My attempt to understand Open Source-Part 2
How did the Apache community decide who are the trusted members?
"For Apache, we started with eight people who really trusted each other, and as new people showed up at the discussion forum and offered patch files posted to the discussion forum, we would gain trust in others, and that eight grew to over thousand."
When did open source first gain acceptance and backing from from professionally run companies?
IBM was trying to sell its own proprietary Web server, called GO, but couldnt succeed. Apache turned out to be better technolgy and free. So, IBM decided if it cant beat Apache, it must join hands with Apache.
This was an important turn in the history of open source. The worlds biggest computer company decided that its engineers could not beat the work of an ad hoc collection of geeks, so they threw out their own technology and decided to go with the geeks!
So, how did it benefit IBM monetarily?
IBM held a meaningful conversation with Apache people and helped create the nonprofit Apache Software Foundation. With the help of lawyers, they helped in creating a legal framework so that there would no copyright issues for IBM. IBM wanted to build application on top of Apache and charge money for them. IBM saw the value in having a standard vanilla web server architecture, which was constantly being improved for free by an open source community.
The legal framework said. "You need to be able to vet the code, sign an agreement, and deal with liability issues. Anybody can download the Apache code. The only obligation is that they acknowldge that it came from the site, and if they make any changes that they share them back." You were also allowed to out and build a patended commercial product on top of the Apache code, as IBM did with its WebSphere server product. While it wanted the foundations to be free and open to all, it recognized that it would remain strong and fresh if both the commercial and non commercial engineers had an incentive to participate.
This model has been widely adopted, after even one saw it propelled IBM's Web server business to commercial leadership in that category of softare, generating huge amounts of revenue.
THE FREE SOFTWARE MOVEMENT
The free softaware movement was and remains inspired by the ethical idea that software should be free and available to all, and it relies on open source collaboration to help produce the best fostware possible to be distributed for free.
This is a bit different from the approach of the intellectual commons. Apache saw open sourcing as a technically superior means of creating software and other innovations and it had no problem with commercial software being built on top of it.
However, the goal of the free software movement, was to get as many people as possible improving and distributing software for free, out of belief that this will empower everyone and free individuals from the grip of global coprparations. The free software movement structures its licenses so that if your commercial software draws directly from their free software copyright, they ent your software to be free too.
The GNU/GPL story
(to be contd...)
Posted at 06:04AM Aug 21, 2007 by rainmaker in Personal | Comments[0]
My attempt to understand Open Source-Part 1
Since long, I wanted to know more about the philosophy and the force that powers open source. But have been lazy to pick myself up and research on it. My earlier knowledge on open source was the result of half baked information that I picked from occasionally bumping into web sites or from water cooler gossips. Last week, when Anil Gupta, the VP of IEC exhorted each of his employees to brace up open source in a big way and have a crystal clear understanding of Sun's open source strategy, I considered it a befitting time to jump into understanding open source in and out. And this post is the result of my study.
But how does this collaboration work? How has it created such a huge impact in the world of software development? To understand this, we need to differentiate two varieties of open source:
1.The intellectual commons
2.Free software movement
The Intellectual Commons
The intellectual commons form of open sourcing stems from the academic and scientific communities, where collaborative communities of scientist come together through private networks to pool their knowledge and share insights.
Why people share knowledge and work in this way?
"IT people tend to be very bright people and they want everybody to know just how brilliant they are"-Mike, IT systems architect
"Open Source is nothing more than peer reviewed science. People contribute to these things because they make science, and they discover things, and the reward is reputation"-Marc Andreessen, man resposnible for the Internet revolution.(Will share his story in another post)
How did the first ever open source project began?
The first ever open source project in truest sense was Apache, known to be pioneered by Brian Behlendorf . When Marc Andeerssen developed the first generation web browser(till then Internet was just mailing lists,e-mail, FTP), it needed a Web server to host the sites. It started in a forum where Marc Andersson and Tim Berners Lee(known as Father of the Internet) were debating on how all Web technolgies should work together. Behlendorf kept himself updated with the forum discussions.
