Epeus’ epigone points to an amazing quote by David Foster Wallace that resonated in me completely:

TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.

The blog post also takes inspiration from nature in terms of how applications can be viral. Something I personally subscribe to. We have a lot of learn simply by just observing nature!

I wonder how many of you resonate this following … atleast I do totally

Thought for the Week: From Barb Klaser, in comments to one of my posts (Dave) earlier this week:

I had a colleague once whose favorite joke when things didn’t go right on a project was, “I feel so much better since I gave up hope.” But in fact I think there’s a point in our lives when we realize that acceptance of what we can’t change is wisdom, and then our lives change gears for the better.

Those who haven’t seen the wisdom in that might call it laziness. I have a problem with the word “lazy” in that it’s a catchall and nearly always seen as negative. More and more I wonder if there’s really any such thing as laziness, other than the ability and wisdom to slow down and take life in — which I view as a positive trait, a kind of thrifty respect for life — one’s own as well as everyone else’s.

Most of the other people society looks at as lazy are dealing with dysfunction or challenged in some way not in their control. Those who’ve made a conscious choice to slow down and value each day — not for what they can produce to make someone rich or to “fix” the wrongs of the world, but for what life means in the greater scheme of things — are likely in the “boomer” age group. Younger people think they have to put up with an employer’s self-absorption, ambition, or greed, but many boomers have wised up and see it for what it is, and they aren’t going to wait for years to “prove” themselves to yet another of this kind of employer. Life’s too short…

It’s also the reason I try to take my business, as a consumer, to where I see contented employees.

I was about to comment at Vijay’s post with the following:

So result: welcome to www.pagalguy.com ;-)!

But I decided to make it a post. After all blogs are all about conversations? Anyway, I think Vijay’s statement in his post Beacon Unplugged is slightly flawed (do read his post).

There is this basic ideology. The paradox of the masses. Whenever at any given network the number of members become too huge, the system starts to break down.

the aove statement is not totally true. I think, Networks are like fractals … the system actually starts to cluster internally especially when people are involved Any system that allows that i.e tools for fractalization built in with scale is the future.

Two things that are important for a striving community (niche social networks) to thrive are:

• Entry Barrier / Criterion for all stakeholders
• Passion
• Need
• Validity of both of them
• Sustainability Mechanics for all of them
• Moderation
• New things (tools + content)
• Guidelines

Certain basic need to start such communities are one of the 4Cs :

• Content
• Connectivity
• Community
• Commerce

All of this can be user generated (its better even if its slow) as it will be step in the right direction. This is validated according to me in real and virtual worlds in all aspects of the matrix.

Anyway thanks to Vijay, Rain in Mumbai to make me start writing again. Have a gut feeling … lots of posts will be coming.

but just not in the flow. Even feeling lazy to twitter I guess I should be into blogging soon the ‘go point’ is lurking in the horizon

This post was coming for sometime but never got around to write. My value add in this post is close to zero, just wanted to list again what Puneet compiled on Incubators in India. Its just a bit more detailed (lazy to write the entire post - Just putting it up for my reference!). But I guess I will have actually find out what they have to offer - need to do some research. If you really have any first hand knowledge about them do add in your comment.

• IIM A: CIIEIndia
  

• IIM B: NSRCEL
  

• IIM Lucknow

• IIM Kozhikode

• IIM Calcutta

• SP Jain Institute of Management and Research

• BITS Pilani

• IIT Kharagpur

• IIT Madras

• TENET – IIT Madras

• IIT Bombay

• IIT Kanpur

• IIT Guwahati

• IIT Delhi

• Nirma Labs

• FMS Delhi

• Entreprenership Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad

• K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai

• The ICFAI Center for Entrepreneurship Development, Hyderabad

• Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)

• Wadhwani Center for Entrepreneurial Development, Hyderabad

• JSS Institutions

• NITIE

• Erasmic

• NIT Trichy

• Technopreneur list

Read the TRAI consultation paper on MVNOs in India (thanks to contentsutra).

