VCs for funds to power themselves.
What fun!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
can there be another yahoo? or for that matter Rediff
This post was first published on Trak.in on 20 October 2010
The answer is - no. There can never be another Yahoo or AOL or Rediff. Its just not conceivable for anyone to start from scratch and build traffic that these portals have acquired over the years. A good friend recently estimated upwards of 200 crores to be the amount needed to achieve the scale that Rediff.com has today if one were to start as a standalone venture. And most of it will have to spent on product finesse - forget the ad spends that would be required to create awareness. Even in.com has not been able to reach the depth in the minds of the internet audience despite the 360 degree influence of Network18's television channels.
Sure there will be Facebooks and Twitter and Foursquares that will dominate mindspace of the attention deficient blackberry boys and iPhone junkies. And the connected world might end up being in your back pocket via an app. The value of the portals who have been around for the last ten odd years will never diminish. All other access points on the devices and the social media will just become the vehicles for the content on these portals to be consumed or discovered. The problem here is then what happens to the carefully built up traffic of so many years. A survey done by AC Neilsen exactly a year ago ( report here ) says that while people still use portals and search engines for information, social media is increasingly becoming dominant.
It is clear then that anyone starting afresh will not just have to scale the traffic mountain and then create enough value for the consumer to adopt the content as their own. The 'my space is more valuable than your space' phenomenon will come to play and increasingly more and more users would prefer to have a sort of a facebook style page where things of interest come to them instead of going to twenty different places. Remember that when you click on a link shared by your friend on facebook or twitter, you are sent to that page. In apps where content gets pulled from the repostories the same I assume would apply (please correct me if I am wrong). The focus will have to move away from the homepage to specific interest areas that are likely to be adopted by consumers. This makes Rediff.com's home page style have greater sense because I assume the grand man of Indian internet realises that direct to homepage traffic will reduce over period in time and hence internal sub home pages are more likely to have greater value and hence be more valuable to advertisers.
If am sure sometime in the near future, we might have a facebook OS powering a netbook which boots direct to FB using the interface as an window to what people who influence me are telling me. The only drawback is that I might miss out on the stuff that is not so popular, not top of mind. Then what do I do? Go back to the portal?
It is similar to going to the first 15% of a book shop, you will find all the stuff that everyone reads. But if your interest lies in Sufi poetry or screenplays, you will have to spend quality time trawling across the book store or even go to the gallis in fort seeking nirvana. To echo an old coffee ad for filter coffee - real pleasure cannot come in an instant.
The next 3 years will be the time for consolidation. No new yahoos will be born but the old ones will evolve, merge, be mashed up and exist as destinations and also as little niches in our back pockets.
The answer is - no. There can never be another Yahoo or AOL or Rediff. Its just not conceivable for anyone to start from scratch and build traffic that these portals have acquired over the years. A good friend recently estimated upwards of 200 crores to be the amount needed to achieve the scale that Rediff.com has today if one were to start as a standalone venture. And most of it will have to spent on product finesse - forget the ad spends that would be required to create awareness. Even in.com has not been able to reach the depth in the minds of the internet audience despite the 360 degree influence of Network18's television channels.
Sure there will be Facebooks and Twitter and Foursquares that will dominate mindspace of the attention deficient blackberry boys and iPhone junkies. And the connected world might end up being in your back pocket via an app. The value of the portals who have been around for the last ten odd years will never diminish. All other access points on the devices and the social media will just become the vehicles for the content on these portals to be consumed or discovered. The problem here is then what happens to the carefully built up traffic of so many years. A survey done by AC Neilsen exactly a year ago ( report here ) says that while people still use portals and search engines for information, social media is increasingly becoming dominant.
It is clear then that anyone starting afresh will not just have to scale the traffic mountain and then create enough value for the consumer to adopt the content as their own. The 'my space is more valuable than your space' phenomenon will come to play and increasingly more and more users would prefer to have a sort of a facebook style page where things of interest come to them instead of going to twenty different places. Remember that when you click on a link shared by your friend on facebook or twitter, you are sent to that page. In apps where content gets pulled from the repostories the same I assume would apply (please correct me if I am wrong). The focus will have to move away from the homepage to specific interest areas that are likely to be adopted by consumers. This makes Rediff.com's home page style have greater sense because I assume the grand man of Indian internet realises that direct to homepage traffic will reduce over period in time and hence internal sub home pages are more likely to have greater value and hence be more valuable to advertisers.
If am sure sometime in the near future, we might have a facebook OS powering a netbook which boots direct to FB using the interface as an window to what people who influence me are telling me. The only drawback is that I might miss out on the stuff that is not so popular, not top of mind. Then what do I do? Go back to the portal?
It is similar to going to the first 15% of a book shop, you will find all the stuff that everyone reads. But if your interest lies in Sufi poetry or screenplays, you will have to spend quality time trawling across the book store or even go to the gallis in fort seeking nirvana. To echo an old coffee ad for filter coffee - real pleasure cannot come in an instant.