At that time, Wired magazine wanted to set up its own website that supported password authentication and hired Behlendorf at 10$ an hour. In those days, most webmasters depended on a web server program developed by National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA). But NCSA web servers couldn't handle password authentication on the scale that HotWired needed. Incidently the NCSA Web sever was in the public domain as a result the source code was freely available. Behlendorf wrote a patch to the NCSA code that took care of the password authentication. But it was not Behlendorf alone who was working on patches. Webmasters all across the web were finding it necessary to keep adding patches to support the growing demand. Slowly the patches were building a new modern Web sever in an ad hoc open-source manner.
NCSA in the meanwhile was acting unprofessional. NCSA was not answering to the emails of little working group on patches. They were neither integrating patches neither responding to their feedback. This worried Behlendorf on the future of webservers. He then started to contact the other people who were trading with patches. They then decided mutually, "Why dont we take our future into our hands and release our own web sever that incorporated all our patches?". Since none of them had time to be a full time web server developer, they combined time and did it in a public way that could create something better.
This was how Apache
started. The first open source project
(To be contd...)
N.B. : My desperate attempts to get proper and authentic resource on open source finally found solace with the book, World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. So, most of the things I wrote about open source is picked from this book.
Posted at 04:26AM Aug 20, 2007 by rainmaker in Software technologies | Comments[0]
BarCamp Bangalore 4
I wouldn't take pains in explaining what a BARCAMP is because there are numerous resources already about BARCAMP scattered all across the Internet. For the uninitiated, read this article, http://businessworldindia.com/oct0206/coverstory02.asp . I was fortunate to attend my first BARCAMP in Bangalore this July, courtesy Bangalore Open Java User Group(BOJUG), through which I came to know about this exciting phenomenon.
I doubt if my blog would be able to convey the level of excitement that I experienced right there at the precinct of IIM Bangalore where the event was hosted. First and foremost, this was the first time ever I set my foot on an IIM campus. I could sense the halo that an IIM campus exudes. The huge expanse of green cover that drapes the campus only adds to its glory .
To tell you honestly, I had not understood the concept of BARCAMP till I actually saw it unfold in front of myself. BARCAMP 4 was a collectives edition this time, where each collective was meant for a particular self interest group. BARCAMP describes collectives as:
Collectives are groups of people (generally people) who aggregate around common topics/concerns/ideologies/peeves. They are like niche rooms devised to encourage individuals who, otherwise, spend a lot of energy in inventing the same wheel in different locations, oblivious to the efforts of the others. We introduce Collectives as a way of forming your initial networks before you reach the physical venue. Collectives are specifically, NOT your social networking system replacements – aim for quality of discussion and emergent results rather than numbers.
