200306_Digit.pdf

(10480 KB) Pobierz
Publisher’s Note
Wish List for the year ahead
very year in our anniversary issue, I am expected to write
about our vision and plans for the coming year. This year, I have
decided to do away with the Vision mumbo jumbo! Instead, here’s
my Wish List for the computer industry in India:
1. Computers for everybody:
Technology giants have promised us,
many a times, to bring and build an affordable computer. While
there has been some progress on this front, the real ticket is the
Rs 10,000 computer.
2. Software in OUR languages:
Why is it that all the software giants
(read Microsoft), can invest more than $100 million in developing
Chinese language versions and not make a slightest of dent in
putting together a ‘local’ language software for India?
3. Internet for the masses (Finally!):
I hope that in 2003, the
Internet—infrastructure efforts such as DSL and satellite; content
such as Web sites, e-mail and other services; access and usage by
wider groups—will finally begin to work.
Huge sections of our people do not, yet, have access to Internet.
Until now, limited access also caused limited content. I hope that
in 2003, the Internet will grow into a real World Wide Web, and
finally begin to contribute to solutions for the many problems of
poor education, promote economic growth and make us as a truly
‘technology-enabled’ country.
4. Substance, NOT Speed:
How much faster do you need your
processor to be to load MS Word? Enough! Can someone please
ask the technology industry to wake up and smell the coffee?! We
have all the speed we need; now can we have software and content
and connectivity to actually use that speed?! Moore’s law, RIP.
What we really need are user-focused innovations. Tech industry
has been the fountainhead of innovations (heck, the auto industry,
after a century, is still stuck on the internal combustion engine).
But we need innovations for the ‘Human Being’, not for the
number-crunching monsters.
5. Surprise ME!
Tell me your Wish List at
maulik44@jasubhai.com
We promise to continue to work tirelessly to make your wishes come
true.
E
Maulik Jasubhai
Maulik Jasubhai
Publisher and Executive Director, Jasubhai Digital Media
■
editorial
Social software
S
ocial software make a virtual space useful for people who interact
either directly by engaging in conversations, or indirectly where the
consequences of people’s actions and choices make it easier for other
people to pick up the thread. Software such as blogs and forums are
typically organised by time, while others such as Wikis and Amazon’s
recommendations are organised by topic.
The buzz is led of course, by tools such as Web log or blog software.
Blogs are mostly a one to many communication medium, with the blog
owner writing about whatever catches his fancy at any convenient time.
The heavy cross-linking that is common among blogs, form communities
of interest. By travelling these links, any chance visitor could discover a
network of active people whose interests match his own. This spontaneous
formation of communities exhibited by blogs is one of the key
characteristics of social software—though less permanent networks can be
formed over group Instant Messaging. Instead of the top-down mandated
nature of a newsgroup or chat room typically run by a moderator, or
channel operator, loosely connected blogging communities are formed
and act purely by associations and reputation built within the community.
Similarly, an experimental tool from Microsoft called ‘Three Degrees’
does just that—help groups of people share discussions, music and other
activities.
The power of a network grows exponentially with the number of
connections. The momentum behind software that facilitates emergent
networks, and let you carry your own social network online, in mediums
that suit your needs is building. With the right tools becoming available,
it is about time we reach out and connect with technology.
Sumod Hajela
Assistant Editor
“
After the
spectacular rejection
of 'old' style IRC and
Usenet groups,
social software as a
class of tools is now
gaining mindshare
on the Internet.
”
Sumod_hajela@jasubhai.com

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin