Is Enterprise adopting the Social Web in the right way? A thought!

0 comments on this article Posted by Sujay in Enterprise Tale, Internet and Web on May 17th, 2009 .

I rent out cars a lot. For apparant reason, that I don’t own one. Now as any other customer of these “Rent-A-Car” services (Enterprise.com, Avis.com, Hertz.com) I go to their website and look for the cheapest deal. The place where I live I have to pay $60 per day (without taxes) for the basic version of the car.

What made me think was, to pickup the car at cheaper rate, I (the customer) have to travel for almost 1.5 hours in a public transportation. I go to this location because it is connected by public transportation (which I came to know from a different site – njtrasit.com)

Now all I want these guys to do is when they present me the Search page, can they not have a search criteria which says “Show location accessible by public transport?” There are tons of APIs available which can be used in their website to present the information and filter out the data.

Am I asking for too much, or should I start paying whopping 60$ per day rent for a small size car?


Open Everything NYC

0 comments on this article Posted by Sujay in Enterprise Tale, Events and Seminars, Internet and Web, Thoughts on April 19th, 2009 .

Yesterday I was at Open Everything NYC held at UNICEF Headquarters, United Nations Plaza in New York.

Open Everything

John Britton (the organizer and the host) was right when he said that weather was responsible for people who registered and did not show up. I think we were around 50-60 people, but it seems actually more than 250 of them said they would come. I had some interesting conversations on how Openess and sharing would make a difference in the fields of music, journalism, education, enterprises.

We also had some wonderful speaker like LESLIE HAWTHORN, Schuyler Erle (btw, I just liked the way he presented RapidSMS, very innovation idea.)

I was impressed with the spirit of openness and the urge to spread it in so many different sectors. Being a techie, I always thought does open source makes sense in other areas. Well it totally does or else Youtube Symphony wouldn’t make sense or take place.

We had several sessions on topics posted by the attendees themselves. I had put a topic “How and Why Enterprise can become more Open?”. All the participants chipped in their views and opinions and had a great time networking. (I shall write a different post on this particular topic)

I am still waiting their Wiki to get updated with the photographs and the videos.

I would definitely recommend others to attend this event next time.


The missing innovation amongst American Car Makers

0 comments on this article Posted by Sujay in Humor, Why didn't it click me? on April 12th, 2009 .

GM, Ford, Chrysler — this is what you need.


Parallel Parking Perfection @ Yahoo! Video

Basoda – Do we do this for environmental reason?

0 comments on this article Posted by Sujay in Thoughts on April 10th, 2009 , tagged with .

Few weeks ago we were celebrating Basoda – a special festival amongst certain communities in India, where for 1 entire day we do not use any form of energy. COLD is the word associated with this day. The entire day is spent in this manner.

- Wake up early, and take a cold water bath. Though it would be terrible in US (east coast)

- Go to a temple, pray!

- Then begins the eating spree, all food cooked previous day.

- Entire day no tea, coffee (you can have cold), no using gas. In earlier days I have heard that people never used electricity. They use to light oil lamps and go to bed early.

- So the idea is not to use any form of energy, heat.

This year while doing this, I realized that inspite of calling it a religious festival, it is more of environmental festival. Our forefathers might have thought that if everybody spends one day without energy, it would be just great. There is no other way to explain it otherwise. I mean apart from the fact that there are religious stories, which tell the significance of eating cold etc etc. I mean it’s a religious way of helping nature. 

I am sure other sects might be having similar ways to help the earth. If not, I find such events to be very effective. Well we did observe EARTH HOUR, isn’t it? How effective was it? But had people observed it “religiously” (pun intended) it would be so helpful. Now think about observing an “EARTH DAY” (23 more hours) with this religious twist. It’s gonna rock. Atleast in India (and mind you we are 1,147,995,904 people) as we tend to do anything and everything for religion. (now letz not go there)

Forgot to mention one thing: this thing is also called as “Mata ka Thanda” or “Sheetala Mata ka Thanda”.


When you should not ask user to register?

0 comments on this article Posted by Sujay in Internet and Web, Thoughts on April 8th, 2009 , tagged with .

In a newsletter from WebGuild, I saw a story about how Google CEO Eric Schmidt asked the ailing newspaper industry to create a new web format for themselves. After reading the summary over WebGuild, I clicked the link to “more” which redirected me to WSJ site.

And BAM, as soon as I land on WSJ, they ask me to register. Duh?

Isn’t think story about newspapers themselves — which means you WSJ?

