As Social computing takes off, we will find an increasing number of internet users posting information in all possible mediums: text, images, video or a combination of the same. Content on the 'net is supposed to be doubling every three months and rapidly accelerating. At the current rate of growth, it is expected to double every 72 hours by 2010, as some have predicted. I beg to differ from this.
Here is what I beleive may happen - All the Information that mankind has collected as on date, will be on the net between 2010-2012 timeframe. The same will get scrubbed over the next few years and get converted to Knowledge in the 2015-18 time frame. Knowledge, in this context, implies, Information that is checked for trueness, categorized and indexed and is validated. While information will continue to grow, knowledge processing will continue alongside. A major charecterstic would be that most of this knowledge will be Free and easily accessible by any user in some form on any device - desktop or mobile. At this point, the Services linked to Knowledge will be at a premium rather than the knowledge itself. It will be really interesting to see the way the world adapts to that scenario at that point in time. Many of our current controlled-information based business models will break down leading to larger Services and products based models with rapid turn-arond for information and processing.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Web 2.0 for “Next Generation” Enterprises
Web 2.0 for "Next Generation" Enterprises
Introduction
The internet has taken its time evolving as have the users. The First Generation of Web saw content being authored by those hosting their websites with limited flexibility. These Websites were application and technology specific and users could only "Read". The Second Generation of the Web has evolved into a "Read-Write" Web. Web 2.0 has come about to be a Collaboration Platform, enabling integration across applications and businesses. Surprisingly, Community or Social Computing has taken a lead over Business Computing and is showing new direction. A quick look at some Web 2.0 portals gives us the picture!
Web 2.0 Portals
Some of the popular Web 2.0 portals and their Alexa rankings are:
Youtube.com - # 3
The most popular Video sharing portal is a part of the Google portfolio. Videos are posted by users for public and shared viewing.
Myspace.com - # 6
The most popular Social networking site with over 300 million users and over 40% Daily active users. Started the Social networking revolution.
Wikipedia.com - #7
The most popular online free encyclopedia with content generated and posted by users worldwide. Its content is currently doubling every three months!
Facebook.com - # 8
The fastest growing Social Networking site today! Started in a Stanford hostel room in 2004! Dell and Jeep run their customer support services on Facebook now, among others. Social Networking is serious business these days, folks! Has supposedly crossed 300 million users as well!!
Blogger.com - #9
The number one Blogging portal, again from Google! With 8% of the internet traffic going to Blogger.com, Blogging has come to stay!
As you can see, five of the top 10 sites in the world are Web 2.0 and Social Computing sites. The fun has just begun!
Social Computing in the Enterprise
Applying Social Computing concepts in Enterprises are yielding tremendous results through effective collaboration and enhanced information sharing. Social computing is undergoing a major evolution in the enterprise and can be exploited for higher returns. However, the challenges are adaptability of new models and privacy issues. Privacy issues may lead to security issues at some point in time. Some common Web 2.0 tools and their applicability in enterprises and business are detailed below.
Blogs
Blogs or "Weblogs" have grown as online dairies. On the personal front, individuals are blogging their activities and thoughts while commenting on various topics. Enterprises are beginning to promote blogs as a medium for reporting daily activities across distributed teams, without having to develop costly application development. Use of external web references and multimedia provides users with a richer experience. Blogs, made available to customers, can aid in collaboration from the shop floor to the customers' production line. Moderation and Auto-regulation will prevent misuse. An approval workflow aids in ensuring content quality and management
Wikis
A Wiki is a collection of Web pages that enables users to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are deployed as sharable Knowledge aggregators and create a knowledge repository within an enterprise. Wikis are Web repositories of Best Practices, Manuals, User Guides, Concepts, etc. in multimedia format, authored by users who may both contribute and read content. Wikis can offer first line of self-help knowledge base for customers and employees. A workflow may be used before publishing the content on the Wiki, to ensure content quality.
Discussion Forums
Forums allow members to view and post the contents, while visitors may be allowed to only view the same. Members submit topics for discussion (known as threads) and communicate with each other using publicly visible messages (referred to as posts) or private messaging. Communities participating in a forum will usually bond with each other and interest groups will easily form around a topic's discussion. Enterprises can use Forums to post and respond to queries for problem solving and issue resolution. Forums can be made available to customers to enhance customer support. Moderation and Auto-regulation will prevent misuse. Optionally, an approval system may be provided for publishing forums.
