Open Source, Web Technologies and bit of everything else...

The tree that helped bore 'Apple'

2011-11-05T14:02:00.006+05:30

Okay, Steve Jobs died on 05-Oct and the entire news media was flooded with respects; there were hordes of people outside apple stores, tears witnessed and most astonishingly, a new booming business in China around making 'Steve Jobs' figurines. I'm not one to dispute the scale of obituaries or the emotional last-respects. However, two further events really saddened me. Without taking any sides, any person would believe the contribution of these two individuals to the world of technology was much bigger, complex and far-reaching.

First, Dennis Ritchie died on 12-Oct-2011. A recipient of the Turing award in 1983 and the National Medal of Technology in 1998, in many ways he provided the foundation for most computer applications today including Apple. Here's a very fitting article on his many contributions, but just to list in bullet points -

1. Father of the C programming language

2. Built the UNIX operating system

Why are the above 2 items so significant - Almost everything on the web uses C and UNIX. Browsers are written in C, Web servers use the same. If not C, things are written in Java or C++ which are again, C derivatives. Even scripting languages like Python and Ruby are interpreted in C. From a technology evolution perspective, C was like a giant leap. A 'high' level langauge which was still very close to the machine level. It allowed programmers to write clean yet very powerful programs. UNIX is pretty much the base of most OS. Most interestingly, UNIX underpins both Mac OS X and iOS. In a way, Steve was always standing on Dennis's shoulders!

Second, John McCarthy died on 27-Oct-11. John coined the term, 'Artificial Intelligence'. And this was coined in 1955! Much before, we had any of our regular PCs, smartphones or even the concept of semantic web. He pioneered the 'Lisp' programming language which shouldered the entire AI and Robotics industry. Interestingly, he created the amongst the first computer chess games. More details here
In a loose analogy, it's the actors who get all the fame for a super-hit movie and rarely, the technicians are recognized. Steve was the front-man, an 'actor' which the world could relate to, he presented fantastic products to the world. It's another matter, that the technicians who built the foundations for making these products possible often remain hidden.

On the Brighter Side...

2011-11-05T14:00:00.001+05:30

Newspaper reading has always been like a morning ritual for me; a hot cup of tea with any newspaper was the perfect recipe for a bright day. However, for past few years, this exercise leaves me more disillusioned than energetic. More often than not, the front-page stories are about terrorist attacks, accidents, natural disasters and scandals of various nature (political, economic, sovereign, sometimes just plain inhuman). As a means to overcome the huge negativity, I often pick-up the more glamorous 'Mumbai Mirror' which is full of useless entertainment gossip. So, two things have changed -

1. My morning reading time has doubled and

2. Even at the end of the entire 'feel-good' ritual, am left more saddened.

Things have reached such a stage where, I have begun to skip articles just looking at the headlines. The headlines itself make me go sick and I decide it’s not worth going through the article. The same is true for most of the TV news channels and traditional media on the internet.

Some might say that the news is just a reflection of our current times and that we shouldn’t be running away from it. It is informative and prepares us for the everyday evils. True, but I also believe that journalism has the power to impress and bring about a change. Now, can we not tilt a bit more on the positive side of things? Can we not urge people to be good by giving the right examples? It's not that there aren't any positive things happening around us; may be it's just that positive stories do not have the same 'sensational' effect as some of the negative stories.

While, am not an advocate of 'push all negative stuff' under the carpet and always paint a rosy picture; I would like a right balance to reassure myself that the world is not full of only crooks and cruel people.

Though I haven't come across much change in the traditional news medium (its just got worse), I have found some useful sites on the internet which focus on sharing positive experiences. One such site, though it’s not been updated for few years is - Good NewsIndia.

http://goodnewsindia.com/index.php/gni

Each story on this site is worth-reading and enlightening. Most of the stories focus on an initiative which has brought a positive change in the lives of hundreds of people, if not thousands. Most of the initiatives are not driven by monetary ambitions nor are purely socialist in nature. It’s mostly a case where someone, a regular person like you and me, comes across a difficult situation and instead of just walking-by, decides to do something about it. The changes are not instantaneous but visible over a period of years. At the end of every story, am filled with a feeling of happiness, a positive outlook and new jest for life. In the offline medium, some magazines like Reader's digest have often carried such stories and even some dedicated books. Wish there were more...

On the Brighter Side...

2011-11-05T14:00:00.000+05:30

Can a KM Strategy be a 'Constant'?

2010-10-12T21:32:00.008+05:30

Recently, my current organization kick-started an initiative to build a knowledge platform through implementation of an 'all-encompassing' corporate intranet application. Though the idea sounded very noble to me and definitely a good start in the right direction but more importantly, I kept thinking, how can the HR / KM teams keep this current or in other words, keep it continuously evolving with the firm’s requirements? As I sat thinking about this situation, a more basic question came to me, will the current KM strategy even remain relevant couple of years down the line! Instinctively, I would say 'No' but is there a scientific basis/theory which can support this instinct.

Thus, began my amateur search on the subject of Knowledge Management and the question that 'Can a KM Strategy be a Constant for an organization'

Interestingly, the answer is explained in fair amount of detail by Boisot (1998) through Boisot's I-Space Model. Per the model, all knowledge assets can be located within a three dimensional space defined by following axes:

1. "Uncodified" to "Codified" where "Codified" represents knowledge which is used to solve specific problems in a structured manner.

