We are pleased to have RK Kuppurao, a veteran blogger with 250+ 280+ posts, write a post on this blog. Please encourage him with your comments. – Sukumar & Ganesh

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wenz d lst tym U rED gud eng? dont u tnk we ll shd taK mor tym 2 read w@ we read d wA dey shd B? w@ posibly justifies dis crunch of tym, nt 2 mention murdA of lang?

Where have the words gone? Where has the story gone? Where has the context gone?

As opposed to reading a story or have somebody having a plain conversation, we have lost ourselves in the hype of telegraphic communication. As technologies become advanced, sophisticated and affordable, it should allow for relaxed communication. By relaxed, I mean use of analogies, metaphors, comparisons etc…Because it is then possible to live the moment, reflect on your experience of life, reflect on the author’s (or the speaker’s) experience of life, have a “wah” moment and build mutual rapport – either interactive (speaking-listening) or non-interactive (reading).

Instead, we have given ourselves to believing that we don’t have time, words are expensive, story-tellers are boring and have permanently taken on the “cut to the chase” attitude.

SMS for example is great but has made people forget the beauty of words and sentences…kids have forgotten to spell words correctly.

Twitter helps make statements, but you can’t justify your statements, you cannot provide a build-up, you cannot say a story…because 160 is the limit….your urge to shrink your words increases, as the remaining characters approach zero…sometimes when you are done getting the message out of your system and find the remaining characters are “-14”, my gawd – the things we do to trim it down

You might say one shouldn’t be tweeting in that case. Now, who do you think is going to spend time reading a ¾ page blog on it? People want it faster, people want the summary – coz that is the only way they can swallow more. They want to be following 246 people on Twitter and read that many more tweets than read a well-written blog.

If I’d noticed how quickly social media tools became popular, I should know these are not going to change. We are not going to – all of a sudden – adopt a slow movement.

But all I ask of you is this – next time you write something, type “love” instead of “lv”. Next time you write/tell somebody a story, refrain from cutting to the chase. Remember, we are in no great scarcity of words (or time).

Wl U?

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You can read more of RK’s writings on his own blog at kuppurao.com

Prolog

The telcos have been talking about their 3 screens since last year. Interestingly,  Microsoft recently has started articulating the 3 screens and a cloud as their strategy (PC, Cellphone and TV being the 3).  Let me go out on a limb and lay it down – Microsoft’s’ 3 Screen Strategy is Dead on Arrival.  Stay tuned.

Obviously, Mobile Phones Rule

The rapid rise of the mobile phone market with 4.1B units in use worldwide is a phenomenon that everyone in the tech world is familiar with. And in case you are still interested in PC stats, they are expected to hit 2B only in 2014.

Similarly, everyone will agree that  iPhone, RIM..  have shown the immense potential of the smart phone at the high end.  That makes it is easy to see why Microsoft and others would pick the 3rd screen as the mobile.

But are Mobile phones sufficient?

Not quite.  And this is mainly due to the newly emerging scenarios of usage:

1. Curl on the bed and read an e-book.

2. Share photos and/or videos from the most recent vacation with a friend.

3. Have a Skype video call with someone across the globe.

4. Check facebook/twitter updates

Combined with some traditional usage – browse the web,  type up a short document or a presentation. And maybe there are  few more simple scenarios, none of which fit the mobile phone form factor, especially when you consider doing the above over an extended period of time.

Judging from the reactions to  my previous post on PCs, i don’t think PCs (as well as Macs) can be effective as well, although technically they can do all of the above except possibly no.1. Not to mention the enormous learning curves of PCs/Macs for the average user who is not tech-savvy.

The 4th Screen

Clearly a new type of device that can do all of the above is warranted. Will it be the much anticipated Apple iTablet or iPad or whatever?   To me Time Magazine’s concept video, embedded below,  nails it (though it omits  a video camera and not knowing its weight).

The 5th, 6th, Nth Screens..