* 1 Technology Collectives
o 1.1 Mobile Collective
o 1.2 Internet Collective
o 1.3 Free and Open Source Software
o 1.4 Content Management Systems Collective
o 1.5 Programming Languages and Compiler Design
* 2 Developer Collectives
o 2.1 BangPypers
o 2.2 Bangalore Open Java User Group
o 2.3 Ruby Collective
o 2.4 BangAJAX Collective
o 2.5 Buffer OverFlows & Code Injection
o 2.6 BandFun Collective
o 2.7 Sysadmins Collective
o 2.8 PHP collective
* 3 Startups Collective
* 4 Enterprise Collectives
o 4.1 FOSS in the Enterprise Collective
* 5 Special interests collectives
o 5.1 Gizmofreaks collective
o 5.2 Photo Collective
o 5.3 Bloggers Collective
o 5.4 User Interface Design & Usability Collective
o 5.5 Wikis Collective
o 5.6 UnBand Collective
o 5.7 Gaming Collective
o 5.8 Investor$ Collective
o 5.9 Bicycling in Bangalore Collective
* 6 Society and Government Collectives
o 6.1 SocialTech Collective
o 6.2 E-governance Collective
* 7 Other Collectives / Non-Collective sessions
o 7.1 BCB4 Hack night
o 7.2 Speed Geeking
o 7.3 Board of Collectives Collective
o 7.4 Bored of Collectives Collective
o 7.5 Psychics Collective
o 7.6 Eating out in Bangalore Collective
o 7.7 Weekend getaways collective
The session kicked off in a huge
auditorium which was jam packed and when asked how many were first
timers to the BARCAMP, 80% people must have raised hands. A clear indicator of
the popularity this camp had generated this time. The atmosphere was
very casual with lots of wit and humor wafting in the air, nevertheless with a serious
sense of purpose. There were about 30 collectives that were
registered. But many collectives were being made right there on
the whim. Though there were a few frivolous collectives, like
Eating Out, and Physic, there were many who were dead serious about
its purpose. Each collective member had to introduce their
collective in front of the crowd for 30 seconds. And many a times they had to be chased from the stage as they kept talking about. All in a lighter vein. There were some very
interesting collectives and I kept scribbling down the one's that
caught my fancy. Soon I had a long list. I couldnt have attended all
of them, so I started picking the best. The sessions were conducted just
about anywhere the group gathered. In classrooms, canteens, corridors or
the lawns. They also had set up a group messaging service, to which anyone who subscribed got regular sms updates of the sessions happening so that no one would be lost in the humdrum.
I let go my plans to attend technical collectives for a change and headed for a collective on Entrepreneurship by Prof. Kumar. Prof. Kumar is the man responsible for setting up the incubation center, NSRECL at IIM Bangalore to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem. His session must have pulled 60% of the crowd and the room fell too short to accommodate everyone. We had to shift to the auditorium. He started with a question, “How many here have their own startups”. There were many hands.
He then asked. “How many are on the verge of setting up a startup”. There were again many hands. As he proceeded to talk, there was an English guy who quipped, “Prof Kumar, You didnt ask how many of us had a failed startups”. And then again many hands rose up. Kumar called the guy up to the stage and asked him to talk about his failed venture and his experiences. This had set the mood for the session, but soon the allotted time was over. There was a group outside who had turned hysterical, since most of the crowd was here and thus attendance to other collectives was thin.
With due permission one of the
organizers, introduced another collective called Startups. It had 3
very young speakers who would speak on their ventures and experiences
of running their own company from scratch. Soon the crowd was
streaming out from the auditorium to listen to these young
entreprenuers. They did not want to hear an experienced professor
lecturing on entrepreneurship and found more sense hearing straight
from those young turks who had actually made it on their own. I too was one of
them.The Startups room was jam packed again. I took the front seat. A young fellow beside me introduced himself to me. He was a venture capitalist who, as he spoke, had raised 1 million dollars within an year funding prospective startups. My mind zonked. Soon after he came to know my background, he did not find me interesting. His attention shifted to the fellow on his right side. I realised that this forum was being greatly leveraged to network and make right connections with like minded individuals.
Soon the session got started by Kartik, who had started a company called PICSQUARE followed by Sujoy from Sloka Telecom. They shared their stories and experiences they faced in their attempt to make a place for themselves in the Sun. Kartik should be a 25 yr old guy who along with his friend started a photo publishing service called PICSQUARE and within a year have broken even and have sustained the tough times. Sujoy of Sloka telcom got very popular with the audience because of his inimitable oratory skills and an equally engaging story describing the travails of his enterprenuerial life.
It was soon 2 pm and I rushed to have lunch at the canteen. I then peered through the post its to pick my next would be engaging session. I settled for the Investment collective and rushed to the room. I had to contend stading at a corner as the seats were already taken. Dr Musa (a doctor turned investment expert) was demystifying the nuances of investment and audience was all ears to what he spoke. He was trying to drive home the point, why aggressive investment was no more a choice but an indespensable solution for a secure life. He threw startling numbers when he asked, 'what do you think the cost of education would be for your child in the future?'. His estimate with the rising inflation and Purchasing power parity index, was a staggering 55 lakhs.
