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October 2007 - Posts
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Artistnation has been recently launched that brings in one umbrella the pandora
of revenue sources for artists including Music Rights, Mobile Rights, Merchandising,
Product branding, touring, etc. It has recently signed up with Madonna for 150 Million
over 10 years. Artists are now realized as the center of universe and they never had
the things of distribution going better for them. There was an other speaker
who said who wants to dispel this vision of artist quitting their day job, over
the weekend distribute music and make millions. Traditional there is an adversary
relationship between label and artists - now they will move into more collaborative
relationship just like artist and managers. Labels were controlling 90% of video distribution,
now you have MSN, Google & Yahoo! doing it.
There was mentioned about Ruckus which
is legal music free for college students.
Alby Galuten from Sony says it is a myth that labels makes artists. Music in their
heydays were immersive in music when they buy a CD put up their headphone and hear
it, do nothing. Now they do many things. It is going to be very difficult to get subscribers
to keep paying $15 per month.
Jessica Stoner of Pandora (Radio) talked
about how users will get more ways to get music easily - as easy as get getting terrestrial
music, now they are getting broadband music in PC, later it is going to broadband
in their cars. People want to discover/get introduced to music in their radio and
then hear it to death from their iPod.
John Jones talked about how music will be mixed / consolidated in everything that
MSN, Yahoo! does.
Charlie Moore of Ruckus feels that students feel comfortable paying money per
semester terms, they are comfortable for charging through mobile/landline numbers
than through credit cards. They will feel better to pay $50 per year one time, rather
than $5 per month.
There was a question of where Microsoft is with Zune with all their monies and
where is there $50 million campaign equivalent of iPods. Microsoft historically leads
in 3rd round, they have patience and perseverance to lead. They did with software,
now they are likely to get it in entertainment with XBOX leading.
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Most
of the talks were about Mobile content, everyone seems to be obsessed with that single
idea, the next idea is social networking in online space. Some of what I heard in
the day:
The biggest challenge is the variety and difference of off-deck sites and the
way you work with careers, the consumer experience is so different that you have to
teach them to get each site working. The other challenge is I watch two videos, do
a call my battery dies. You have now plenty of content now available, the real need
is how to discover the. The reason why YouTube is successful it makes the finding
of content like what people are watching made very easy. 2% (or 6 Million or
so) of the 240 Million subscribers in USA have downloaded ever a video in their mobile.
The offdeck world is important because you can do sharing of content between subscribers
of different careers. The careers have no big interest in scaling video downloads
in their network.
Bernard Gershon Sr.VP of ABC News says it is 2 years away where people are going
to be very comfortable watching videos on Mobile. Tammy Franklin VP of Turner
broadcasting said Phone is still a Hardware business, the phone needs to have the
capability to play videos and people are stuck in 2.5G and their present plans before
you can move them. There was a mention on how OEM and Device manufacturer would like
to get into the service revenue, they feel left out and now with iPhone they are tempted
again.
In another track there was a demo of Titan TV that helps local Television stations
to go broadband, titan does the encoding, geographic based advertisements, etc.
I was interviewed today about Vishwak twice in Digital Hollywood at Vator.tv and Nowlive.com
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I am here in LA with my team for the Digital Hollywood 2007 Fall event happening at
Hollywood & Highlands (which is where the Oscar Awards famous Kodak theatre is).
As we went up and down the floors between the conference floor and the exhibit floor
I noticed this big piano complete with sitting stool hanging in air above 5 floors.
What a creative use for a old piano!. Click on the photos above for a larger view.
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DH
Fall 2007 just started. The first session "Media, Entertainment and Social Change"
talked about how Digital Film Making Tools helped the campaigners behind the "Darfur
Now" movie to produce it. "Ted Braun" said how they are using the Community tools
to spread the message through viral marketing (embed the original videos produced
during the movie). Participant.net company's "Adrian Sexton" says their goal is to
be make entertainment meets social action meets social media. For them using
the community/social networking technology tools means not only making profit but
action social awareness. Most of the Social causes sites and places are not engaging
and compelling, they are largely inert communities and no entertainment proposition.
People want to be in active communities and have entertainment as well. Good Philanthropy
should also give good entertainment and they call "Social Action Network". There tenets
are to "Connect, Collaborate, Engage, Activate" basically take part!.
I was pleased to know that the technology we feel is only for the urban elites are
helping greatly in effecting a social change.