The next 3 years will be the time for consolidation. No new yahoos will be born but the old ones will evolve, merge, be mashed up and exist as destinations and also as little niches in our back pockets.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Microfinance is good if we accept that everyone needs to make money
This blogpost first appeared in Trak.in on 18 October 2010
Some twenty years ago in the dusty suburb of Pune called Pimpri Camp there used to live a Sindhi businesssman. His fame in the industrial mess in that godforsaken place was due to his business model. Say if you were the owner of a handcart and wanted Rs 100 to buy bananas from the wholesale market, the Sindhi gent would give the money to you if you promised to return the money along with a small fee of Rs 15 at the end of the day. Yes you heard me right - take Rs 100 at seven in the morning and return Rs 115 at seven in the evening.
Every morning atleast a few hundred men and women would queue up along the bylane where he had setup shop. My father used to talk about him with the reverence given to true social workers. He used to say that he knew atleast twenty families that supplemented their income by using this Rs 100 loan everyday. The women in these families bought wheat flour, oil and kerosene and made chappatis everyday and sold them at 1 rupee each to the TELCO factory. The economics was sane - you could make around 200 chappatis at an average with that money - an income of Rs 85 per day.
The security deposit that you gave the 'moneylender' was just a reference of someone who used the service for atleast 3 months. That's it. If you did not pay back for three days your reference would not get the money and would be blacklisted. The system worked it seems till the gent passed away. But he extended his line of business to renting handcarts and then rickshaws.
In recent times if you travel down to Borivali - the northern most outpost of Mumbai using the Malad Link Road post midnight, you are likely to see rows and rows of rickshaws along the road. These form an organised 'rent by the day' method of working. You provide a copy of your license and a reference and hire a rickshaw for 12 hours for x amount, you can keep the money that you earn minus the daily rent and the cost of fuel. Efficient and enterprising politicians of all hues and colour own atleast 200 plus rickshaws and rumours are that they make around Rupees 100 - 150 per day - thats Rs 20000 per day on the lower side or Rs 600000 per month, tax free I assume.
The point I am making is that microfinance is nothing new. It has existed for a long long time. The workings have been exposed and outrage has piled up on the corporate ones only now when moneyed, educated, sophisticates have entered the fray with truck loads of money - from other banks and the public and have stopped pretending that they are here for doing good. Once we accept that microfinance like any other form of business has the aim of making money for its stakeholders, including the borrower, the bitterness goes away.
If anyone needs to take the blame for the lack of options for the women who need Rs 3000 a month to buy wheat flour, or Rs 2500 for buying a sewing machine, it is the existing banking infrastructure. When the treat people like you and me like a piece of thrash, I can imagine what they would do to the people at the lower strata. It makes me wonder when Mr O P Bhatt, Chairman of State Bank of India - one of the largest banking networks in India says in the Times of India he is surprised by the numbers of the microfinance companies. I am surprised that the postal network, the branch network and the reach of the cooperative movement has not been used to lead the way. Atleast you would not express surprise!
What we need is not mega venture funded companies - they serve their purpose too but are not easy to digest :), we need a thousand people who are like the Sindhi businessman from Pimpri Camp or even the politicians of Mumbai who provide a source of income to the a few hundred migrants. Their aims must be dubious but they do serve a purpose. And how different are they from the microfinance guys anyways?
I recently invested a modest amount of Rs 500 through RangDe.org. Of the amount Rs 400 went to Rama Dipak of Maharashtra who wants to setup a diary business and Rs 100 to Ujjwala Santosh who wants to buy a sewing machine. Between the two they needed to raise Rs 7500 and thirteen people contributed towards the amount. None of us are expecting to make any money on this investment, though the promised rate is of 3.5% per annum. If this experiment works I am willing to invest a small sum every month and hopefully a few people will raise themselves and live with dignity. I think its a great thought, only problem is that if RangDe succeed twenty similar ventures will be setup and the same story would get repeated.
I can bet that the social - collective - investing is a fantastic idea and the ones who want to get involved can start small. Locality based startups that work closely with the people who want to volunteer with money and time. We used to call this Social Service under the NSS in college. I wonder if it exists!
Some twenty years ago in the dusty suburb of Pune called Pimpri Camp there used to live a Sindhi businesssman. His fame in the industrial mess in that godforsaken place was due to his business model. Say if you were the owner of a handcart and wanted Rs 100 to buy bananas from the wholesale market, the Sindhi gent would give the money to you if you promised to return the money along with a small fee of Rs 15 at the end of the day. Yes you heard me right - take Rs 100 at seven in the morning and return Rs 115 at seven in the evening.
