It’s a Wiki Wicked World (WWW)

With the advent of Wikileaks Cablegate saga, the world of journalism will never be same again. Things could be read in a different perspective.

Technological advancement and democratization of interconnectivity have made everything classified unsafe. Take for example the recent Cablegate episode. The entire thing started because of one unhappy marine’s personal vendetta against the US policy. No one could have thought this was possible, even a decade ago. Things are changing really fast. With the spread of internet across the globe, no government or regime is isolated any more. No state secret is secret any more.

I know, Human Rights and Democratic activists would be rooting for the moment.

However, things are not as rosy as it appears to be. I guess, it was rightly said “Technology is a double-edged sword.” It is a useful tool for good cause, but it could be a lethal weapon, if it goes to the wrong hands.

Currently, the leaders are getting caught having informal conversation about sensitive issues. Things will be more difficult for them to communicate and forge a joint agreement, as there is always a danger of records of their informal chat getting leaked on a later date.

We have already started witnessing the aftershock of the Cablegate.

EGYPTIAN Twitter Revolution Revolution 2.0 (Designer Revolution)

On 25^th January, 2011, Ghoin, a Google Marketing Executive created a Facebook page expressing his frustration and anger against the administration and appealed to his readers to come together and demonstrate their solidarity. However, the message he posted on that page struck the right cord in the heart of the Egyptian mass.

There had been widespread feeling of frustration against the rulers, but people were hesitant to express themselves earlier. All of a sudden people find themselves in sync and empowered to organize wide spread mass protest called “March of a Million”. The power of internet, especially social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and video sharing sites such as Youtube have been vindicated and demonstrated by the agitating protesters in organizing peaceful protests. People from various sections of the society, irrespective of their socio-economic background whole-heartedly participated in these pro-democracy rallies. They made the best use of technology in organizing and disseminating information across the whole population oppressed by long years of dictatorship. The Egyptian uprising has now been called as Twitter/Hashtag revolution.

Now, one might wonder why we Indians should bother about what’s going on in far distant land like Egypt or Tunisia. Well, back home, we have recently witnessed a far different kind of revolution led by Anna Hazare, where the government swiftly agreed to the demands, which were disregarded earlier. It was by no means a small achievement considering the weightage and ambition of the bill. If we carefully investigate the pattern of these events, one thing that clearly emerges is the online activism of its leaders/organizers. They have spread the awareness among online community by using all the available web 2.0 media tools like blogs, wikis, discussion forums, chat rooms, video sharing portals and articles. As more and more people are getting internet savvy, the effectiveness of these media are increasing day by day.

The interesting aspect of Egyptian revolution is that it was not led by any prominent mass leader. Only ordinary people organized and expressed their concerns in a true democratic fashion.

Not everything was that rosy after all the repressive regimes retaliated by enforcing total ban on all kinds of online activities and information exchange. But as the old saying goes “Internet belongs to none.”People always find one way or the other to bypass the iron fist of the establishment. Technology-giant Google even came out with a new way for tweeting by recording voice messages through telephonic calls to enable suppressed ordinary citizens to express themselves to global audience. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were used to generate public opinion in such a scale that it played pivotal role in deciding the fate of the revolutions. Prior to this, in 19^th & 20^th century, revolutions used to prolong many years of struggle, bloodshed and violence. The fate of the revolution was mainly decided by the strength of military leadership and combative strategy. But this new re-incarnation of revolution has changed the overall perception about revolution. New-age social networking sites become powerful ammunition in the hand of the agitators. These technologies were there for the past several years. But, never before, we witnessed the enormity and significance of these technologies in our real life and geopolitical events. What we are witnessing now is the precursor of the things to come in the 21^st century, where any repressive regime or corrupt government is not safe anymore. Truly internet has come a full circle.

What is communication gap?

The difference in understanding of the same concept/idea/information by different persons/groups is communication gap.

In business, the communication happens through different channels such as emails, conference calls, chat and documents.

The communicator should be clear about the following during communication:

What

One should have more clarity over what information should be communicated.

How

Email – communication has to be tracked for future reference.

Conference calls – communication has to be instant and quick.

Chat – same as for conference calls except that the audio/video is not required.

Documents – information has to be maintained and shared with many other persons.