RSS or "Really Simple Syndication"
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video – in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content quickly and automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds are read using "RSS readers", which can be web-based or desktop-based. The user subscribes to a feed by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
A customer or an employee can set up an RSS Newsfeed to keep him updated on events and updates with a light mail format.
Repositories
Document Repositories provide single-point storage of documents and artifacts for controlled distribution. Repositories will provide an online document repository with Versioning, Publishing and Search are essential for Enterprises for efficient collection and retrieval of documents within the enterprise. Role-based access control will be needed to ensure targeted delivery of documents to different user groups.
Video and Image repositories
Online Video and Image repositories have completely changed the concept of Video and Image sharing radically. YouTube like streaming Videos can radically change the Training system in an organization with users being provided with online on-demand learning systems. Online Photo Repositories, such as Flickr, offer indexing and search capabilities along with features such as Captions and Tagging to enhance Personalization and Search.
Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is a recent tool, offering centralized repository of User Bookmarks along with User-generated Keywords. Social Bookmarking tools aid users by providing them global availability of bookmarks with the option of sharing the same amongst communities. The Centralized repository helps in website and page ranking. The User-generated Keywords help other user users to form a pattern for search to other users and the consequent Results. Hence, an efficient and "auto-learning" Search engine evolves over time.
Mashups and Service Oriented Architecture
A Mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data or travel information, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source. Other examples are Currency Converters (integrate Conversion rates with transactions), Personal Portfolio dashboards that integrate personal portfolio with daily rates of stocks, currencies and other market instruments. Mashups help in integrating external data sources with enterprise information to provide a completely distinct, and often intelligible view, for users to derive greater value.
Service Oriented Architectures (or SOA) offer cross platform and cross application integration, often at the server level, across organizations and over the internet using XML technologies
Enterprise Search
Enterprise Search offers Personalized and Relevant Search, closer to the Users' preferences and business needs while filtering non-essential and divergent results, thereby improving the quality of the results for the users. Enterprise Search helps retain the organization focus for Search, thus saving precious time and resources.
Conclusion!
Web 2.0 and Social Computing hold great promise for the future of the internet, if harvested with a clear Web Strategy and can provide tremendous acceleration and benefits to Enterprises and business, big or small. It is moving the web from just transactions to building relationships amongst organizations, their customers, vendors and employees, while raising the user experience quality.
Organizations such as Cisco have demonstrated the ability to raise customer interactions while driving down costs. Cisco saved over USD 150 Million by adopting Web 2.0 practices recently, just on travel bills! As some industry critics observed recently, Web 2.0 is not going to change the rules of the game, but changing the Game itself! Web 2.0 portals are spawning completely new business and revenue models that will challenge the way business was being done till recently. As Tom Peters put it – "If you are not moving ahead, it doesn't mean that your competition is not!"
Subbu Jois
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Social Networking Monetization
The last few weeks have been spent on investigating the above subject - it appears to be the Holy Grail of Social Networking and Commerce today. The Stanford Facebook Class threw up some interesting learnings as did the various efforts. I am making the following conclusions from the recent learnings:
Only time will tell!
- Web 2.0 and Social Networking will break the barriers for information access! All knowledge will move to public domain. We are in the midst of authoring all the kwowledge we have till date as content in various media formats onto the Web. Information will therefore loose valuation over a period of time!
- Value will move away from Information to the Services linked to the Information.
- Monetization of Web 2.0 will slowly move from Information/content to the Services that will spawn the availabilty of low cost information.
- There is a possibility that one day Information will move down the Value Chain while the corresponding Services lderived from the Information will gain Value. Sort of Deja Vu!
Only time will tell!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Social Networking and Business
Social Networking is having the power to create online communities that can leverage the collective buying power over time. It is indeed interesting to study the Business and Revenue Models that will thus develop.
A First-Level Practice is the Activity-Reward Model where every activity on the Network begets the user with reward points. These may translate into cash or dicounted services from the portal.
In course of time, we can expect secondary and tertiary Models to develop that may benefit the individual, the community as a whole, or localized groups with common profile attributes.
