Yet another New year ..

Just wanted to check back on my own notes on 2012..let me see how my predictions played out..

>Now that social Media has become part of necessary technology infrastructure….you will see more applications on top of this layer.Probably another cateogory creation….me/my friends/rest of the world….things will matter in that order….

 

Still Evolving but moving in the right direction..Will see more consolidation in this space in 2013

> personal Network…probably another category creation..with too much indulgence online/cloud you do need your personal space on the network…

We do see few startups in this space …Looking forward to more noise in this space in 2013

> On demand on the rise…slow death of TV/Cable networks will begin…Watch what you want ..when you want …through the device you want…Networks cannot package the content the way they want…DVR will move in to network…..

Already there ..Personally watch more on connected devices than on TV in realtime..

>Connected TV…A Second Screen to the TV content will become popular…

> better broadband infrastructure…MoreCheap.. Network Storage …initiate slow death of local storage …

More and more apps integrate with Dropbox, Google drive etc…Still more to come

> Apple / Google / Microsoft& Nokia will form the big three in the smartphone space….

> Amazon will emerge as big winner n online retail….but there will be a worthy challenger will emerge to challenge them….

Amazon still rules the roost on retail space..

> The world will continue to be polarized….

Ofcourse..

> Obama will get his second term….

I told you so..But it is a different thing altogether if he can muster courage to do something big and leave a legacy behind..

> last but not least….I will be on a full time Job…..

Swipp.com…here I come…Looking forward to a successful year with Swipp in 2013!

 

Enterprise Grade?

I recently came across a product description “Enterprise grade” on a brochure which prompted me to do this post. In the Pre-Apple days Consumer products were really a novelty where as enterprise products packed in somewhat a better quality and reliability which often helped the companies to price their product at a higher price. Is that still true? Can the Enterprise products truly claim their superiority these days? I certainly have by doubts..Let’s probe in to this a bit more.. So let’s look at the definition of Enterprise grade..(http://geekscrap.com/2010/02/what-enterprise-grade-really-means/)

1.Process Reliability : With Redundant Datacenters Consumer websites like ebay, Amazon and apps like Netflix,Facebook are pretty reliable ..In fact their outage in the recent past is no way more than the outage caused at big enterprises.The consumer side outage has broader coverage in the media because of its reach

2.Fault tolerance: Even though the gap is closing in quickly the mission critical Enterprise apps may have an edge here

3.Security best practices: Enterprise apps makes it easier by shutting out most of the external contact points in the name of security where as the Consumer Apps have to swim the open ocean and at the same time follow the best practices to keep the Consumer data safe and secure..off late you would have heard more break in at the banks and corporate sites rather than the consumer sites..i would say both are equal on this one

4.Support services.  While the consumer apps are mostly self served the enterprise side has a fall back with a human interface as a last resort..But the slow economy is pushing them close to self serve as possible these days..

5.Product Evolution..Consumer side has this hands down…They evolve at breakneck speed where as the enterprise is still catching up…iphone vs RIM anyone?

6. Scalability and peak volume stress …I suspect the consumer side handles this much better these days as they cater to humungous volumes when compared to enterprise grade apps..Leave the Twitter alone on this one but I have to commend Facebook on how they have handled the growth..Say anything about their privacy policies but salute their engineering for able to handle this monster growth

So all in all the Gap is closing very fast..Apple products are once seen as Consumer products but they have rewritten the rules as they are seen as reliable products to be used in mission critical applications these days..More than that the line between the consumer Vs the enterprise is getting blurred every day and the demands are getting higher for the Enterprise apps to bring in the high level of user experience and speed of evolution in to the fold..May be there is no two separate segment but rather a multi sided market with consumer on one side and the enterprise on the other may be?

Back to work..

Time to say Goodbye to my self imposed sabbatical has come and I can’t wait to tell my friends that I am on to something new…Check out the team composition at http://www.swipp.com.. A group of highly experienced and seasoned entrepreneurs getting together again because they all think they can make a difference in this world and build something really meaningful..Check out the recent blog at http://swipp.com/blog/its-not-about-disruption/ Keep an eye on this space for more information and we promise to tell you more in the coming weeks..

Personally it is a journey that started the day after I left Ribbit..I knew very clearly that I do not want to go back to Telecom. The process of unwinding and unlearning started right then and looked back at the lessons learned..