Every morning atleast a few hundred men and women would queue up along the bylane where he had setup shop. My father used to talk about him with the reverence given to true social workers. He used to say that he knew atleast twenty families that supplemented their income by using this Rs 100 loan everyday. The women in these families bought wheat flour, oil and kerosene and made chappatis everyday and sold them at 1 rupee each to the TELCO factory. The economics was sane - you could make around 200 chappatis at an average with that money - an income of Rs 85 per day.
The security deposit that you gave the 'moneylender' was just a reference of someone who used the service for atleast 3 months. That's it. If you did not pay back for three days your reference would not get the money and would be blacklisted. The system worked it seems till the gent passed away. But he extended his line of business to renting handcarts and then rickshaws.
In recent times if you travel down to Borivali - the northern most outpost of Mumbai using the Malad Link Road post midnight, you are likely to see rows and rows of rickshaws along the road. These form an organised 'rent by the day' method of working. You provide a copy of your license and a reference and hire a rickshaw for 12 hours for x amount, you can keep the money that you earn minus the daily rent and the cost of fuel. Efficient and enterprising politicians of all hues and colour own atleast 200 plus rickshaws and rumours are that they make around Rupees 100 - 150 per day - thats Rs 20000 per day on the lower side or Rs 600000 per month, tax free I assume.
The point I am making is that microfinance is nothing new. It has existed for a long long time. The workings have been exposed and outrage has piled up on the corporate ones only now when moneyed, educated, sophisticates have entered the fray with truck loads of money - from other banks and the public and have stopped pretending that they are here for doing good. Once we accept that microfinance like any other form of business has the aim of making money for its stakeholders, including the borrower, the bitterness goes away.
If anyone needs to take the blame for the lack of options for the women who need Rs 3000 a month to buy wheat flour, or Rs 2500 for buying a sewing machine, it is the existing banking infrastructure. When the treat people like you and me like a piece of thrash, I can imagine what they would do to the people at the lower strata. It makes me wonder when Mr O P Bhatt, Chairman of State Bank of India - one of the largest banking networks in India says in the Times of India he is surprised by the numbers of the microfinance companies. I am surprised that the postal network, the branch network and the reach of the cooperative movement has not been used to lead the way. Atleast you would not express surprise!
What we need is not mega venture funded companies - they serve their purpose too but are not easy to digest :), we need a thousand people who are like the Sindhi businessman from Pimpri Camp or even the politicians of Mumbai who provide a source of income to the a few hundred migrants. Their aims must be dubious but they do serve a purpose. And how different are they from the microfinance guys anyways?
I recently invested a modest amount of Rs 500 through RangDe.org. Of the amount Rs 400 went to Rama Dipak of Maharashtra who wants to setup a diary business and Rs 100 to Ujjwala Santosh who wants to buy a sewing machine. Between the two they needed to raise Rs 7500 and thirteen people contributed towards the amount. None of us are expecting to make any money on this investment, though the promised rate is of 3.5% per annum. If this experiment works I am willing to invest a small sum every month and hopefully a few people will raise themselves and live with dignity. I think its a great thought, only problem is that if RangDe succeed twenty similar ventures will be setup and the same story would get repeated.
I can bet that the social - collective - investing is a fantastic idea and the ones who want to get involved can start small. Locality based startups that work closely with the people who want to volunteer with money and time. We used to call this Social Service under the NSS in college. I wonder if it exists!
Friday, October 15, 2010
revive, renew ?
Ok, so here I am! after having cleaned up this blog of its cobwebs. Should have done it long ago, no excuses here - am tardy to a fault.
I want to revive this blog. I want to write again on areas that matter to me and to the space around me.
Hope this time I don't stop when something really big comes along.
_____________________________________________________________________
In the last 7 years so many things changed, facebook to twitter to the entire debate on the death of the www. Yahoo! is no longer yahooing and it is possible for anyone to be a celebrity blogger by virtue of self promotion :)
Let us begin.
I want to revive this blog. I want to write again on areas that matter to me and to the space around me.
Hope this time I don't stop when something really big comes along.
_____________________________________________________________________
In the last 7 years so many things changed, facebook to twitter to the entire debate on the death of the www. Yahoo! is no longer yahooing and it is possible for anyone to be a celebrity blogger by virtue of self promotion :)
Let us begin.
Monday, February 05, 2007
online shopping. then. and now.
circa 2000.
the dot-com boom was a gleam in everyone's eyes.
of eye-balls, ideas and sky-high valuations.
no one but no one ever imagined that the dream would go bust. my erstwhile employers at jaldi e-commerce limited spent money like water to try and get to a level where they could conumers to their portal and in turn attract funding that would take their pure-play shopping venture to stratospheric heights.
classic case of a chicken and egg situation.
may be we were before our time.