A First-Level Practice is the Activity-Reward Model where every activity on the Network begets the user with reward points. These may translate into cash or dicounted services from the portal.
In course of time, we can expect secondary and tertiary Models to develop that may benefit the individual, the community as a whole, or localized groups with common profile attributes.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Web 2.0 in Realty Portals and Collaboration
There are enough and more Realty portals offering the vanilla "Post and Search Property" features. The revenue models have almost stagnated around Listing and Advertising. In a sense, the Realty portals have been offering the "User-generated-content" angle for a while with users putting up their properties for rental or sale. Web 2.0 offers significant value to this vertical with Collaboration. Collaboration will be the next major milestone in Web 2.0. Collaboration integrated with Mapping will broaden the spectrum of services that a user or service provider may capitalize from the portal.
Collaboration will help users to evaluate properties in depth while leaving a digital footprint of all the discussions of the property. A new set of models will evaluate once the portal providers realize this aspect, especially driven by user demands. More on this subject later....
Collaboration will help users to evaluate properties in depth while leaving a digital footprint of all the discussions of the property. A new set of models will evaluate once the portal providers realize this aspect, especially driven by user demands. More on this subject later....
Web 2.0 - overview
When the web moved to 2.0 after the OReily intrepretation, the dynamics of the internet have taken a significant step forward. When revelling in "User Generated Content" and the consequent "Democratization of the Web", the web has actually give the power to the average internet User. Blogs, Wikis and Forums have become tools to express oneself and one's knowledge as indexable content. Youtube and the like have become metaphors for visual content and media.
In a sense, part of the quest for the "killer apps" are now being used prolifically. We have started a journey where we will see more such "killer applications" that we will enable users to express themselves in more forms than presently perceived. Time will help us break more ground by bringing in User managed Collaboration and Workflow to cultivate newer Social and Business Networking models and therefore, revenue models. The future definitely has much in store!
In a sense, part of the quest for the "killer apps" are now being used prolifically. We have started a journey where we will see more such "killer applications" that we will enable users to express themselves in more forms than presently perceived. Time will help us break more ground by bringing in User managed Collaboration and Workflow to cultivate newer Social and Business Networking models and therefore, revenue models. The future definitely has much in store!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Retirement from Round Table India!
It has indeed been a memorable three years and eight months since I joined Tabling! Today I stand before you, to thank you for the support and encouragement received over these past few years before I move on to another phase in my life!
Tabling has given me the most wonderful gift of a lifetime – that of Friendship! Of Friends, across the country, any time, and at all times, without bias or prejudice, with unbound and infectious enthusiasm! I shall treasure each and every Friend I have made, and every moment I have spent amongst you, for years to come.
The time as a Tabler has been a great Learning e\Experience. It has taught me to Think and Dream Big! Big enough to think of educating One Million Children - A target that inspires you to aim higher than most can ever dream off! The fact that RTI has achieved so much with so little resources and time is in itself an inspiration! FTE in turn drove me to pursue larger, impossible goals, both within and outside Tabling! It helped me dream of FTE+ project and RecycleCartridge alliance, among others, only proving how the true sense of our motto - “Adopt. Adapt. Improve”.
Tabling not only gave me the confidence to dream, but also Plan, Execute and Deliver BIG! The year as Chairmanship was possibly the most memorable year where I pushed my limits to points that I never imagined I could! Chairmanship taught me Team dynamics, Leadership amongst Peers, and a host of Learnings that I would never get in anywhere on this earth in such a short while! There were highs in that year that only got higher as we went on!
I had the delightful support of my Table throughout the year that only made things better for me! We had great some superb performances in all facets of Tabling, be it Fellowship, Projects, Fund-raising or the Table Magazine. We started the “Share your Joys” initiative, which opened our eyes to the plight of the really underprivileged and the participation by the Table was indeed a revelation. We followed this up with the Lingarajpuram School and the FTE+ at the Gurudwara School. Despite the additional surprise of National Convenership, midway, the Table support and enthusiasm was awesome to lighten my load while handling both the responsibilities with vigor and aplomb. I am indeed indebted to BNRT 25 for the unbridled support !