After listening to him for the rest of the afternoon, my mind was completely spent out. I was a bit dissapointed not having able to attend other interesting electives and made my mind to come up the next day. But alas!, I got busy with other committments.
I am eagerly looking forward to BARCAMP 5 with an intent of showcasing my own collective.
Posted at 01:26AM Aug 10, 2007 by rainmaker in Social | Comments[1]
Blogger's block of a different kind
Just the next day after reading Anjana's blog on Blogger's block, I was hit with another idea, a phenomenon that is in stark contrast of what she mentioned. She talked about the syndrome when mind takes a vacation sometimes. I was thinking about the opposite, where your mind is deluged with ideas.
You start writing on a theme and then another one disturbs you. You find this idea more compelling. You start writing on this new idea. Then another connected idea hits you. And suddenly you are crushed in an avalanche of ideas. At last, you end up writing a lot but you havent completed any. I say with some heart wrenching personal experiences. I have numerous unfinished drafts either ensconsed in drawers of my cupboard(if they are on paper) or in some misplaced folder in my PC.
This is another variety of blogger's block where the culprit is not 'lack of ideas' but surfeit of them.
N.B: I have never been hit with a blogger's block(1st type) as such. if there has been a long dry spell without any blogging, it was only because I did not set myself to write or was too lazy/busy.
Posted at 01:47AM Aug 09, 2007 by rainmaker in Personal | Comments[2]
Bangalore Open Java Users Group - Users Meet
We are happy to announce BOJUG MEET , This BOJUG meet
will be in association with the BCB 4(Bangalore Bar Camp 4)<http://barcampbangalore.org>
sponsored by IntellJ Idea.
Date : 28th ,29th July 07
Venue : IIM Bangalore.
Registrations(compulsory) :-
http://barcampbangalore.org/wiki/BCB4_Collectives
We would like to have more and more people participate to this meet because
this meet is gonna be a big one with lots of sessions and lots of goodies :D
, and offcourse lots of fun.
Thanks,
Ravi
Posted at 02:11AM Jul 18, 2007 by rainmaker in Personal | Comments[1]
What is a redshift company?
Redshift
is a term from Physics/astronomy for the shifting of
light(reflected or direct) from the galaxy is shifting towards the red
end of the electromagnetic spectrum because of universe's massive
expansion.
This scientific
phenomenon is taken as an analogy for companies that require massive
computational power to support their network services that they provide
their customers through the Internet. Such companies(Web 2.0,
infrastrcuture as a service, hosted applications) experience
unpredictable growth and require highly optimized and secure network
infrastructure to run their services. These companies are targetted by
server companies, such as Sun to provide computational solutions.
The name Redshift, was proposed by Greg Papadopoulos, CTO, Sun
Microsystems to name such a market observation. The products that Sun has come up with to target these customers are Project Blackbox/ DataCenter.
Posted at 04:26AM Jul 10, 2007 by rainmaker in Software technologies | Comments[0]
The tagged web
The word tagging is a derivative from the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Tagging refers to using keywords to describe your content on the Internet. The content can be of any form: text, pictures, audios or videos. This helps to categorize information from the deluge of ever increasing content in the big world of WWW. Individuals can then search for content using these keywords.
The tagging system has brought a world of order to an otherwise sea of cluttered information. Earlier one had to take the help of search engines to look for information which functioned with complex algorithms, and the result often wasn't impressive and didn't guarantee relevance. The best thing about tagging, also called "folksonomies," is that it is usually created by users themselves, rather than web masters and hence are very effective.
Limiting the definition of tagging as just a way of categorizing content could be belittling its far higher purpose. It is a system that empowers common man. People are doing this for their own benefit by organizing their own benefit and in the process benefit others.
What is a tag cloud?