PC penetration levels were negligible.
broadband was unheard of.
surfers could not complete a single online purchase without mishap.
merchandise quality online was limited and suspect. even if good brands were pushed, they had to be heavily discounted in order to drive purchase traffic to the portal.
selling heavily discounted products online angered the manufacturers who felt that the balance of their channel and business was being upset by us upstarts.
the investments were just not worth the returns.
and we forgot. that the indian consumer views his shopping the way he views entertainment. he wants to spend time. experience it. feel it. touch, feel it.
we ignored basic customer psyche at our own peril. and there was no other revenue stream.
jaldi.com was consigned to dust.
7 odd years later, things are different. futurebazaar.com has made a quiet debut.
offering a selction of carefully chosen merchandise. that requires limited touch-feel. and is pretty much benchmarked stuff.
despite the site navigation problems, lack of product information and the plebian interface, the prices are attractive.
a nokia N72 handset is available for just over rs. 13,000. it does not however specify if this is with a bill / warranty.
the new 1 GB ipod shuffle is for sale for rs. 4,300 which is a good deal.
now to wait and watch mode.
let's see if this works......
and now back to the chaos at work.
the dot-com boom was a gleam in everyone's eyes.
of eye-balls, ideas and sky-high valuations.
no one but no one ever imagined that the dream would go bust. my erstwhile employers at jaldi e-commerce limited spent money like water to try and get to a level where they could conumers to their portal and in turn attract funding that would take their pure-play shopping venture to stratospheric heights.
classic case of a chicken and egg situation.
may be we were before our time.
PC penetration levels were negligible.
broadband was unheard of.
surfers could not complete a single online purchase without mishap.
merchandise quality online was limited and suspect. even if good brands were pushed, they had to be heavily discounted in order to drive purchase traffic to the portal.
selling heavily discounted products online angered the manufacturers who felt that the balance of their channel and business was being upset by us upstarts.
the investments were just not worth the returns.
and we forgot. that the indian consumer views his shopping the way he views entertainment. he wants to spend time. experience it. feel it. touch, feel it.
we ignored basic customer psyche at our own peril. and there was no other revenue stream.
jaldi.com was consigned to dust.
7 odd years later, things are different. futurebazaar.com has made a quiet debut.
offering a selction of carefully chosen merchandise. that requires limited touch-feel. and is pretty much benchmarked stuff.
despite the site navigation problems, lack of product information and the plebian interface, the prices are attractive.
a nokia N72 handset is available for just over rs. 13,000. it does not however specify if this is with a bill / warranty.
the new 1 GB ipod shuffle is for sale for rs. 4,300 which is a good deal.
now to wait and watch mode.
let's see if this works......
and now back to the chaos at work.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
movies - the great leveller
at spice PVR noida, close to the ghastly scene at nithari, life rocks and rolls.
the crowds at this 9 auditorium multiplex have to be seen to be believed.
including the chief minister of new delhi, sheila dixit who comes by for a show with us plebians with a solitary plainclothes escort in tow.
so is the multplex experience becoming the new leveller ?
the crowds at this 9 auditorium multiplex have to be seen to be believed.
including the chief minister of new delhi, sheila dixit who comes by for a show with us plebians with a solitary plainclothes escort in tow.
so is the multplex experience becoming the new leveller ?
Friday, January 19, 2007
it's me again...
and i have to tell you guys about the way brands pop up wherever they can grab a consumer for a few minutes ( and thats a lot, believe you me )...
after upscale pub washrooms were used by marie-claire and multiplex washrooms by dettol liquid hand-wash, the washrooms in an upscale gurgaon mall feature posters of brand kotex.
it's not just a fancy advertising message, but health, hygiene and usage tips relevant to brand usage. smart one that.
i think all that's left are the WC's for harpic liquid toilet cleaners and perhaps for flush-kleen !!
_________________________________________________________________
at the food court at gurgaon's cyber-greens, home to the likes of sapient, nokia, dupont, abn-amro..the longest queues were at the indian food counter.
perhaps it confirms my belief that for regular food, we prefer to fall back on the tried and tested desi stuff.
even the expats preferred indian food..
i, for one, cannot handle sandwiches, pizza and fries more than once a week. and ask me how i struggled to find food in tokyo and singapore...i ended up losing a couple of kilos...
_________________________________________________________________
updates on the folks here on this blog and perhaps why a few of us are silent
gurpreet is fretting about getting her daughter admitted in to a "good school"
sanjeev is flushed with the success of his venture www.indianshutter.com and is exploring other business opportunities with a vengeance
ajit has been busy relocating back to bangalore from delhi via a long drive that took him thru rajasthan, maharashtra and exotic destinations
sunil is THE man who has been in the thick of all the action at nautanki.tv
this is the calm before the storm
watch this space....
*growls
i'll be back....
after upscale pub washrooms were used by marie-claire and multiplex washrooms by dettol liquid hand-wash, the washrooms in an upscale gurgaon mall feature posters of brand kotex.
it's not just a fancy advertising message, but health, hygiene and usage tips relevant to brand usage. smart one that.
i think all that's left are the WC's for harpic liquid toilet cleaners and perhaps for flush-kleen !!