Wall Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to know, which you should, whether Eric’s thoughts makes sense or not let this story be public — your readers will post their thoughts (collective intelligence) which you can use to come up with the next 2.0 for Newspapers!


Posterous is so cool and simple

Posted by Sujay in Why didn't it click me? on April 1st, 2009 .

I was reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog when I came across the link to Posterous – brilliant and simple are the two adjectives I would use.

I immediately sent a forward which I had in my gmail to post@posterous.com and that how it registers you. Tada!

Frankly, since quite sometime I was thinking of a service where everyone can post their forwards. I feel that we all get forwards and we all send forwards, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be great if we manage our forwards through some social media site. I know, not one more is what you are thinking. But imagine no more email overhead. All this service does is manage all the forwards. 

Anyhoo, I created by account at Posterous – Check it out - http://taurusismysign.posterous.com/

For interested folks, here is a nice blog on Posterous from Techcrunch.


Twitter Cartoons – Funny

Posted by Sujay in Humor, Why didn't it click me? on March 31st, 2009 .

Now tell me who isn’t attracted and glued to Twitter. Celebrities, Politicians, Millions of internet users, Doctors. Welcome the cartoonist. Found these cartoons on Slideshare and thought of sharing it with you. Enjoy!

Top 25 Twitter Cartoons

 


What Enterprise can learn from Twitter?

Posted by Sujay in Enterprise Tale, Thoughts on March 27th, 2009 , tagged with , .

I don’t know if its just me or all you guys feel the same way about emails. On an average I receive around 50-70 emails.

Here is mockup thread (and believe me entire world is copied on this email)

Due to blah blah blah, the XML message mentioned below did not go through successfully. We want your sign off to send this message again the downstream system.

(the story goes on and on)

To this someone replies

Yeah, I think this is very critical etc etc etc, and would appreciate if we can get this data into the system as business is getting affected blah blah blah ..

(yeah, we know business gets affected even if IT people sneeze a lot and waste time)

This is just a beginning of this thread. Then people start saying, we are doing release now. Business gives their sign off. Another communication on the release is completed. Reply is  a big thank you. To which another reply is Thanks for your patience … gawd, Microsoft Exchange is getting killed, please stop!

I am not saying here that Emails should be replaced by Twitter. My point of view is Twitter is making us believe that 140 is beautiful, sufficient and crisp. If you cannot do in that, that means you should take effective writing courses.

Anyhoo, some tool like twitter which will sell and work in Enterprises should be built and adopted.





			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry: Unveiling the “Sixth Sense”

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Thoughts, Why didn't it click me?
			 on March 22nd, 2009
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Truely a work of genius, as Pattie Maes mentions. Hats off to Pranav Mistry.




			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
National Geographic – Playpump Water Systems

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Why didn't it click me?
			 on March 14th, 2009
			, tagged with , .
		


		

			
Now isn’t this just brilliant? I had a traditional water pump right front of my house back home. Some like this would be so cool. Brilliance at it’s best!




			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
After all it’s Noise, isn’t it?

		

			0 comments on this article			Posted by Sujay
			 in Internet and Web, Thoughts
			 on March 8th, 2009
			, tagged with , .
		


		

			
Whenever any great invention happens, the inventor along with the pros of the product might also think about the problems his/her investion might bring upon the society. There are so many such examples. Well, great that nuclear energy got invented, but it gave us Hiroshima & Nagasaki. There are cars, but now we are fighting with the pollution and all the damages is it doing to our planet. The list is so very long. And now we realize and think about how we should put a check on all kinds of pollution from such origins to save the planet.




Similarly, and it might not be right away, we will face similar issues originating from these social networks/ information getting generated from the web. I mean look at the time we spend online — it’s increasing day by day. Sure the idiot box (Television) was considered harmful few years ago, because it made you couch potato, but Internet and it’s friends are just taking it to the next level. All work/ browsing/ socializing/ reading and NO PLAY!


Here are some trends by Online Publishers Association (OPA) 


Time Spent Online


Look at Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and hundreds of other social networks/ junk data generators. What good are they doing to us? Do we really need this much information in real time? I am not sure!


Well what triggered this blog, is the new service started by Google — Tip Jar . Is Google feeling insecured about people adopting Twitter? I don’t get it. And well, I know they want to organize world’s information, but look at the data coming up there. Here is one .. 


“Take advantage of free entertainment in your community – parks, museums, exhibits, etc. Go to free park concerts and other community activities”


Who doesn’t? Whoever posted this, didn’t he/ she come to the Central Park during free concerts and see the number of people hanging out there? Here’s another one


“Quit smoking. You will save tons of dollars and my favorite: you will save tons of years”


Ya right! You said it and now whoever reads it will quit smoking. 


