Mytoday.com

Thanks for the article Sahad (Content Sutra) and Kiruba.

All, do check out www.mytoday.com (WEB) and http://m.mytoday.com (MOBILE – looks different on ut cellphone). Infact, I got to know about the article on Content Sutra when I was using MyToday on my Mobile while I was watching Brokeback mountain in INOX (theatre in bombay) couple of hours ago. And here I am bloggin as soon as I come back home!

A slightly geeky but clear explanation by Veer and also mentioned by Rajesh (Rajesh and Veer have envisioned MyToday). If you don’t understand any terms mail me or comment here so that I can follow up! I will be also starting a blog for MyToday and will move the details about MyToday related stuff there. Until then I may write a bit more on MyToday over here. I am working as a Product Manager for MyToday i.e get the feeds and sources; new features for mobile and web versions of the product; get feedback and interact with all of you. Just fyi, my two months at Netcore have been an exciting and faced paced one. Just to leave all of you people interested: Our main focus is Mobile and India. But we are equally serious and commited about the web part.

The Mobile MyToday has some neat features (apart from the dailies) i.e search through google, yahoo or wikipedia through the mobile. The proper output is formatted for the mobile. A micro-content viewer to surf the web pages better – those part of WWW which as of now is not meant for the mobile.

We are also looking for reading lists – personal dailies / OPMLs people would like to share. Really looking forward for feedback either on the website or at vinu(at)netcore(dot)co(dot)in. Also a ‘hint’ we are getting more and more content onto the mobile phone – not just dailies! So, I would say – go and bookmark us on your mobile phone and start using it daily !!

My Favourites are India Blogs, World, Cricket, Flickr and my reading list.

I use the flickr daily on my mobile – m.mytoday.com/flickr to get beautiful wallpapers for my phone daily!

my unconference at BarCamp

Here are my notes for the ‘unconference’ I gave at the Delhi Barcamp. The title of the talk was ‘Mobile India: Status check‘. I was initially looking for someone to join me but somehow thanks to the exciting folks out at Barcamp I was able to lead the 30 mins session very easily. It was one of the ‘proper’ unconference session . I felt like it was one of the sessions I had at tagcamp where lots of people presenting just had an idea, lots of doubts and everyone went out learning and knowing more things …

I lead the discussion with the following mindmap image (view image in separate page) and a powerpoint. The sources for the presentation were mainly – MTC corp’s report on socio-economic impact in the arab world and the mobile relevant presentations at IMAI’s Digital Summit 2006

The first 15 mins were spent talking using a ppt regaring how the arab world and india will differ. I focussed more on split between incoming vs outgoing % split, the distribution of number of handsets vs cost of handsets, mobile facts in India.

I have created a wiki page for this seesion. People can either add on on that wiki page or add comments to this post.

Discussion also ensued about Nurmber portability and even MVNO. I came to know personally that Indian regulations dont allow the MVNO concept ( I will have to check on that ). Also had talk on GPRS services on the phone and how mobile phones will help Indian economy.

Then wrapped up by showing a demo of m.mytoday.com (mobile version) in my wml browser – the web version is available at www.mytoday.com. I have pretty recently been working on this product with the Mytoday team as a content editor and product manager. Looking for feed back on both the versions. flickr and fun are two dailies I enjoy more on the phone. You can also see my daily in that. More about my today here at mobilepundit. We are looking for reading lists of people. If you would like your own daily and don’t mind sharing it with people – do leave a comment to this post with contact email / public url or mail me!

All in all – Delhi Barcamp was really nice. As the main page of barcamp says – “Thanks for making BarCampDelhi a thumping success ! We had 25 sessions & 70 campers turning up for the event. Congratulations to all for a smashing debut for BarCamp in Asia.”
Met lot of cool people, fellow bloggers, fellow flickrers! Saw some cool demos, enjoyed the lovely Adobe campus, ejoyed delhi in general. Would’ve have loved to ‘camp’ really overnight and network more. Hopefully there is some real camping next time. There was this definite talk and spirit to have the next one in Pune / Bangalore. I think we might have one in Mumbai too! BTW any players for Mobile Monday – Bombay chapter?And yeah, poor me missed out on the booze session – new came to know about it!

blogs – waste of time?

A lovely ‘thinking aloud’ post by Atanu – “The Blogger’s New Clothes” where he says

“I am fundamentally against blogging … All in all, blogging is a self-indulgent waste of time, especially for the reader. For the writer, it could have some redeeming features such as the opportunity to learn how to write, to expound on topics of interest, or even to just maintain a store of interesting tidbits one has collected on one random walks across cyberspace.”

