Quite late at this game. But here goes.
Facebook is quite remarkable, simply. It combines the standard features of a social networking website and the means of keeping the user engaged. The interaction happens at multiple levles, you have the apps that can keep you busy forever and the helpful updates on what your friends are doing (orkut is trying to copy this feature). Possibly the only reason the Indian community will stick to orkut for sometime is because orkut is easier to load on the servers, whereas facebook is noticeably heavier. With speeds being a problem it could take some time to catch up.
From the social websites I use, Facebook is easily the most user friendly, and there is no reason (as mentioned sometime ago in all the debates) it should migrate the audience of linked in et all. If I can stay in touch, network and connect personally then why not?
It would be interesting to see which of the desi sites would get inspired from facebook, maybe something from the TV18 stable ( they are leagues ahead in terms of tech adaptability).
Of course I am in love wiht the blitz app :D
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Building Organizational Loyalty
Morgan Stanley lays of employees after the loss that it sustained. The layoffs come at the time when the entire street is reeling under the problems on the debt side, courtesy the sub prime crisis.
The concept is pretty simple: most of the investment banks have very large debt portfolio's, these debt portfolios are rolled over from time to time. But in times of crisis there are no buyers for these portfolios and then the value of the assets becomes close to zuk. This is what happens, boom.
What has happened with this round of crises is that MS has decided that people have to be laid of off. When there was run of good results quarter after quarter the person who took the good name was Mr Mack ( yeah the MS savior), but this time when the going gets bad the hit goes on 300 bankers. The bonus I hope gets pruned this year. "We are cutting down costs", and there the markets are happy.
What about the poor employees? Well they are cogs that are not important enough? The markets have not called for the head of the guys who ran up the loss in the first place or collecting the money from the bonuses paid out last year ( Investment banks pay upto 40% of revenue as bonuses ).
Most employees in the current environment are used to being laid off. The job marked is primed too, they will find jobs in no time. But if an organization claims high moral standards as MS does, is this the way to go?
The concept is pretty simple: most of the investment banks have very large debt portfolio's, these debt portfolios are rolled over from time to time. But in times of crisis there are no buyers for these portfolios and then the value of the assets becomes close to zuk. This is what happens, boom.
What has happened with this round of crises is that MS has decided that people have to be laid of off. When there was run of good results quarter after quarter the person who took the good name was Mr Mack ( yeah the MS savior), but this time when the going gets bad the hit goes on 300 bankers. The bonus I hope gets pruned this year. "We are cutting down costs", and there the markets are happy.
What about the poor employees? Well they are cogs that are not important enough? The markets have not called for the head of the guys who ran up the loss in the first place or collecting the money from the bonuses paid out last year ( Investment banks pay upto 40% of revenue as bonuses ).
Most employees in the current environment are used to being laid off. The job marked is primed too, they will find jobs in no time. But if an organization claims high moral standards as MS does, is this the way to go?
Citizen Reporting... the white drums
Citizen reporting has started in India. In the land of media, this is probably the first step towards democratization. Why is media important in a democracy? It brings accountability to the polity. Media if channelized properly is the one tool which can really make the other parts of the democracy work at its optimal pace.
Is citizen journalism sustainable? And what about its own accountability? You cant really have anyone reporting a story and then vanishing into thin air while leaving the population at large to bear the consequences. Yes, Citizen journalism could be the product of an idealistic journalist who wants to bring the news to its grass roots level. But that idea can truly take place if the medium of communication is shifted to a local language, else this idea would be another opportunity for the english speaking audience to have a disproportionate mind share of news.
Next question: What is the business model of the website? :D
Is citizen journalism sustainable? And what about its own accountability? You cant really have anyone reporting a story and then vanishing into thin air while leaving the population at large to bear the consequences. Yes, Citizen journalism could be the product of an idealistic journalist who wants to bring the news to its grass roots level. But that idea can truly take place if the medium of communication is shifted to a local language, else this idea would be another opportunity for the english speaking audience to have a disproportionate mind share of news.
Next question: What is the business model of the website? :D
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Indian interest rates - they have to go down
Imagine a situation.
House A: The head of the household buys more than he sells. But his household is fast becoming one of the best places to give money to, because they are very productive. Because of rising incomes there was a lot of cash, so the head decided to suck out the cash. Now he has lots of money himself. His money gets added because he buys other currencies so that his exports are competitive.
House B: This household primarily invests. And they have a lot of money which cannot be employed productively within their own assets. So money is cheap. They figure they can easily borrow cheap money from within their household and invest it in the best asset of house A. This is what they do.
