Going the iPod Way

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Long ago, not so long ago, when the world was just welcoming mp3 players, I was in London and felt the need to have a portable music player which I can carry along. I brought a Creative Zen 20 GB player which can play WAV and MP3 format music. On Windows operating system, when you plug it in, it opens the windows explorer where you can organize your music or you can use NOMAD. Over the next few months saw the arrival of iPod. Initially, I felt it is just expensive and just another MP3 player (even though I am a huge fan of Apple). I refused to even look at it in the stores or even read about the machine which changed the world of music.

Two incidents made me look at iPod:

1. I brought my MAC Book last year and lo! it was a bumper for me. I could not organize my music as NOMAD (which is used to organize music on Creative range of products) is not supported. I then searched and finally got an alternative to use my Creative on the MAC. Read more about this in my earlier post NOMAD for MAC.

2. Last year, I got a music player for my car and it came with the USB extension to play music players. I was able to connect my USB stick and play music, but unfortunately my creative player is not recognized. It really pained me. I searched on the web, but was not successful in finding a solution. Probably an AUX out should have helped, but never got that.

Finally, just a month back, got a iPod 120 GB classic. Well, I thought 120 GB is quite a good amount of space and only now realizing that I am sure to exhaust this space in 2009 for sure. Already have close to 2,200 songs and the most facinating part of iPod for me is the ability to organize PodCasts. I have good number of subscriptions and I am so very happy that I can carry my Podcasts without my computer now 🙂

Overall, in the last one month I have become obsessed with my iPod and looking forward for many more intersting encounters with the machine which made a huge difference in my life.

Last but not the least, have loads of movies on the go 🙂

Interesting OpenSource Sites

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Over the period of time, organizations have evolved and changed the way they played the game. Once upon a time, organizations were masters in what they produced and most of the time played their cards well. With the growth of Internet, organizations have not only capitalized the advantages, but also working day and night to grow along with their competition.

One fine day, Sony and BMG, the leading music company woke up just to see how MP3 (a particular compression technology for music tracks) shook the roots of their empires. They knew all about the technology, but were over confident that their homes were the safest places and over-looked how the new technology was building its strength under their own homes. When they realized, they cried foul, but it was too late.

IBM was struggling with its server software, which was not a huge success in the then market. Intelligently, it was following the success of Linux and Apache, the open source Web server software. IBM did not give up on any of its hopes and understood the rules of the “Open Source” game. It quickly acted and came into an agreement with Apache and soon, IBM’s server hardware was rolling out with Apache running on Linux. IBM has dedicated teams that Contribute to Linux and Apache. An intelligent move that only bettered IBM’s market place rather than hampering it.

When the concept of Open Source initially came out, many organizations did not pay serious attention. How can people around the world write software when it is not controlled or checked by anyone?  This is an Interesting question, which cannot be answered in a line or two.

Over the series of my posts, we will discuss and share ideas on how Open Source will be the major contributor to tomorrow’s world.

Let me begin by listing few web organizations, which are built around interesting and innovative ideas.

Taking IT Global – Taking IT Global is a not-for-profit organization bringing people together to share and work on projects that are beneficial to the world. The idea revolves around people in the community listing their ideas and projects and community members come together to support and work on the projects.

SpikeSource – You have been using open source software. The key element is that the code changes every minute and new functionality keeps on getting added. How can you manage these changes? Spike Source is an open-source source code integrator. This integrator runs periodically and runs through various open source code, test and integrate the same to your base code. Sounds interesting? Try it out?

43Things – A Social Networking site with a difference. List your professional / personal goals, search for people with similar aspirations and work together. Also, you can keep updating your goals with the progress and get encouragement from your peer members.

InnoCentive – The most interesting site I came across. This is a web based innovation center. Organizations / people list their problem for which they are looking for solution and if you are a master in the subject, feel free to solve the problem. There are many chances you are paid if you provide the most innovative solution and also, you are a celeb 🙂 

NineSigma, InnovationXChange Network, Eureka Medical, YourEncore and Innovation Relay Centers are quite similar to InnoCentive. 

I really like the TakingITGlobal and Innocentive. Over the period of time, I will deep dive into OpenSource in various fields concentrating on HealthCare and Social Innovations

Banking on Social Change – Seeking Financial Solutions for All

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I am a bit late in writing about this project, but this is an initiative from ChangeMakers, an organization associated with Ashoka for providing Social and Financial Security for the rural poor. 

The competition is being supported by the Citi Group and there is a cash award of $5000 for the winning team/innovation. 