I was talking to Priya Raju and she said something very interesting and insightful – why don’t we analogize screens to the clock face showing time. Now,  time has become a feature of many devices  starting from a car to a microwave oven.  So why not we have a cloud-backed screen in more devices? Why restrict them to 3 or 4 screens?

Epilog

What do you think? Do you agree that Microsoft’s 3 screen strategy is flawed (the cloud part of it seems correct though) ? What is your vision for the future?

Notes & References:

1. Scoble has some great thoughts on how Chrome OS could be targeting a new ~100$ device.  He takes the example of a computer in the kitchen to look at recipes that could use Chrome OS. I don’t agree with Scoble. i don’t think anyone wouldn’t want something as complicated as a PC in the kitchen even if it sports Chrome OS.

2. Sergey Brin on Chrome OS & Android Convergence . Interesting thoughts on how the mobile and netbook markets are converging.

3. Although the Amazon Kindle is a great device. I found it a tad heavy, preventing the curling on the bed with a book scenario,  and limited in scope and function for a device at its price point.

4. I found the Time Inc concept video via this article.

Prolog

John Gruber, in his inimitable style, tore the  PC industry into shreds with his scathing post – Herd Mentality , just a day after the hugely hyped Windows 7 launch. Gruber pinned  the blame squarely on Microsoft.   Somewhat by coincidence, i have been thinking about the state of the PC industry for the past few weeks.  This post from Twilight Fairy [one of the earliest bloggers from India) made me think a lot harder.

My conclusion – Gruber is wrong. Much of  the blame lies elsewhere.  Stay tuned.

My PC

I have been using PCs since 1987 (when they used to run CP/M and MS DOS) However, most of my usage was on PCs belonging to my university or my company. I bought my first personal computer in 1996, a desktop running Windows 95 for US $1,400.  It was a remarkable computer that continued to work flawlessly till 2005.

Because it could not keep up with the demands, i bought another desktop PC in 2001 running Windows 2000 for a similar $1,400 but with a lot more of everything, dual hard disk, TV tuner etc.   Within 2 years, both the hard drives crashed simultaneously. No backups, damn. I took it to a reputed US computer retail store (now out of business) and they advised me  to replace both the hard disks, which i dutifully did. Within a few days both disks crashed again. It turns out there was a problem with the power supply or something like that. I had to junk that computer.

While this was going on the personal front, i changed 2 laptops (running Windows)  on the work front due to some problem or the other – hard disk, battery problem etc.

My Mac

Frustrated by this experience, in 2006, i decided to buy an intel-based Macbook Pro for $2,000. It was almost twice the amount of money then for a comparable Windows-based laptop, but i still took the plunge because i wanted to experience the Mac.  In the past 3.5 years that i have owned it, i have had zero problems with it except for the one time that the Magsafe power adaptor stopped working.

On the work  front, in the same 3.5 years, i have had to change laptops twice due to some part failure, and replace batteries once.

What went wrong?

Just to be sure, the laptops or desktops i mention above are all name-brand computers.  How is it that the desktop computer i bought in 1996 worked flawlessly for so many years, but not the ones that i used later (mine as well as my company’s)?

I think the answer lies in the hardware. In the race to cut the price of the PCs, the hardware makers have driven the prices of the component parts down to the point where quality has been given short shrift. Therefore, PCs are cheaper and you get what you pay for.

Though i paid almost twice for my Macbook Pro, the ROI due to it not breaking down is incalculable.   I have not had to change batteries or make any other changes to the hardware since i bought it. Quite remarkable compared to my PC experience.

Role of the OS

When i think about what role if any the OS played in the scenario i describe – it is Zero. I have had no  major issues with Windows other than the typical irritations like the OS crashing or having to reboot it every now and then.

Given that i don’t do any heavy duty work on my  Macbook Pro other than email, Open Office, iLife kind of work, i haven’t found spectacular benefits of using Mac OS. It is definitely a better OS with many thoughtful touches, but not anything that makes Mac OS  200% better in line with the price premium.