_________________________________________________________________
at the food court at gurgaon's cyber-greens, home to the likes of sapient, nokia, dupont, abn-amro..the longest queues were at the indian food counter.
perhaps it confirms my belief that for regular food, we prefer to fall back on the tried and tested desi stuff.
even the expats preferred indian food..
i, for one, cannot handle sandwiches, pizza and fries more than once a week. and ask me how i struggled to find food in tokyo and singapore...i ended up losing a couple of kilos...
_________________________________________________________________
updates on the folks here on this blog and perhaps why a few of us are silent
gurpreet is fretting about getting her daughter admitted in to a "good school"
sanjeev is flushed with the success of his venture www.indianshutter.com and is exploring other business opportunities with a vengeance
ajit has been busy relocating back to bangalore from delhi via a long drive that took him thru rajasthan, maharashtra and exotic destinations
sunil is THE man who has been in the thick of all the action at nautanki.tv
this is the calm before the storm
watch this space....
*growls
i'll be back....
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
the power of content..
...as seen in the spread of the cell-phone-cam video ( see it here - http://newsigo.blogspot.com/2006/12/uncensored-mobile-clip-of-saddams.html
if you can handle it ) of saddam hussain's execution underlines a simple and obvious truth.
content is king. the more unusual and authentic the better it is.
if you can handle it ) of saddam hussain's execution underlines a simple and obvious truth.
content is king. the more unusual and authentic the better it is.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
eDemocracy or power to the lowest denominator
What does Youtube, MoBlogging, MySpace and nautanki.Tv have in common? They are all examples of participatory democracy on the Internet. It is the power of the small user who defines the mind boggling numbers that make an Youtube. It is the ability to cater to the smallest possible denominator that makes Nautanki.Tv unique. However as the following extract explains, it is still early days.
The explosion of direct participatory democracy that we all hoped for is highly unlikely to eventuate merely as a result of the Internet's existence. The Internet provides opportunities for limited revitalisation of the public sphere. These are for the most part restricted to relatively privileged groups.
At least it is an increase in the activities of the public sphere, however modest.
As Internet use expands more profoundly into middle-income groups, lower-income groups and non-English speakers, it may yet present a real opportunity for greater participation, democratic communication and a true revitalisation of the public sphere.
However, this may only occur if current power structures such as governments and large corporations are willing to incorporate this process into their standard practices.
Given the history of such things, this seems fairly unlikely, however exciting the possibility might seem.
The most promising aspects of the Internet as a site for a revitalised public sphere are:
*
the ability of small interest groups to find and communicate with each other
* the ability for individuals and smaller groups with fewer resources to present their points of view to a large number of people
* the easy availability of a much greater range of points of view
* the longevity of materials on the Internet, from journalistic, academic and private sources, that would otherwise have a short life in print publication or other media. They provide a valuable information resource, since access to these offline would require considerable effort and skill
* the interactivity that is possible between web sites and their audiences, enabling more two-way communication than has been possible previously, and
* the formation of online communities.
These do not hold out the promise of a revolutionary change to participatory democracy or a new Athenian age, but they do present an opportunity for more voices to be heard in the public sphere in a new way.
The Internet, combined with easy access to mobile telephones, has fundamentally changed the nature of communication in affluent societies. It has made it possible for people to:
* communicate from almost anywhere to anywhere, at any time - changing the information available, the speed with which it is made available, and the number of sources it is possible to obtain them from. This applies to both email and mobile phones.
One example was on September 11 2001, when passengers on the hijacked United Flight 93 were given information by loved ones on the ground via mobile. This allowed them to make informed decisions about what actions they should take, ultimately leading to the plane crashing into a Pennsylvannian field instead of into the White House or US Capitol building.
Without mobiles, this information would not have been available and those on board would not have known the scale of the events they were involved in
* access information that was previously very difficult to obtain, including exchanging controversial, politically sensitive and minority-based information within countries and across international borders
* conduct international commerce with reduced need for human intervention, 24 hours a day.
This ranges from local companies dealing with international orders and suppliers they would not have had access to before, to individuals selling their expertise online (from financial advice through to tarot readings)
* facilitate the flow of money and goods between national borders in an unprecedented way, allowing not just money market brokers and international traders and bankers access to this, but also individuals.
As a result, over the coming decades we are likely to see a significant shift in international relations, in information, journalism, trade and politics.
Because these changes are in their infancy, it is difficult to say how much impact they will have. It may simply represent a more dynamic movement of money, goods and information; or it may produce a fundamental shift in dynamics as profound as the Industrial Revolution.
Either way, I believe that these changes are profound, and combined with the trend towards globalisation that has been going on for many years, they are a powerful force for change.