2. "Concrete" to "Abstract" where "Abstract represents very generalized knowledge and "Concrete" represents knowledge which has taken the form of specific rules, artifacts or behavior patterns

3. "Undiffused" to "Diffused" where "Diffused" represents knowledge which is generally available

Given the above axes, Boisot goes on to suggest the dynamic flow of knowledge through a series of six phases known as the 'Social Learning Cycle':

Effectively, what is happening is a cycle in which data is filtered to produce meaningful information and this information is then abstracted and codified to produce useful knowledge. As the knowledge is applied in diverse situations it produces new experiences in an uncodified form that produces the data for a new cycle of knowledge creation.

In other words, the process of growing and developing knowledge assets within organizations is always changing. Organizations are living organisms that must constantly adapt to their environment. This means that the KM strategy identified as appropriate at one moment in time will need to change as knowledge moves through the organizational learning cycle to a new phase. The rate at which this cycle operates will vary from one sector to another, so that in some rapidly evolving sectors new knowledge is being created and applied in rapid succession, while in some more established sectors, the cycle time of innovation is much slower.

References:
Boisot M.H., 1998, Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy, Oxford University Press.

How to make HR Surveys work – Case for Semantic Web?

2010-08-17T18:28:00.003+05:30

Every year, I get this email from the HR requesting filling-out of an annual survey for organizational effectiveness and responsiveness. Every year, I do this task very diligently, detailing specific areas of concern and the areas which warrant appreciation. However, I always tend to think - how is this annual survey going to help?

Let's assume the ideal state - everyone in the company participates and everyone fills-out diligently - let's also assume, a proper post-survey analysis is performed and action plan prepared - still I see the below gaps:

How do you ensure that a limited size survey captures all the requirements/concerns of employees across departments?
How can the surveys be relevant around the year? Employee concerns are variable and one annual survey cannot be useful for an entire year; at the same time, increasing the survey frequencies can be a costly affair.
How do we ensure continues two-way dialogue between the company senior management and the employees on a continuous basis for the proposed action plan?

And all of the above concerns are assuming the ideal state of 100% participation and effective analysis!!

In other words, there needs to be a change in this process, the process has to be more collaborative and the analysis has to be at run-time with actionable points.

Essentially, we need a solution which can listen to employee conversations, analyze the data and produce dashboard level information as actionable items. In some ways, the solution needs to follow the principles of the Semantic Web where we have a web of data and computer programs can query this data to derive actionable results. The Semantic Web app can take the form of company-private discussion forums/blogs/wikis etc. Here's a sample layout:

There has already been some progress on this front with this company - BubbleIdeas. BubbleIdeas offers a SaaS offering which can be used to host company-private discussion forums and perform analysis as needed.

Effectively, believe the Semantic web principles can be used to make the entire process more effective, efficient and may be even cost-effective!

Weekend Reading

2010-08-15T18:19:00.003+05:30

Memory Inception: Three Keys To Creating A Great User Experience For Your Product

"Ever read a great book? What do you remember about it? Maybe a few dramatic moments, some wild story twists, and most definitely the ending. Your product is just like a book. You’re telling a story to your customers and they’ll remember only a select few moments from what you tell them. What are these moments? Can you use these moments to plant a memory in a customer’s mind?"

How Can You Control Your Dreams?

"The ability to manipulate our dream worlds goes beyond the science fiction plot of the movie Inception. A dream expert from Harvard University explains how it works"

Internet lifestyles leave digital estates for descendants

"..He owns a set of domain names and realized that while his wife was entitled to them in event of his demise, she would have no way to get them. His thoughts went to photos, videos, email, and other digital creations people squirrel away at Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail and elsewhere on the Internet...."

Semantic Web - Why do we need it?

2010-08-11T17:54:00.003+05:30

Raj has just received his annual bonus amount and is planning on buying a new car. He informs his agent for the budget and preference for the Car Make (say Ford, GM and VW). He would like to take a test drive of shortlisted car models coming weekend but wouldn't like to travel more than 5 KMs from his place of residence. In addition, Raj would like to avail of finance options to bridge the gap between his bonus amount and actual car price. The finance options should reflect the minimum interest rates and flexibility of pre-payment with minimum/no penalty charges.

Assuming, all of the above information is available on the internet (which isn't very difficult), with today's web, it would take significant human intervention to coordinate all of the above requirements. In other words, the agent needs to be Raj himself or some other human entity.

Suppose, this agent is a computer program. And the words underlined above serve as the input / decision factors for the program. Then, the program will take Raj's budget amount and prefered car-make as initial inputs, search the websites of the relevant car companies in the region, and come up with an initial shortlist of car models within budget. It can then, check for dealers within 5 KMs radius and available timeslots over the weekend for a test drive. In addition, it can check the car websites for finance options and do the needful.

Similar such programs/agents can be imagined for a variety of scenarios:

Trying to fix doctor appointment in a given region on a given day for a particular diagnosis
Looking to buy movie tickets in local theatres within defined distance radius within your budget and choice of film
Medical research leveraging results from experiments on the given subject in a particular timeline
R&D opportunities and many more

So, the next question is - is this possible? Yes, and Semantic Web seeks to realize this vision.