Few other points - YouTube has a new initiative "Broadcast your cause" where they
give free cameras to community journalism, Al Gore has launched Current.com (2.0)
Digg Like System for social causes sites, Kiva.com is about loans that change lives
(based on Micro finance) and Clinton plugged it in Oprah on Sep 4, 2007 and they got
more money they can give, MSN Messenger works with the IM donations model, Development
of original multimedia content based upon community engagement in a subject area.
"We Make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give" - Winston
Churchill
Mobile TV & Video: Content & Commerce: A movie clip was demoed
by Motorola using Mobiclip player from Actimagine corp. Transpera demoed their solutions
to connect multiple devices, multiple gateways, etc and also social community sharing
features. MediaFlo (Nalco) shows their TV Experience in Mobile and channel surfing
as fast as in tv and not battery draining, uses Qualcomm's nationwide 700Mhz spectrum.
Actimagine says they expect the Nokia, Motorola & Windows Mobile Smartphone will
be 400Million+ by next year. Choicestream talked about their personalized recommendation
software. Verisign talked about their DNS Services, SSL, Mobile Messages (60% of world
wide messages are routed through them) and they have more TELCO integration than anyone
else. Fun Little movies demoed their family/kids/international friendly comedy in
Sprint Mobile channel.
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How do you make people watch the content they have already paid for, say by $100 per
month for their cable connection
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Internet has taught us that Media houses will have significant share, but the hockey
stick long tail approach/inflexion point is user generated content
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Discussions on whether content programming (like what they cable networks do) is important
or not. Or is only the content producers (professional or user) important
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In the question hour I talked about how in India people wait for 5-10 minutes to download
a paid content; it is about empowering people who don't have access to content (connecting
the unconnected)
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There was another question - In TV advertisements happen because it was free; why
will we watch advertisements while we pay for Mobile. It was answered as the same
scenario that happened 10 years back - why see advertisements while we pay for ISP
for internet, why we watch advertisements in TV while we pay for cable.
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I
am writing this post on a flight from London to Los Angeles. Since I had a good
night sleep on my previous leg from Mumbai to London, I didn't want to sleep now,
instead spending the time got on clearing my backlogs of emails and tasks. I own a
Zune Player that I rarely carry outside, I think I already have enough electronics
with me all the time - Laptop, its cables, cell phone and USB drives. I use my Zune
most of the time while I am at home connected to Lansec speakers. Recently I found
a good use for Zune, it is to take it on long trips for watching movies that I don't
get time to watch while at time. The best thing about Zune is that it has a quite
big size screen which makes it comfortable for watching movies, battery that lasts
for nearly 2 full movies and I can charge it back by connecting it to my laptop.
I bought the DVD of the movie "World
Trade Center" few months back but never had the time to watch it at home. Before
leaving I converted the DVD into Zune format using PCDVD software. The software does
a good conversion, but freezes once in a while running in Vista.
Coming back to the movie, I was expecting (should I say ignorantly) the movie to be
the story behind the plot & how it was executed. Instead the movie was about how
two cops from Port Authority (PAPD) who risked their lives to safe people after the
first tower coming down, got themselves trapped in concourse of building 5. The whole
movie revolves around these two officers and their anxious family. The director has
nicely handled the story on the lines of human spirit, moments before death and courage
of people in uniform. After watching the movie completely, it struck me if the movie
had covered any other story line or talked about the plot it would have been disrespectful
to the thousands of families who lost their loved one's on that tragic day.
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I have said it in the past, I will say it again. The best airport to go abroad from
India is Chennai International Airport. It is small compared to Mumbai and Delhi,
which means less flights depart, fewer people so you will have comfortable space.
I am doing this post from Mumbai International Airport, even after privatization this
airport has improved little. It is one big corridor in two floors, packed with people
every where - easily few thousands and no place to sit, windowless gates and Cigarette
smoke everywhere near gates. It is a complete chaos. Compared to the International
Airport, the Mumbai Domestic Airport is far better.
Last week I went to Colombo and returned. I found the Arrival terminal in Colombo
to be world class and the departure to be the same old airport. On return to India,
I was surprised to find a new arrival hall in Chennai International Airport, this
one is more spacious, more conveyor belts. One more reason for me to like the Chennai
Airport :-)
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At Vishwak we have over 10 years of experience with Media and Mobile Portal solutions.
Recently we launched www.deliveranexprience.com as
a branding site for our offerings with Silverlight, Sharepoint, VPF (Vishwak
Portal Framework) and MCDS (Mobile
Content Delivery System).