There have been around 280 entries from 43 countries who have sent their innovation and the panel selected 13 entries to the finals. Now, you can make a difference by voting for the best entries you think are the best innovations. 

Here are the final 13, out of which 3 are from India 🙂

1. Free Social Security to Disadvantaged and Rural Population, OASiS.

2. A Holistic approach to micro-insurance – Breaking the cycle of illness and debt, Healing Fields Foundation. 

3. Sampoorna Suraksha – Social Security for all occasions, Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project. 

You need to register with ChangeMakers first as a user and then you need to caste your vote. All project information and the implementation model is described in detail in the respective nomination description pages. 

Be a Change Maker and vote for the idea which you believe is the best and support the organizations dedicated to change the way we live.

eBook's and eBook Reader

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After a gap of more than 3 months, I am back to my blog. No reasons for the disturbance in updating my bolg, but just that every time I wanted to write, something was pulling me back. Today, I decided to write and wanted to start with something which interests me and also, might interest many others.

Recently, in June 2008, I moved my house and during the shift I realized how many books I collected over the last 3 and half years. I told the movers and packers that I would not need more than 10 big box’s for the move and after they packed everything, realized that 15 medium sized box’s are my books and print out’s of articles. I then realized that I need to do something urgently to control my book collection and started researching for eBook readers. Initially when I searched, the closest and the most interesting item I found was the Amazon Kindle. I spoke to Rajesh Jain after reading his blog post on the kindle. He mentioned that he was enjoying it and now, it is easier for carrying books rather than the traditional paperback or hardbound in his luggage while traveling. But, there is a hitch. This comes with a plan as Kindle comes with a CDMA Plan in the US to buy books online. As I don’t live in the US, I found this not so exciting.

Off-late, found few more eBook Readers on Wikipedia. Yesterday, I went to Target and found Sony eBook Reader and it was really attractive. The reviews were good, but I only had second thoughts because of the heavy price of $299 +Tax. While investing Rs.15,000+, I wanted to check various features and so, went slow before I brought it. Did some more research and found that few users of this machine had troubles opening PDF files. This device supports PDF, Doc files in common and many eBook formats (PDF, TXT, RTF, DOC, FB2, LRF, LRX, ePub, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, AAC w/o DRM) etc. It comes with inbuilt 200 MB internal storage space and expandable up to 16 GB with SD Memory.

Coming to the next aspect of my research, I wanted to check out how many titles of hardbound/paperback come in eBook format? There are few good sites which offer excellent collection – eBooks.com, Free eBooks.Net, e-Library.Net etc. However, almost all titles are double priced than the traditional paperback/hardbound. I didn’t expect this. Honestly, I was expecting the cost to be lesser because the cost of the paper used to print books including the ink is reduced. Unfortunately, all the titles I compared with traditional print and e Book format are double expensive than the print. I am a bit disappointed. However, I am sure that over the period of time, these will come down and hence postponed the purchase of eBook reader.

I think all of us must move towards ebooks and save planet by reducing the use of paper which controls the cutting of trees. It is a long way to go, but a small step is the beginning to a long journey.

If you find any interesting eBook readers, please share with all of us by posting a comment to this post.

You may download PodCast of this Blog Post here. 3 Minutes, MP3 format.

Innovation Series #5 – What is Entrepreneurship?

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The spirit of Entrepreneurship – the notion of human progress, development, achievement and change – motivates and energizes the people and organizations that improve our lives.

5 out of 10 people today want to be entrepreneurs. Why? Is the term fascinating or gives a social status? Is entrepreneurship new? No. It did exist since the beginning of human race. This post concentrates on speaking about what is Entrepreneurship all about, a basic definition and its dimensions.

There are by far many definitions of entrepreneurship, however, let us look at one of the best definitions which I ever read…

Entrepreneurship is the creation of an innovative economic organization for the purpose of gain or growth under conditions of risk and uncertainty.

Let us understand the underlined words above more in detail.

Creation means founding or starting or origin. So, this clearly means that if you are buying out an organization or if you are hereditarily taking over, you are clearly not an entrepreneur, you are simply a business person. However, there is one factor which can determine if you are an entrepreneur or not – the degree of change in the organization you are taking over.

If you would want to be an entrepreneur, you will need to create an opportunity. What kind of opportunity? If you are offering a new product or service or creating a new line of business. All these factors attribute to determine if you are an entrepreneur or not.

Economic organization means that you are creating an organization whose purpose is to allocate scare resources to bring out a new line of operation. What this means is that you might be creating a new business venture, a new line of operation in existing organization or even starting a not-for-profit organization.

