Early Adopters

I went to an eLearning meet a few years ago in Cupertino. I never met any one in the group before and there were some interesting discussion on learning tools. Towards the end I asked them whether any of them blog. The strong reaction, I got, surprised me. “Blogs are for people who do not have anything else to do” said one person. “Who wants to watch pictures of cats and dogs and read people’s rantings” said another. I was not sure what to expect, but these pre-conceived notions gave me all the signals I wanted. I never went back to their monthly meetings.

Why am I recounting this story now? I was reminded of it when I started reading Why Journalists should use Twitter a couple of days ago.

I recently mentioned to a colleague of mine, who also is a freelance journalist, that I’m researching an article about Twitter. “I hope you really trash this service”, was his answer. “This is nothing else than verbal diarrhoea.”

The early adopters are a fascinating bunch. These are the people who are active on Twitter, sign up for several product betas, try almost every product as time permits, read Technorati/Techmeme/ Reddit/ Digg,/eHub/ Slashdot and countless blogs. They remind  me of the robot in the Short Circuit movie that keeps asking for “Input” and devours vast amounts of information.

These are great people to follow on Twitter, blogs and other forums. If you are start-up, these are your little angels. They will tell you whether your product/serviec sucks, give you great suggestions for improvements and if they like your product will tell everyone who may listen to them.

I still have not figured out what motivates early adopters. Is it because they have a high Curiosity Quotient? Or is it because they have a compulsion to make the world a bit better? Or is it something else? These people are one my sources of inspiration.

Worlds that Connect to our Words

I don’t find as much time to sit down and read a physical book. It is easy to read tweets and blogs and reddit posts. I am always there in front of the computer. It is not just a tool for working. It is also place to listen to podcasts, watch msnbc video clips of democratic primaries, catch some music and generally dream.

But I sat with the book again, and I feel compelled to get back to the machine and share a para.

A feature of the mind that we will repeatedly encounter in these pages is that even our most abstract concepts are understood in terms of concrete scenarios. That applies in full force to the subject matter of the book itself. In this introductory chapter, I will preview some of the books topics with vignettes from newspapers and the Internet that can be understood only through the lens of semantics. The come from each of the worlds that connect to our words - the worlds of thought, reality, community, emotions and social relations.

I would highly recommend starting with this video from TED

Resources: Technology Podcasts and Videos

I am always on the lookout for good podcasts to listen to. Here is an opportunity to listen to thought leaders in the tech industry.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Interviews with Innovators by Jon Udel from ITConversations Network. ITConversations also hosts some interesting podcasts on Social Innovation and other interesting topics.

Talking with Talis is one of my more recent discoveries. In their own words, it is:

conversations with thought-leaders at the interface between Web 2.0, Libraries, and the Semantic Web…

Inside Silicon Valley from PodTech News is another one of my favorites. I became aware of PodTech when Robert Scoble moved there from Microsoft.

ScobleShow is another one of my favorite ones. Since Scoble is no longer at PodTech, I wonder whether this series will continue.

Channel 10 is a great source that covers products and innovations at Microsoft.  I have watched some really grate videos and podcasts there.

Google Engineering Edu and other Google tech talk videos is one of the best sources of technology information. Google often invites thought leaders, developers, language designers to their campus. They make these videos available free.

A talk a day is my motto. A technology or Science podcast or an audiobook is a great companion when I take my walks or sweat it out on my treadmill.

Because In My World There Are No Strangers

Read an ad in an airline magazine. A reason for blogging:

Because in my world, there are no strangers. Only family and I’ve never met.

This is an ad for Reliance Mobile. One of those nice ads.

TiECON Chennai 2008 - A Memorable Event

First, a bit of a background. I had my first two startups in India (both in Chennai) and the next two in the USA. I spend roughly about half my time in Silicon Valley and the other half in Chennai. I attended several TiECON’s in Santa Clara but this was my first in India. I did not know what to expect. The one day, information packed event, was one of the most inspiring conferences I have been to. I can write long accounts of what happened, but I will leave it to better narrators than me.
Every one I talked to, echoed what I felt - it was one of the best learning experiences and one of the most inspiring events. It certainly was like drinking from a fire hose.

“The world is driven by knowledge”

said the Chief Minister, Dr.M.Karunanidhi. He urged all of us to:

Let common man be the focus of innovation.

