Wikipedia 2.0 ??

Well there seems to be a new wiki about to come into this world....Its christened Citizendium. Currently they are under construction and about to start more like a mirror of Wikipedia and then maybe look to improve on the articles on Wiki....It seems one of the original authors of Wiki has undertaken this work...He believes that Wikipedia was only half of the original idea of both Nupedia and Wikipedia,where Nupedia was more of a closed academic project and Wiki was the free wheeling side project...
He wants to bring abt a lot of changes in Wikipedia ,basically errors he thinks exist in Wiki.
Honestly as of now i don't see the utility of the project as they are not improving on the concept of Wiki at all and may just succeed in diverting a small amount of traffic from Wiki....I believe right now the creator just wants to have a wiki which has full control of which was not so when he was working on Wiki...Let see the concept take off publicly and then i guess more comments will be in order....As of now I'd call it only a Wiki 1.1 in progress, if so at all and not a Wiki 2.0

Watch out Amazon...Zinio is here!!!

In this new era of doing business the entire way of producing,selling and buying products is undergoing drastic changes. We also see that in value chains, how Amazon has replaced the earlier brick and mortar book stores. Everything is under a state of flux and even this new value chain that Amazon has made is under improvement.It would now be possible for the publisher to delete all the middlemen altogether between him and the customer(basically that means
bye bye Amazon too).

One of the major troubles with Amazon is that a person can't get his book instantaneously even though he pays for it upfront. However strongly we argue in class we all know that we as customers are never happy to pay for something which we will get in the future.Well someone has just taken care of that major headache for us and how?? By changing the very way we read
books and mag zines.E-books have been available for some time now in the markets ..But it never feels like ur turning a page and reading...So we have a cure for both...We have a digital way of buying books online and read them exactly in the way we read a magazine,Looking at and spreading the centrefold model poster included!!! This is the Zinio way...

Zinio a Digital Magazine reader with a difference.You can purchase any of the publication magazines which are tied up with Zinio online and as soon as you pay u can download the magazine to your comp to read it at your pleasure like a normal magazine. What's even better is that because its digital the costs are drastically lower to the publishers who are selling the same
editions in hardcover magazines and this lowered cost is transferred to the customers.
You can download the Zinio reader software for free here http://www.zinio.com/GetReader?pm=yes and there are a lot of magazines to choose from (Including the favorites for adolescent teenagers(wink)...) More seriously you get a lot of free publications which gives a lot of useful info.Pretty soon im sure all magazine will be available like this.

Currently i guess it allows only magazines but i guess books are the next logical step. Looks wise the graphics are cool and its pretty simple to use.Another negative factor is the lack of feel factor which is true with every digital format.But it is available for download in Tablet PC format too...and many readers of Tablet PC e-books say that they feel good when they read
their books on Tablet PCs, as it feels like they are holding a book.So i guess that might be true for magazines too. So all those readers who just want to read their magazines and don;t feel like waiting for Amazon's ultra slow 3 day delivery period(Comeon in this age 3 days is too slow man),heres your alternative....

Google buys out You Tube!!!

Well finally all the rumour mongers have been satisfied after Google has signed the deal to buy out YouTube for ,hold your breath......a whopping $ 1.65 billion...Yeah you heard that right.Now you can go and knock your head out for not coming up with the idea of free video sharing on the net...


If you are beginning to wonder why would Google do with YouTube inspite of having Google videos of its own,well the answer's pretty simple. Internet is gonna be the next television and those who control the Internet control the future's complete media source....YouTube is going to be one of the best places for advertisements in the future (hmm..why in the future,it could very well become right now).According to StarNewsOnline....

"The success of the YouTube acquisition will probably lie in embedding video advertising into the clips that millions of people watch everyday from their computers. So far, YouTubes management has been reluctant to include advertising within clips, for fear of alienating users.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Hurley, one of YouTubes founders, appeared more open to experimenting, saying that he was even considering testing whats known as a pre-roll a 15-second ad before a clip something he had long derided as potentially ruining the user experience.

