Now never lose a Single Conversation on Facebook Chat!

Alright if you are one of us who wanted to save your chat conversations on Facebook Chat and you have been waiting for facebook chat to add more features, well there is good news and bad news.

Bad news: is that it would still take a long time for facebook to improve your FB chat experience and add new features. One reason is that this might not be a very high priority item for them, they have recently announced improvements in FB messages and while attending facebook's LIVE event on it's launch day, Mark Zuckerberg hinted that it took them almost 1 year to make these changes. So, the hope is dim for chat to add more features soon.

Now the good news: The good news is that you really do not have to wait for Facebook chat to improve to be able to save your conversations. How? Download Yahoo Messenger 2011 or MSN messenger 2011 versions which allow chatting with your Facebook friends inside YM or MSN and storing all chat conversations. Well below is the step by step guide on how to enable your chat conversations to be stored permanently for free and you can search for the important phone numbers, email IDs, links etc exchanged with your friends and family through the archive!

How this works? 

1) Download and install the  Yahoo Messenger 2011 or MSN messenger 2011.
2) When you install these messengers, you can login and import your Facebook friends using Facebook Connect. (refer to image above)
3) After you have authorized YM and MSN to enable FB friend's import, you can then enable conversation history.
4) Yahoo messenger has taken a lead in enable a web driven conversation storage facility which makes it even more useful i.e. irrespective of you using your personal or official laptop, you can access your entire conversation archive online anywhere.

Would this be useful for you? Leave a quick comment.

2G Telecom Scandal - Reports, Audios, Videos, Documents Download

In public interest I am directly copy pasting the post on 2G scam covering details of reports, tapes, audios, links etc from medianama with their permission.

Yesterday, Open magazine and Outlook published audio files and transcripts of conversations that Niira Radia, who runs several PR and consultancy companies, allegedly had with Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, Telecom Minister A. Raja, and the DMK’s Kanimozhi, as well as with senior journalists Barkha Dutt (from NDTV) and Vir Sanghvi (Editorial Director, HT Media), around the appointment of the Telecom Minstry in India. This follows previous revelations published by Mail Today and The Pioneer, and broadcast by HeadlinesToday. For reference purposes, we’re putting together is a list of information related (and allegedly related) to the appointment, and the 2G Spectrum scam that preceded the appointment, that has been published online; if true, it is shocking commentary on how the Telecom sector is manipulative, and policies manipulated. We’re updating this list, so feel free to suggest more links in the comments below.

Introduction

Some of these are alleged to be recordings of conversations that Niira Radia had with several people, in the aftermath of the Parliamentary elections that took place last year, discussing alleged issues with the appointment of ministers from the DMK, a regional political party from Tamil Nadu, as well as appointments to India’s Cabinet of Ministers. The context of these discussions is appointment of A. Raja as Telecom Minister, who allocated 2G mobile licenses in India, on a controversial first-come-first-served basis, by choosing an arbitrary cut-off date for allocation, and it was expected at the time that he would not head the ministry again.

Documents

- CAG Report on 2G Spectrum Scam – Tabled in Parliament. Download (pdf)
- Allegedly, scans of documents that were submitted by India’s Income Tax Department to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). View Here

Audio & Transcripts

1. Conversations allegedly between A. Raja and Niira Radia:
- By Open Magazine on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here.
- By Outlook on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here
- Headlines Today video uploaded on YouTube in May 2010. View here and here.

2. Conversations allegedly between Kanimozhi and Niira Radia
- By Open Magazine on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here
- By Outlook on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here
- Headlines Today video uploaded on YouTube on May 6 2010: View here

3. Conversations allegedly between Ratan Tata and Niira Radia
- By Open Magazine on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here
- By Outlook on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here

4. Conversations allegedly between Vir Sanghvi and Niira Radia
- By Open Magazine on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here
- By Outlook on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here

5. Conversations allegedly between Barkha Dutt and Niira Radia
- By Open Magazine on November 18th 2010: Read and listen here
- By Outlook on November 18th 2010: Listen here.

6. Lots of conversations, allegedly between Niira Radia and Ratan Tata, Ranjan Bhattacharya, Barkha Dutt, Shankar Aiyer (then with the India Today Group), Tarun Das, and others. Listen to the files here.

7. Lots of conversations, allegedly on Datacom, RCOM stake in AT&T etc. Lots of files here.

Denials/Responses Issued
- Open’s publisher R. Rajmohan has contested NDTV’s response to Open’s coverage. Read it here on Facebook
- From Vir Sanghvi on his blog: says the transcripts do not appear to be entirely accurate, and there is nothing in the transcripts that he lobbied for Raja. Read here. Published November 18th.
- From NDTV, calling Open’s story on conversations between Radia and Dutt “misrepresentation” –Read here. Published November 18th 2010
- From Barkha Dutt on Twitter- here, here, here, here, here and here
– From the Income Tax Department, denying recording telephonic conversations between Influential Businessmen, Politicians and advertising professionals: Read here. Published April 28th 2010

Relevant Articles

- R Jagannathan in DNA Mumbai writes that the buck stops with Sonia and Manmohan. Published November 18th. Read here
- The Hoot on “Merging Estates”, on Media, Businesses and Politicians. Published on November 19th 2010. Read here
- R. Jagannathan write in DNA that the buck must stop with Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh; Published November 18th 2010. Read here.
- Why we are quiet on the Open magazine story – R. Sukumar, Editor, Mint; Published November 18th 2010. Read here.
- A. Raja’s fairly detailed defense of the 2G spectrum allocation – published by The Hindu, November 14th 2010. Read here.
- Vir Sanghvi on “How does Raja get away with defying the Prime Minister and the public mood?”; Published November 12th 2010. Read here
- Important Lobbyists; Published by Outlook on May 17th; Read here
- Telecom Secretary PJ Thomas Made Central Vigilance Commissioner; Published by MediaNama on September 8th 2010. Read here.