Great work is inspired by  a great cause. I can’t think of a better cause than this.

Reach out to the down trodden since they do not know how to seek help. Take that extra effort to bring them into the fold and teach them how to improve their lives.

The highly energetic and ever smiling Smt. M K Kanimozhi, Member of Parliment, Tamilnadu. talked about the efforts we need to make to help people who are surprised and may even be suspicious, when some one reaches out to them. She epitomizes the young leadership, we so much need - smart, articulate, completely at ease and very interactive.

The idea of awarding entrepreneurs was a brilliant one. It was a privilege to be in the same room with these people, who do not take no for an answer, who had a vision and a dream and worked hard to make it happen.

Images of the struggles and achievements, painted vividly by various keynote speakers were some of the most awe inspiring moments during the day.

A great blend of keynotes and panels, a very interactive audience, and an event that ran like a well oiled machine, should make the organizers and volunteers proud.

Under the leadership of Gopal Srinivasan and Mr.Ramaraj, two of the most dynamic figures in the industry, TiE organization and all the volunteers did an outstanding job. This event easily compares and even beats some of the TiECON annual events in California. It  is, definitely, one of the best, and most memorable one for me.

With TiECON Chennai 2008, the TiE organization set a high bar for future events. I am glad I was there.

Language - Not Just the Transfer of Ideas

About Semantics from The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker

Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it is also the about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the relation of words to reality - the way that speakers commit to a shared understanding of the truth, and the way their thoughts are anchored to things and situations in the world. It is about the relation of words to a community - how a new word, which arises in the act of creation by a single speaker, comes to evoke the same idea in the rest of the population so people can understand one another when they use it. It is about the relation of words to emotions: the way in which words just point to things but are saturated with feelings, which can endow the words with a sense of magic, taboo, and sin. And it is about the words and social relations - how people use language not just to transfer ideas from head to head but to negotiate the kind of relationship they wish to have with their conversational partner.

LinkLog: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

I have been a regular watcher of videos on TED Talks.  It is one of the most inspiring channels of information.  If you like the talks, you can help them spread.

QOTD:

I love this quote from Dan Brickley in his blog post Open Social Networks: Bring Back Iran:

For me, one of the big motivations for working (through FOAF, SPARQL, XMPP and other technologies) on social networking interop, is so young people in the future can grow up naturally having friends in distant nations, regardless of whether their government thinks that’s a priority.

I do believe that with Social Networks and other tools of People Connectivity,  we can incrementally “Change” the world for the better.

Simple Innovations: Cell phone applications

A typical example of an uncommon use of common devices - innovation at its best. Here is how Cell phones are used to track air pollutions.

Computer scientists in Cambridge, UK, are using bike couriers to monitor air pollution. These couriers are doing their usual jobs, but their bicycles are equipped with air-pollution sensors and GPS units that connect to their cellphones via Bluetooth. So their phones are constantly reporting the levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and nitrogen dioxide in the area. And back in the lab, servers are updating a Google map for Internet users and regular cellphone users. The sensors used for this project could also be fixed to a pedestrian’s jacket, which means that everybody in the area could become a pollution tracker.

In this depressing world of  conflict and chaos, it is nice to hear about innovative minds at work. The original project website is here.

The project will develop and demonstrate the potential of diverse, low cost sensors to provide data for the planning, management and control of the environmental impacts of transport activity at urban, regional and national level. This includes their implementation on vehicles and people to act as mobile, real-time environmental probes, sensing transport and non-transport related pollutants and hazards.

Thanks to Roland Piquepaille  who runs a column on “How tech trends affect our lives”

Winners in Tech

From Bill Gates on Innovation:

Bill does make the good argument that the winners in tech are rarely the ones who come up with the new idea, but rather the ones who bring it to market properly.

Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, it just brought it mainstream. Microsoft didn’t invent the graphical OS, it just brought forward the first one compatible with everyone’s old software. YouTube didn’t invent internet video, it was just the first one to package it with an easy embeddable player and a great community. The winners aren’t the ones who do something first, but the ones who did it right for the market and the users.

We can go on with these examples. Google did not invent the Search Engine. They just did a better job of ranking results, scaling the service, providing great response and finally innovating on a business model to make tons of money. These are innovations too. Different kind of innovations than technical innovations.

The full transcript (an entertaining and informative read) is here.