We are showcasing this for the first time in upcoming Digital
Hollywood(Fall) event being held at Hollywood from 29th Oct to 1st Nov
2007. DH is a premium event that connects Hollywood and IT industries. I will be there
and if you happen to be in LA area, please visit us at Stall #60 at the Grand Ballroom
at Hollywood and Highlands.
I have been invited as well as a speaker in a panel discussion on Day 3 (Nov 1):
Track III: 12:50 PM - 2:00 PM
Personalized and Innovative Mobile & Broadband Services: Advertising and Content
Steve Bava, Group Account Director, WHITTMANHART Interactive
Mike Fitzsimmons, CEO, Delivery Agent
Jonathan Cobb, Founder and CEO, Kiptronic
Venkatarangan Thirumalai, Chairman, Vishwak Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Jordan Greene, VP of Mobile Marketing, MindMatics
Dina Pradel, Vice President of Marketing, StyleFeeder
Michael J. Pinto, Managing Principal, mCapital, LLC, Moderator
For Session
Description & Speaker Bios Click Here
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As I have said in the past, many times I find interesting articles handpicked and
featured in MSN.COM homepage. Today I read one such article on World's
Cheapest destinations. It covered about places where you can spend a day for $20
- Laos, Bali, Vietnam, India, Zambia, Tunisia, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru and Argentina.
Sadly it has left out Sri Lanka - may be it was because of the ongoing unrest there.
Though India is featured there, don't get fooled. Anything in Travel that falls under
luxury is expensive in India compared to other Asian countries. Five Star (though
not everyone will be looking) accommodations are the most expensive in India, even
Las Vegas is cheaper than Indian Metros. One of our abroad client is visiting us in
Chennai this week and Chola Sheraton's per day rate for them is Rs.8800 (USD 225).
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Last week just before my Sri Lanka short visit, I finished this audio
book. It was "Tough
Choices" by Carly
Fiorina who spent nearly twenty years at AT & T and Lucent Technologies before
working as CEO for HP from 2000 to 2005. The book is a must read (or listen) for people
starting their career in a large organization and especially Women Executive's will
find themselves relating well to Carly's experiences. The initial chapters are definitely
inspirational for fighting against the odds in modern businesses.
If you have read Who
says Elephants can't Dance Audio book by Louis Gerstner Jr., the former IBM CEO
on how he transformed IBM, you will expect similar material here on what happened
in HP. In which case, you will be disappointed. Though there are elaborate coverages
on her interview process for the CEO post and her firing from HP board, there is little
coverage on her job as CEO. I was surprised to hear her bold statements about few
executives who she comes across in her career, some of them quoted by her with actual
names I am sure are still around in the industry. She raises strong criticisms about Michael
Capellas (Ex-CEO of Compaq) and David
Woodley Packard (son of HP co-founder David Packard) in the book.
On being selected as Fortune magazine Top Woman CEO she had the following to say:
“After striving my entire career to be judged by my results and my decisions,
the coverage of my gender, my appearance and perceptions of my personality would outweigh
anything else”
The title Tough Choices indicates the tough one's Carly had to make in her personal/career
life as an individual. I liked her repeatedly used quote in the book about "having
my soul still with me".
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As I have kept noting down in this blog, Microsoft's Live Service offerings are improving
day by day. In the recent weeks there have been significant improvement in the search
relevance, breadth of offerings and more so on the improved user interface. Today
when I went to Live Search Maps, I liked the Single Text box Interface (shown above),
the earlier two text boxes UI was a pain to use. What impressed me most was their
support for business owners - I searched for "Vishwak Solutions" looking for our company
in Redmond, WA. It didn't give up any results, then I clicked on the Help button expecting
no useful information or out dated links. I was surprised to see the first topic itself
being what I wanted - How to list my business?. The steps that followed was easy to
complete and they verified real time with a PIN number by calling the business phone
number I had furnished. Overall excellent consumer experience, keep up the good work
Live team!
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As I wrote yesterday - On 16th October I presented in Sri
Lanka DevDay 2007. The audience were more than 500 in number and were enthusiastic
bunch, who were very eager to learn new things in technology. This was different from
the programs in India, where Audiences are not that excited even when you show them
new stuffs. This may be because in India you have lost the charm of big events as
too many of them happen that too throughout the year.
Anyways, coming back I presented on two topics I like a lot nowadays - WPF and Silverlight.