The Web as we see today is web of documents which is meant to interpreted by the humans. Semantic web seeks to make the above example interpretation possible by the machines! For this to happen, the web needs to be 'extended' as web of Data. Data which can be represented, understood and infered by software.

Much of the basic standards in this direction have already been established by the W3C but still, there is a lot of ground to be covered.

In terms of the basic building blocks for realizing the semantic web - the most common representation is the one developed by Tim-Berners Lee, provided below:

A detailed description for each of the above areas is provided here. In layman terms, here's what it means:

IRI (Internationalized Resource Identifier) - This is a generalization of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). IRI/URI basically serves to uniquely identify any given entity on the web. Only when we have this identification, we can move up the stack for further interpretation. Per our initial example in this post, each of the car make / model will have an IRI associated with it to identify them on the web
XML (Extended Mark-up Language) - Allows users to 'Tag' their web documents; these are nothing but hidden labels which annotate the web page. For example, a web page detailing specs of VW Polo many have tags like 'VW', 'Polo', 'Hatchback', 'Dealers' etc. However, the XML tags by themselves do not reveal anything about the actual meaning of these tags or structures
RDF (Resource Description Framework) - The meaning of these tags is expressed by RDF. RDF takes the form of 'Triples' which is very similar to the Subject-Verb-Object of an elementary sentence. For example, VW is a car manufacturer, Polo is a VW car model, XYZ is a dealer of VW Polo etc.
RDFS (RDF Schema) - This just describes the vocabulary of RDF; it allows for effective creation of hierarchies using classes and subclasses.
OWL (Web Ontology Language) - Ontology as Web researchers understand is a document or a file that formally defines the relation among terms. This is very important when we are trying to match terms across different databases while aggregating information and thus, arrive at our search results. For example, VW may use the term 'Dealers' to refer to customer facing sale/service points whereas GM may use the terms 'Partners' to refer the same meaning. In order to reconcile the two terms, we need an Ontology which connects 'Dealers' as 'Partners'. OWL (Web Ontology Language) is a contruct which enables this Ontology definition; which typically takes the form of a Taxonomy (Class, Subclasses etc) and Inference rules.
SPARQL - This is just a RDF query language to retrieve the information for semantic web applications

The remaining layers are not yet standarized but are required to be implemented for realizing the complete benefit of the Semantic web. Much of the remaining layers deal with ascertaining the source of the information (may be using Digital signatures) and the final assimilation into end user interfaces for semantic web applications.

With the realization of the Semantic web, it would become possible to combine information available in different silos and help in coordination/collaboration on a larger scale. Semantic web can lead to generation of new class of tools which can make knowledge sharing between communities much easier and effective. At a big picture-level, Semantic Web can help human knowledge evolve at a faster pace than ever seen before.

Web Science – The Need and the Significance

2010-08-09T19:09:00.008+05:30

“The Web isn’t about what you can do with computers. It’s people and, yes, they are connected by computers. But computer science, as the study of what happens in a computer, doesn’t tell you about what happens on the Web.”
- Tim Berners-Lee

Sounds Interesting...isn't it?

Every Sunday morning, the Hong Kong University airs some academic lectures through cable channels for distance education purposes. As luck would have it, I just happened to be browsing through the channels at the right moment to catch Professor Bebo White (Stanford University) explain a lesson on why do we need a separate science for the web and what actually constitutes this science.

And it made good sense...the Internet / Web is no longer about just Technology/some protocols. As the largest human construct in history, the web now involves intersection of multiple traditional disciplines of science. The Web is now used for a variety of purposes such as commerce, banking, social interaction, government, research collaboration and many more domains. Essentially, it has now become an alternate platform for people interaction and activity. If you compare this understanding with the above quote from Sir Tim Berners-Lee then, it becomes very clear that the Web mandates a new science of its own. Here's a representation for the interdisciplinary nature of Web Science (reference):

But how do we define Web Science as a ‘Science’ - What exactly constitutes a science? In the traditional sense, anything which can be described with the use of natural laws and algorithms falls under the classification of a science for example, electrical science which is essentially described by Maxwell's laws of electricity. On the other hand, computer science is essentially a synthetic science where the laws are developed/derived in order to facilitate the desired behavior; in other words, the engineering aspect drives the rules/framework.

Web science is an amalgamation of both - it needs both Engineering and Study; engineering at the micro-level to define the protocols/languages which drive the web platform and at the same time, study of the various web interactions/communications to understand the desirable / undesirable aspects of the web.

The Study aspect of Web science leads to developing a better understanding of the Web Architecture or its topology. Is it just a random network of inter-connected links or is there a formal structure to it. On an interaction level, how the Web is used by user communities and what are the associated governance, security and privacy issues. The Engineering aspect allows us to develop better methods for effective data retrieval for example, we get specific answers to our search queries rather than hundreds of links with partial relevance to the search query.

Given this background, the real purpose of the Web Science is tracking the Web’s development, determining which innovations are good (e.g. P2P) and which bad (e.g. phishing), and contributing to the beneficial developments.

Drawing from Dr. White's discussion papers, the goals of the web science are:

To understand what the Web is
To engineer the future of the Web and
To ensure the Web's social benefit

With the exponential increase in the volume of web content and its varied applications, it is but logical to have a dedicated science which studies the underlying basic principles, the infrastructure/topology, the associated processes and thereby, define better ways of exploiting the available information.