When

The importance of the information will have more value when it is communicated at the right time.

Sequence of narration

Properly sequenced information will give better picture about the topic dealt with.

Let us take an example of miscommunication and its acceptable version of communication.

“The situation is that an employee has spoken to his manager about the extra time needed to complete a task.”

Miscommunication:

“I have been working on task B for the past 2 days and hence task A will be delayed”.

What –the status and deadline of task B is missing

How – Oral communication is not the right mode as this situation will require RM to keep track of the committed deadline.

When – It should have been communicated 2 days in advance to the deadline of task A.

Perfect:  

“I will need 4 more days to finish task A and I had spent 2 days already on it. I also need 2 more days on intermittent task B”.

User’s perspective -

How cool and thought-provoking experience it would be when at night I tuned games in my device and when I wake up they are all ready to be played on my other devices too! No Synchronizing, no late night transfers, no updates. Even the songs purchased get streamed consistently and instant access to my music, apps or photos is provided. Gone are the days when e-shopping was a nightmare, more of tech-savvy people’s stuff and their mumbo-jumbo; now, it’s a layman’s affair. We don’t need to manage the content anymore; cloud does it for us on the fly. Our business emails, contacts and meetings are up to date always. In short, we smartly manage our multiple devices using prudent, speed effective and enjoyable ways. 

Technology –

A multiple server-based computational resources via a digital network – sound heavy but true! Apps are provided and managed by the cloud server and the data are also stored remotely in the cloud configuration. Cloud computing differs from the classic client-server model in providing applications from a server that are executed and managed by a client’s web browser with no necessity for an installed client version of the application. Centralization gives cloud service providers complete control over the versions of the browser-based applications provided to clients, which removes the need for version upgrades or license management on individual client computing devices. 

The Future -

The Future is here. Today, at our workstations, we are well poised with cloud services strategies, cloud reference architectures, enablements and various intellectual properties. Together we stand having strategic partnerships & collaborations with leading players in the cloud ecosystem. We are also centered on building & providing competency based services such as Cloud Assessment, Implementation & Migration to Private, Public and Hybrid Clouds and Cloud Operations services. It is time to actively progress and identify niche functional applications areas in various industry divisions.

The future is what we foresee. The future is what we feel tomorrow would be. It’s all about a smart move; the first move and that defines where we would be. Fingers crossed!!

The advantage of social media is that the advertisers can find who is using which social media site and choose the site accordingly for promoting their product. Let’s take Facebook as an example. More than 500 million active users use Facebook. So, advertising a product in Facebook will increase the visibility of the product or the campaign.

YouTube provides a great chance for exposure. YouTube is looked upon as a channel for viral marketing. When a consumer watches a video of his choice in YouTube, advertisements related to the content of his video appears on the side. Here, the consumer can choose the advertisements that he/she wants to see. This increases the chance of the product getting sold as it reaches the right audience.

LinkedIn is a B2B social networking space. It has also been used to promote B2B products and services. Twitter has been used by the celebrities to voice their views. Some of the film actors do promote their movies by evincing interests in the minds of people by tweeting on their movies. Even the political leaders propagate their views and message through these social networking sites. Some political parties advertise through these networks.

Many companies have started creating a fan base for their products by creating profiles for them in these social networks. They keep bombarding the consumers, who are part of their network with information and other promotions.

Social media has been quenching the thirst of man to stay connected. These sites have united people across the borders in a single place. If you are a marketer in a company, then you cannot ignore social media in your marketing mix!

Let me narrate that further. So to start with, one has to find out a restaurant of choice, then queue up to get a place in the restaurant. If the queue is long then ‘hard luck’! Get some nasty comments from your partner (which you should have got used to).  Next thing would be to find another restaurant and finally end up with a place which you would not have preferred anytime.

Or

if you got lucky in finding the place in a restaurant of your choice then utilize (or rather consume) your time in finalizing the menu of your choice … wait for a waiter to order… gaze around till your order is served … order a sweet dish and lastly wait for your bill to arrive before you finally pay for it and leave the restaurant with a made to order smile from Durban. This whole experience will rob you around for a precious 2 to 3 hours … what a waste in this fast paced environment…

Almost 80% of people who would like to go out and celebrate on a weekday will try to avoid going out and similarly 40 to 50% would have similar feelings (though some would not have choice) do the same during the weekend.