My point is simple! I think there will be time when so much information will be floating around that we will find it tough to get to what we are actually looking for in the given amount of time. Noise is just spreading all over. Just noise!


And I don’t think building faster machines, better search algorithms or intitive user interfaces will do the trick. Look at the planet and think again, as to what we really need to do.


			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
Google CEO Eric Schmidt – Future of Technology, Information

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Thoughts
			 on March 2nd, 2009
			, tagged with , .
		


		

			
Eric Schmidt and his views on future of technology, information and the role Google will play. It’s an old video (2008) but I just loved it. 


One interesting point which Eric made was on “News”. He says well say a village gets the broadband (internet) for the first time, everyone is excited etc etc; they start going many things and get overwhelmed with information and possibilities with a computer and internet. But after a while “news”/ “information” is what they look forward to.


Worth a watch!




			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
What Google Chrome and Microsoft IE can learn from Firefox!

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Thoughts
			 on February 27th, 2009
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Alright I am not going to write a comparison report on these three browsers. Just something I noticed today and jumped out of joy. Now this is what I call innovation and user experience.


In Firefox I typed in Seth Godin. It directly took me to sethgodin.typepad.com (mind you I don’t have a bookmark for this site)


Next I typed in Russian Vodka NYC. It took me to nymag and on the Russian Voda bar page. Amazing!


Try going similar things in other browsers. Chrome will take you to the google query page — WTF!!! Aren’t you suppose to be the rulers of the search world and user experience!


At last IE, I didn’t even try because I know what it might do — PAGE NOT FOUND :) 


			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
An hour with Morgan Stanley CEO – John Mack

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Thoughts
			 on February 25th, 2009
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Infosys Bulletin Board – A great place to share

		

			2 comments on this article			Posted by Sujay
			 in Business Ideas, Enterprise Tale, Thoughts
			 on February 23rd, 2009
			, tagged with .
		


		

			
One thing which is truely part of every Infosys employee is the INFOSYS BULLETIN BOARD (or BB as it is called). During my stay with Infosys, Bangalore, I did not visit the Bulletin Board often, but heard quite many things and discussions on the same.


Be it technology, social talks, queries, buy/ sell — it had it all and straight from the heart (well brains too)


I had an idea then, and created a presentation below. I had sent it to Nandan Nilekani, and he was kind enough to reply back and asked to me to talk to a senior project manager and see where it goes. Meanwhile I moved out of the company. 


However I still feel that this idea has some potential. And why only Infosys? I am sure most of the companies have a forum where employees express their opinions. If possible, why don’t use that collective intelligence to contribute towards a social cause.


An Idea for Infosys Bulletin Board 


Publish at Scribd or explore others:            Business Presentations & Slid discussion infosys


			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
Idea for Starbucks – Save the Change

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Business Ideas, Enterprise Tale, Thoughts
			 on February 21st, 2009
			, tagged with .
		


		

			
Came across this site at Salesforce – http://mystarbucksidea.force.com


I guess the ailing coffee giant is trying to use some collective intelligence. Not a bad idea. I also added one of mine. Check it out!


http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/ideaView?id=087500000005HzzAAE


Feel free to comment too.


			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
No Innovation around Escalators?

		

			0 comments on this article			Posted by Sujay
			 in Thoughts
			 on February 21st, 2009
			, tagged with .
		


		

			
I often go to the mall near my apartment in Jersey City and see several escalators there. One thing which always amazed me is why at 2:00 AM in the night the escalators are running continuosly? And all of them just going up and down .. all alone. You will find similar scenario all over the place. Every town, every public place which has escalators. 


So I started to read up on energy required to run an escalator. I came across this article from Treehugger.


 ”The national energy use of escalators is estimated at 2.6 billion kilowatt hours per year, equivalent to powering 375,000 houses; its cost is roughly $260 million.”


Can’t there be some logic to auto-start the escalators? Well, in the same article you will see that frequent start and stop might cost more energy. Well in that case, there should be some intelligence in the logic — which will check if its day time, or if the time gap between people riding is very less then don’t auto stop and start — it should run continuously. However if there are fewer people coming on-board it means that either its night time or slack time. So it should automatically switch in some auto-start/stop mode.


In addition, the logic for upward escalator should be different than downwards. Well downward escalator should start only if there are minimum say 5 people riding .. else it should be in stop mode only. In addition there can be a switch like we have in elevator which we press if we want to ride it.


And yes, this should be done to all existing escalators … please don’t say that we cannot do this for existing escalators. 