References

OTRS – Release of 3.0 Beta version

2010-08-07T18:07:00.005+05:30

Recently, came across this announcement from the OTRS team for the beta release of OTRS 3.0.

With a new Ajax-powered interface, OTRS claims to improve its tickets dispatch performance by as much as 30%. Amongst other things, the new user-centered design features an enhanced New Ticket dashboard, a dynamic Ticket Zoom view, enhanced search, an interactive Global Ticket overview, ticket archiving, and accessibility compliance.

In the past, I have been involved in multiple installations of OTRS at major client enterprises and some of the very useful OTRS features were:

Multiple methods of ticket generation like web-based, email and phone
Auto-routing of tickets (especially of email tickets) to concerned organizational departments for resolution
Escalation mechanisms to handle ticket resolution delays; we extended this feature to multiple level of escalations and associated management reports
Definition of work-time schedules for the organizational staff to care of shift schedules, holidays etc.
Bulk action methods to respond in case of emergencies
Maintenance of detailed audit trail of every customer interaction
Comprehensive Knowledge Base which grows with regular usage (FAQs section)
Quick response templates to improve productivity; most useful for auto-notifications
Best-in-class reporting mechanisms to generate planned as well as on-demand reports

And of course, we had great fun integrating OTRS with SugarCRM!!

Hope to see the GA version of OTRS 3.0 soon; meanwhile enjoy this Youtube file on the beta version:

P.S. If you are looking to install OTRS on windows then, here's a very useful reference on youtube

Business Primer on Open Source Licensing

2010-08-05T17:59:00.005+05:30

The world of open source licensing can get pretty complex for the uninitiated. Similar products can be using different licenses and thus, can have different implications around its usage. However, at the heart of the various open source licenses are two concerns -

Specifying the rights of the users to use and modify the software
Detailing how the modified works of the software can be distributed

Before, we go into discussion of some of the most popular open source licenses; there are three basic license templates which drive the subsequent definitions:

Copyright License - This is as we understand in everyday usage, is designed to restrict the use of the particular product unless authorized in some manner. Typical example include most of the commercial software like Windows etc
Copyleft License - This is an exact opposite of Copyright - in the sense that Copyleft promotes active use of the product by others with no restrictions on sharing and modifying; but with the condition that any modifications to the product are also distributed under the same license.
Non-Copyleft License - This is very similar to the Copyleft license except for the condition where the users can modify the software and re-distribute under any license of their own choice.

Let us start with the dominant copyleft licenses. The most common license here is the GPL (GNU General Public License). According to Black Duck Software tracking of FOSS Licenses, GPL under all its variations account for nearly 64% of the market share. The most commonly accepted form is GPL2 with close to 48% market share.

The origins of GPL are closely rooted in the Copyleft principle, thus all derivative products need to be compulsorily GPLed. This makes GPL as a complex license to interpret. For example, you download a product with license under GPL, make certain changes to it like may be adding new modules and would like to re-distribute it. Sure, you can do that but all of your changes / additions to the earlier product now needs to follow the same license i.e. GPL. The philosophy behind GPL is to keep Open Source software ‘Open’.

However, for ease of understanding, some rules of thumb when using GPL are (as referenced here):

You can charge as much as you want for distributing, supporting, or documenting the software, but you cannot sell the software itself.
The rule-of-thumb states that if GPL source is required for a program to compile, the program must be under the GPL. Linking statically to a GPL library requires a program to be under the GPL.
The GPL requires that any patents associated with GPLed software must be licensed for everyone's free use.
Simply aggregating software together, as when multiple programs are put on one disk, does not count as including GPLed programs in non-GPLed programs.
Output of a program does not count as a derivative work. This enables the gcc compiler to be used in commercial environments without legal problems.
Since the Linux kernel is under the GPL, any code statically linked with the Linux kernel must be GPLed. This requirement can be circumvented by dynamically linking loadable kernel modules. This permits companies to distribute binary drivers, but often has the disadvantage that they will only work for particular versions of the Linux kernel.

The last point above required that anything that statically links to GPL, must also be GPLed. However, this made the implementation of Proprietary applications on Linux difficult and was partly the driver behind the origins of the LGPL (Lesser GPL) license. LGPL differs from the GPL in that it allows the linking of software licensed under it to non-GPL software. Originally designed for use with programming libraries, the LGPL is also a popular choice for dual-licensed software by commercial companies.

Another recent extension of GPL is the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). AGPL extends the condition for source code provision for even the Softwares which are offered 'As a Service' using cloud computing.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Non-Copyleft licenses with complete freedom around the licensing for derived works. The most common form of this kind is the BSD-style licenses. Per BSD site, a BSD style license is a good choice for long duration research or other projects that need a development environment that:

Has near zero cost
Will evolve over a long period of time
Permits anyone to retain the option of commercializing final results with minimal legal issues.

Somewhere in-between these two ends lie the other licenses; one of the most popular being the Apache 2.0 license. In fact Google has chosen Apache 2.0 as the default for all the software it open-sources. Although Apache 2.0 is permissive like BSD, but (unlike BSD) actually happens to mention the rights under copyright law and gives a license under those rights.