Risk and Uncertainty are the conditions in which you begin your venture. They co-exist in any organization and go hand-in-hand. Risk refers to the variability of outcome. If there no risk in the organization, then the organization is operating in a risk-free environment and the organization is bound to grow over the period of time. Without risk, is there entrepreneurship? No. However, making calculated risks is what is recommended. If you are writing your business plan and you have not identified your risks and potential measures to overcome them, then the chances of you getting investments is very less. However, the more the number of risks you identify and device a contingency plan, the better is your execution.

Uncertainty is the confidence the entrepreneur has in his/her estimate in how the world accepts their offering. If there is no uncertainty, then it would be an everlasting profit making organization J Uncertainty is how markets works and this is what makes entrepreneurship exciting. The better you estimate your customers and how the world operates, the better are prospects of your organization profit making.

Where does Entrepreneurship exist?

Entrepreneurship clearly exists in countries which have higher economic freedom. Hong Kong, for example is the most economically free country, which clearly encourages entrepreneurs. Singapore, Bahrain, New Zealand, Switzerland, USA, UK, Taiwan, Bahamas and Netherlands appear in the top 10 countries in the world which provide the most economical independence.

On the flip side, North Korea is one of the most orthodox countries in terms of economic freedom. Angola, Azerbaijan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Cuba and Laos add to the list of most strict countries in terms of providing economic independence.

Sam Walton’s 10 Best Rules

Before I end this post, let me list down the 10 best rules Mr.Sam Walton has mentioned for his success.

Rule 1: Commit to your business and believe in it.

Rule 2: Share your profits with your partners (employees)

Rule 3: Motivate your partners, challenge them and keep score.

Rule 4: Communicate everything

Rule 5: Appreciate your associates with well-chosen words.

Rule 6: Celebrate your success.

Rule 7: Listen to everyone and get them talking.

Rule 8: Exceed your customers expectation.

Rule 9: Control your expenses.

Rule 10: BREAK ALL THE SULES. Swim upstream and go up way.

To put it in Mr. Sam’s words, the above rules might not apply to everyone, and also might not be the success factor for every entrepreneur. However, these were his success tips…

Innovation Series #4: Entrepreneurship Life Cycle

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The aspect of entrepreneurship is very inspiring and many have taken this path to create history and to change the way we live. However, there are many areas where we see gaps and these gaps play a very important role in building the enterprise and making a mark.

It can be a commercial organization, not-for-profit or social organization, each start-up has its own way of building up and it has its own life cycle.

Below is the typical life cycle of an Entrepreneur:

Aspiration for Entrepreneurship

One day you get this beautiful idea and aspire to make your dream come true. The journey begins here. A journey, which is adventurous and most satisfying.

Is aspiration all enough?

Normally, it is good enough to realize your dreams. But, the commitment to your ideology plays a bigger role. Entrepreneurship is about contribution to the society, rather than thinking it to be a source of extended income. It is tough and it is a penance. Attitude is all what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is about living in Risks. If you are a person who does not like taking risks, then you are not set for setting up your own organization. Entrepreneurship is just not about setting up an organization for profit making, but for solving a particular problem – be it commercial or social.

In short, the way I define an entrepreneur is:

E – Energetic
N – Neutral
T – Tough
R – Romantic
E – Elaborative
P – Passionate
R – Researcher
E – Empowered
N – Novice
E – Enterprising
U – Understanding
R – Rich

Energetic – Need to have energy to face failure.
Neutral – Never get carried away, you need to always be on ground to take off.
Tough – When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Romantic – Need to Romance with your Passion.
Elaborative – If you cant be straight forward, then the road ahead is bumpy.
Passionate – Eat, Sleep, Drink only your thoughts.
Researcher – Only when you explore, do you succeed.
Empowered – Empower yourself with Passion.
Novice – Because, every day is a new day.
Enterprising – Because, every day you need to be creative.
Understanding – If you cannot understand others, you can never solve their problem.
Rich – Attitude, Passion and Commitment to Succeed.

Identify the Problem / Need

If there was no problem / gap in life cycle bothering your mind, you definitely would not have aspired to be an entrepreneur. However, this is not the only reason for you to aspire. But, in most of the cases, there is a problem / gap in the life cycle which bothers your mind and you want to provide a solution / better solution to solve the problem better / faster / economical / convenient. Think differently to identify the problem. Just because the whole world or people around you are taking about mobile or web, just don’t fix your ideas only in that spectrum. Look around and you will find many areas which need better solutions.