So this is what can be done:


1. Have a sensor for Auto ON and OFF — to the existing and new escalators


2. ON and OFF logic for downwards and upward escalators should be different.


3. There should be a start escalator button for people which can be used to start an escalator if it’s stopped (meaning one can skip to start the escalator)







			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
Louis C.K. on the Conan O’Brien show

		

						Posted by Sujay
			 in Humor, Why didn't it click me?
			 on February 19th, 2009
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It’s hilarious and it’s so true.


Louis C.K is just mind boggling with his observations and punches. Don’t miss it.




			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
Meetup + Ning = Meeting

		

			0 comments on this article			Posted by Sujay
			 in Application Mashup, Business Ideas, Thoughts
			 on February 18th, 2009
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I thought of starting a category which focuses on mashups of Web 2.0 applications. So instead of pulling social data from x number of places and arranging it on a new application, I think there is high time these entrepreneurs and VCs think of joining hands.


Now one can talk about several pros and cons of doing something like this. Without getting into it, all you have to understand is this:


- Users won’t have to remember URLs, login ids/ passwords and features


- They don’t have to worry about their distributed friend population across networks


- They won’t have to complain saying oh why is this feature not available in that application which is soooo much needed there also


I think the list is never ending. Now let me give you an example where I saw a partnership between two applications.


Tumblr has joined hands with Vimeo to host the videos of the users. Well, that makes sense to me.


So in this first post, I would like to suggest two applications which have some degree of overlap in their offering, should think about either sharing data/ UI/ features/ user base.


It will certainly be a win win situation for everyone.


Ning and Meetup


About Ning:


What makes your own social network on Ning special? It’s yours.Your brand and visual design. Your choice of public or private. Your very own members. Explore some of the features you’ll get:


http://about.ning.com/product.php


About Meetup:


Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.


—————-


Well, while writing this blog and reading more about Ning and Meetup, I came across profile of Brad Burnham who happens to be on the board of both Meetup and Ning :) 


			

			

		

			


		
		

	
		
Ideas around Twitter based applications

		

			1 comment on this article			Posted by Sujay
			 in Business Ideas, Enterprise Tale, Thoughts
			 on February 13th, 2009
			, tagged with , , .
		


		

			
Okay, 2008-09 is Twitter year. It’s a whole new world out there with its own language containing words like tweets, @, RT etc. However my guess is Twitter started to capture and share “What are you doing?”, and is thus is becoming a complete Internet Drain. I was following a friend and he is talking about coffee, snow, oatmeal. I mean it might be “cute”, “informative” to some, but definitely not me. Yeah, reminds you of Facebook or other social networks. In the beginning it looks great .. but eventually turns out a chaos.


Here is my wishlist of new applications which can be built on the Micro-blogging framework. Frankly it will be great if these features are available in Twitter itself so that I don’t have to keep track of other apps built on Twitter APIs.


1. Filter Tweets (Fileets)


Well, I want to know what my friend A is doing in the evenings, and should be able to subscribe to only those tweets which are posted in the evening. Don’t want to know what he is having for breakfast, or that he had a heated argument with his boss (who doesn’t!!)


Yeah, alright I am following Obama, but then I am only interested to listen on the TARP or Economic Rescue Plan.


The point is if I am following 100 people and they all post 10 tweets, either I will miss some tweets out of these 1000 or I will go crazy. Well I might even get fired from my work place to be so loyal to Twitter.


2. Pattern Twitter (Pwitter)


Advertisers want to see pattern. Scientist as well. Nature herself has a pattern. Why don’t these social networks see that? If I am following people who talk mostly on Innovation, Ideas, Venture Capital — it should pattern it out and get me useful suggestions to follow other users who contribute on such topics.


3. Answer Twitter (Anster)


Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Questions, Answerbag.com — so many places to ask questions. Why? Can’t we use a Twitter model instead? It would be more productive.


4. Group Twitter (Gwitter)


10 years back Yahoo Groups were so popular. We all use to have groups for close college friends, another group for entire class etc etc. Several of them. It was fun people posting their updates, attachments. This trend got replaced by Facebook, Orkut and likewise networks.


These days I feel even usage of Facebook is an overkill to keep in touch. Isn’t Twitter sufficient enough? But then I want different groups in Twitter.


Well lets say I will create one group as NY Friends, another one as College Friends. Start adding people in these groups so that they can read and write on these groups.


5. News Twitter (Nwitter)


I am thinking of working on this idea, and is in it’s very early stage. So instead of writing what it is about I might be able to show it to you. Till then please keep thinking and tweeting :) 


			

			

		

			


		
		
	
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