To quote from wikipedia, "A tag cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of content tags used on a website. Often, more frequently used tags are depicted in a larger font or otherwise emphasized, while the displayed order is generally alphabetical. Thus both finding a tag by alphabet and by popularity is possible. Selecting a single tag within a tag cloud will generally lead to a collection of items that are associated with that tag."
Case Studies:
http://del.icio.us/ : It is a social bookmarking website that helps your store your bookmarks (favorites) online, and allows yout to access these booksmarks froma ny computer connected to the Internet. You can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks
Flickr.com : Its a photo sharing site that allows everyone to post and view pictures. The photos posted are tagged by the user with a keyword that defines the characteristic of the picture.
Technorati : It is a search engine for blogs. It keeps a repository of blogs on just about any category and is categorised with the help of tags that bloggers assign to them.
Posted at 03:16AM Jul 09, 2007 by rainmaker in Personal | Comments[0]
We were the winners!
No. We
didn't bag the prize at the
Entertaining Speech Contest organized by the Infosys Toastmasters
Club day before yesterday, but we put up a gritty show and made our
mark there. And thus we were winners in our own might. A briefing on
how things unfolded at the Infy campus...
A week before the contest when Sun Toastmasters club was invited to participate in the 175th anniversary meeting of Infosys Toastmasters club, I was excited but was unsure whether I was prepared to take part in competitions outside. A couple of days later Prasanna, our President, gave me a call to ask if I would be interested. He had already registered himself by then. I agreed without having the slightest idea of what was coming my way. He put a stern word of caution, “If you commit, you cannot chicken out in the end”. I warily said, “yes, I commit”. The topic to speak upon was “I wish I could...”. This looked an interesting and easy topic to speak upon. But the kind of born procrastinator that I am, i was not ready till 2 days before the competition. The guidelines mentioned that weightage would be given for innovativeness and humor. I tried my best to prepare the content and when I thought I was ready, set up a time in the morning of the D-day with Prasanna to have a mutual rehearsal. Prasanna's speech was good with some humor. But he had more serious content in the later half. I asked him to make it a little more humorous. He added a bit. He had the same advice for me. I thought mine was ok and I felt confident.
D Day, 5:40 pm, Infy campus
We were
late by more than half an hour.
We found our way to the MC hall and the moment i opened the door, my
heart was in my mouth. It was a grandiose hall appearing like an
arena with around 60-70 odd people. Big digital screens displaying
slides and video transmission. The competition was yet to begin and
other formalities were being done. I remembered Prasanna's words,
“You cannot chicken out”. I moved out of the hall and went to the
loo to pick myself up. (This is the most effective trick followed
world wide. When you are nervous or are in a trying situation, go to
the loo and have a little self talk in front of the mirror. It works
like magic). We went back and settled comfortably in the third row
from the front. The contest began. First contestant was called. He
delivered a thumping speech. The audience were laughing with his wit.
He was the man in control. I thought he is definitely taking a
prize today. The second contestant was called. He was even better.
Third speaker. She was as good and impressive. The audience was being
treated to some classy speeches full of humor and wit. I myself was
laughing out loud. These people knew the art of holding the pulse of
the audience. I panicked. Winning was never in my mind after I heard
the first speech. But now what was bothering me was that my speech
had to be in the same level of quality with humor. It happens when an
audience is treated with back to back great performances, their
expectations stay high and anything less than that would be a
disaster. I could sense that Prasanna also sensed the same. I saw him
scribbling down notes. I had no clue what. We were the last two
speakers.
After about eight
speakers, Prasanna took the podium. I was glad that his opening
remark threw the audience in splits. He asked the audience what the
time was. And then admitted that was just to check if they were
awake. What followed next was what shocked me. Prasanna had scrapped
his entire prepared speech and was speaking impromptu. And the notes
he was scribbling all the while was his new content. And the audience
did laugh at his witty stories and innuendos. I lauded his
confidence. I could never risk that, at least at this level. His
later part of the speech turned a little serious. And I think that is
what did him. Otherwise he would have been a strong contender. He
admitted later that he ran out of humor content in the end. But he
was a winner in every sense.
Next was me. All this while I had kept saying myself, “ I would do great if I could complete the whole speech in a single go without fumbling”. My name was called. I took the podium. My heart was pounding. I ran my eyes through the crowd. 70 odd people looked like 7000. I blurted, “I wished I could (this was the topic) reduce to the size of an ant and vanish from this hall. This is what pressure does it to you”. I could hear the chuckle from the audience. This gave me the confidence to carry it ahead. What amused me was that i too was experimenting with my speech and straying a bit here and there from my prepared speech to add humor. It was working. Then came a point when I went blank. I had strayed. I didnt know how to move next. It was only for a second or two. But it felt a long longtime. I somehow found a way. I finished my speech. I had a prepared witty ending. I delivered it. Audience laughed again. I felt satisfied. I came back to my seat. Prasanna complimented saying it was so humorous more than what he had heard me before while rehearsing. I had delivered a completed speech first time in my life in front of such a big audience. On such a big platform. I had won in all respect. I was the winner.
Thank you Toastmasters. It was because of you that I finally overcame my stage fright. All these days of association had it fruits delivered.
Thanks,
Ravi
Posted at 10:38PM Jul 08, 2007 by rainmaker in Social | Comments[0]
SaaS as I understand
Hi,
I intend to learn more about three
software philosophies that are driving and will drive
the future course of software
development and delivery models: Open Source Software, Software as a
Service(SaaS) and Web 2.0, which will work collaboratively to sustain
each other. Though you might all be familiar with these concepts, and
the information provided here may not be anything new, I take this as
a personal learning experience and hence post my notes here for my
own reference. It might also serve useful to anyone who wants to have
an exposure to these concepts. I also intend to touch upon yet
another software culture which might follow the current wave, and
that is the blend of Open Source Software and SaaS, called Open
Service.
For this post, I will start with SaaS.
SaaS is a model of delivering software services that are hosted on third party servers and accessed through regular web browsers, unlike the classical deployment model where the packaged licensed software is installed in local hard drives.
Wikipedia defines Saas as, “Software as a service (SaaS) is a model of software delivery where the software company provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support for the software provided to their client. SaaS is a model of software delivery rather than a market segment; it assumes the software is delivered over the internet. Software can be delivered using this method to any market segment, from home consumers to corporations.”
The architectural principle for SaaS is known as multitenancy, where a single instance of the software runs on the provider’s servers, and all users log onto that same instance.
This delivery model has the following advantages:
Complexity:
The need for installing, maintenance, securing and upgrading software gets eliminated. IT expenses because of this gets eliminated by 55%. The service provided will not deal with servers, staging, version maintenance, security, performance etc. any more.
Time
Deploys faster than regular software.
Cost
Minimises application deployment and maintenance cost. In the earlier model, customers had to wait for years for big versions and then suffer business interruption during deployment. Also it has to bear a retraining cost for the new version.
Key players involved: Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft with its Office Live offering
The target market for SaaS are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Though the verticals range from CRM and sales management, the largest segment for SaaS revenues is Web conferencing and collaboration.
Though the SaaS market is still plagued with problems like inadequate broadband access and data security concerns, it is here to stay which is evident by SaaS`being embraced by big enterprise software guns.
Posted at 03:36AM Mar 09, 2007 by rainmaker in Software technologies | Comments[1]
My man of the decade: GR Gopinath
What
should any socially sensitive government do when it spots a visionary
who is out to bring a revolution by providing a service that can ease
lives of millions of middle class countrymen? If I were representing a
nation, I would reward him with the highest civilian award for his
service regardless of whether the initiative is run with a profit
motive or not. As long as the initiative is bringing a positive social
change to my country, I as the representative of the government would
try to be a facilitator in providing all support to keep the initiative
going forward. Instead, this country has failed to realize the vision
of this visionary and has set a pathetic example to all the social
entrepreneurs who have similar vision as that of GR Gopinath.