-----------
Please do respond. Intelligent conversations makes ideas grow and funds flow.
Sunil R Nair
The explosion of direct participatory democracy that we all hoped for is highly unlikely to eventuate merely as a result of the Internet's existence. The Internet provides opportunities for limited revitalisation of the public sphere. These are for the most part restricted to relatively privileged groups.
At least it is an increase in the activities of the public sphere, however modest.
As Internet use expands more profoundly into middle-income groups, lower-income groups and non-English speakers, it may yet present a real opportunity for greater participation, democratic communication and a true revitalisation of the public sphere.
However, this may only occur if current power structures such as governments and large corporations are willing to incorporate this process into their standard practices.
Given the history of such things, this seems fairly unlikely, however exciting the possibility might seem.
The most promising aspects of the Internet as a site for a revitalised public sphere are:
*
the ability of small interest groups to find and communicate with each other
* the ability for individuals and smaller groups with fewer resources to present their points of view to a large number of people
* the easy availability of a much greater range of points of view
* the longevity of materials on the Internet, from journalistic, academic and private sources, that would otherwise have a short life in print publication or other media. They provide a valuable information resource, since access to these offline would require considerable effort and skill
* the interactivity that is possible between web sites and their audiences, enabling more two-way communication than has been possible previously, and
* the formation of online communities.
These do not hold out the promise of a revolutionary change to participatory democracy or a new Athenian age, but they do present an opportunity for more voices to be heard in the public sphere in a new way.
The Internet, combined with easy access to mobile telephones, has fundamentally changed the nature of communication in affluent societies. It has made it possible for people to:
* communicate from almost anywhere to anywhere, at any time - changing the information available, the speed with which it is made available, and the number of sources it is possible to obtain them from. This applies to both email and mobile phones.
One example was on September 11 2001, when passengers on the hijacked United Flight 93 were given information by loved ones on the ground via mobile. This allowed them to make informed decisions about what actions they should take, ultimately leading to the plane crashing into a Pennsylvannian field instead of into the White House or US Capitol building.
Without mobiles, this information would not have been available and those on board would not have known the scale of the events they were involved in
* access information that was previously very difficult to obtain, including exchanging controversial, politically sensitive and minority-based information within countries and across international borders
* conduct international commerce with reduced need for human intervention, 24 hours a day.
This ranges from local companies dealing with international orders and suppliers they would not have had access to before, to individuals selling their expertise online (from financial advice through to tarot readings)
* facilitate the flow of money and goods between national borders in an unprecedented way, allowing not just money market brokers and international traders and bankers access to this, but also individuals.
As a result, over the coming decades we are likely to see a significant shift in international relations, in information, journalism, trade and politics.
Because these changes are in their infancy, it is difficult to say how much impact they will have. It may simply represent a more dynamic movement of money, goods and information; or it may produce a fundamental shift in dynamics as profound as the Industrial Revolution.
Either way, I believe that these changes are profound, and combined with the trend towards globalisation that has been going on for many years, they are a powerful force for change.
-----------
Please do respond. Intelligent conversations makes ideas grow and funds flow.
Sunil R Nair
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
wake up and smell the Kaapi!!!
Over the past month Alchemy has gone to sleep. I guess it was obvious - Sanjeev was busy launching IndianShutter, Juno was busy being Juno, I was trying to do too many things (inclusive of learning how to burp a lil baby girl, feed her on time and generally be a responsible father - phew) and the others too I suppose had their reasons.
In the time that went by a few things happened - MaalDhamaal - an idea that was born on Alchemy has formally taken shape of a company and the launch will be happen soon. And we are closer to getting Alchemy of Thoughts to be a incubator of ideas and businesses.
In the weeks ahead I hope that there will be some awesome breaking news and also more concepts discussed as before.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
IndianShutter.com is a week old today
We are today, a week after launch, celebrating the following :
35227 Hits
45 Registrations
3 paid up premium members
30+ photos approved and uploaded
Referrals from Alchemy of Thoughts : 15 unique visits.
Some experienced photographers on our site include Nigel Pinto from the UAE and Omkar Singh Plaha from India.
We have also recd requests from certain stock photo agencies in India to upload their entire database of images onto IndianShutter.com ... As soon as we reach an agreement with these agencies, we should be at least 15000 photos strong.
One key feedback that has come in so far, is about us offering free members only 20% of revenues per photo sold. Maybe, the people here could guide us as to whether this needs to be addressed. I personally, from experience, feel that 20% is a good figure, 'cuz most sites do that. I am however, open to raising it to 30% ... Maybe, I could look at offering 30% as an incentive to people who upload a certain number of photos, or to people who do referrals to get in 10 members, each of who upload 5 photos or something to that effect.
Thank you all for an extremely satisfying response.