The National Corporate Alliance Convener-ship came as a bolt from the blue, in the same year as my chairmanship! My dear friend and Area Chairman, Gopal Chopra, had a “heavy” hand to play!! I was introduced to the Ever Amazing NP Shiv, who brought me into the NEX after the second NEX that year to get me started on another roller coaster ride! That was another phase of tabling that I enjoyed thoroughly! I made friends across the country and was Learning at a whirlwind pace. The Alliances required perseverance, patience and constant communication. It involved subtly branding RTI and its projects. Meeting new people and presenting FTE and its achievements enlarged my perspective of FTE and it’s impound. As the intensity of the FTE mission sank in, I couldn’t stop wondering the vision of those who propounded FTE and its goals. The power behind the motto of “Service Through Fellowship” became visible in many ways on visiting the many projects that Tablers had participated in over the years, while we claimed we were away partying! It was these meetings with the prospective sponsors, that caused me to reflect on the achievement of having touched a half a million children’s lives and done our little bit for their lives, while we were enjoying fellowship amongst our fellow Tablers, little realizing the impact we were making to those impoverished lives, out there! The awe and the respect that Round Table India commanded on presenting our underrated achievements to corporate and sponsors can only be experienced , not explained!
FTE+ was a project conceived while playing a round of golf! It was indeed a proud moment to see the results after implementation at the Gurudwara school! I would like to thank Satish V and SAP for having provided funds for the first round of implementation. It was indeed the icing on the cake for RTI to have won the Best Service Project Award for the year 2007-08 at the RT international AGM at Cyprus. I do hope the children under FTE+ will derive ample benefit from the project and become successful in their lives and careers ahead! I will dedicate some of my time for the rest of my life towards this project! It will be a proud day for RTI and me in particular, when we achieve the One Million mark and move to the next milestone!
As I enter another phase in my life, I cherish the Movement for what it stands for and for the Values, Learnings ad Experiences that I and my family have gained from it. I will certainly wish and pray for my friends that you gain the same rich experience for Service and Fellowship, many time over. I have tried to repay the debt in the little way I could by means of offering the Round Table Portal. I do hope that the Tabling fraternity will use the Portal to the fullest.
With these words, I would like to thank all those with whom I have had the opportunity to interact in the movement, directly or otherwise. I would like to thank my better half, Sharmila, for the support and the encouragement throughout my Tabling period, and to my kids, Sharadh and Shwetha, to have actively participated in whatever we did!
Today, it is with profound sense of satisfaction I step down as a Tabler!
EnJois!
Subbu Jois
Please visit http://www.freedomthrougheducation.org/ for more details!
Tabling has given me the most wonderful gift of a lifetime – that of Friendship! Of Friends, across the country, any time, and at all times, without bias or prejudice, with unbound and infectious enthusiasm! I shall treasure each and every Friend I have made, and every moment I have spent amongst you, for years to come.
The time as a Tabler has been a great Learning e\Experience. It has taught me to Think and Dream Big! Big enough to think of educating One Million Children - A target that inspires you to aim higher than most can ever dream off! The fact that RTI has achieved so much with so little resources and time is in itself an inspiration! FTE in turn drove me to pursue larger, impossible goals, both within and outside Tabling! It helped me dream of FTE+ project and RecycleCartridge alliance, among others, only proving how the true sense of our motto - “Adopt. Adapt. Improve”.
Tabling not only gave me the confidence to dream, but also Plan, Execute and Deliver BIG! The year as Chairmanship was possibly the most memorable year where I pushed my limits to points that I never imagined I could! Chairmanship taught me Team dynamics, Leadership amongst Peers, and a host of Learnings that I would never get in anywhere on this earth in such a short while! There were highs in that year that only got higher as we went on!
I had the delightful support of my Table throughout the year that only made things better for me! We had great some superb performances in all facets of Tabling, be it Fellowship, Projects, Fund-raising or the Table Magazine. We started the “Share your Joys” initiative, which opened our eyes to the plight of the really underprivileged and the participation by the Table was indeed a revelation. We followed this up with the Lingarajpuram School and the FTE+ at the Gurudwara School. Despite the additional surprise of National Convenership, midway, the Table support and enthusiasm was awesome to lighten my load while handling both the responsibilities with vigor and aplomb. I am indeed indebted to BNRT 25 for the unbridled support !