His post was triggered after reading the article ‘Time for the last post‘ quoting important lines from there:

” Or is it {blogging} just another crock of virtual gold – a meretricious equivalent of all those noisy internet start-ups that were going to build a brave “new economy” a few years ago? … blogging is the closest literary culture has come to instant obsolescence. No Modern Library edition of the great polemicists of the blogosphere to yellow on the shelf; nothing but a virtual tomb for a billion posts – a choric song of the word-weary bloggers, forlorn mariners forever posting on the slumberless seas of news.”

My Comment to atanu’s article! was:

atanu, yes I have thought of it in the same way sometimes! blogging and reading blogs especially when you reach around 250 feeds – needs discipline of time else you are just wasting time!

But Blogs are totally different in a way that they are a ‘medium’ Enablers of  conversations! its not that people are just writing or people are just reading. There are relations made, conversations shared and collborative knowledge gain at the end of the day/week. Yes, it may not be efficient … But I don’t see any other way how we can shift – time, space and thoughts  in a convinient and cheaper way at this current age and technology … 

In short, yes I do think about this! Today there was a problem with wordpress and it was down for 30 mins and I just had a thought – what the fuck … 3 months of dedicated blogging (nothin special written though ) and I am down to zilch. But then I thought bottom line I am continuosly learning and re-learning. Infact may be more than what I have or would have in a quarter of school work! Its a very complex issue to answer in a post. May be will be the theme for a month to come … let me know your thoughts

I firmly believe ‘Blogging’ is here to STAY. Time waste or not. Boring or interesting or entertaining or not. Its a social and a conversational thing and hence a medium. Something, like talking we humans are always yearning for and get addicted to! technology and cyberspace are all here to culture the medium …

eagle has landed

Landed at the tarmac of India Gate.

I am in Delhi at Barcamp currently. The Flight IT 301 – Kingfisher Airlines experience was great. Only concern I had – my photo id and who I am was never asked at any point right from check-in, security check etc … Guess, in India its easy to book a flight in someone’s name and let someone else travel. Talk about terrorism – we waiting for something big to happen. Security check was fast! I would say 5X compared to US! Almost as good as getting into a bus.

The Adobe campus is really cool. Bright and Bold colors. Great facilities – I was up and running with wifi immediately. Have my DSLR clicking already. Pics next week. And yeah I have grabbed my Barcamp T-shirt!

The introductions are done. Everyone was asked to say ’3′ tags about themselves. I thought … 3Ms – Mobile, Media and Mumbai !!! Enough of live blogging and will get back later …

Mobile India – Status Check

I planning to lead a discussion at the Delhi Barcamp – on the state of Mobile revolution in India. Both voice and data. I am more interested in Data aspect of things.

By Data I mean anything apart from people calling one another! IVR, SMS, Ringtones, GPRS, Social Communities … let the imagination begin. Hopefully we get lots of thoughts, ideas and yeah I would love start a ‘Mobile Monday‘ MoMo India chapter (I am keen on Mumbai one more ) if possible.

I plan to start and lead the discussion. But you never know how things happen. I have the idea – lets meet and get more ideas. After all these camps serve this purpose right? Looking for comments, ideas and more co-leaders. To get in touch just comment on this post of the blog or any post if u find anything particularly interesting. See my other posts which were related to mobile Articles to note would be: India calling; Mobile and usability and lifetime pre-paid.

For starters, let the comments begin! And yeah, you can comment even if you are not coming to Barcamp. Bounce any things you want to be discussed.

going to Barcamp-Delhi

I will be in Delhi this week attending Barcamp. For more information go to the Delhi Barcamp wiki and find your own reason to register and do drop in (its free) if you are interested. The theme of BarCampDelhi will be “Next Generation Internet: Web 2.0, mobile computing, and other cool stuff“. More links regarding this read any of the following post by gaurav.

Looking at the current state of the wiki – feels like its going to be fun. I am all up for meeting people, sharing ideas, meeting bloggers, learning new tech stuff, meeting entrepreneurs (indian ones btw!), exploring Delhi, meeting friends from the Digital Summit. I am flying in with Veer. Hope to do some live blogging as the place promises WiFi. but anyway lets see … I had great fun at tagcamp and I see no reason why this Delhi Barcamp will not be as much as fun as that.
Just drew a quick sketch about Barcamp while I was dozing off. he he

Update: I am going a lead a session: Mobile India: Status Check (click here)