Warm Regards
Sanjeev Sarma
Team IndianShutter.com
35227 Hits
45 Registrations
3 paid up premium members
30+ photos approved and uploaded
Referrals from Alchemy of Thoughts : 15 unique visits.
Some experienced photographers on our site include Nigel Pinto from the UAE and Omkar Singh Plaha from India.
We have also recd requests from certain stock photo agencies in India to upload their entire database of images onto IndianShutter.com ... As soon as we reach an agreement with these agencies, we should be at least 15000 photos strong.
One key feedback that has come in so far, is about us offering free members only 20% of revenues per photo sold. Maybe, the people here could guide us as to whether this needs to be addressed. I personally, from experience, feel that 20% is a good figure, 'cuz most sites do that. I am however, open to raising it to 30% ... Maybe, I could look at offering 30% as an incentive to people who upload a certain number of photos, or to people who do referrals to get in 10 members, each of who upload 5 photos or something to that effect.
Thank you all for an extremely satisfying response.
Warm Regards
Sanjeev Sarma
Team IndianShutter.com
Monday, August 21, 2006
indianshutter.com due to launch on Ganesh Utsav
As India enters its 60th year of Independence, we proudly present to you, www.indianshutter.com the world's first portal for buying and selling exclusively Indian images.
Indian images so far were all about slums, poverty, and grim things. There was no site or portal in the world that depicted the true India. There was no representation of India's progress, its technological and other capabilities, its natural heritage, its history, its monuments, its people and its festivals in pictures. There was no site for photos related to Indian cuisine, costumes, jewelry, customs, traditions, marriages, festivals and culture.
All you need to be a part of Indianshutter.com is an eye to bring out and present the best of India in images to the world.
You and only you can make it happen. Be a part of history in the making. Connect now to http://www.indianshutter.com/ and get ready to upload your photos. Photos that you can share with the world and sell.
Spread the word to anyone who you know has photos of India, to upload, share and sell. Be Proud. Be Indian. Be on Indianshutter.com
Warm Regards
Sanjeev Sarma
Team IndianShutter
Friday, July 28, 2006
alchemy can work ...
billionaire mark cuban recently threw open a challenge on his blog.
how to convince the masses to go out and watch his movie without spending the earth.
in short he was looking for ideas in order to market movies, but with a difference.
the bait ? the guy who's suggestion clicked, would have the job of his dreams, courtesy the maverick businessman.
at the time of typing this, the blog entry had 828 comments from hopefuls.
gigaom's solution to the problem on their blog set my mind ticking.
confident that i am about the collective intelligence and talent and experience of the members of this blog, what do you say that we offer it as a package deal to any entrepreneur / professional looking for a solution to his business problem ?
we are looking to instituionalise alchemy any way.
it would be great if we could get paid for it. even if we don't ( in the beginning perhaps ) compensation could be a function of performance generated from our recommendations. with the rider that we get credit for our work. and that we can create case studies out of it.
in the meantime we can provide solutions on this blog to mark's situation.
what say, sunil ?
any one else ??
how to convince the masses to go out and watch his movie without spending the earth.
in short he was looking for ideas in order to market movies, but with a difference.
the bait ? the guy who's suggestion clicked, would have the job of his dreams, courtesy the maverick businessman.
at the time of typing this, the blog entry had 828 comments from hopefuls.
gigaom's solution to the problem on their blog set my mind ticking.
confident that i am about the collective intelligence and talent and experience of the members of this blog, what do you say that we offer it as a package deal to any entrepreneur / professional looking for a solution to his business problem ?
we are looking to instituionalise alchemy any way.
it would be great if we could get paid for it. even if we don't ( in the beginning perhaps ) compensation could be a function of performance generated from our recommendations. with the rider that we get credit for our work. and that we can create case studies out of it.
in the meantime we can provide solutions on this blog to mark's situation.
what say, sunil ?
any one else ??
ajit narayan speaks..
...on how and why direct response cannot and should not be relegated to the also-ran category in media choice.
read about it here .
read about it here .
Thursday, July 27, 2006
The Community Gym - A concept
Near where I stay is a Gymnasium. It is equipped with the usual lot of instruments, people trying to get fit, as well as people trying to stay fit.
Near where I stay is also a beachfront, littered every morning with debris comprising mainly stuff thrown around, or discarded or left over from evening jaunts.
And it struck me, that a workout can be coupled with much, much more than firm, healthy flesh and blood tingling through your veins.
Imagine a scene, where a community gym is formed, with the main objective of keeping this beach-front clean.
A trained fitness instructor evangelizes and creates equipment and tasks designed to ensure that a team performs various tasks, scientifically and in a structured manner, that ensures that the beach remains clean, morning after morning. It could involve squatting, stretching, walking, weight lifting, and all other exercises that one pays so hugely to a gym for.
I am sure that such a scene could be easily mapped to a community, and a tenth of the monies that are normally paid to a gym, collected towards purchasing scientifically designed equipment and hiring services of a trained fitness instructor.