How about changing this whole experience and bringing some revolution!

Here are the new versions…

You get a call from your partner (including girl/boy friend) at 5:00 PM to go out for dinner at his/her choice of restaurant.

No worries! You log on to your Smartphone, check for the availability of table in your choice of restaurant, book a table of choice, finalize the menu with your partner and order your meal online with the time it should be ready.

Sounds so easy, isn’t it?

What’s next? Pick up your partner and reach the restaurant punctually by the time you requested.  By the time you settle on your table, there you go… your three course meal is ready to be served. Enjoy your meal with some personalized experience on the touch screen on your table. Sounds great!!!!

Once you are done with your meal, there’s no waiting for the bill as you have already paid. Finally before you move out of the restaurant, how about taking some hard memories in the form of snaps (capturing some celebration moments). I think you will not mind that even if you have to pay for that….

So a made to order, personalized gala dinner without hassle just in one truly enjoyable hour. Isn’t that a charming, enjoyable and relaxing experience with one or two valuable hours to spare!

That sounds the way to the future….. What do you say?

Now, we come to Mobile Business Intelligence, which refers to the distribution of business data to mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. These days, we are encouraged by a change from the wired network world to a wireless world with the advantage of smart phones which has led to a new era of mobile computing. In case of an average business person, you may be required to check emails on mobile, but others may be required to run complex
queries and reports. Now, all this can be done using different mobile applications available in the market. In fact, Mobile BI apps are getting better at delivering charts, graphs, and other data visualizations that are actually legible on smart phones. Tablets’ big screen size and touch screen facility makes Mobile BI applications more user-friendly and easy-to-use. There are many Mobile BI apps coming in the market, but we need to mention Apples’ iPad, for growing popularity of tablets among users. Other Mobile BI apps include BIRT Mobile, Roambi, Micro Strategy Mobile, SAS Mobile, IBM Cognos 8 Go! Mobile and many more.

We can say, Mobile BI will continue to grow rapidly, as employers increasingly look to keep senior/middle management available on a 24×7 basis. These provide the latest information, wherever you are, so it’s no longer an excuse not to know. For example, sales application enables the personnel to show their presentation online, take sale orders from mobile and deliver the same without any delay.

This type of tagging has been predominantly used in logistics for tracking and tracing. This mobile tagging allows the consumer to scan the tag and gather more information on the brand/product before making the purchase. Marketers can also provide different views about the brand and update the consumer regularly about the brand using the mobile tag. The organizers who organize contests for promotions use it to their advantage as the customer can participate by quickly accessing information through the phone and generally don’t have to waste more time in registration. It just makes the whole transaction hassle free.

Few scenarios can be analyzed to prove the opportunities that mobile tagging provides.

• It helps in building the image for the brand as the brand can reach the consumers directly through their personal phone. Marketers can give more information about the product, brand & offers and attract the consumers through thought-provoking innovative ads with different sounds. They can provide a different ‘mobile experience’ to the consumer.
• Mobile tagging is becoming part and parcel of CRM. The existing customers can be well-informed on the product, new features, promotions, freebies and keep them loyal to the brand. The marketers can promote new products too to the existing customers. The communication will reach a whole new level through mobile tagging.
• Games and contests about the brand can be conducted to generate buzz. With the advent of mobile internet and mobile camera, the consumers can interact with the company and brand in a pleasurable way.
• A lot of analytics can be performed based on the mobile tags. The individual tags can also be monitored and suitable promotional campaigns specific to the customer can be launched.

Interactive portals can be used to connect the consumers and the brand. Brand-loyal customers will become the brand ambassadors i.e. they can be used to promote the brand through these portals.

Let’s say, you are watching a match on the television; an advertisement generally means time for that quick trip to the washroom you have been delaying because Sachin Tendulkar has been hitting the opposition real hard. But when you see that ‘Pooja likes this page’ on the Facebook feed, you are enticed towards it. It generally interests you what has been interesting to your friend. This connect is the real power behind Social media in Advertising. 