Over a period of time, with the increase in the number of open source licenses, multiple efforts have been made to standardize the various licenses by introducing specific buckets for the same. Open Source Initiative has come out with the following categories:

Licenses that are popular and widely used or with strong communities (9)
Special purpose licenses (3)
Licenses that are redundant with more popular licenses (9)
Non-reusable licenses (24)
Other/Miscellaneous licenses (5)

The discussion around the above groups and their constituents is available here

With the increasing acceptance of Open Source in the Enterprise business community, it is imperative that we have better awareness around the various Open Sources licenses and more importantly, the knowledge to make an informed decision in choosing a particular license when needed.

References:

Sugar 6 Release - And the debate around being Open Source

2010-08-04T16:49:00.003+05:30

Recently, SugarCRM announced the release of Sugar 6 version for its popular CRM application. However, the release has also seen significant amount of debate around the actual meaning of 'Open Source' and if Sugar is truly Open or just a commercial model with some 'Open' inclinations. Firstly, here's the announcement as covered by eCRM guide.

One of the main features of the new release is a revamped user interface which is made available only to the paid users of SugarCRM i.e. under the Professional and Enterprise licenses. The open source version i.e. the 'Community' version does not benefit with this new interface although it gets some parts of the other 'new' features.

Per Slashdot reports, Martin Schneider, senior director of communications at SugarCRM, said:

"Open source doesn't mean free and was never really meant to mean free. Open source runs through everything we do, it enables us to be transparent and gives customers more power. We are an open source company and it's why we're better than proprietary companies."

This triggered a string of coverage around the Sugar 6 release and SugarCRM's 'Open Source' claim, notably -

And finally, the official company response from the CEO of SugarCRM, Larry Augustin:

http://www.crmoutsiders.com/2010/07/15/some-thoughts-on-open-from-sugarcrm-ceo-larry-augustin/

As an active user of the SugarCRM community edition for close to 3 years, I do agree with most of the difficulties faced by the community version users like

No Access to some of the most useful modules like Reports, Forecasts etc.
Problems in upgrading to higher versions with custom modules
No dedicated support from SugarCRM for community version

Although time, we did benefit from the partner network of SugarCRM where, we could easily locate vendors / publishers of third-party plug-ins to meet most of our requirements.

But at the very broad level, I would tend to agree with Larry's comments about his views around the 'Open' culture. The fact that SugarCRM provides complete source code to all its paid customers with freedom to deploy and modify as needed...is a very important consideration in its claim of being 'Open'. Also, Open Source is about better software development by sharing source code with your customers and/or with the wider community. However, it doesn’t stop you from charging for your work.

At the same time, am very certain that this will not be the end of the discussion around the real meaning and application of Open Source...

Cloud Computing - The Basics

2010-08-02T20:22:00.006+05:30

Cloud Computing has been around for a while and has seen gradual acceptance in the IT mainstream market. Starting with the initial expectation that cloud computing will help the SME sector get access to quality software at reasonable prices, it has entered even the realms of the big-ticket multi-billion dollar enterprises. However, the cloud computing terminology has grown increasingly complex over the last couple of years. Almost every software products and services firm has claimed some form of cloud computing platform / product offering. And as with the typical Marketing efforts, the terminology has become ever so complex that you are not sure what you are eventually buying into.

For ease of reference, I thought of putting together a quick guide to the typical terminologies in this field –

The Definition
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.*

Classification
At a very broad level, cloud computing can be divided into the following components*
1. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – Cloud based delivery of complete software applications that run on infrastructure the SaaS vendor manages. SaaS applications are accessed over the Internet and typically charged on a subscription basis. For example Salesforce.com

2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) – Delivery of a virtualized application runtime platform that has a software stack for developing applications or application services. PaaS applications and infrastructure are run and managed by the services vendor. For example, Google’s App Engine or Amazon’s EC2 services

3. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – Delivery of raw, virtualized computing infrastructure such as servers and storage as a service to build applications. IaaS vendors let enterprises customize infrastructure to their application needs. For example Amazon Cloud Front which, is a Web service for Content Deliver.

From an actual delivery perspective i.e. whether you are sharing your cloud resources with other external entities, we can define two broad categories with possible overlapping categories as well:

1. Public Cloud – This is where the cloud resources are shared between multiple external entities. The payment is usually on a usage basis say, CPU hours, GB storage etc.
2. Private Cloud – Dedicated cloud services for an enterprise with better control in terms of security, compliance, scalability and integration capabilities.

Here are some of the references:

Weekend Reading

2010-02-25T16:08:00.006+05:30

Bloom Energy unveils 'power plant in a box'

Bloom Energy Corp., one of Silicon Valley's most secretive startups, unveiled on Wednesday its long-awaited "power plant in a box," a collection of fuel cells that the company says can provide clean electricity to homes, office buildings - even whole villages in the developing world

My 2 bits - Revolutionary to say the least...imagine distributed power generation down to each house / village, coupled with benefits of clean-tech! Too good to be true but Bloom already counts Coca-cola, Google and Cox enterprises amongst its clients and subsidy support from US goverments...so, it's not all fairy tales!

Indian media hails 'God Tendulkar'

Indian media lined up on Thursday to shower the "God" Sachin Tendulkar with front-page tributes and predict the record-shattering batsman was not finished yet.

Tendulkar, who turns 37 in April, smashed the first-ever double century in One-Day International on Wednesday, pounding the South African bowlers with 25 boundaries and three sixes.

My 2 bits - Here's a role model in every sense; best-in-class yet most humble person, achieved everything in his field yet the drive and hunger remains, operates under intense scrutiny of over a billion people yet remains so calm...undoubtedly, India's most prized and proudest possession!