First
thing first. Why is the world going gaga about this man? Air Deccan,
also called the Udipi Hotel of the airlines business, a subsidiary of
Deccan Aviation owned by GR Gopinath has today broken the social
barrier to flying in the country, by providing the cheapest cost base
to its traveller. It flew 1.5 million passengers last year, of which
60% were first time travellers. People who earlier saw planes from the
ground are now actually flying them. I call this a huge social change,
similar to the revolution that the country created in the field of
mobile telephony by reaching to the remotest pockets of the country.
And how has the Govt fared in encouraging this initiative. Read ahead:
•
Though Air Deccan enjoys a share of 21.8 percent in the market, they
have not been provided a single hangar till now. They engineers do
engine changes out in the open on the tarmac, fighting rain, sun and
mosquitoes. In comparison, Indian Airlines enjoys a count of 13
hangars.
• Air Deccan faces lot of bird hits, which translates to
huge revenue losses, for the low cost ailrline as it is. The Indian
airports have been virtually converted to bird sanctuaries! It is the
AAIs responsibility to clean the airports and nothing is being done for
it.
• They are not allowed to compete on certain routes. For e.g, in
the most profitable Delhi-Mumbai route, Air Deccan is kept at bay and
the existing players enjoy the unbridled patronage of the govt.
I
would sweep aside all criticisms thrown to Deccan Airlines on its
quality of services. But any new initiative of this scale (cheapest
cost base) will need some gestation period to stabilize. Its high time
Government wakes out of its narrow political machinations and look at
the greater good for the nation.
Posted at 10:48PM Mar 05, 2007 by rainmaker in Social | Comments[2]
Chance of a lifetime to listen to CK Prahalad
11th Feb '07
It was one of the most enriching and fulfilling days of my life today. I couldn't have asked for a better parting gift from Pune than this. This was my last weekend in Pune before being lost in the humdrum of Bangalore. I woke up today quite late taking liberty of the day being a Saturday. Peering into the morning newspaper, my eyes caught on a heading that said, "Business prophet CK Prahalad to speak at UoP foundation day". This was serendipity at its best. It was only yesterday that we (Ashok and me) were talking about Prahalad's pioneering initiative of the "sachet culture" that revolutionized the way FMCG majors did their business in rural market. I immediately sprung up from my bed and headed for the place.
C.K. Prahalad was invited as the Chief Guest for the foundation day celebration at University of Pune. There were other luminaries at the dais of whom I knew nothing about. I also found a familiar face that of famed actor Sriram Lagu amongst them, who as I came to know, was to be felicitated with the "Jeevan Sadhana" award. After bearing the torturous and painfully long Marathi speeches (because I do not understand the language) of all the speakers, came the chance for Dr Prahalad to speak. The flutter created among the audience was palpable as soon he was asked to speak. The spectators instantly shook themselves out of the lethargy and inactivity. Students who were till now ambling out in the sun, rushed to occupy their seats. The buzz was in the air, "Dr Prahalad is going to speak".
Mr Prahalad had prepared a slideshow presentation for this occasion. It read, "Advances in Science and Strategy: India as a source of Next Practices".
Though I cannot retrace everything that Dr Prahalad covered in the seminar, I will try to reproduce bits and pieces of whatever I could manage to scribble on my pad.
Outline of the seminar:
- Strategy and science
- Constraints
- India as a source of innovation
- Innovative work process
- Fundamental new practices
"India needs to follow 'Next Practices' and not Best Practices. We could all fall into mediocrity of we stuck to best practices", he started off saying.
Emerging areas of research:
· Brain studies
· Nanotechnology
· Global warming
· Genetics
· Artificial Intelligence
· Energy
· Search
· Imaging
(I lost a few more)
· Technology changing faster than ever
He also spoke about technology changing faster than ever and it becoming cheaper by the day. Computational speed of computers getting higher and higher and price reducing parallely. He also spoke about the fact that any new technology that is not cheap and unaffordable to the poorest of poor. Technology is no longer a preserve of a single country. "Every child by 2015 will have access to technology".