While more marketers have been eager to advertise against online video, some big consumer companies have been reluctant to fully embrace advertising against user-generated content because it is difficult to differentiate good content from offensive material. YouTube has created an assortment of tools for users and content creators to police its site.

YouTube said it had struck accords to license content from two of the four major music conglomerates the Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment and the CBS television network in exchange for a percentage of YouTubes advertising revenue.

YouTube is also expected to use new technology to identify copyrighted material that users have uploaded to the site without permission, and to share ad revenue with media companies that own the video or music content. (YouTube made a similar pact with the Warner Music Group last month, and had a previous advertising deal with NBC in June).

The deals reflect how media companies are rethinking the distribution of their entertainment content online.

The deal with Universal, the worlds biggest music corporation, drew particular attention because the company had said it was contemplating a lawsuit against YouTube over copyright issues.

Phil Leigh, the president of Inside Digital Media, said the new arrangements represented a strong endorsement that the major media companies are going to see YouTube as a legitimate business partner.

Mr. Leigh said that also suggested a rethinking of the approach the companies took to Napster. It shows that very important, erstwhile reluctant media companies have got religion, he said.

The YouTube alliances also came the same day that Google announced separate deals to license music videos from Sony BMG and Warner.

Under the terms of the deal, YouTube, which has about 60 employees, will retain much of its identity and will keep its name and its office in San Bruno, more than 25 miles from Googles headquarters in Mountain View. "

The move goes well with Google's philosophy to lead the change rather than following others.But will the user experience of viewing ads before they view the videos gonna shift the user base to some other free video sharing website.It remains to be seen.

Will this move catapult mainstream advertising from the tele to the Internet??? Or is Google killing a golden egg by swallowing it too early before its maturity??As usual Lord Time will have the answer.

I leave you with the YouTube founders own video on the site.

Fidel Castro- End of an Era

At the risk of sounding a commie im writing this post....Cuba is soon approaching the end of an era with the "rumoured" terminal cancer that Fidel Alejandro Castro is facing. With this would end the world's longest rein as head of state for a man who defied the most powerful country in the world starting with just 82 men. It is for this fact that you have to admire this man.
At a time when powerful leaders of the world like Saddam couldn't stop the wrath of US of A ,this man stood literally under their noses for 47 years without them being able to let out a sneeze.
Castro has ruled Cuba with an iron grip ever since usurping power in 1959....1959 it seems quite a long time back doesn't it...Well just for your information, 70% of Cuba's 11 million population was born after Fidel Castro came into power...That is something,dude..

Castro's first attempt to overthrow General Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba on July 26 1953, was a failure and he was exiled to Mexico.

But he didn’t give up. Along with revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara and brother Raul, Castro lead a successful revolution. On January 6, 1959 he took over the country's rule.

With his impending death , one of the last bastions of Communism of yore (with Russia and China falling years back now) is at crossroads. I think his death would be like a final chapter in the history books of the Communist era of this century...A final nail in the coffin if you like it.

New questions arise in our minds with this thought....Will the new order of Globalization be Capitalistic Communism or Communistic Capitalism???

Whatever the future hold for us I salute the man who stood his ground against the brashness of the mighty US of A and came out without a scar...

Firangi Tehelka Sting on Indian BPOs

We all have seen the Tehelka sting operations on the various Bollywood actors,politicians and Lt generals...Now we have firangis coming in with their sting operations to bring India's most successful business over the past decade,the BPO business, to shame.
UK's Channel 4 reporter Sue Tarton( Not the "Sue kar" from RDB fame)conducted a sting operations on a few Indian BPOs and she was provided with info on the credit details of thousands of individuals,proving that the Indian BPO scene was not all that rosy-rosy as it seems from the outside.
Anyways new headaches for one of India's shining stars and NASSCOM caught with its pants down.