The world had changed quite a bite since 2006 when Ribbit was started.At that time Google was the basic internet infrastructure that touched almost everyone in every walk of their digital life. Few other new entrants were up in the horizon..Turn the clock to 2011…We can clearly see few more rings around the digital trees…A New category has formed and FB,Twitter,Linked In etc has become a necessary part of every day life for almost everyone around here and in most parts of the world…All of a sudden there is this innermost urge in everyone to find out what everyone else is doing at this moment..Combined with smart phones now you can fulfill your inner most cravings almost 24×7. I know there are still people out there who are reluctant  to embrace them…But like it or not  anything and everything you will do from now on will have a social aspect to it..It has become part of the digital fabric..So learn to embrace it…

Wish me good luck folks..As much as I would like to say I am a serial Entrepreneur..it is back to square one..When you walk in to that pitch to bat even a seasoned batsmen will have a butterfly in is stomach..All the runs scored till the previos game doesn’t really matter…The Game starts now… 

My Predictions for 2012….

Everyone has their Predictions….Let me register mine…just for my own edification at the end of the year….

> Now that social Media has become part of necessary technology infrastructure….you will see more applications on top of this layer.Probably another cateogory creation….me/my friends/rest of the world….things will matter in that order….

> personal Network…probably another category creation..with too much indulgence online/cloud you do need your personal space on the network…

> On demand on the rise…slow death of TV/Cable networks will begin…Watch what you want ..when you want …through the device you want…Networks cannot package the content the way they want…DVR will move in to network…..

>Connected TV…A Second Screen to the TV content will become popular…

> better broadband infrastructure…MoreCheap.. Network Storage …initiate slow death of local storage …

> Apple / Google / Microsoft& Nokia will form the big three in the smartphone space….

> Amazon will emerge as big winner n online retail….but there will be a worthy challenger will emerge to challenge them….

> The world will continue to be polarized….

> Obama will get his second term….

> last but not least….I will be on a full time Job…..

Welcome to the year of Dragon…

2011 Review

With less than 36 hour to go time to look back at 2011 from my point of view…

>Social media makes it to every fabric of day to day life…it has now become part of our day to day technology infrastructure…

> print Media is having a  slow death…news paper subscriptions are evaporating…Book stores are closing down…e-books are on the rise..

> Broadband is now assuming the role of utilities….From Bill Payments to shopping to Kids home work will come to a grinding halt if there is a broadband failure…Akin to power failure …

> Video telephony has not made the grade yet…In spite of dull economy and travel restrictions due to budget cuts the video telephony has not made big in roads in the consumer space although there is a modest raise at enterprise level…

> Voip has reached its saturation and there is no more money to be made on Voice…

> Individuality /Privacy is lost in the Cyber world…Increasingly the machine run algorithms are trying to interpret one’s online behavior and apply that to every walk of life …This is eventually leading everyone to lead a life in their own bubble…an unwanted side effect of technological progress..This level of progression can lead you in to a Matrix….Where is my Neo….

> the Venture capital market has forever changed with so much influx of Angel money…Everyone is on the lookout for the next Mark Zukerburg…good to be in 18-24….Not so good  if you are outside of that bracket….

Now on the Personal side….

> A Fantastic year as I could witness India lifting the Worldcup in Cricket…

> My Niners are climbing the charts  even though Gaints couldn’t repeat their last year success…

> A much needed Timeoff…more time with the family …gave a better perspective of life….

Regrets…

Took this long to take this time off…

Couldn’t be in person to watch that historical world cup games..

Couldn’t spend more time with my folks…

All in all it has been a fantastic 2011….in spite of market turbulence there is a steady state…could have been worse…But…happy to be where I am…

Looking forward to 2012….

 

Open Web /Closed World

It was one of those days where I had to attend to quite a few household  problems that has been postponed for a long time. I needed to find a Plumber,electrician, buy some garden accessories etc. So the obvious first stop was Google..Searched, researched and checked on various websites…I never thought that it will change my online world..In fact I never even realized till I saw  this  TED video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mzZzf6PoyC4

I went back to all the usual websites I go to and now clearly noticed the subject of all the ads that has been showing up all these days. Ofcourse like most internet users I never used to notice them.But then looking in to my Facebook streams I could see why I am not seeing some of my friends feeds. Even the news sites are beginning to curate the news based on your previous browsing history. Now I am beginning to long for the Morning Newspaper where I could go from front to back and browse on everything based on what catches my attention.

May be the story line of Matrix is not that far fetched from reality down the road…

Voice is Asynchronous..

I don’t know about you but I am hardly getting on the phone these days to talk to some one..I am certainly not living in a cave or hiding from the society..

In those days if you want to talk to some one you pick up the phone and call that person..As proper etiquette in those days was to answer the phone promptly. But when such services becomes a commodity with fraction of a penny to talk to someone across the globe  it became an annoyance as the phone began to ring non stop..Then comes the great feature of Caller ID…where by you can see who is calling you and get to decide if you want to answer the call…Then came the Voicemail to break the direct connection in to two separate conversation.Even with all that it was too much to bear to be able to follow the age old etiquette of answering all your phone calls..

