Estimote introduces iBeacon power management tools for extending battery life

http://9to5mac.com/2014/07/14/estimote-introduces-ibeacon-power-management-tools-for-extending-battery-life/

21 enterprise app tactics

21 of the best B2B growth tactics to test http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/07/17/21-best-b2b-growth-tactics-test/

Don’t Believe These Strategic Planning Myths

Strategic thinking often boils down to choosing what not to do. Yet three myths continue to plague it:

• Myth 1: Productivity is the goal. Productivity is about getting things done. Strategic thinking is about getting the right things done well. And that means leaving some things undone.
• Myth 2: Strategy is about what's “important.” Every project is important to someone, and every organization has more important projects than it can complete. Strategic thinkers must decide where to focus their efforts.
• Myth 3: It’s only about thinking. Strategic thought has to yield actionable decisions. Leaders must step up and make the call about what the team will and will not do — and then stick to it.

- HBR

E- Enabling our Village administration

E-governance in India took baby steps in the late 1990s. Among the foremost such experiments were the Plan Monitoring System of Kerala Government and the Local government experiments in Karnataka, both of which I was part of, and in the latter case, as the sponsor and initiator.

The PMS of Kerala Government was an ambitious project to connect 1100 Grama Panchayaths through Block Development offices to the State Planning Board for the purposes of Planning, Approval, Disbursement and Physical and Financial Tracking, a humongous task in 1998, made easy by the support of Microsoft in communist Kerala! The concept was ahead of its time, well-meaning and would definitely democratize planning in the true spirit of Panchayath Raj system. The only limitation was that technology options in 1998 were limited and political patronage was fickle.

The Karnataka experiment started with the computerization of the Bellandur Grama Panchayath in 1999. We ended implementing an entire “ERP” for Grama Panchayaths. The main modules were Accounts, Inventory, General Administration, Staff, Land Records, Projects (Planning and Tracking), GP meetings minutes and Petitions. We further went on to computerize Udupi Taluka Panchayath and a surrounding Grama Panchyaths under the then MLA, UR Sabhapathi between 2000 and 2002. We had eventually computerized over 10 Grama Panchyaths.

The learnings from the above experiences were intense and thought provoking. We had out challenges too, chief among them being Political will at the government end and adequate bank balance to sustain the long gestation period, at our end. We subsequently had to move to other geographies as we did not get adequate support from local dispensations and ended up implementing more E-governance projects outside India.

Fast forward to 2014, we need to align E-governance at the local administration level to support contemporary environment and expectations of its consumers, the citizenry, or now the famous Mango Man. Let’s discuss the features of urban and Rural Local Body governance solution for the time being.

General Administration is the primary operations module of the local administrations and covers Office administration setup, configurable Accounting heads. Payroll computation and office ledger are other important components that will cover basic administration aspects. Office ledger will cover petty cash and operational expenses. Payroll computation will need to be computed as per local body rules applicable, along with statutory aspects.

Inventory and stores, maintenance works and expenses are used to track and execute Minor Works and projects in the local body. It needs to be integrated with an inventory and stores modules to track inward and outward stock of spares and consumables. Vendor management and Procurement are two other components for the same. Procurement can be integrated with an Online Tendering system to ensure transparency.

Accounts Payable/Receivables modules is required to track inward and outward movement of funds. It should have configurable accounting heads and be able to produce Trial balance, Schedules and Balance Sheets. Transactions may be secured to protect against tampering. 

Land Records is the most important modules in local governments as it is the primary source of revenue with the local body being the custodian of land records, tax records and alienation. Reconciliation, mutation and alienation of Land Records are important components that have weighted legal bearing and hence should be robustly designed with adequate checks and balances. Citizens should have the option of verifying records as well as paying their taxes online or through mobile. Tax Assessment and Verification may thus be moved online using a rule-based engine to deliver uniform tax computation. Overtime, this will help reduce leakages and thereby bring down rates while increasing yield. Mapping integration is mandatory for Land Records.

Additional Tax Heads, computation and records are needed to address ever changing Tax regimes in force. Provision for Tax amendments and introduction of new tax heads and computation needs to be included. Tax Heads may include Taxes for amenities, surcharges and secondary taxes. In some cases, central and state taxes may be applicable. Secure Online/Mobile Tax payment will be a de facto.