House A - India, House B - (basket of $ currencies). $ is cheap and gives low returns, Re is costly and gives higher returns, people want rupees, so rupee will appreciate against dollar. Now if you want to stop that there is only one solution, decrease interest rates. Monetary policy different from that of the fed will be useful only in a few cases, time of join them. Ease out the investment climate that should cool the inflation worries.
Of course the RBI is trying its best, but as Connery says in "The Rock", you also need the prom queen.
Exit, stage left.
House A: The head of the household buys more than he sells. But his household is fast becoming one of the best places to give money to, because they are very productive. Because of rising incomes there was a lot of cash, so the head decided to suck out the cash. Now he has lots of money himself. His money gets added because he buys other currencies so that his exports are competitive.
House B: This household primarily invests. And they have a lot of money which cannot be employed productively within their own assets. So money is cheap. They figure they can easily borrow cheap money from within their household and invest it in the best asset of house A. This is what they do.
House A - India, House B - (basket of $ currencies). $ is cheap and gives low returns, Re is costly and gives higher returns, people want rupees, so rupee will appreciate against dollar. Now if you want to stop that there is only one solution, decrease interest rates. Monetary policy different from that of the fed will be useful only in a few cases, time of join them. Ease out the investment climate that should cool the inflation worries.
Of course the RBI is trying its best, but as Connery says in "The Rock", you also need the prom queen.
Exit, stage left.
Religion - Part 2, is God needed?
God probably is a concept that has run its time. There are tremendous amounts of complex interactions that take place in nature and we are even after spectacular successes, far away from complete understanding it all. But we definitely are well on our way to nullify many of the superstitions that have evolved over centuries. But is now the time to get over the ultimate superstition? The concept of God ( one who sits under the tree types)?
Practically speaking, God has served a useful purpose in the advancement of civilization ( but as i usually say, we can never vouch that we are better off being civilized ), a concept of a God who will punish you in your after life provides a sort of stability mechanism which stops the society from going into chaos (again dunno, whether that would be good or bad). But purely on a practical basis, the reward/punishment of religion's god has probably run its course. Why, because we simply have too much information that cannot be ignored and hence force us to live in a social environment, with clear understanding (hopefully based on choice) of our roles.
But what about a spiritual basis? That life could have a higher purpose and a belief in God would deliver you to the purpose? What about all the saints in the Hindu fold ? Probably they realized that human life is just a link the chain and there is supposed to be no higher purpose than that. Once when you have realized it, you probably attain peace and nirvana and that happiness is the consciousness that everyone ought to reach. But this process can be put in the frame of the individual rather than tying it up in a group environment considering a religious basis.
Religion still probably is the greatest tool in the process of mass hypnotization, but if you collectively deny the use of a under the tree god you possibly reduce the need for religion.
Yeah yeah, i hear you laughing.
Practically speaking, God has served a useful purpose in the advancement of civilization ( but as i usually say, we can never vouch that we are better off being civilized ), a concept of a God who will punish you in your after life provides a sort of stability mechanism which stops the society from going into chaos (again dunno, whether that would be good or bad). But purely on a practical basis, the reward/punishment of religion's god has probably run its course. Why, because we simply have too much information that cannot be ignored and hence force us to live in a social environment, with clear understanding (hopefully based on choice) of our roles.
But what about a spiritual basis? That life could have a higher purpose and a belief in God would deliver you to the purpose? What about all the saints in the Hindu fold ? Probably they realized that human life is just a link the chain and there is supposed to be no higher purpose than that. Once when you have realized it, you probably attain peace and nirvana and that happiness is the consciousness that everyone ought to reach. But this process can be put in the frame of the individual rather than tying it up in a group environment considering a religious basis.
Religion still probably is the greatest tool in the process of mass hypnotization, but if you collectively deny the use of a under the tree god you possibly reduce the need for religion.
Yeah yeah, i hear you laughing.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Religion - Part 1
Religion -The ultimate utopia, that which unites you, gives you the strength to survive, takes you beyond the realm of normal existense, liberates you, energizes you.
Religion - ultimate weapon of the state, can remove choice, will suppress your free will through a set of dogmas and a social acceptability and mechanism for control, straight from divinity itself.
The rise of nations till the advent of technology marked the rise of religions, atleast history looks at them through that lens. The Mongol khans, christian Brit & Spaniards, the Bushist Middle Kingdom and so on. Religion as has often been said is the uniting factor that is brandished by the state to brainwash the common populace into converging to 'single' way of thinking. A state tool cannot be ambiguous, hence you have competition among religions.
