Our car moved ahead sluggishly as the fog was the only inhibitor which was trying its best to dampen the spirit of me and my team members who were all geared up to conduct a training session. After all it was our day wherein we were highly enthused about displaying our product to the teacher trainers from all across the country. The product was a step by step training manual to integrate mini laptops in the school curriculum. This is the project where we as a team at R&D had spent good long 10 months to make it a success.

The entire experience of writing a manual was pleasurable as it forced us to introspect on various aspects of technology and pedagogy. So much so that we kept on changing roles from a student to a teacher. From a researcher to a marketing professional just to evaluate the pros and cons of the product. ‘But all is well that ends well’, as we were elated at the creation of the facilitator’s manual to guide the teachers about usage of technology in classroom.

Miniature piece of technology- Exploration is the key

It was a three day long program, and all excited we commenced the program on 2^nd Jan. We had an interactive bunch of audience who were all bubbling with energy to explore the technology behind mini laptop, which offered various options to make teaching learning an effective process. They were briefed on technical aspects of its key components. They were all enthused to handle the tech toy!

We discussed various classroom scenarios where technology could become handy and solve the management issues commonly encountered by the teachers. Lot of brainstorming exercise was done on the types of learners and how can technology cater to their individual needs.

Technology with Pedagogy- WOW COMBO!!

The second day was more fun filled as many games and activities were planned to discuss teaching learning strategies. We as a team came up with around fifty such strategies to create that WOW effect in the class.

Each strategy was simple yet effective and focused to develop skills in the learners. Teaching with a difference not only draws the focus of new age learners but also empowers the teachers with latest technological developments in their field. Visuals, auditory stimulus, group activities and evaluation techniques formed important elements of these classroom learning strategies.

Bringing Revolution – can be a challenge, face it!

On the third day spotlight was on the actual implementation of the talked about combo. Lessons were planned and demo classes conducted to evaluate the success of program. Believe me it was an experience in itself! Change is always a challenge, as whenever there is a change it requires lot of perseverance and patience to imbibe it into the system. But I am quiet sure as technology is there to revolutionize and empower the teacher it will be accepted with open arms.

A lethargic Monday morning and the alarm clock snooze to break the deep slumber which ends yet another exciting weekend. As we rightly call it, the ‘Monday Blues’ more or less has struck each one of us at one time or the other. Though it is difficult to overcome it but here’s an attempt to achieve it. How to bring a WOW factor to your Monday?

This sounds educative but helps: Realize the difference between perfection and totality. Aim at the totality of the task as that gives a feeling of accomplishment. Perfection is a distant goal so we should not loose our sanity aiming for perfection.

Be creative and aspire to learn something new, this triggers the grey cells and the brain starts thinking about new things instead of dwelling on the old ones. Try to complete the weeks work by Friday so that you start afresh on a Monday.

Realize the importance of work assigned, as positive attitude towards the task is more important. It’s not important what the task is, but how we accomplish it is more important.

Provide yourself with incentives as a self motivating tool. This will pep up your spirits and create an encouraging work environment. These incentives can as trivial as an extra portion of your favourite food, a movie show you long to watch.

Build compatibility with your colleagues so that you long to meet them on a Monday.

Well there are many ways which can make us feel WOW it’s Monday. Any Suggestions…………

Posted in collaborative innovation Tagged: Monday blues, WOW factor ]]> http://charubajaj.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/wow-it%e2%80%99s-monday/feed/ 1 charubajaj http://charubajaj.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/words-and-words-are-all-i-have-to-take-your-heart-away/ http://charubajaj.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/words-and-words-are-all-i-have-to-take-your-heart-away/#comments Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:10:30 +0000 paritoshsharma http://charubajaj.wordpress.com/?p=172 ]]>

Social Media has been in action since sometime now. Everyone is talking of the same. There is so much of action around that somewhere is the message is being lost.

What is being expressed takes a different meaning altogether.

So in this age of “words and words are all I have…to take your heart away” what do I do to put the right message across? Well, here is what I tell people… beep beep..

‘Brand’ The credibility and uniqueness of an entity revolves around this much hyped word. In the present state of affairs we use this word so often that we start associating the identity of the commodity with it. Such is the aura of the brand that photocopy is always addressed as a XEROX, which relates to the photocopier by MODI XEROX rather than its competitors such as CANON or RECCO. Brand creates an illusion and we don’t mind spending exhorbitantly to lay our hands on branded stuff.