How Google's algorithm rules the web

My 2 bits - okay, everyone knows about Google and also, most probably about the Google story....so, what's new. The 'New' part is the in-depth analysis of google's ongoing quality improvement exercises, how the company is constantly learning and innovating to keep itself at the forefront

Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz vs. Facebook vs. MySpace vs. Twitter

My 2 bits - Neatly compiled comparison matrix between the leading players on the social networking scene....though this has to be a living matrix to stay relevant.

Why Happiness is still a mystery

PBS has just finished a three-part special on human emotions, with the final episode devoted to happiness...The PBS series, entitled This Emotional Life, wound up with a rather weak conclusion: the secret to happiness lies in strong social relationships. When you are embedded in a nurturing circle of family, friends, and co-workers, you are most likely to be happy.

Well, yes, but surely there’s more to the mystery. Countless people cry out for help every day, suffering from depression, anxiety, loneliness, and grief. Telling them to get better relationships is a bit like turning to someone with a broken leg and saying, “Get a better leg.” Also, it’s just as likely that imperfect family, friends, and work situations create the sense of unhappiness than people can’t resolve. Or maybe their unhappiness, if it’s deep enough, turned their relationships sour....

My 2 bits - Always liked listening or reading Deepak Chopra's thoughts; the details look simple enough yet so meaningful. What makes you happy?....a simple question but very difficult to answer and achieve...interesting article to get you thinking

E-Book on Software Pricing

2010-02-19T13:02:00.000+05:30

As a follow-up to my previous post on product pricing, recently came across a software pricing ebook from Neil Davidson....here's the link for the same:

http://www.neildavidson.com/dontjustrollthedice.html

What's the right 'Price'?

2010-02-09T14:23:00.019+05:30

Pricing - Is it an art or a science? Is there a method to the process?

Product pricing is often misconstrued as a fancy and cosmetic layer in the overall business environment. However, it can be the most powerful lever in enhancing your business bottomline.

According to a recent McKinsey study, a 1% improvement in the realized price can yield upto 10% increase in operating profits!! Compare pricing with some of other typical levers for improving profits, and the numbers speak for themselves*:

If pricing is so powerful and effective then, why is it that most of us don't consider it as the first option for improvement? I believe the answer is two-fold, firstly -

Pricing is not an easy task to perform!!

and a close second -

Lack of appreciation for the power of effective pricing!

Let's start with the second reason - lack of appreciation for pricing. If I have to talk from my personal experience then, the first time that we were selling our CRM solution to a potential client, the pricing aspect took just 10 mins of internal discussion time. The method (if any) was simple, since our market was the SME sector, what would be an ideal number which the customer firms would be comfortable paying? Little bit of deliberation and we settled on a figure....just like that!! It's another story that the deal went through but we never realized what could have been the right price.

Coming back to the first reason - Pricing is not an easy task; because effective pricing can involve number of sciences starting from Economics, Marketing to Psychology.

In layman terms, the contribution of these participant sciences is:

Economics - Helps in understanding / interpreting the product demand curve. In other words, with a simple plot between the product price vs. the corresponding sell quantity, we can arrive at a fair price estimation for profit maximization. Other considerations can be supply-side economics and other macro-economic parameters along with competition

Marketing - Primarily two-fold, competition study and guidance in designing promotional activities

Human Psychology - Very important since this helps in the product perception management.

Another representation for the above discussion for pricing parameters can be:

So, what are some of the typical pricing strategies used in everyday life:

Cost-based Strategies - Simple pricing strategy where a % of the cost is added to the topof the cost to increase the profit

Competition-focused Strategies - Strategy that revolves around prices set by the competitors within the industry segment

Value-based Strategies – Customer Perception of the product / the product manufacturer via use of branding initiatives carries additional value, which gets added to the cost, irrespective of the basic qualities of the actual product

The above strategies can be mixed-n-matched in various permutations and combinations to meet specific requirements.

In practical scenarios, Pricing can become all the more complicated with increasing product lines with variants within each product line, multi-geographic presence and support conditions.

In effect, there is no one-correct answer for pricing. The key to effective pricing is to determine a pricing strategy which works best for the company, identify all the cost components associated with the product since inception to launch and pin down all parameters needed to arrive at an acceptable profit margin

In summary, Pricing is something which, requires extensive study and thorough analysis of the market players & segments, and can really determine the success of companies.

* References: The Price Advantage - Marn, Roegner and Zawada (McKinsey and Co.)

Quotable Quotes

2010-02-03T07:45:00.001+05:30

"We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems"

- John W. Gardner

Tech Bites - Introduction to Open Source

2010-02-01T10:12:00.004+05:30

With the last few posts dedicated to discussion on general management, let me take a detour to another area of my interest, Technology.

As a technology professional, I have been most influenced by the Open Source movement and have participated in multiple open source projects both through my employer and on my own.

Till recently, I used to write exclusively on open source for a tech start-up; for some reason, the start-up has gone into hibernation and my blog entries at the said site have gone into hiding :)

Here, I reproduce some of those blog entries, to keep them alive!