· India far behind
He also expressed his concerns about the sorry state of research in India stating an example of the neighboring China, which produced more papers in nanotechnology than USA.
· Collaboration: The need of the hour
He also spoke about the need for collaboration. How industries need to charter their future policies keeping mutual collaboration in mind. "No single company can survive the market forces of its own. If IBM can't do it all by itself lets not attempt to do so", he said
· Individual centric service
He also alluded t the new wave of Web 2.0 ( I will prepare my next post on this global phenomenon) and how the industry is becoming individual centric(Youtube, Google, Wikipedia).
· Breakthrough in innovation
"Innovation is the key for survival for any business today. For hardware companies who earlier used to service their products have brought the use of remote maintenance using sensors. He also spoke about taking technology to the people. Poor need not spend money to be diagnosed for an ailment but should be remotely diagnosed with the help of modern communication techniques. Best universities shouldn't be bound by geographical constraints to reach remote parts of India. They should take the help of technology. He cited examples of some social innovations like coming of Tata's 1 lakh car, Walmart that was built for the poor. (I can add Air Deccan's low cost carrier to the list).
· He also spoke about his new initiative for a public policy on Diabetes in India. It's an exhaustive program that follows an incentive based treatment model that focuses more on the individual's lifestyle habits.
Challenges for India:
- Not enough Phd Programs not here
- No effort on improving the quality of research
- No setting up of University technology transfer offices in the universities. These are setups in universities where research results are replicated in the industry in collaboration.
- Poor recruiting and retention of world class faculties in Indian universities, stating a stark contrast with that of countries like Taiwan, Korea and China.
Dr Prahalad pointed out the following ingredients required for the transformation he visualizes:
- Ingenuity
- Passion
- Courage
- Humanity
- Humility
- Intellect
- Luck!
Sorry to have provided a jumbled up account of the seminar. It was difficult for me to get the flow correctly. Nevertheless, I feel it's better to jot whetever I could bring out from his presentation, than wait any further and see things get obliterated completely from my memory.
A few facts about Dr C.K. Prahalad:
- C.K Prahalad is fondly called as CK in the management world.
- Founder of the GPMD {Global Program for the management development) program.
- Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
- His illustrious career is dotted by many achievements and awards:
he has been honored for his contribution with a lifetime achievement award by Ross School of Business
- In one single year of 2005, he was awarded three different degrees of honorary doctorates-one in engineering by Stevens Institute of Technology, New York, second in Economics by University of London, and third in Business by University of Abertay.
- In a biannual survey of top 50 thinkers in management, based on 'originality of ideas, practicals, application, rigour of research and impact of their ideas, global outlook and loyalty of followers", CK ranked 3 rd most influential thinker in the world.
- In 2004, elected he was elected as 'Global India' by a panel jury of business leaders.
- He has wriiten few very popular books:
- The Future of Competition
- Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
- In Search of Excellence
Posted at 09:38PM Mar 04, 2007 by rainmaker in Social | Comments[0]
Hello Sun!
Hello Sun and the world!
My name is Ravi Kumar. I am an Indian, hailing from the lovely state of Orissa. I joined the family of Sun on 19th of February, 07 and within a week I was overawed by the dynamicity of the organization. I'm a technical writer in the IPG group in Bangalore and will be working on Communications Express. Wanting to be a part of the Web 2.0 revolution in whatever small way I can, I take this oppurtunity to blog though Sun's own blog site. I have been rigorously blogging for quite some time on my personal blog, www.mon-voyage.blogspot.com. You can visit this site to read my past posts. Henceforth, I will use Sun's space to express my thoughts on whatever my mind is curious to explore. Looking forward to a healthy blogging experience with you all!
Posted at 03:47AM Mar 02, 2007 by rainmaker in Sun | Comments[1]