One of my favourite examples is from the book Innovative India. An auto is a common mode of transport in our country; however, have you seen a change in the structure or working of an auto since its inception back in the 1980’s? NO. Bi-cycle’s, 2 Wheelers, Cars, Bus’s, Lorry’s and all have seen a drastic change in their life-cycle. But, an auto has hardly seen a change. Why? One main reason for this is because the competition is very less. There are hardly 2-3 companies which manufacture autos and all of them have been very contented with the design and working of their innovation. Try speaking to any auto driver; he would give you an enormous list of good to have things in the auto. Looks like a good problem? Try solving it J

My intention of quoting the above is to request you to look around. There are many trivial things which need attention and which people can benefit.

Probable Solution

When you have identified the problem, you definitely must have given a thought about a probable solution. Lay out and outline your solution. Put it on paper for you to evaluate.

The Bottom of Pyramid is one area you would want to concentrate while designing your solution. The concept of BoP elucidates that the need for better and optimized solutions for problems which are frequented by majority of people. Do not aim your solutions at a high level, instead have a humble beginning and make the impact.

When you are designing a solution and want your solution to reach the majority, focus on the Pyramid. Identify your potential customers and then plan your solution. This gives your solution a better mileage than what you anticipate.

Assess the Solution

Meet with people, talk about the problem and share your thoughts on how you wish to solve. You might not want to speak to everyone, but definitely speak to your friends / family / mentor’s about your ideas because, without evaluation, it is like jumping into the lake without knowing the parameters of the lake.

If you want to make toys, spend a lot of time with children and understand their thought process. Many a times, we think we are providing a better toy, however, when it reaches the child, you might not be able to attract him/her for a long time.

If you are building a security system for home’s, speak to as many people as you can and understand the nature of problems they encounter. Example, in villages, there might be a threat with animals coming into homes. In cities, it is just not burglary, but children or domestic help might be at home and parents want to secure few things from them.

The list goes on. What I want to iterate here is that spending a lot of time with the end-users will give you a deep dive into their thinking and you will benefit because, when you get to design a solution, it is easily accepted.

Practicality of the Solution

How practical is your solution? Is it trying to provide Mobile Commerce solutions or search capabilities in the rural areas? You might have the most cutting edge technology, but the target customers are very important. We are not debating if your customers should be based in rural/urban areas, but we are looking at the usage and practicality of the solution.

As an example, I can mention the platform ticket vending machine in railway stations which have come up in the recent past. Do you notice one common problem with them? They accept only one rupee coins and five rupee coins. And if you insert a five rupee coin for one ticket, you do not get back the change. What happened? The queue at the counter still remains the same, because many might not carry change always. So, what happened to the innovation, it simply added burden to the organization – the return on investment (RoI) is not met.

Build the Business Plan

The most important aspect of realizing your dream is to have your business plan in place. You will need to put it in writing as to how you would accomplish your goal.

There are many versions as to how you should write a business plan. I only recommend only one way – write your plan in simple words. Do not use jargons which are very common and a common person might not be able to read/understand. Be Simple, Manageable, Achievable, Result-oriented and Time bound (SMART) while writing.

Few important aspects which you might want to consider/have them mandatorily addressed in your business plan:

  • Vision
  • Mission
  • Problem Identified
  • Proposed Solution
  • Financial Plan
  • Road map (Building the Solution and Return on Investment)

What I mentioned above is the minimum. If you can elaborate and write more, there is nothing like it. A Business Plan is not a frozen document, but a continuous working document. So, keep re-visiting you plan from time to time and keep updating the same as your idea evolves 🙂

Pangea Cinema Day

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Last night was a memorable evening. I received an email two weeks back informing of the Pangea Day. I had no idea of this event. The venue was ThoughtWorks. Before I registered, I have to admit that I did not do my homework of searching on google 🙁 The only thing I knew about this event is that there are movies going to shown around the world at the same time. I mistook these movies to be art, but they were more than that.

Anyway, landed at the venue at around 9 PM, the screening was scheduled to begin at around 11 PM. There were few guys playing music to entertain the crowd. Dinner was also sponsored and it was nice. Most of my gang from other groups were there, so never felt left out.

When the event began, that is when I realized that this is covered on STAR World, LIVE from across the world – Los Angeles, Kigali, London, Cairo, Mumbai etc.

In 2006, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED Prize, an annual award granted at the TED Conference. She was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. Pangea Day grew out of that wish. You can watch Jehane Noujaim’s 2006 acceptance speech at the link. This is truly inspiring and worth watching.