What I would like to do is as follows :
Near where I stay is also a beachfront, littered every morning with debris comprising mainly stuff thrown around, or discarded or left over from evening jaunts.
And it struck me, that a workout can be coupled with much, much more than firm, healthy flesh and blood tingling through your veins.
Imagine a scene, where a community gym is formed, with the main objective of keeping this beach-front clean.
A trained fitness instructor evangelizes and creates equipment and tasks designed to ensure that a team performs various tasks, scientifically and in a structured manner, that ensures that the beach remains clean, morning after morning. It could involve squatting, stretching, walking, weight lifting, and all other exercises that one pays so hugely to a gym for.
I am sure that such a scene could be easily mapped to a community, and a tenth of the monies that are normally paid to a gym, collected towards purchasing scientifically designed equipment and hiring services of a trained fitness instructor.
What I would like to do is as follows :
1) Evangelize and produce such equipment that could be used for such cleanliness and maintenance exercises, equipment that would be designed to provide for an optimum of exercise.
2) Build up a team of trainers who could work out regimes, and instruct a community on how to do the work, through manuals, videos, etc.
3) Sell the above package to communities that would benefit through exercise and a clean environment as a result.
What I anticipate as a market? Over 400,000 such units of "community gym" in Mumbai alone. This target can be achieved in under 6 months, with proper tieups with action groups, CSR involvement, and correct evangelization.
We would soon have clean drains, no garbage lying around, and at the end of things, a committed citizen, who is proud that his body has been toned up and at the same time, and happy that he has provided a good environment to people around him.
Very soon ... Bye, Bye, Gyms.
Any takers?
Sanjeev Sarma
Saturday, July 22, 2006
You blog? Or is it Me Blog?
Recently went through the findings of a survey that captures patterns in blogging, and tries answer the why, what and who blog.
Contrary to popular opinions, what I've been saying all along, emerges factually correct. That predominantly blogging is more like ones own diary! A medium of self expression, its young, is done by heavy internet users... Here are the top ten findings of the study. And this is basis Americana ... Guess what and where could be in India?
Here are the top ten findings:
1. Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world.
2. Telephone surveys capture the most accurate snapshot possible of a small and moving target.
3. Contrary to the impression created by the press attention on political blogging, just 11% of bloggers say they focus mainly
on government or politics.
4. The blogging population is young, evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse.
5. Relatively small groups of bloggers view blogging as a public endeavor.
6. The main reasons for keeping a blog are creative expression and sharing personal experiences.
7. Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism. Yet many check facts and cite original sources.
8. Bloggers are avid consumers and creators of online content. They are also heavy users of the internet in general.
9. Bloggers are major consumers of political news and about half prefer sources without a particular political viewpoint.
10. Bloggers often utilize community and readership-enhancing features available on their blogs.
Source: Lenhart, Amanda and Susannah Fox. Bloggers. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 19, 2006.Bloggers - v - Pew Internet & American Life Project
Contrary to popular opinions, what I've been saying all along, emerges factually correct. That predominantly blogging is more like ones own diary! A medium of self expression, its young, is done by heavy internet users... Here are the top ten findings of the study. And this is basis Americana ... Guess what and where could be in India?
Here are the top ten findings:
1. Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world.
2. Telephone surveys capture the most accurate snapshot possible of a small and moving target.
3. Contrary to the impression created by the press attention on political blogging, just 11% of bloggers say they focus mainly
on government or politics.
4. The blogging population is young, evenly split between women and men, and racially diverse.
5. Relatively small groups of bloggers view blogging as a public endeavor.
6. The main reasons for keeping a blog are creative expression and sharing personal experiences.
7. Only one-third of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism. Yet many check facts and cite original sources.
8. Bloggers are avid consumers and creators of online content. They are also heavy users of the internet in general.
9. Bloggers are major consumers of political news and about half prefer sources without a particular political viewpoint.
10. Bloggers often utilize community and readership-enhancing features available on their blogs.
Source: Lenhart, Amanda and Susannah Fox. Bloggers. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 19, 2006.Bloggers - v - Pew Internet & American Life Project
Thursday, July 20, 2006
beat the ban
guys..ever since our moronic government and its lackeys blocked blogspot..no one has been saying or posting anything here. despite knowing fully well how to circumvent the ban and log on and post and view as well.
well..shake a leg. and fast. wake up and smell the coffee. is this all that it takes to put you all in to a stupor ????
sunil
ajit
sanjeev
gurpreet
where ARE you all ???
fyi we are now being tracked by google analytics and are on technorati as well...
well..shake a leg. and fast. wake up and smell the coffee. is this all that it takes to put you all in to a stupor ????
sunil
ajit
sanjeev
gurpreet
where ARE you all ???
fyi we are now being tracked by google analytics and are on technorati as well...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
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