Social networks are the major players in the online space. People, especially the young generation that either makes the purchase or influences the majority of purchases, are spending countless hours interacting with applications and sites that provide a social experience. Facebook alone has hundreds of millions of active users, which means millions of visits, innumerous page views, countless ad impressions and traffic that can be harnessed and targeted for online advertisements.

Although Facebook is a leader, the collective group of social networking websites have made this an advertiser’s dream. With the proper approach, a company can take advantage of Web 2.0’s potential and the opportunity it affords to connect with the customers in an entirely new way.

While the Social media is a good place to viralize an advertisement, it is not a sure shot way. The advertisement or the idea needs to be strong and catchy to be spread like an epidemic. Also, just creating a home page on the market leader in S/N (read Facebook) does not mean your brands shall get the kind of advertisement you want. Here is something to note:

• People on Facebook are not there to fan your brand page.
• Even if they like it, fans rarely return to the brand page.
• The ‘post on the wall’ do not work as effectively as ads in the news feed or those strategically placed as per user’s interests.
• Targeting a community is important – Specific group of people with a particular interest, demography or geography providing testimonials helps a lot.
• Brand ambassadors are as important on the Social media as the offline channel.
• An ad should be interesting, funny, shocking, exciting, emotional, dramatic, awe-inspiring or controversial. It needs to be a ‘chat-material’ and easy to pass on.
• The story should be news worthy.
• Honesty in advertisement – While you can run away with that *Conditions Apply ad on the TV, on the web and especially the Social media, if you lie or misplace the facts, people would highlight it. They would do it right there on the page you posted the ad. This could and generally does backfire.

Nevertheless, an advertisement properly strategized and seeded adequately, and especially if it is a catchy one, can reach to a depth of audience in a very short time at a very small cost compared to the conventional medium. The Social media in advertisement is here to stay. Are you on the e-brand-wagon?

It’s time for the companies to examine its telecommunication expenses. The companies have to reexamine the plans from time to time. A company can save money by negotiating the unsuitable contracts again with the vendor. It can also go for new plans by scrapping off obsolete plans. Alternative solutions such as VoIP can also be adopted by the company.

A pragmatic approach can be taken by companies to handle the mobile bills. The employees can be paid a fixed monthly mobile incentive. This way, the employees are allowed to choose the plans that would suit them. Also, the mobile expenses can be limited to a particular amount.

Moreover, companies should also work on their Internet costs. As Internet costs have been coming down year after year, companies should choose the latest plan that would provide them the much needed cost saving.

In few companies, the senior executives of the companies travel overseas in search of business opportunities. The data consumption and the associated costs are usually very high. Windows Mobile smartphones or the iPhone can consume a large amount of data while checking the new e-mails. Blackberry smartphones uses a data efficient protocol. Even in this case, it will be good if the employees disable HTML e-mail (with images) while they travel. So, configuring the devices will help in saving expenses caused during travel.

Thus it is evident that reducing the telecom costs is not a rocket science. A microscopic view is necessary to manage the telecom costs. Though it cannot be left to a single administrator, the above mentioned tips can bring tangible results in the long run.

Have you taken steps to reduce your telecom bills? I look forward to hearing your experiences!

Though many will lament for the lack of personal experience, it certainly does break a lot of barriers during the evolution. The availability of internet in TV will create a vibrant society by enabling people to share their opinions easily. This will overcome the disadvantage of the open browser based Internet in creating the traditional publishing online. 

This move will instill new dynamics in the traditional publishing and media business. We may start preferring the content suggested by others. This will in turn create a live social experience. The evolution of Internet will provide great opportunities to the traditional media business. 

This shift will be an overdose for the environment based on the traditional open browser. This will also lead to a new wave for the packaged Internet platforms. On the flip side, it will endanger the business environment of the network operators and distributors. Already, efforts are being taken in the developed nations in bringing the packaged Internet to TV. Youview is one such effort in UK. Now developers can work on apps that will enable the TV to do a lot more than what it can do today. Youview provides the opportunities to the viewers to have a ‘personalised’ experience. What the viewers need is just a Youview box and broadband Internet connection.

While the developed markets are expected to move fast towards to the packaged Internet, developing markets are expected to adapt to this shift slowly. Let’s be ready to ride this new wave!

(Source: globalwebindex)