What did I learn from this event? A lot. I knew about art films, but films which can change your thoughts and inspire you to live life are something worth watching. There were films made on mobile camera’s, professional camera’s and films which show emotions. In the regular cinema, you get to watch the emotions of actors as in the script, but here, you watch emotions which are quite natural and you would definitely relate them very close to yourself. If you are like me, who left home for living and coming back after long time, you can closely relate to the movie The American Project: Cuba. A wonderful cinema capturing emotions of family when they re-unite after a long time. I especially like the Elevator Music, A thousand words.

I can go on with the list, but it is worth watching each of the movies. Visit Pangea Day website to view all the movies shown during this time. If this is happening again, make it a mandatory appointment on your calender, because it might change your life.

BarCamp Bangalore 6

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BarCamp Bangalore or BCB6 started off with a bang on 19 April morning at IIM Bangalore. This time around, we (planners) were very clear since the beginning that this time it is going to be a classic BarCamp. If you have attended BCB 1 / BCB 2, then you can definitely understand what I am meaning here. Over the last 2 BCB’s, various formats have been experimented and there has been a good response for those too. However, there has been a great demand to re-create the classic style.

What is the classic style? Very simple, there are no spectators. Every attendee is a participant and he/she has to speak. In this way, everyone understands each others ideologies and the spirit of BarCamp.

This time, we had three categories on the wiki – Speakers, Volunteers and Talk ideas. If you wanted to attend BCB, then you should register yourself as a speaker with a topic, as a volunteer to take up any task or request for a topic which you would like to hear more on.

Day 1 saw a lot of new faces at the camp. We have quite a few from outstation too. Live twittering and live blogging have taken a leap forward during this camp. I could not participate in sessions, but was just going around and doing some writing. I need to admit that I have just not been active during this camp. Also, I could not attend Day 2 as well 🙁 Hope I don’t repeat these things going forward.

Here are few fellow tweeters who were live tweeting – BCB6, Prasanth, Vaibhav, Sanjukta, Jerry and Aditi

Here are few pictures which I took on Day 1.

Infrastructure – Thoughts on Traffic Problems in Bangalore

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I really like the Blogathon Badge which you can find on the right side pane of my bolg. I am an optimist and I look at solving problems rather than running away from them. I am really meaning what I am writing here 🙂 My favorite button is the middle one – “Maximize” and try to get an optimistic view of the concern. At times when I don’t get answers to my question, I use the first one – “Minimize” and keep the thought process running somewhere in my mind and at one point of time, will get a solution. The last is always disabled for me….

Well, coming to the topic I choose to write for blogathon, is one of my favorite and what we see everyday.

The Problem

How do you want to look at it? As a problem or a defect or bug? Is there a difference? Yes, there is definitely a huge difference between each of the words I used above.

Problem – According to Dictionary.com; any question or matter involving doubt, uncertainty, or difficulty

Bug – According to Dictionary.com; any insect or insectlike invertebrate

Defect – According to Dictionary.com; a shortcoming, fault, or imperfection

Now, I will also present a technology perspective of Bug and Defect 🙂

Bug – An unexpected error thrown by any application due to malfunctioning of the program

Defect – An error thrown by any application due to lack of understanding/mis-understanding of the requirement.

So, under which category should we have our “traffic problem”?

In my humble opinion, I would categorize this under Bug and Defect. Why?

It is a bug because of unexpected growth in the economy which led to the growth in the city.

It is a defect because the town/city planning council (simply put the government body) could not understand the requirement and could not plan for a good algorithm which would look into the future and address the problem.

My View

Almost every city/town in India and other countries in the world are facing the similar problems. Are everyone able to solve this instantaneously? I am quite sure it is a “No”. When we try to compare ourselves to the cities/towns we visit (please include international areas too), we are biased. This is because most of the time we visit either the developed or the so-called developing countries. I am sure, you, as my reader, would have visited a third-world country too…

There are many ways to look at the situation, however, I would want to present only my view with due respects to all.

Yes, Bangalore has really grown 100 folds in the last 5-7 years. Our’s is not the only city/town, but across the globe many countries, cities and towns have grown in the last 5-7 years. Once the garden city and a honey-moon destination (I still remember my brother coming to Bangalore for his honey-moon after wedding in July 1988 and the pictures he has taken) is now the Silicon valley of the East.