Citizen Services will need to involve citizen records and related data to help identify and deliver beneficiary schemes while taking census in real-time. Programs such as Aadhar and MGNREGA should employ the same information infrastructure to provide Aadhar, Voter ID and PAN cards as much as they may be used to determine genuine beneficiaries under Central and State beneficiary schemes to delivery development programs. The same system can be updated to help track the effectiveness of the schemes and the benefits to the allottees. Over time, a trackable and verifiable system of delivery to beneficiaries will help stabilize the system while eliminating leakages and reducing administrative costs.

Local bodies have elected representatives, office bearers and employees, among other public servants, a directory of which is to be included. Public servants may interact with citizens for services, feedback and petitions.  All public servants and government employees will have a public profile with their roles and responsibilities, tenure, past activities and records, along with all the relevant information as per statutory and transparency acts for public servants. Legal and statutory issues such as declaration of assets, legal cases, may be published to the same, thus placing relevant records in the public domain. An option for moderated publishing may be provided to citizenry to provide feedback and information on public servants.

Local bodies employ Gram Sabhas, Governing Council meetings and other public interfaces to publish announcements and circulars, collect petitions and surveys, and respond to Queries. These proceedings can be minuted or recorded and presented publicly to help disseminate information. Citizens should be able to make petitions to raise their demands and get response. These petitions need to be aggregated and considered as inputs to determine development work locally and their beneficiaries when budgeting and planning, thus greatly increasing transparency and acceptance. 

Citizens may create their personal profiles on the portal to share their relevant data such as demographic data, land records, Tax Assessment, Tax Payment and Records, Petitions and Petition tracking, Circulars, notifications and announcements, Surveys and Feedbacks, RTI Requisitions, among others. Payment gateway integration will greatly help users to pay their due Taxes in a timely and convenient manner.

Development Projects planned based on popular demand through a public petitioning system will ensure responsive governance. It also ensures that citizenry’s demands are met and elected representatives are responsive to the needs of their constituents. Development projects can be planned and published on the same system such that it is transparent and traceable to petitions, thus justifying expenditure of public funds.  Financial and Physical targets can be published and help in effective tracking. In cases where public works need to be contracted, an online tendering and bidding system incorporated. In case of projects that require Grants, state and central governmental sanctions, inter-departmental approvals and external funding, the online system, with role-based access, can provide secure access to respective bodies to interact with the system for planning, approval and tracking to ensure that funds are reaching the intended purpose as per plan and schedule. Local bodies and vendors use the same system to report project status and physical progress. Financing bodies can track progress online against milestones and release funds accordingly to ensure timely and transparent execution of projects. Public may access projects and corroborate the progress, as well.  

Further, the system should be flexible enough to cater to the needs of Urban and Rural local bodies and integrate with their respective departments for approval and tracking. Other departments, such as Social welfare, PWD, Women and Child Welfare, Irrigation, Education, Agriculture, Revenue and Finance, among others, can log into the same system and address issues pertaining to their departments in a timely and transparent system.

Besides internet access, the system should also provide a mobile interface in local language, either through a mobile application or SMS, thus lowering the entry barriers for citizens to interact with the governing bodies. SMS Alerts can be integrated to ensure citizens can get instant configurable alerts. These will especially come handy when faced with Natural disasters and calamities to ensure speedy dissemination of information and alerts.

In summary, a comprehensive local body governance system going online will greatly democratize India and ensure timely, transparent delivery of governance while reducing the Cost of Administration, thus effectively raising the “Return on investment” for the common man!

About Subramanya R Jois

Subramanya has been developing Internet based products for over 18 years in his previous roles in Compusol and 360Buzz, ranging across E-governance, Enterprise and Web 2.0. His pioneering work in E-governance in Karnataka gave the first fully computerized Grama Panchayath in 1999 which was followed up with a string of implementations. He further led E-governance implementation in Local Bodies in India, Sri Lanka and Middle East.

For the last few years, he has been developing user-centric Internet of Things to enhance the digital lifestyle in the years to come! He has published papers on various subjects and implemented Quality Systems. As a member of IEEE, Subbu has actively contributed towards development of various Software Engineering standards as well. He has actively contributed to furthering delivery of education for the underprivileged through an international award e-Learning initiative called FTE+ for Round Table India. He is currently architecting an Omnichannel User Centric Retail Platform for CloudTags, among other initiatives. 