WPF, a new way of looking @ your Windows Applications
Overview of Windows Presentation Foundation, the goals behind WPF and the
power of XAML language. See for yourself how the UI world around you is changing forever.
The session will cover the design and implementation of UI using Microsoft Expression
Blend and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 “Orcas”. It will get into discussing about
the popular controls in WPF including Layout, Data Binding, Audio/Video, Flow Control
and composition techniques. We will wrap up the session by looking into the new features
introduced with WPF 3.5.
Silverlight: The web just got richer
See Microsoft’s new arsenal for the web, the cross browser cross platform
Silverlight. In a world where designers had more say in Web Applications this
session will show you how developers can get back into the driving seat. The Session
will go into details of case studies of applications built with Silverlight 1.0. You
will see demos working across browsers seamlessly. We will wrap up the session by
discussing the new capabilities that .NET integration is bringing to upcoming Silverlight
1.1 version.
References:
1. The presentations I made (Thanks to Tim
Sneath of Microsoft) are available
here
2. Most of the demos (other than the demos we built for our customers in Vishwak)
are taken from Silverlight and WindowsClient.net sites.
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I was in Sri Lanka for last two days on invitation from Microsoft (Sri Lanka) to present
on their DevDay 2007 event. The event happened in Mount
Lavinia Hotel and I stayed there as well. What a beautiful place this is, with
clean unspoiled beaches and adding to the vintage effect given by a Railway station
right in the front of the hotel. Imagine the place that has Railway Station in Front
and a long unspoiled beach on the other side. The hotel itself has 200 years of history
starting as the house of the British governor and moving to various owners. Check
out the photos of the place below:
Microsoft gave me a beautiful gift, which was a replica of Sigiriya style of art of
a Fresco maiden holding flowers. The replica was done on a irregular shaped
stone giving it a genuine antique look - may be this is what made the Sri Lankan Customs
question me on whether I am smuggling out one of their antique piece out of country.
Of course, they allowed me to take it after they found it to be a replica. I have
given below the images of the original painting (Left) and the replica (Right) I got.
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Earlier today when I was doing a WPF demo in Colombo for Microsoft DevDay 2007 I wanted
to show the new Solitaire and other games rendering smooth UI in Vista. But
I didn't find any of the games in my demo laptop. The last I have used the games in
Vista was when Vista was in Beta and in Vista Ultimate edition. On further investigation
and looking into other Vista installations (Windows Vista Enterprise x64, Vista Business
x86) I realized that games are not installed by default in these editions - obviously
why do you want them in a business edition of the OS?. The good news is that
you can go Programs and Features applet in Control Panel, and install the games. Immediately
upon installation, I played and won a game with Solitaire. Hip hip hooray!!!
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சுமார்
இரு வாரங்களுக்கு முன்பு மக்கள் தொலைக்காட்சியில் ஏன்னை பேட்டி எடுத்தார்கள். ஒரு இருபது
நிமிடங்கள் ஒடிய இந்த பேட்டியில் என்னால் முடிந்த அளவுக்கு பிறமொழி கலக்காமல் தமிழியில்
பேசினேன். எனக்கு தாய்மொழித் தமிழ் என்பதால் தமிழில் பேசுவது கடினமே அல்ல. ஆனால் அலுவலுக்குக்காக
தொழில்நுட்பங்களை ஆங்கிலத்திலேயே பேசிப்பழகியதால், தமிழில் கணினி மற்றும் செல்பேசி முன்னேற்றங்களைப்
பேசுவதில் சிறு தயக்கம் அவ்வளவு தான் :-).
இந்த நிகழ்ச்சி நாளைக் காலை 8 மணிக்கும், மாலை 11 மணிக்கும் ஒளிப்பரப்பாகிறது. மறக்காமல்
பாருங்கள்!
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If you are like me who has multiple mail profiles configured in Outlook 2007, you
will be tired of selecting the profile everytime. Instead using command-line switches
(parameters) for Outlook.exe you can create a shortcut for each profile that you want
to run. For example I have a Profile (configured using the Mail Applet in Control
Panel) named "Vishwak" and another named "Hotmail". So to run the Vishwak Profile
I create a Shortcut that points to:"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE"
/profile Microsoft
Needless to say, the above path is specific to my Vista with Office 2007 machine.
To learn on more switches and what they can do read
this article from Office Online.
Like I have written
earlier Outlook.exe switches can also be used to do tasks that are not
exposed in User Interface like cleaning rules, etc.
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