BRAND SPEAKS

How well we can project ourself is the rule of the game. You may be good at your , but is the world aware of it? Have you casted that impact on people that they should under your awe, it’s rather not you, but your brand that speaks for you.

BRAND’YOU’- UNEXPLORED

Though much has been thought over for creating brands as far as commodities are concerned but we have a restrictive approach when it is all about creating a brand for oneself. Here we can quote no one better than Amitabh Bachchan. He has positioned himself so well that people love to see him and hear about the much appraised actor, as he is always in the middle of action. Though actors of his era have already faded out with time.

BRANDS DO FAIL- WATCH IT !

When we talk of creating a brand, we have to be careful that quality should never compromise as they say, ‘ Impressions last for lifetime’. Be ready for feedback, world is changing and so are we.

Time is right, focus is clear

Create a brand and bask in its glory!!!!

Social Media…Social media…and more of social media…

• Dont you get tired of thinking all day long and trying to vie for every opportunity that comes your way?

There are almost 1.5 billion people Oneline and half of them will visit one of these sites today:

1. LinkedIn
2. Youtube
3. Ning
4. Slideshare
5. Flickr

So if you are not here, probably you are not THERE!

Almost everyone is vying for attention in some way or the other. All are thronging the same fair to get the eyeballs. All are speaking the same language (or at least trying to). Interesting aint it!! Coz still we say there is so much of disparity amongst the human being??! Thoughts?

So much so for the introduction, what if I told you YES YOU can STAND APART in this crowd!! AND get the RELEVANT eyeballs? Would you STOP and have a LOOK?

CONTENT IS THE KEY!

Being in the Social Media scene for quite sometime now, I feel there has been nothing as strong and as fast changing as Social Media. Hmmm… so all those people who are a bit off the track, what am I talking about?

Well, if you havent’ heard of a blog, wiki, community hmmm….I think you need to brush up fast, otherwise I’ m pretty sure you definitely would be having your account on Orkut, Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, Youtube etc. etc..

Great!

SO WHY DID YOU CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT on these networks in the first place?

Just because your friends were there? Or because one fine day you suddenly found an email in your Id telling you that yes I found a great network and I think you should join it too, and in the race you did!

Ever thought of doing soemthing more from the same community of friends that you have been with on this network? Probably collaborate and share to get up with something constructive? Probably looking at starting your own company, being an entrepreneur, or finding the right mentor?!

Well, what if I told you YOU can earn money too! And you would say here goes another of those online marketing gimmicks!! Well NO!

DO YOU HAVE A BRAND?

What would you tell someone if you had to in 15 seconds why he/she should join your network? What’s your USP? How would you both be able to leverage each other increating something worthwhile?

If you dont have many answers well its time that you DO! Social Media networks provide you that platform to establish an engaged brand value with the people connected to you. Its not just about being connected. Its much more.

Today big corporates use services like Twitter to do market research, to engage with their employees, to engage with their customers as well. Social Media is a boon to young entrepreneurs and enterprising people. A saddening incidednt like the Mumbai terrosist attacks generated more tha 80,000 views on various sldes on slideshare, in about 3 days time!

SO what? Big deal!!

Well YES, it is a big deal! If I spell it right for you your words, pictures, videos, your profile has ben viewed multiple times by people who were interested into that event and you provided them the relevant information.

Thus simply put, IF YOU PROVIDE RELEVANT INFORMATION, AT THE RIGHT PLACE AND tag IT ALONG so that INTERESTED poeple can FIND YOU, wallah! YOU HAVE IT!

Go take your product online and explore new market opportunities

Gosh I really feel if it would have been this easy, every company would have already had thought about it and surpassing sales targets with not much of an etra effort and people like me would not have even a single moment FREE in their lives!

But thats where the catch lies

So why is it not happening the right way for everyone? Well, MESSAGING and COMMUNICATION is the KEY!! You already are present there with everyone else and there probably are people who are either interested in you or your product. So the BALL is in your court!

Finally its you who has to put the message across right!! Its your message which does the trick, which holds the magic key to a goldmine of customers who are already present and searching for you. But in this crowd is difficult for them to find you.

So what do I do now?

Well, pretty simple, give more and more stress on your messaging and communication. Understand your target market and your segment of consumers that you are trying to PULL! YES PULL!