Before I begin to pen down my thoughts, for a basic understanding, let us look at some statistics:

The vehicle population in Bangalore has grown more than 20 times in the last 27 years and more than 100% in the last 7 Years. In 1980, Bangalore had 1,75,325 vehicles and by 2005 the city had 22,72,239 vehicles. Today, we have more than 26,00,000 vehicles on roads and adding more than 200 vehicles every day. If you look at the Traffic Police strength, we have close to 2,900 Policemen/Policewomen, in which close to 100 are at the top 3 layers. Population of Bangalore as on date is 62,00,000 (Six million, two hundred thousand). Simple mathematics shows that we have one traffic policeman for every 2,138 people. Wow! This is an amazing number. Why did I bring all these data points? Not to pin point the aspect that we are less on the police man, but to point out there are many things what we can do.

I might not be comparing apples to apples, but just look at the statistics of Beijing. Beijing has more than 33, 50,000 vehicles (a mere 6 Laks more than Bangalore) out of which 20,00,000 are cars. Also, the city adds more than 1,300 vehicles every day on road. By the time Olympics start, the vehicle population is projected to grow up too. So, how is the city managing its traffic problem/defect/bug? Interestingly, the Government is planning to ban few vehicles on the road during the Olympics and also pay the owners some compensation based on their daily use of the vehicle.

Coming to our very own Bangalore, here are the few major aspects which I feel we need to look at from citizen’s perspective:

  1. Ownership while driving
  2. Obeying traffic rules
  3. Drivers Education
  4. Signal Planning

Let me explain a bit more in detail as to what I think about each of the points above. Remember, out of the 4 points I have laid out, 3 come back to us (We, the people) and 1 goes to the Government. This is because, when we point finger at others, there are 4 fingers pointing towards us…remember?

Ownership while driving – Most of us, including me, do not think of others while we drive. “I have to reach, I have to get the right of way, I have to go first”, these are the most common thoughts we have. If we all think about “I” who is thinking of “We”? I am sure, there are quite a few out there who think about “We”, else we would not be here today, where we are 🙂 The first important thing is for each of us to think twice before you make the move while we drive. This is not as easy as I write, but needs a lot of involvement from each of us and with sincerity too. All of us have work and all of us have to go. But, by simply having the thought process imbibed in us, we can make a lot of change. So, let us begin the change with ourselves. Let us from today, drive with due respect to others on the road.

Obeying Traffic Rules – Everyone of us have a license, but how many did actually take the complete test for obtaining the license? I bet not more than 5% of us. When I say complete, I mean the actual requirements to obtain a license. How many on the road do you think understand that when there is a yellow line, you need to stop-look-proceed? Or how many of us understand that it is mandatory to stop at “zebra” crossing? Well, as my reader, you might know, but I bet there are many who do not know. Did you every take a driving class with any motor school? If so, Do you remember any instance where the instructor refused to let you start the vehicle before explaining the rules of the road, the ABC system of the vehicle and last but not the least, if you are learning a four-wheeler, wearing a seat belt?

Well, this turns back to education. How do we educate people? This is a very big question to answer in one small line, but one probable solution is having traffic lessons organized at every institution / organizations. I know quite a few organizations which changed the office timings to avoid traffic, but I do not know any organization which worked with the police to organize for traffic lessons.

Another idea I have is to voluntarily work with Driving schools in the city and organize for traffic awareness sessions for the “trainers”. This would mean that the trainer need to understand the rules of the road and take a test to become a certified trainer. This is like “train the trainer”. Instead of waiting for the Government to support this initiative, if there is any NGO who can initiate this and work in collaboration with the Police and Government, this would be highly beneficial.

Drivers Education – We need to have education for Drivers. Just think for a second, if you have a driver for your car, how many times did you appraise him when he broke a signal or went in the wrong way? I see many educated people who have drivers (when I see anyone in a car, I assume they are educated) and the driver jumps a signal or goes in a wrong way and the owner is sitting in the back seat either reading / chatting / sleeping. If as the owner, you have any time corrected a mistake, the driver will not take the courage to make a mistake (remember, he is your employee and for sure he would take your words seriously).

Drivers also include auto drivers. You would agree with me when I say that auto’s are one of the major cause for traffic jams. They squeeze in-between vehicles and block the way. They go in wrong way many times and also drive very rashly. The passenger does not even utter a word. Next time, when you are using an auto, could you please speak to the driver to educate him of the negativities of this behavior? We need to understand that they are stressed out. Driving is their daily job and definitely it is a stressful one. So, being calm and polite to him/her would be definitely beneficial. Next time when you are in an auto, please speak to the driver if you can.

The next set of most irresponsible drivers are the bus drivers (BMTC/Private). I really have no clue as to why they need to squeeze into small spaces on road while they can just wait and go. Again, we will need to understand that driving all days for making livelihood is really stressful, considering their schedules. However, BMTC/Private bus operators do need to understand that stressed drivers make life hell for themselves and to others. I think a bonus system (any kind) to drivers would make them more delightful and driving pleasure.