Decent thoughts there. Nothing great though including some screenshots from the paper I think that are decent. For someone who has no idea on MVNOs the paper does a good job … The paper talks about how the licenses have been distributed as of now and then examines situations all over the world in terms of MVNO (lovely compilation). And yeah, there will be some entry barriers (cost and criteria) on MVNOs for sure I think!

Was wondering about how cool it would be record every second of one’s life what it would physically. Open a online spreadsheet and landed with this calculation

If I store in MP3 i.e Stereo sound quality and assuming a average lifespan of 80 years, we just need 40 TB ( 1TB = 1024 GB) and it would cost just $10,000!! Would I be interested in such a service and would I pay this … hellya! Fast forward, year 2020 would I like to know with whom I was spend most of my time talking and what I was talking? Am I ready to $125 i.e Rs 5000 per year for that … sure! I think this is some killer service atleast the phone operators are missing.

Next lets take video - mpeg divX quality - Its just another order more. If I have a necklace attached to my neck and it records audio + video + acceleration + temp variation + pollution levels I am exposed => Do I have potential use of it? Sure! Does the technology exist for something like that? Yes. What would be the cost of the gadget i.e hardware max $300 (some of the hardware platform is also open sourced) what missing is the service angle. I think in another decade this is going to be a reality.

Yes, privacy laws and security become a concern but I will definitely value what I did in my twenties and thirties a lot when I can personally re-experience it when i am 50! Only concern with this business idea - upfront capital cost + maintenance cost. If we can get people on a monthly plan - I feel this can be resolved What do you say??

Someone whom I know very closely, met Subroto Bagchi and has instantly become a fan of him. Mr Bagchi had a similar impact on me when I met him during my stint at ICICI. He had come as part of a presentation team for the consulting assignment Mindtree was involved with ICICI’s Rurual Initiative. My friend then mailed me one of his articles titled ‘Defining Success‘ - quotes from there:

It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what is the limit of inclusion you can create.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

I loved the points (thought, question and metaphor!!_ Mark Sigal (Network Garden) raises in the post: Social Map is All about Me

I bring Google into this equation for two reasons. One, to cite a tangible example of how the market goes about defining propriety and property rights in the information age. Two, because I believe that Google, as a benefactor of these rights, will need to share with consumers more of its social map of user clickstreams, engagement metrics and their correlates if it is to maintain the public trust. Akin to a credit report, I think consumers have a right to this data.

Therefore, what I envision is a consumer-friendly dashboard and analytics application that allows me to visualize the bigger picture by seeing the same contextual relationships that Google sees. Think zeitgeist-type reports that provide answers to the Top 10 questions relevant to MY universe (e.g., who read, commented, shared, how many) packaged in such a way that I can ask what-if questions to my heart’s content. To me, the social map is all about enabling applications that allow consumers to take back control of their data, help them to connect the dots between their various interests, orchestrate their brand and systematically engage their audience. This is the promise of the information age.

Given that, if information is the electricity of this era and information ABOUT information is the richest energy source of all (just ask Google), then shouldn’t we have universal access to this type of data? Heck, if Google wants my heart and soul vis-à-vis their AppEngine initiative, they need to give me a unified way to call upon and interact with all of the global data functions that they have cataloged (web pages, blogs, images, news, video, email, maps, calendars, etc.).

Facebook, Yahoo, and Microsoft: Couldn’t you disrupt the disrupter by doing the same? Is there any reason that you wouldn’t — or shouldn’t?

Kalam speaks out his thoughts about a Leader …

• First, the leader must have vision. Without vision, you cannot be a
  leader.
• Second, the leader must be able to travel into an unexplored
  path. Normally the tendency is for people to travel along well-laid out
  ways.
• Third, the leader must know how to manage success, and even more
  importantly, failure.
• fourth trait is that the leader should have the courage to make
  decisions.
• Fifth, the leader should have nobility in management. Every
  action of the leader should be transparent.
• And finally, the leader
  should work with integrity and succeed with integrity.