Days of PUSH marketing are getting numbered soon. Today the consumer o nthese Social Media platforms are intelligent enough to understand what they are being projected and how much of relevance does it holds for them. It does not take more than a split second to CLICK ON THE CROSS and CLOSE the Browser Window.

A very pwoerful example is how AT&T launched their new phone. With a campaign Lost in America. The overall campaign had no script and the 11 episodes shot were of not of much relavnce to people. Still a market research firm said 31000 people across the US viewed the commercials and the entire series. Hmmm…thoughts ayone?

Well, the reality is 20,000 of these views were from the blog of one of the leading ladies in the campaign who posted the commercials on her blog. So what was the magic? Well she had the content on her blog right. Which attracted people towards the commercials.

AND WE STILL TALK ABOUT THE POWER OF CONTENT?!

I personally vouch for the fact that if your content is accurate and you have pre-planned it before pitching your product/offering to your target customers/market, which you can do by effectively understanding your target market, whether in a b2b or a B2C space. Though Its a proven fact that Social Media has been effective in the b2c space much more than its effect in the b2b space. But studies are underway and Social Media is soon going to bring in a new revolution in the perceptive imagniation and inferential power of the consumers.

Best,
Paritosh Sharma

Post Contributed by: Charu Bajaj

The entire country shudders down to view the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. All the countrymen were trying to gather latest updates of the entire sequence of events from the affected sites. But what matters at such moments is, the authenticity and spontaneity of information. And amongst such upheaval if we find a true friend always on toes for us we are fortunate.
Twitter has proven to be one such pal, as the tweets really gave unabridged details of the happenings from the places engulfed by terrorist attacks. To the extent that when the news channels initially reported the mission over at Taj, tweets were hinting at that the struggle was still on and later it proved to be true. The sites like Flickr had photographs from the affected areas within no time.

‘Social Media for a Cause‘, as it helped people to know the wherebouts of their lost brethren and relieved them of their worries. The power of Social Media is immense and it has proved to us as Twitter was on toes when we wanted it the most!

Post contributed by: Charu Bajaj

Couple of months back, as part of their curriculum, a B-School students came to me to comment on this case study. What I loved about it is its relevance to the contemporary business scenarios being faced by many power houses. Here it goes…

Problem: Ammo Up, an extremely popular electronic-music game, is the brainchild of AMPS’ cherished programmers, who now spend their time trying to keep customers dazzled with upgrades. AMPS are a Silicon Valley startup with revenues of over $550 million in the last financial year. Ammo Up is zany, button-filled modified gaming console that connects to your computer and lets anyone make interesting games and sounds. The CEO of AMPS Inc. has never heard or believed in open source.

The CEO recently got a chance to visit a trade show and found an open-source start-up called Open Areana, which copied the basic idea of Ammo Up but wrote its own open-source code for it. Their tag line was “Fight the Power”.”Aren’t we suing you?” were the first words out of the CEO’s mouth to the open-source guys.

As the CEO’s quest continued, she began to worry that in many people’s eyes her company was being seen as the overly powerful corporate enemy with an iron grip on its Intellectual Property (IP). She was worried over how her developers would react. She feared that they would desert her if she opened up all of their code to the community. At the same time, these same developers were ragged from trying to get out the next release. But then again, she wondered if perhaps the open-source model would make their lives a little easier?

A few days later, executives from AMPS found a YouTube video of a bunch of people playing games on competing devices that were much more sophisticated and cooler than those from AMPS. The video suggested that they were open-source competitors who had not only copied the idea of the original AMPS’ device but had also improved them in ways the firm never even contemplated, leaving the executives stunned.

Ques 1. Should AMPS float with the rising tide and join the open-source community?

Comment: Google, it’s launch of chrome, used to simple tag word “future proof”, which its been using for quite some time, and displaying as part of its inherent philosophy. They say, by making chrome an open platform, they’ve already made it future proof, meaning the product will not have to fight to keep abreast with the world. Rather, it’s the world that will use the product to define GenNext. U have enough examples across the board (I speak of only internet industry here since that’s the domain I deal with) to show that they r doing nothing new. A simple example of how open source has crushed IPs is the battle between firefox and internet explorer. Microsoft is a case of a classic business powerhouse keeping a tab on everything it does, obfuscating / locking its legacy behind iron doors. But that’s typically because the DNA of the company comes from a time when the intellectual property was the key to throne, like the Arthur’s Excalibur. And that’s what everyone fought for – Xerox to Apple, Apple to MS.. it was an era of bolts and chains.
Times have changed. Welcome to the free world when it’s not the propriety nokia software that wins, but the IPhone, Andriod’s of the world with their development platforms to launch new applications. Facebook and its “Applications” have triggered the internet history’s biggest wave of social networking revolution. So all I can say is, you can run but you can never hide, simply because if it’s about You against the World – you better be prepared for a long n gory battle.