The last but not the least set of drivers (predominantly found in bigger cities like Bangalore) are the cab/taxi drivers. Have you ever noticed that the regular cab drivers (Call Taxi’s) are much more better at driving than the cab drivers who ferry employees? The reason is very simple, the cab company gets paid more if they ferry more people. Hence, they encourage their drivers to get more trips done and also the drivers are paid more (bonus) if they get more business. Who is responsible for this? Of course, organizations who employ cab companies for ferrying employees. I strongly recommend that organizations do not accept any clause of this kind in their agreements and also, encourage cab companies on performance basis. I regularly see many cab drivers ferrying employees, who drive crazy on road. Adding to this, the passengers in the car are employees of organizations like you and me and they do not utter a word to the driver when he gets cranky on road. For them, going home faster is more important than their safety. If these passengers be adamant with drivers, then we can address this in a better way. I do agree that the “How am I driving?” stickers behind the vehicle have added value, but if the passengers speak to the drivers to follow traffic rules, the effect would be much better.

Signal Planning – This is one key area of concentration for the Government. Having bus stops before or after a signal is the worst thing which can happen. On a regular basis I notice one such area (Lumbini Garden signal near Hebbal flyover). The bus stop is just after the signal and all buses (minimum 2 per signal) stop just immediately after the signal and jam the junction. The vehicles behind get clogged and adds to frustration.

I can take another example of Nagawara and Kammanahalli signals. These two signals are not more than 2 KM apart, but there is no synchronization at all. Signal synchronization and automated signaling helps a lot while planning for traffic at main areas.

Suggestion – Traffic Ombudsman

This is quite a different and unique idea what I have. According to Dictionary.com, an ombudsman is a person who investigates and attempts to resolve complaints and problems, as between employees and an employer or between students and a university.

In the context where I am speaking, I would request you to remove the second part of the definition. My suggestion is that we have Traffic ombudsman who are general public. The Traffic department can have their own criteria to identify an ombudsman, but what happens here is that there would be more people who can actually have the power to address an issue/concern. As an example, let me say that I am interested in contributing to solving traffic problems and I become an Traffic Ombudsman. Now, I have an identity to stop someone who is not adhering to the rules of the road and educate the person. In our place, most of the times you encounter a question – “Who are you?”. When we are officially identified as volunteers to help, we might be heard. I am very excited about this idea and I am sure it will work. I am sure there will be many people like me who would want to volunteer and help 🙂 What do you think?

Little tips to fellow drivers/travelers like me

These are what I do and I find them very helpful:

  • While driving in a car – switch on the music system and have your A/C running. This adds a lot to your freshness and keeps your mind calm.
  • If you are on a two-wheeler, do not cruise in-between vehicles, leave space for others.
  • If you are on a two-wheeler, stick to the left lane. Accept that there are other vehicles which can go at a higher speed than you.
  • Try to keep yourself to the left if you are driving slow. This is one thing which really hurts me. I keep seeing many a times, cyclists, two-wheelers and cars who want to go slow, stick to the right most lane and this give a tough time to the behind vehicles.
  • Do not get frustrated while in a traffic jam or if someone is blocking your way. Be calm and the traffic would move on.

These are my thoughts on how I would want to help solve traffic concerns in Bangalore. If I better my thought process, I would keep adding to the post 🙂

Startup Saturday 1/2/3 – 2008

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After a long time, I am back in action with my blogging. However, I am back with some real good information which could definitely help you if you are looking at understanding and being part of Entrepreneurship eco-system in India, especially , in Bangalore.

As you are already aware of KickStart, our initiative to support Entrepreneurship and its activities, I will not dig deep into them; but would highlight our new activity – Startup Saturday.

SS

Our main motive behind this activity, is to provide a platform for entrepreneurs and entrepreneur wanna-be’s to come together and discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship. I know I am being a bit vague here, but I can assure you of what I wrote. We wanted to have this as a monthly event and started of the activity in February 2008. Startup Saturday happens on second Saturday of every month at the Indian Institute of Management campus in Bangalore. This is completely supported by NSRCEL, the incubation center of IIM B. Along with discussion, we provide a platform for entrepreneur’s to showcase their innovation to fellow entrepreneurs. Total time allocated for this event is 3 Hours.