Removal of F&O in AGRICULTURE and FSB

The present double digit inflation is due to Futures trading in Commodities, thanks to the biggest jobber in business, our not so humble Agriculture minister. Despite World Bank warnings, UPA and Pawar went ahead with it. With Commodities Futures, the supply side has been monopolised by those who can control Agriculture, namely Pawar and his goons, numerous politicians, Relaince and ITC. These people have gained control over the supply of food grains and edible commodities over the last 8-9 years. Now, it doesnot surprise me when Pawar says that Onion prices will come down in 3-4 weeks, as he knows that his boys are playing the market till stocks last. As the supply is controlled, the prices are controlled by the same cartel, leading to inflated prices even when we had bumper and surplus harvests, against basic tenets of economics. Hope this explains the double digit food inflation seen under UPA. so in effect all of us are paying more for food due to the greed and selfish business desires of Pawar and his cartel.

So after having driven double digit food inflation for almost a decade, UPA wakes up to elections and decides to remedy it - The FSB! "Subsidize grain to 65% of the country" - Mummy's new mantra! Pappu sings in chorus as do the league of rogues. And who pays for this - Again all of us as the subsidy is funded out of our tax money.

In effect, we pay more for food to satisfy the lust of UPA and its cronies, and then we pay even more to help them claim fake credit for subsidizing it. So UPA creates an inflation problem and then announces a populist scheme to remedy it, which in effect is saying two negatives makes a positive!

Spare a thought - we had a PDS for almost 40 years which despite its inefficiencies worked. Why did we need FSB now?

To REMEDY the whole problem, Modi should abolish F&O in Commodities completely and offer Crop insurance to farmers, another brilliant scheme from ABV's time! Decontrol Fertilizer and eliminate fertilizer subsidies in fertilizer and bring in competition to offer farmers the best fertilizers and techniques to improve their crop production and maximize returns. Fertilizer subsidies have not benefited farmers but only the manufacturers who have continued to churn out poor quality goods in pre-historic contraptions called factories and gobbled up the subsidy. Ultimately, the net benefit of the subsidy to the farmer has been under 10 paise per KG, which can be easily bettered by competitive environment.

Sharing my presentation at @erocks 2013, Bangalore, Oct 6 ,2013 on IoT in Omnichannel Retail!

IoT in Omnichannel Retail from Subbu Jois
Look forward to your comments!

Synqera using tablets for in-store facial expressions capture

http://on.mash.to/17qEwkd

IOT strategy of Staples

IoT Podcast: Staples to become a one-stop shop for office supplies and smart home devices http://gigaom.com/2013/09/24/iot-podcast-staples-to-become-a-one-stop-shop-for-office-supplies-and-smart-home-devices/

Google glass apps

Rock Health startups Spire and Augmedix show wearable tech’s applications beyond fitness http://gigaom.com/2013/09/25/rock-health-startups-spire-and-augmedix-show-wearable-techs-applications-beyond-fitness/

Smart Watches Review

Samsung launched its smart watch, Galaxy Gear earlier this month.

Pebble

Pebble started with a bang, raising a record $ 10 Million on Kickstarter! 

Pebble Watch

While the small form factor may improve portability, the same and the monochromatic display will prove to be a deterrent to many. The low cost of $150 is attractive though. It will end up more as a gizmo than a utility. With over 85000 pre-ordered at the time of writing, the future definitely looks interesting ! 
Lifestyle Applications showcased cover sports, music and messaging! It may need more applications to break over the tipping point. 

Samsung Galaxy Gear

It is considered to be Pranav Mistry's brainchild. It will only work with the Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy

Note 10.1 2014 Edition, after updating to Android 4.3, the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S III, and Galaxy Note II will work with the Gear. The Gear will be available post for $299.Specs : 

• 1.63 inch 320×320 display 277 PPI (1.67-inch Super AMOLED, 191 dpi; 3 cm×3 cm)
• Single-core 800 MHz Exynos processor
• ARM Mali-400 MP4 Graphic-Processor (210 MHz/500 MHz)
• 512 MB memory
• 4 GB on board storage
• 1.9 megapixel camera located in the watch band
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 3 axis accelerometer
• 315 mAh battery (advertised to last 25 hours)
• Accelerometer & Gyroscope & Gesture Control

Stock apps are Snapchat, ChatON, S Health, Notification, RunKeeper, Tripit, Evernote, Vivino Wine, Kik, Path, showing accent on Texting, Sport, Health, Travel and note taking. 