We then began to see new forms of communications slowly emerging…Email, Chat, Social media etc….with the proliferation of smart phones you have all forms of communication mechanism right at your finger tips all time..So Now I have started to communicate with people of my choice at the time of my choice using the tool of my choice…which will almost in all cases makes it asynchronous as the other person is now going to adopt the same thing and respond to my communication in his own terms..

But the fact of the matter is that we communicate more clearly, get things done much faster than ever before with more efficiency…

Two way direct voice is slowly becoming a choice only for emergency situations..

.I can see in to the future where it is not just the humans but every possible device can communicate …Your refrigerator can tell you about its stock and temperature, our water meter , home termostat etc…all can communicate and take responses …possibly the next revolution in communication is just around the corner….

I can’t wait…

Silicon Village Bank

Recently I had the pleasure of having to deal with Silicon Valley bank which was touting itself as the Startup Bank..With all that friendly talk and entrepreneurial support programs they have  it was a good start..But the moment online credentials arrive and you start interacting with them online you will wonder if you are dealing with bankers in third world developing country. I still can’t believe they are able to pull through with this level of manual process surrounding every activity..

For starters try using their User interface..it is so arcane..Logging in process takes you back by several decade..I am sure they have access to some of the best user interface design houses in the valley and they have the deep pockets to spend..

Then I was looking for way to sign up for online Billpay which is a basic service in most banks. Couldn’t find a way to do it online and then I have to call in to their customer service. The response I got was shocking..”We will have to email you a form which needs to be filled in and send it back to us..We need paper trail to setup the bill pay service and it will take 24 to 48 hours..

The noun “Silicon Valley”  As per Wikipedia  it is now generally used as a metonym for the American high-tech sector. Every part of the world is trying to recreate their  own version of “Silicon Valley”…If you are going to call yourself as Silicon Valley Bank….you better live up to it…or better change yourself in to Silicon Village Bank..

Agony of being a sports fan…

I don’t think anyone has studied the health impact of being a sports fan..it can lead one from Ecstasy to Agony without any warning..Wonder what would be the impact on the tiny little heart and the emotional brain..

Take the case of SanFrancisco Giants…After a fantastic 2010 season and a great start in 2011 they are slowly drifting apart.. Sure there is enough time to get the house back in order but no way to tell whether it is a slippery slope or an easy ride up..But the fans are in for a roller coaster ride for sure and it will have its impact on their poor physique. Not to mention the invisible impacts on work, health and the overall economy.

If you go half way around the globe to another sports crazy nation..cricket is more than a religion in India. The saying goes that it is the only event that will bring people of different faith to agree upon everything when the game is On..Early this year was a delight to such fans as India won the coveted World cup in their home ground and reached the pinnacle of the sports ranking played across the old english commonwealth countries. There was so much buildup and expectation when they began their tour of england. But luck would have it it’s every man’s Agony right now. The team is at best going through their worst slump and the fans all over are crying in agony. Given the fact that this game is played between 3 hours to 5 days depending on the format it is a long drawn agony. I wonder if anyone has looked at the productivity curve of their India based development centers..I can guarantee you that it would be at its all time low..

Skype ..you are losing it…

I  love Skype…Don’t get me wrong.When VOIP was at its infancy and the whole Silicon valley startups were trying to build the infrastructure brick by brick using standards Skype totally ignored and when on to build their proprietary technology. They totally got everyone offgaurd with their P2P approach which was a total anti-thesis to the tried and tested Client/Server centralized controlled service provider solutions rest of the industry was trying to built to replace the traditional voice..In one broad stroke they solved the scaling and infrastructure  and cost issues and revolutionized the voice industry..Well they double dipped( thank you ebay!) and made boat load of money…which is a different story in itself..

Now every startup out there doesn’t spend a dime on telephone costs in-spite of being global in nature from day one..it is as ubiquitous as Facebook..But off late they are adding controls to pull that service back to dark ages..Gone are the days when I can be on a Skype call with someone and be on Chat with few other people or have a back channel conversation.. At least on mac they screwed up the interface to limit you to one session and toggle between chat sessions rather than being in parallel. Sometimes the user interface is so confusing and non-intuitive you need to know what you are doing and know exactly how to do that…Now that Skype is in the hands of Microsoft not sure they are going to solve this any time soon..

In this Facebook era it is no longer one-to one communication but one-to many communication. But it need not be as complex as a Webex or Citrix sessions..I thought Skype was going to solve all those Collaborative Communication issues and take us to the next decade through video…I don’t have my hopes on them anymore…

Tango anyone?