The National Corporate Alliance Convener-ship came as a bolt from the blue, in the same year as my chairmanship! My dear friend and Area Chairman, Gopal Chopra, had a “heavy” hand to play!! I was introduced to the Ever Amazing NP Shiv, who brought me into the NEX after the second NEX that year to get me started on another roller coaster ride! That was another phase of tabling that I enjoyed thoroughly! I made friends across the country and was Learning at a whirlwind pace. The Alliances required perseverance, patience and constant communication. It involved subtly branding RTI and its projects. Meeting new people and presenting FTE and its achievements enlarged my perspective of FTE and it’s impound. As the intensity of the FTE mission sank in, I couldn’t stop wondering the vision of those who propounded FTE and its goals. The power behind the motto of “Service Through Fellowship” became visible in many ways on visiting the many projects that Tablers had participated in over the years, while we claimed we were away partying! It was these meetings with the prospective sponsors, that caused me to reflect on the achievement of having touched a half a million children’s lives and done our little bit for their lives, while we were enjoying fellowship amongst our fellow Tablers, little realizing the impact we were making to those impoverished lives, out there! The awe and the respect that Round Table India commanded on presenting our underrated achievements to corporate and sponsors can only be experienced , not explained!
FTE+ was a project conceived while playing a round of golf! It was indeed a proud moment to see the results after implementation at the Gurudwara school! I would like to thank Satish V and SAP for having provided funds for the first round of implementation. It was indeed the icing on the cake for RTI to have won the Best Service Project Award for the year 2007-08 at the RT international AGM at Cyprus. I do hope the children under FTE+ will derive ample benefit from the project and become successful in their lives and careers ahead! I will dedicate some of my time for the rest of my life towards this project! It will be a proud day for RTI and me in particular, when we achieve the One Million mark and move to the next milestone!
As I enter another phase in my life, I cherish the Movement for what it stands for and for the Values, Learnings ad Experiences that I and my family have gained from it. I will certainly wish and pray for my friends that you gain the same rich experience for Service and Fellowship, many time over. I have tried to repay the debt in the little way I could by means of offering the Round Table Portal. I do hope that the Tabling fraternity will use the Portal to the fullest.
With these words, I would like to thank all those with whom I have had the opportunity to interact in the movement, directly or otherwise. I would like to thank my better half, Sharmila, for the support and the encouragement throughout my Tabling period, and to my kids, Sharadh and Shwetha, to have actively participated in whatever we did!
Today, it is with profound sense of satisfaction I step down as a Tabler!
EnJois!
Subbu Jois
Please visit http://www.freedomthrougheducation.org/ for more details!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sexual assault not ruled out, lab report awaited
Sexual assault not ruled out, lab report awaited
One more instance of Sensationalism by the media! The article doesnt mention a word on sexual -assualt, bu the title does! If this is not "news-manufacturing" , it beats me! The title has been so "manufactured" to attract viewership! Sad that a news channel is trying to play its TRP rating on sensationalistic reporting, at the time of bereavement in the victim's family!
One more instance of Sensationalism by the media! The article doesnt mention a word on sexual -assualt, bu the title does! If this is not "news-manufacturing" , it beats me! The title has been so "manufactured" to attract viewership! Sad that a news channel is trying to play its TRP rating on sensationalistic reporting, at the time of bereavement in the victim's family!
Friday, May 9, 2008
Indian held for Andhra student's murder in UK
Indian held for Andhra student's murder in UK
My condolences to the bereaved family of the girl.
I am,however, surprised that a channel like CNN-IBN is giving so much of coverage to this single incident, while we have enough "news worthy" events in the country. Will the news channels have to devote equivalent airtime towards similar incidents that occur across India, almost, routinely!?
The pursuit for TRP ratings seems to bitten the news channels as well!
My condolences to the bereaved family of the girl.
I am,however, surprised that a channel like CNN-IBN is giving so much of coverage to this single incident, while we have enough "news worthy" events in the country. Will the news channels have to devote equivalent airtime towards similar incidents that occur across India, almost, routinely!?
The pursuit for TRP ratings seems to bitten the news channels as well!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
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