Free Software, Open Source and FLOSS

For the uninitiated, the three terms, 'Free Software', 'Open Source' and 'FLOSS' can create a lot of confusion and if I may say, Headache; throw-in few more terms like 'Freeware', 'Shared-source' etc. and you have a perfect motley of terms which seem very difficult to distinguish and understand. Further, in many cases, certain products would qualify under one or more of the these terms, making matters far more difficult.

Here, we make an attempt to make sense of these terms and their application. There is lot of history behind each of these terms and we would touch upon important aspects as we go along.

Well, the story begins with the advent of 'Free Software'. The Free Software Movement was launched in 1983 with the GNU Project. Richard Stallman is widely credited with the launch of this movement. So, what does Free Software stand for?

Free Software refers to a category of software which provides users the freedom to run it, to study and change it, to re-distribute copies with or without changes. At the same-time, Free Software does not mean without price. The oft-quoted line for Free Software is to think of it as akin to 'Free Speech' and not 'Free Beer'. Thus, developers of Free Software may charge for the software and still provide all the above choices. And this is what makes it different from Freeware.

Okay, now where does Open Source fit in here? The story took a twist is 1998 when, a group of individuals including Eric S. Raymond advocated that the term Free Software be replaced by Open Source Software (OSS) as an expression which is less ambiguous and more comfortable with the corporate world. For this group of individuals, Open Source was akin to superior development methodology where a product evolution is faster since it is distributed across countless users and is open to scrutiny. However, Free Software was developed as a 'Social Philosophy' against proprietary software and was not comfortable with this approach suggested for open source.

And thus, came into being, two software categories with similar basic tenets but different philosophies. At the core, Open source software and free software are different terms for software which comes with certain rights, or freedoms, for the user. They describe two approaches and philosophies towards free software. Open source and free software both describe software which is free from onerous licensing restrictions. It may be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction.

The difference in the terms is where they place the emphasis. “Free software” is defined in terms of giving the user freedom. This reflects the goal of the free software movement. “Open source” highlights that the source code is viewable to all and proponents of the term usually emphasize the quality of the software and how this is caused by the development models which are possible and popular among free and open source software projects. There are very few cases of software that is free software but is not open source software and vice-versa.

Finally, we come to 'FLOSS' which stands for 'Free/Libre Open Source Software". FLOSS is a term which has emerged to explain common ideas of Free Software and Open Source to the end-user. For an end user, both the terms are almost identical with same licenses thus; a combined term would mean less of a hassle.

All of the above three terms have extensive literature available around them; some of it is reference below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_movement
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FLOSS_Concept_Booklet
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html

Indian Railways as a ISP!!

2010-01-23T10:10:00.003+05:30

I type this blog post from a cybercafe premises at the chennai central railway station. Nothing too fancy about this facility run by IRCTC, except that the ISP (Internet Service Provider) here caught me by surprise.

My login page suggested that the service provider is a firm, known as 'Rail Wire'. Now, this was weird coz I didn't expect Indian railways to venture into the Internet services business. My first thoughts were that this is some branding exercise by the Indian railways and the actual services must be provided by another government firm like BSNL.

However, to my surprise, I found that the Railways actually had an interest in this business area and were operating for the last 10 years. An excerpt from the Rail wire website is provided below:

"RailWire is an initiative of the RailTel Corporation of India Limited (RailTel), a Government of India enterprise, with a mission to make available “ICT to Common Man” & “Internet, Education and Health Services to Masses”.

RailTel was formed in Sept 2000 with the objective of creating nation-wide broadband, telecom and multimedia network, to modernize Train Control Operation and Safety System of Indian Railways. RailTel's network passes through around 5,000 stations across the country, covering all central business districts, towns, cities, mini/major-metros.

RailTel is perhaps the only pan-India operating ISP who doesn’t have to slow down with the burden of legacy network pile-on. With several BSO’s and cellular operators availing RailTel’s NLD services, its initial market presence was felt as a “carrier’s carrier”. Subsequently, it started servicing several corporate business houses for their (VPN) connectivity requirements, and now, retail - with RailWire.

RailWire focuses on pure play broadband and VPN services. RailWire offers content & application driven network, great deal of flexibility and affordable pricing – all in one. RailWire aims to become a hub of local information and a tool for rendering communication, infotainment, education, health and community services to the masses."

Hmm...I should say an interesting business proposition but an equally interesting question is...why would Indian Railways want to venture into this non-core business when we have other state-runs businesses with whom railways can partner??

It makes some sense to assume that Railways started out with building its own network for it's requirements at remote station locations but the extension of this business plan to corporate and recently, to retail segments is puzzling.

How does this venture fit into the long term vision of railways? Further, how does railways plan to address the issues which will come up as it tries to scale this business. For example, as it scales this business, railways will directly compete with not just other private players but also government players in this domain who have ISP as their core business.

May be Railways is planning to take this venture the same route as IRCTC (it's catering and tourism division), but both are quite different in their proposition. IRCTC has a fixed mandate and operates only to extend tourism through the railway network and offer value-added catering services at railway stations and onboard trains.

Though I do see this service (rail wire) as a value-add from railways to it's passengers but again the same can be offered through partnerships and alliances.

Not clear on the business plan here....may be I will spend sometime during this trip thinking about this proposition and see if I can make some business sense.

Quotable Quotes

2010-01-17T14:55:00.002+05:30

"First they Ignore you,
then they Laugh at you,
then they Fight you,
then you Win"

~ Mahatma Gandhi

Stop listening to your customers!!