Role of the Looks

Yes, the Macs especially iMacs have eye-catching designs which is significantly better than what the PC industry has to offer. But i wonder for how many people (as a percentage), the sheer look of the computer matters that much. For the majority of the people, IMHO,  what matters in a computer is its ability to function more than anything else.

Conclusion

In my view, it is Apple’s superior hardware design, perhaps using better quality component parts that is the real difference.  Instead of trying to race to the bottom with a lower price, the PC makers should focus on making better quality hardware even if it means charging people a bit more. The lost productivity and frustrations when your PC breaks down is the biggest scourge facing the PC industry.

Epilog

What is your experience with PCs? Do you agree with my conclusion?

Disclaimers

1. Because this post is entirely based on my experience, it suffers from a sample size = 1 problem (not enough data points). However, i have had the opportunity to talk to many PC owners over time and the frustrations are quite similar. Twilightfairy’s experience is a good example as well.

2. A zillion posts have been written about how Macs don’t really cost that much if you add up the value etc.  I don’t agree with any of them. You do pay a significant premium for Macs. My experience says it is worth paying the premium.

Updated Aug 15, 2009 10 PM – Here is a recent techmemed post that contemplates some similar ideas about Twitter.

Updated May 16, 2009 6:15PM – Mark Cuban says most of his traffic is now coming from Twitter/Facebook and less and less from Google!

FTOTW

We restarted this series in my previous post.  First, Nancy Dixon, a top expert in Organizational Learning has a brilliant post on the history of KM.  Hal Sperlich will be proud of this – 619,284.5 Miles on a 1971 Mustang and still going strong. Sean Platt has a great post on Creative Inspiration. SP Rajeshwaran has a great post on being a Code Monkey .  Brilliant article on what goes on inside a baby’s brain by Jonah Lehrer in the Boston Globe.

Prolog

I have been on Twitter for the past 1.5 years and I have been smitten. Given my interest in social technologies, i have been thinking about why Twitter is an important development. There have been several rah rah posts about Twitter recently, but i am not satisfied with the inferences.  Like all series starter posts i have done in the past, this post has some thoughts from me to get the community started. I promise to analyze and publish the wisdom of the community, as always.

History

To really understand the power of something, i believe that we should delve into the history a bit. There have been several perspectives of the Web including the highly popular 1.0/2.0 view.  In my view, that classification does not help us understand the Twitter phenomenon adequately.

Therefore, i decided to categorize the web into 3 eras as captured by the diagram below:

In the first Algorithmic Era, most of the focus was on using algorithms to tame the web, Google’s brilliant citations-based (or incoming links-based) algorithm being the chief amongst them.

Then came the Crowd Era, which saw the launch of several crowd platforms like Digg, Flickr, Youtube etc. which allowed us to use the crowds to make sense of the web content as well as to add fresh content.  I included Blogs also in this era because it is very difficult to tame the massive base of 40+ million blogs.  Though bloggers do have an identity, the massive size of the blogosphere reduced bloggers to a crowd [Inside the firewall, we have managed to create a powerful community using blogs  which is difficult to do on the internet due to the crowd effect].  Even the highly popular Wikipedia is a crowd phenomenon – you still don’t have an easy means to understand who the top contributors are, their reputation etc.

In the next era, which i decided to call the Community Era, we have 2 major categories – Facebook, Linkedin, Orkut  etc in what i would term a closed category and Twitter in an entirely new open category. The open category i think models the real world better and that is why it is very powerful.

Three Real World Parallels

1. Asynchronous Friending

If you look at Facebook or Orkut (i use both of them), you need to friend someone first and only then can you exchange anything.  In fact, Facebook won’t even allow you to look at someone’s profile before friending them.  Whereas on Twitter, you can follow anyone and if they like they can follow you back  and if they don’t like you at all, they can block you.  The twitter model is more akin to what we do in the real world.