Qualcomm Toq

Qualcomm Toq smartwatch is expected to be released as a proof of concept to OEMs and may be

Qualcomm Toq

released in limited quantities in October 2013. The Toq was first unveiled at Qualcomm's annual Uplinq event on September 4th, 2013. It syncs with Android 4.0 or higher smartphones, allowing users to quickly scan through texts, emails, phone calls, and other notifications. It features a Mirasol display which can be easily viewed in direct sunlight. Unlike most ereaders, it can display colors and can refresh fast enough for watching videos. The Toq has a backlight for when there is no outside light source.The 200 MHz processor however does not inspire too much confidence. 






Specs

• 200 MHz Cortex M3 processor
• 1.55" Mirasol display
• Battery is inside the watchband and lasts for up to 5 days
• Charges via a Qualcomm WiPower box

Sony Smartwatch 2

The Sony SmartWatch 2, (SW2 for short), is due for a late September release. SW2 supports working

together with any Android 4.0 (and higher) smartphone, unlike Samsung's competing Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which only works with a few of Samsung's own Galaxy handsets. The watch comes with the option of a silicone or metal wristband and aluminum body, but can be used with any 24mm wristband. It is 1.65" X 1.61" wide and 0.35" thick and weighs 23 gms and sports a transflective LCD screen with a 220x176 resolution. The SW2 connects to the smartphone using Bluetooth, and supports NFC for easy pairing. It can be submersed in water up to a metre for 30 minutes.

It is selling for INR 6490 on Flipkart in India ! Now that is a steal

Nissan Gizmo

Nissan Nismo

This is the surprise entrant in the smartwatch market! Nissan is launching a  smartwatch to go with its Z370 Nismo sports car. The Nismo Smartwatch connects via Bluetooth to a Nissan smartphone app and can display information about a car’s performance as well as driver stats, including heartbeat.  It will give drivers average speed and fuel consumption readings. It will also let them access a vehicle's telematics and performance data in motion; capture the driver's biometric data through a heart rate monitor; connect to the car using a smartphone app through Bluetooth Low Energy; and receive tailored car messages from Nissan.Taking the name of its performance-focused automobiles, the Nismo smartwatch will be paired with Nissan’s high-end racing cars. Nissan is slated to show off its newest gadget during Frankfurt Motor Show 2013. Critics have been sceptical on its usage as it is aimed at racing drivers and hence may lack wider acceptance. I imagine it will finder application, especially with the health monitoring! Lets wait and see.

The clock is ticking !

2013 has been an eventful year for Smart watches with a slew of launches! 2014 will definitely be a watershed for Wearables with more launches and more importantly, launch of Google Glass and its ilk of Smart Eyewear from the likes of Vuzix and Recon, which I will cover in my next article. Market reports talk of Wearables breaching the 100 Million mark in 2014 itself! At that rate, the clock is ticking on mobile phones as we know them. I believe that 2016-17 time frame will see a global migration from Mobile phones to Wearables! I would be eagerly looking forward to those days! 

Back to Blogger!

Reviving my Blogging after a long break! I will be sharing my random thoughts on :

• The Futurist Fundas
• User Centric Internet
• Internet of Things
• Web 3.0 
• Wearables
• 3D Printing
• Augmented Reality
• Nanotechnology in Daily life
• Motors and Machines - Planes, Cars and Bikes! 
• Odd raves at the crass Indian political class

and yes, Music! 

EnJois!

Sharadh makes me proud!

Sharadh, my son, makes me proud by scoring 92.2% in his board exams getting 4 As and a B! He goes further and gets admission into CNSE at SUNY, Albany! It is a dream come true! Cant be happier!

Aarushi murder: The huge cover-up

Aarushi murder: The huge cover-up
This must go down in the History of Crime, and more importantly, Press as the worst disasters! While our sympaties lies withose bereaved, the Police and the Media have a mockery of the justice system. The Police in the ever-confounding directionless bumbling and the arrest of Dr. Talwar and, as this article reports, incompetent, unprofessional and stupid handling of the evidence. The Media, in my opinion, is the bigger culprit. They made a demon of the father without a shred of evidence and have since calously ruined the lives of the already greiving parents! The Media has resorted to cheap sensationalism for TRPs and tried to play the story to invisible galleries hoping to make mileage of the death of a 13 year old girl by making up every possible theory of their own, without being sensitive to the parents and friends of the dead. Further, have they ever given a thought to what the kids watching the graphics on TV around the country would go through!? It is extremely sad that such irresponsible journalism is being fostered in this country. The Arushi episode followed by the 26/11 reporting by the media has completely destroyed the trust of people in TV media! You need to do a lot more to redeem yourselves. How are we to believe any thing the TV Media says when it went to the extent of "manufacturing" news that the venerable Dr. Talwar was having a incestous relationship with his own daughter, even without a shred of evidence!