Ques 2. If yes, How could the company make money without its Intellectual Property?

Comment: The key here would be balance. You don’t need to be an “Open Source” like the GNU license thing. Rather, what you would want to do is to build out a platform, which helps support applications from developers from across the world. You do not need to open up your legacy code and have the world rip it apart. What you should do is provide an open source platform, a plug and play feature enabler which can socket into your legacy and help the developers make gaming their own thing. Monetization can still happen from the more sophisticated products you develop with your team, on the same platform and also from revenue share with the open source developers. You could charge through license fee per usage of the platform, but that would need some serious research into consumer behavior since things like these result in untimely demises (like the 2000 .com bubble burst when a lot of free service providers tried to charge and eventually closed down, usa.net email service being one such notable case). So the bottom line is, its easier said than done, but you will have to go with the flow and find a money making spot there in middle of it all. Unless you have a product which can stand the test of time (like the ms office, which has weathered open office and Google spreadsheet attacks by constant evolution, at least till now), you need to go with the current or get ready for a shock treatment.

Post contributed by

Pankaj Vermani

So before I start collecting my thoughts and think of what to write, a preface about the person I am talking about:

Avinash Raghava, Regional Manager, North – NASSCOM.

Avinash is one of those WEB 2.0 evangelists who has the complete grasp on his subject and he does walk the talk. I have had the chance to work along with Avinash on several occasions now. Well, as they say breaking the stereotype, for me it was just a phrase, till I met Avinash. His humble nature and attitude would floor you anytime, any given day.

A masterful networker

Well, do I need to tell you anything? The NASSCOM EMERGE community speaks for itself. The astounding success and ever growing community of thought leaders from the industry does not requires a separate mention.

Respecting time

Everytime I have worked with Avinash, its been time worth. A straight to the point person, every meeting is worth its time with him. Avinash does keep his time right and I respect the thought “time is money”!!

A Mentor

YES! I must confess to one straight and simple fact that my first mentor (professionally) in life has been Avinash. How did I get to know him ( a long story), in a jist my blogging passion made me know him. Avinash has always been supportive and I have learnt lessons from him which no one else would have ever pointed out at, the proof of which is, a few months back I was in a meeting with the Founder & CEO of a WEB company, and when he asked me who do you have as a mentor, all I had to say was “Avinash”.

Life ahead?

I’d always take pride in relating with Avinash. A mentor, guide he has been of immense support and help to me in times when I was down and out. All my respects and wishs for this emerging true WEB 2.0 evangelist. Given the chance working in capacities with Avinash would always be a wish to be fullfilled.

Thanks Avinash for all the support, would need it always , also I’d like to thank (Charu Bajaj) to allow me to write on this great blog that she is maintaining

Post contributed by: Paritosh Sharma

Okay so before I start, I must confess one thing that Life is the strangest thing happened to me. Things happen when you dont expect them and  in a way that you would have never thought of.

We are all talking about recession, but from the very beginning, in all my lectures, conferences and talks I have maintained that these are times full with opportunities. You just need to be at the right place and the right time, with right qualities and abilities.

And I present to you probably the youngest Indian whom I would love to be mentored by: Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Founder and MD, One97 Communications.

I met Vijay @ the NASSCOM Friday’s 2.0 session, where he left an impact that not many do. A guy who knows what he speaks of! He knows his numbers right and cathces rigth when he pulls the ground below your feet off

Seeing him @ CNBC TV 18 Young Turks was again good, tracking his company, his blog has been an experience worth a post on this blog. Moreover I met Vijay at his new facility @ Noida and looking at the design and hsi favorite one liner “Let there be light” well I’m mighty impressed with this simple, humble but a highly effective and ‘he knows his words’ guy!

I find Vijay worth a mention on this blog, being maintained beautifully by (Charu Bajaj) and I’m sure we are yet to see the real deal!

Best Wishes Vijay!

Post By: Paritosh Sharma