2. Fine-grained Relationships Dominate

In the real world, all of us participate in many communities  – our neighborhood, our relatives, our coworkers etc.  We have relationships in these communities of varying degrees of strength.  Most relationships are built over time based on a number of fine-grained interactions (low amount of time per interaction) over time – meetings, get-togethers, parties, games, religious/social gatherings etc.  We also have coarse-grained (high amount of time per interaction)  interactions with a few people like our immediate coworkers, supervisors, immediate family/close friends  & close relatives. But most of our network growth comes from the fine-grained relationships. You can analogize a tweet to a fine-grained interaction with your followers.  Additionally, a tweet is very simple and consumes little effort. This is why using blogs or youtube or flickr to build networks is harder because to produce a good blog post or a good photo or a good video takes significantly more effort.  Additionally, the followers also need more effort to appreciate a blog post or a photo or a video.  The problem with Facebook or Orkut or Linkedin is the lack of a tweet-like simple fine-grained interaction mode (although lately Facebook has been copying twitter heavily).

2. Asymmetric relationships

In the real world also, we have asymmetric relationships – the strength of the relationship with someone that we perceive maybe different from the strength of the relationship perceived by that someone.

To make some sense of a large number of relationships – Orkut allows you to grade the relationships. But that is not how we do it in the real world -  our perception of the strength of the relationship is subconscious and is based on perceived quality of  interactions and the frequency of interactions we have.

In Twitter, you can do the same thing, the Twitterers you interact with subconsciously grow on you over time, which could lead to a mutually rewarding relationship. In most

Are there other ways in which Twitter resembles real world community-building?

Epilog

Do you agree that Twitter marks a fundamental tectonic shift? If  so, what impact is it going to have on the web?  That is what i am trying to contemplate. I have some thoughts. Look forward to yours. I would also like your views on Facebook, Linkedin, Orkut etc.

Updated 2 May 2009: Received some wisdom from twitterers – @Shogun1947 @priyraju @akumaran

Prolog

On my internal to company blog i had introduced a new idea a few months back – in the prolog section of every blog post, i provide a link to interesting posts i had read that week. To my surprise, this has become very popular. This is somewhat like the FTOTW (fine tastings of the week) series i used to run on this blog. I decided to try the same idea on this blog also.

FTOTW

First, A. Prem, one of Cognizant’s Social CRM experts, blogs regularly about Social CRM on his blog. He has a tremendous grasp of the subject. He writes one of the leading blogs inside the company as well.  Rachel Laudan, one of my food anthropology blog friends, lives and blogs from Mexico. She has some great updates on the Swine Flu epidemic.  Bob Sutton paraphrases Scott Berkun to explain how managers become a**holes. How Apple Cofounder Steve Wozniak gets things done.  Saraswathi, a former colleague, who now works in the social sector, had written a brilliant post on relationships a while back. must read.

Science  & Technology Careers in America

As someone who had lived in the USA for 10 years, i feel sad about the fact that American kids don’t take up science & technology careers as much as America needs them to.  The huge skills shortage that America faces is either filled by immigration or by outsourcing to other countries like India and China.

The stats from graduate programs and PhD programs also don’t bode that well. As of 2006, over 51% in grad programs in EE were foreign nationals and 71% in PhD programs were foreign. I don’t know how accurate these stats are. But the general perception in America is that Americans don’t like science & technology careers.

Paradise of Science

During our time in America, we used to wonder about, the kind of resources that are available to an American kid that Indian kids can not even dream. Every small city has a well-stocked library, a science center in the vicinity, several museums.

Even if one is a wee bit scientifically minded, there is plenty of resources to tap into.

By contrast, a city that plays host to over 6 MM people, Chennai, India does not have one well equipped museum or science center or library.

But Indian middle class kids, are taught right from when they are in the womb, that science  & technology careers are the be-all and end-all of living in this world.  Yes, this does create a large stereotypical population. But hey, how does that matter? When we want to find folks for science & technology jobs, we can find them easily without having to import them.

I am trying to find out, why American kids consider science & technology careers boring or geeky or nerdy or whatever?

What can be done to change this attitude of the American kids?

Epilog

If i am lucky, i may get to work in a project to improve American kids’ attitude towards science & technology careers. Please help me with your wisdom.