In the past, a few of my posts on various news sites have been blocked out for questioning the press! I will therfore post this on my blog and link it up all networks!

Launching Social Media Marketing!

Launching Social Media Marketing for Compusol!

Social Media Marketing has the power to :
- Engage the customer in an interactive advert!
- Build engagements, not just transactions!
- Build Trust relationships with remote and distant customers

We have been able to strategize specific requirements for specific verticals based on their target audience, demography, industry verticals, and user profiles.

Social Media Marketing will supplement conventional and other Online Marketing techniques by providing an interactive medium with its target audience. If used with planning and focus, it has the possibility to obtain market feedback for both the campaing and the offering in one go, therby reducing the cycle time to analyse the effectiveness of the campaign. What's more, it will lead to transactions, where applicable, and build engagements over the near term!

MediaPost Publications Study: Social Media Pays 07/21/2009 - The Survey validates the concept behind our Social Media Marketing Plan.

We are launching this service on about 30+ social networks, across different geographies including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, SiliconIndia, YouTube, Picasa and Flickr. Google and its siblings are an important component! The offering includes building applications on social media and customization for enterprises, to increase branding and online presence! Effectiveness of SMM is determined by continously monitoring users and their interactions and track the consequent growth against a host of parameters!

The offerings presently cater to
- Realty
- Retail
- Hospitality
- Consuumer Durables

Looking forward to some exciting times!
EnJois!

More details to follow at www.compusol.in

Practical Traveler - Having a Travel Problem? Share It on Twitter - NYTimes.com

Practical Traveler - Having a Travel Problem? Share It on Twitter - NYTimes.com

I had mentioned in a previous post that Web 2.0 Monetization will manifest from the offline services provided. Here are some classic examples!

I have been working on Social Media Monitoring for the last six months which should result in a very very interesting offering shortly!

Watch this space!

Article - WSJ.com

Article - WSJ.com
Search 2.0 wishlist!
As this article vaildates, some of the prominent features of Search 2.0 will be :
Real-time or Near-Real-time Search
Twitter has led the way, but a lot more will follow. Federated Search with Feed-Forward will surely be of value to customers in the days to come. Content Crawling will only provide half the solution. With rate of Internet Content doubling every few months, it is but obvious that users demand information that is as recent as possible.
Quality, not Quantity!
Throwing up 4.8 million search results in .47 seconds is great, but of little value when over 80% of users dont even go to the second page! Average Search-to-Desired result takes upto 45 minutes of searching and refining the Search over and over again. The Quality of the Search Results, even if it take a few seconds more, will be worth the wait.
Universal Search Results
Results displaying Multimedia formats has just been introduced by Google and Bing! The Quality certainly needs some attention.
Multimedia Search
Google and Yahoo were born in the age of text. The content on the web has moved onto Photos and Videos! Nilesen just reported 10 Billion Online Videos viewed in May 2009. Aren't our Big Boys behind time?! We will need searching on Videos and Images as well. Just trowing up results based on tags will not be sufficient.
Visual Results reporting
Textual listing has worked well over the years, but with RIA invading the net, the user expectations have obviously changed. Isn'nt it time that the Big boys caught up!
Multimedia SEO/PPC
If we are entering the age of Image and Video Content, can Image/Video Ads be far behind? Inline and Overlay adverts will come to stay sooner. SEO/PPC will need to integrate Image and Video content to stay current

Chand returns to Fiza, apologises#postcommentarea#postcommentarea#postcommentarea

Chand returns to Fiza, apologises
Is this the best of the news headlines that NDTV could find the whole country called India?!! What a waste!! What differnce does Chand and his moll do to a country with 824 million living under a dollar a day!?
The Indian Media is taking its readers/viewers to be abject morons!? They would do well to stick to responsible journalism and not indulge in stupid sensationalism or irrelevant and nondescript coverage such as this! About time that they wake up before they get the treatment that our politicians received in the recent elections for their gimmicks!

PM's message to India Inc: Be sensitive to poor

PM's message to India Inc: Be sensitive to poor

Now the governement is trying to preach Socialism to industry. What is the govt.'s responsibility? Who will do govt's work - Who is responsible for social welfare!

Social Computing - where are we headed!

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.

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