We had 3 Startup Saturday’s till date and below is a summary of each of the Saturdays. I could not attend the second one, and hence will not speak about it much 🙁

Startup Saturday – Feb 16, 2008

This has been our first SS and we have been a bit tensed with the number of attendees who would turn up. We did no great marketing for this event, just used all mailing lists we have been part of. We invited Prateek and Nitya of Muziboo to speak of their experiences and it was very nice of them to accept our invitation and be part of the first event (knowing the uncertainties of attendees and the organization of the event).

There were around 25 people who joined us to share our passion. The room is full and the atmosphere is exciting on this warm Saturday morning.

Here is a summary of their experiences…

Muziboo is an online music community with more than 1200 registered members and 1000+ music uploads.

Features of Muziboo

  • You can join for free
  • Upload your music
  • Tag yourself and your music
  • Comment music
  • Create, join, write on music groups

Growth Plan

  • To be 10,000 users by end of 2008
  • More channels for consumers
  • “One stop huddle” for music

Competitors
None as on date
Soundclick, Esnips come close

Few questions asked by audience…
Do you want to build Muziboo as a brand/comapny?
Prateek – Brand.

How many are writing code for you?
Prateek – Only me. Have been using Ruby on rails.

Can I just listen to music and not signup?
Prateek – Definitely.

How much did you sunk in till date?
Prateek – Less than Rs. 40,000.

How are you marketing?
Started with Orkut. Searched with “music” and scrapped each of them individually.

What amount of traffic is from search engines?
Prateek – Around 30%-35%.

Do you want to start your own Radio channel?
Prateek – Yes.

Prateek – We are also working on creating an online music composition tool which will help musicians to record online and upload.
Even though I did not sign-up to submit my music composition 🙂 I like the concept and I on behalf of KickStart team wish Prateek and Nitya all the very best in their endeavor. If you have not yet visited Musiboo, it is time you go and have a taste of good music.

Startup Saturday – March 09, 2008

As I mentioned earlier, I missed this event, but I know that it has been an exciting one and there were close to 50 participants this time – a whooping 100% increase 🙂

Startup Saturday – April 12, 2008

This has been more streamlined. We had the SS website up and made this a wiki which will help people to register if they were coming to the event. We had 91 registrations on the site and close to 50 attended the event.

Ms. Dhanya Menon, a startup legal expert and partner at ALMT Legal, Bangalore accepted to speak on Term Sheet. Here are some notes I made during her talk.

What is a Term Sheet?
Term sheet is an ‘indicative’ document.

What is ‘indicative’?
Indicating the terms and conditions of the venture.

From an entrepreneur’s perspective, a term sheet is very important – I will not go to any other investor, discussing about investments in the organization.
One needs to be very clear about the terms and conditions in the term sheet, and without one, no investor would invest without a term sheet sign-off.

While there is a term sheet signed off between investor and entrepreneur and in-between (with in the time lines), if the entrepreneur goes to another investor and signs a new term sheet, the first investor has all rights to sue the entrepreneur.

Clauses
1.Breach of Contract (Exclusivity)
2.Confidentiality
3.Drop-debt fields (What ever expenses investor have incurred in this contract, the entrepreneur needs to repay)
4.Public Announcements
5.Term Promoters
6.Size of funding (try to mention money in INR)
7.Valuation

What is the typical timelines in term-sheet.
Between 3 – 6 months.

Promoters
Only people who run the organiation on a day-to-day basis should be calld ‘promoters’.

Right of first refusal (RoFR)
Right of first offer (RoFO)
Series B investment should not happen immediately. Focus should be on business. The investor can make the clause for series B funding.

What are definitive documents?
Share subscription document
Employment agreement

Anti-Dilution
This is not good from investors perspective.

PS: I know that my above notes are not very information, however, I will work towards getting more structured information and post more information on Term Sheet as I learn about it more in detail.

Along with her knowledge sharing session, we had a demo of Storzz by Chandan Maruti, CEO of the startup. Storrz is an on-line mall. Yes, I used the term “mall”. Even though there are many differences in a real mall and a virtual mall, this mall gives you the flexibility of serious shopping. If you are looking for a particular product and looking for its rating in the market and customer feedback, this is the place to go.

Storrz is created as a platform for opening a virtual mall. If you have a business, and want to sell on-line without any hazels of creating an online shop, Storrz is the place to go.

You will be surprised with what is available on Storrz – From vegetables to groceries to Camcorders and Digital Cameras and with price comparison along with customer feedback. Check out the site and experience for yourself.

If you want to keep yourself updated about KickStart activities, please do sign up for our mailing list and I am sure you would benefit from it.

The next Startup Saturday is scheduled for 10 May 2008. However, on 19/20 April we have BarCamp Bangalore 6 coming up. So, stay tuned and be there.