2010-01-11T16:37:00.008+05:30

Customers are always right but they won’t always tell you the 'complete' truth...since they don’t know it themselves!!

Consider this live example set earlier this decade, Mr. Gupta used to own a reasonably-sized audio cassettes retail shop at one of Mumbai's western suburbs. Business was good with his shop boasting possession of every new Bollywood release in town. Customers were loyal and the sales folk were efficient. Until one day, Mr. Gupta quarterly sales report started showing a worrying revenue trend. Mr. Gupta checked all processes and control-points; everything looked good, still the numbers refused to look-up.

So, he adopted the age-old method, incidentally also taught at all B-schools (it’s another matter that he never went to one!), he started speaking to his customers...asked them what would they like at the store? There were plenty of responses which, he narrowed to a few categories:

Add old Bollywood titles to the collection
Make the collection more varied like including Indian classical titles
Pro-active sales folk who can suggest good music
More Promotional offers....bigger discounts

And many more...

Mr. Gupta liked the suggestions and started to work on them immediately. One month post-implementation of the turnaround plan, things were still stagnant...he was able to arrest the revenue slide but normalcy or growth was still not restored!!

So, what do you think went wrong!! Mr. Gupta did 'Exactly' as his customers said....and 'That' was the problem.

How??...let us analyze.

Typically, whenever you ask your customers for feedback, irrespective of the industry / product / services, the responses can be bucketed into pretty standard words....

"We want it better, bigger, cheaper or for longer term"

In my interactions with varied customers, I have seen customers asking for variants of the above few words with few operational improvements / enhancements thrown in.

But if we go solely by what our customers say then, our fate would soon be like Mr. Gupta's venture. Why??

"Because a customer will never tell you about introducing a "Fundamental" change in the way you do business or your product / service offerings"

In other words, a customer will never tell you about the 'shifts' which can challenge your very business model.

In Mr. Gupta's case, the culprit was the slow migration of customers to alternative products like Music CDs / online mp3 et al. Mr. Gupta was slow to realize this market shift....which gets us to the next question....So, how do you look out for the market shifts??

One of the definite ways to recognize potential market shifts is to keep a look-out for your competition products / services. By competition, it’s not just the big guys or folks at your level but even the 'Fringe' players....coz, it’s very often these niche / fringe / periphery players which bring in this market shifts.

You will find ample opportunities of this theory in practice:

Closure / downsizing of many traditional publishing houses owing to the new media
Movement from traditional broker houses to the world of online trading
Technologies such as Cloud computing which has changed the rules of the game especially in the SME sector

Many of these visible examples are from the technology sector but the same holds true for traditional sectors as well.

There will always be players in your sector which, will be working on the next 'wave' of things in your industry...they are the ones to watch out for; observe, learn and try to replicate if needed....or still better, collaborate.

In effect, in the longer term...its pays more to monitor your competition more than ask your customers for feedback...customers may suggest novel operational improvements but rarely will they guide you to the fundamental shifts.

Treat your customer as the 'King' but avoid taking all his words as the royal law :)

Choosing your Business Organization

2009-12-22T21:58:00.012+05:30

So, you have a great product idea, worked out your business model and planning your marketing activities...however, there's one thing which is still keeping you occupied, the regulations aspect or the company formation process.

Though there is a plethora of information available online these days on the 'process' aspect however, couple of hindrances which I faced was:

1. Most of the information discusses the steps involved in company formation; very few discuss the relative merits of one entity over others from a pure business perspective

2. Though there are couple of very good reference sites for the formation process details, largely, information is scattered and an entrepreneur has to sift through multiple sites to arrive at his/her conclusions or depend upon offline inputs from a Chartered Accountant or a Company Secretary.

One of the things which I wanted to discuss/share through this blog, are my experiences in this regard. To begin with, in the Indian context, a company can be classified in the following categories:

1. Proprietorship
2. Partnership
3. Private Limited
4. Public Limited
5. Co-operatives
6. Limited Liability Partnerships
7. Joint Hindu Family Business

The following table details the considerations for choosing a business organization for the below parameters (Click on the image for a larger view):

1. Nature of Business
2. Scale of Operations
3. Market Area
4. Degree of Control
5. Capital Requirements
6. Risk Considerations
7. Tax Liabilities
8. Ease of Formation
9. Entity Continuity

Note: I have restricted the comparison to only the first four entities in the above list; also foreign investors haven’t been considered in this comparison since the legal rules are different for them.

From a pure formation process perspective, there is very little required by way of legal requirements for Proprietorships / Partnerships except:

1. In case of some proprietorships, a local license may be needed for example, Municipal licenses for retail shops, restaurants etc.

2. In case of Partnerships, though not compulsory, registration with government authorities can provide tax benefits

Private Limited and Public Limited firms follow a much more detailed formation process which I will reserve for future posts.

Welcome any inputs / suggestions.

A Platform for Sharing Knowledge

2009-12-21T23:23:00.000+05:30

I'm a Technology enthusiast with a keen interest in the tech start-up scene. On more than one occasion, I have come pretty close to being a technology entrepreneur but the wait continues...

However, my interests have led me to interact with number of technology start-ups, understand their challenges and the joys of making something which makes life much easier!

This blog is my medium for sharing the many ideas that I have come across, some useful tricks n tips and hopefully, a platform for getting together like-minded folks.