TechGazing

With the launch of Amazon’s electronic wireless reading device Kindle making the news, will digitization of books mean this industry will also go the music industry way? Will revenues be killed as books get exchanged freely (think Napster?) once they are available in e-formats? Or the experience of feeling and smelling ink on paper never fade away?

Technology has changed a lot of things, even as nay-sayers in the earlier years would proclaim “This can never happen.” So it seems for books – general opinion seems to be all for books as we have always known them. I will stick my neck out and say paper will never die for me – and I seem to have enough people for company in saying this.

Given below are some very interesting perspectives I have gathered from people globally. Add your opinion to it too: Read on, this is very interesting

CNN IBN, a leading news channel in India and pioneer of Citizen Journalism in the country, has gone a step further now: Anyone can now send in videos and images taken from their mobile phone to their Citizen Journalism account on the channel’s website IBNlive.com over MMS without the need for a PC. The enabling partner for the same is a start-up Mobshare.in, a mobile social network.

The service will go live in 15-20 days, confirmed Mobshare’s COO Sony Joy in an exclusive chat with TechGazing. All one needs is a GPRS connection to send videos directly to one’s account on IBNlive. There is also a feature to send an alert to one’s friends over SMS, with a link which can be clicked on for viewing on the recipient’s mobile itself says Sony. All this makes sharing very easy, especially for those who do not have access to a PC. Continue Reading

Arianna Huffington needs no introduction – as co-founder and editor of The Huffington Post, Ariana has created a place for herself in the short history of new media, giving traditional media a run for their money in the process.

I got an opportunity to listen to her and subsequently interact too at Ad:Tech in New York which I covered. Excerpts from her talk/ my interview:

Should a blog or a site focus on a single theme to appeal to a specific audience or be everything to everyone?
We started as a political blog, but realised even the most passionate of our readers have other interests prompting us to launch more verticals. The key is also to make your platform interactive to get them to spend more time on the site. Last month alone we had 250,000 comments. Depending on your business model, both specialist and general can work. Continue Reading…

Imagine staying in a hotel and knowing who else is also there at the same time through a social networking site? This site could be the hotel website itself, allowing guests to interact if they wish to?

This post has been prompted by some responses I read on LinkedIn Answers following a hotel website related question (click here to read it). And this suggestion of a social site came from one of the respondents. Given below are what they said – what is your take on this? Read on for some interesting views

Your mobile network offers you internet access, and your handset enables you to connect. Why are you still a reluctant user? Too complex to use and you don’t know how much it will cost?

If these are the reasons, join the over three billion mobile users globally who feel similarly – the ones who don’t have an iPhone on the AT&T network in the USA. These players have shown the way to success in the Mobile 2.0 world feels Steve Boom, Yahoo’s Senior Vice President for broadband and mobile, who I interacted with in Macau at the GSMA’s Mobile Asia Congress.

Steve made some thought provoking remarks on how use of net on mobiles can go up, benefiting operators, application providers like Yahoo and consumers. His take: For the last nine years, he has been feeling the mobile internet boom is always two years away. And the reason for these unkept promises? We have not been able to develop a holistic user model which takes care of the following: Continue Reading

The last three weeks have been quite eventful - literally speaking. Starting with the Social Media for Business event in London on October 30, I have been almost around the world covering events related to new media, blogging, mobiles, digital advertising, PR/ Web/ Tech 2.0 etc. In the coming weeks, you can expect to see some useful and interesting posts based on my reporting from these events and interaction with global leaders.

The other events covered include Ad:Tech New York, Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas and GSMA’s Mobile Asia Congress in Macau (Hong Kong) - all in succession in this order starting November 5.

And I may just slip in a piece or two about my experience of witnessing the New York Marathon and how I survived a 63 hour journey from Las Vegas to Macau.

Watch this space!!

The following is the text of a piece I wrote for The Hindustan Times, a leading national newspaper in India. You can also access this piece online here.

If you do nothing but use your travelling time as learning time, this decision alone could make you one of the best educated people around. Listening to relevant audio programs in your car or in public transport can make you an expert in your field.

The above advice comes from US based Brian Tracy, well known author of audio and print books on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy. In an age where knowledge and information are often the differentiator in determining success, Tracy’s words may hold the key for the time-harried professional trying to play catch-up with the latest around him.

If you are one of those willing to pick up nuggets of wisdom, you may just be spoilt for choices. Content of all kinds is now available from various sources, delivered in user-friendly formats to your everyday devices including car stereos, iPods and mobile devices. Here’s checking out some for starters: Read on for some interesting ideas