That era is possibly coming to the end because the fundamental premise for the success of religion is exceptional uncertainity which breeds strong faith. But in a distorted sort of the life, the hectic pace of the present has left us pursuing a unambiguous dream, of mobility and acceptability. This is the new religion.
Religion - ultimate weapon of the state, can remove choice, will suppress your free will through a set of dogmas and a social acceptability and mechanism for control, straight from divinity itself.
The rise of nations till the advent of technology marked the rise of religions, atleast history looks at them through that lens. The Mongol khans, christian Brit & Spaniards, the Bushist Middle Kingdom and so on. Religion as has often been said is the uniting factor that is brandished by the state to brainwash the common populace into converging to 'single' way of thinking. A state tool cannot be ambiguous, hence you have competition among religions.
That era is possibly coming to the end because the fundamental premise for the success of religion is exceptional uncertainity which breeds strong faith. But in a distorted sort of the life, the hectic pace of the present has left us pursuing a unambiguous dream, of mobility and acceptability. This is the new religion.
The age of uniformity
What is common to the teenager in L.A, the teenager in Japan and that teenager (yeah the guy with the bag over his shoulder ) in mumbai? A lot actually, they probably wear tommy, listen to music on an ipod, debate the right/wrong of the war in Iraq ( yeah at least i want to dream that they might be discussing that because i don't) and are thinking about building exactly similar lives. So, this is the new globalized era - whats new? And of course I am an idiot to compress complex cultural explosions in a few lines.
But then, how far can i be? This is the new India, you have young people who are looking to conquer the world having been brought up on dreams. All of them have put in significant effort to get on the path to utopia, and you will find the utopia could be remarkably similar. Its a gross over simplification, like I always tend to find that south indian engineers remarkably have similar topics of interests ( the actual pool of interests would be mind boggling, but the broad way of thinking) and you find more and more people moving to small multiplex movies. The movies itself are good, but look around you, you will find a similar kind of audience. Of course this trend goes on a give you almost a choke, the kind of similarity you find among the crowd of south Bombay.
What we are seeing is homogenization of culture, remarkable purely because of the rapidity with which it is taking over the country. India could end up being the land of the liberals, because there is nothing else to look to. Even though the craze for Advaita might mike it cool someday, till then the phrases of philosophical texts might go into oblivion, making way for talk about the next episode of lost or the next news event or the next environmental problem.
If everybody is the same, what would be the cost of competition? Not much, it would eventually be like running on a treadmill, you can run all you want but you aint getting nowhere. The average intelligence would go down ( well the individuals could be well rounded because of the more information available, but if were to purely look at it in terms how we would stack up against the early 20th century populace), the systems and the processes would take care of the intelligence part. Eventually the population might even start looking the same ( thats not difficult either with genetic modifications), sex would be free ( yeah thats an important part of why societies are structured in the way they are, the primary motive of any society is self preservation & propagation )
Welcome to the brave new world.
But then, how far can i be? This is the new India, you have young people who are looking to conquer the world having been brought up on dreams. All of them have put in significant effort to get on the path to utopia, and you will find the utopia could be remarkably similar. Its a gross over simplification, like I always tend to find that south indian engineers remarkably have similar topics of interests ( the actual pool of interests would be mind boggling, but the broad way of thinking) and you find more and more people moving to small multiplex movies. The movies itself are good, but look around you, you will find a similar kind of audience. Of course this trend goes on a give you almost a choke, the kind of similarity you find among the crowd of south Bombay.
What we are seeing is homogenization of culture, remarkable purely because of the rapidity with which it is taking over the country. India could end up being the land of the liberals, because there is nothing else to look to. Even though the craze for Advaita might mike it cool someday, till then the phrases of philosophical texts might go into oblivion, making way for talk about the next episode of lost or the next news event or the next environmental problem.
If everybody is the same, what would be the cost of competition? Not much, it would eventually be like running on a treadmill, you can run all you want but you aint getting nowhere. The average intelligence would go down ( well the individuals could be well rounded because of the more information available, but if were to purely look at it in terms how we would stack up against the early 20th century populace), the systems and the processes would take care of the intelligence part. Eventually the population might even start looking the same ( thats not difficult either with genetic modifications), sex would be free ( yeah thats an important part of why societies are structured in the way they are, the primary motive of any society is self preservation & propagation )
Welcome to the brave new world.
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