Also see:
- Circlewise list of India’s Telecom Licensees

Disclaimer: Please note that MediaNama is unable to verify the authenticity and accuracy of many of these links; they are being made available for information and reference purposes, and should be viewed with scepticism. MediaNama shall bear no responsibility for content outside its domain (medianama.com), and reserves the right to delete, at its own discretion, outgoing links.

Building a Social Culture in Organization

Building a Social Culture in Organization

We all are social beings. We all want to be recognized personally and professionally. In today’s time, it’s important to build our personal brand to be recognized well not just within the organization but also, in the outside world.

Question: What is that the organizations like Facebook, Forrester, McKinsey, Google, Linkedin, Twitter etc. do differently to build their company culture and how is it beneficial for the individuals and the organizations?

Answer: They help their teams to grow personally and professionally by building personal brands. The organizations help individuals to identify their strengths, weaknesses and set goals and help them achieve those goals.

What’s in it for the Individuals?

·         It helps the individuals to receive personal and professional growth.

·         It pushes individuals to keep themselves updated and active on the latest in the industry relevant to their work.

·         It helps them identify their short term and long term goals and keeps them focused on achieving those goals.

·         It builds a culture of being socially humble: “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”.

·         It helps them align with the business goals and bring in collaborative growth.

What’s in it for the Company?

·         Social culture helps organizations to attract and retain brilliant talent in the organization.

·         It helps the organization to see the contributions of the individuals who go beyond the call of duty and identify star performers and reward them.

·         It helps the organization to be seen in a positive light in the market / relevant industry.

·         Helps in identifying the common growth areas and how to help individuals in achieving those goals.

·         Helps in aligning human resources with business goals.

·         It fosters an environment of multi-cultural growth, collaboration and razor sharp work force.

·         It helps the stakeholders of the company (including customers, shareholders, investors etc) to see that the company has the right talent to grow as well as

How to achieve this?

Simple: Let’s start by getting social!

But how to be social?

• Connect with your community.
• Learn from your community.
• Innovate and share with your community.

What else?

Startup Tip - Take care of those 21% of your customers.

Experimental data driven learning teaches you a lot about how to run a business. One small tip that I wanted to share...


Divide your customers in 3 buckets-
1) Majority revenue generators (generally 20%)
2) Majority influencers (generally 1%)
3) The rest majority.


The first 20% bucket will help you generate bread and butter for the founding team. They are also, the ones who will be your BIG WOM revenue generators, so, please provide them the tools to share it with their circle.


The 1% bucket is extremely important. These are your BETA enthusiasts. They are active on Social Media. They like to Blog, Tweet, Share on Facebook and create innovative marketing recommendation for your product. They drive Word of Mouth for you. The challenge is not only to keep them happy, however, to first identify them correctly and then think of innovative ways tot keep them occupied.


Take care of this 21% of customers and rest 79% shall follow suite.

2010 - "Emailing is the primary use of Internet" - John Dooner, "Ex" Chairman of McCann WorldGroup

Flash Apps on Android vs iPhone OS x vs Maemo

There is a big Mobile OS battle running out their. With every mobile phone manufacturers and software providers doing all they can to bring the fastest, sexiest and coolest mobile device out for the consumers. A lot has to do with applications or apps. built around these OS platforms which makes the platform look cool and involves more people and gets them excited.

Google Android Phone - Adobe on 7th January updated about the Flash 10.1 BETA support on google android phone.
Watch Video here

It's a significant advancement that the open handset alliance can rejoice this year and pass on the benefits to the consumers and break Apple's App Store monopoly.

iPhone OSx - Presently, any application built in flash can not directly run on iPhone. And off-course the Jesus Phone has millions of fan following. However, iPhone doesn't allow and doesn't intend to allow to run any flash app to work on iPhone directly, you need to develop it with the MAC SDK provided by Apple. This meant that the app has to be available through the Apple's store and Apple gets 30% of the revenue share in each app download. Sifting through pages on adobe's site, when you land upon adobe flash's support for iPhone, you will be surprised to see that * which says: Delivery through the App Store requires participation in the iPhone Developer Program and approval of the application by Apple. meaning 30% revenue share remains.

However, with Google and HTC and other partners of the open handset alliance coming together and launching the google android based phones and adobe extending their support to them, developers can now easily build content or port existing apps to the mobile devices. Which in a way can hurt Apple's App store downloads. Eg: If I am presently hosting my app at any website then I can just promote that link through Admob and other mobile ad service providers like that and get people to download apps directly without bringing Apple in the middle. 2010 will be a significant growth year for apps on open source and growth of google android and hardware devices based on it.

Nokia Maemo - Interestingly the OPEN source Vs BOX race has more contenders, the big-weight in race, yes the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phones, nokia, is pushing it's agenda with it's ovi app store and Maemo OS, their linux based open source launch is a solid step towards it. They have been supporting flash from long ago, however, their smart phones just didn't pickup. With Nokia N900 device running on Maemo 5, they wish to change this. Their recent announcement of BETA launch of Qt port for Maemo 5 on 19th Jan which will enhance developers to develop cross-platform applications and GUI.

Hoping for a more OPEN environment in future.

Paradigm Shift - Real Time Social Entertainment

This article tries to track the shifting paradigm of consumer consumption of skill based games and derived entertainment and engagement. Why is it happening and how? It will also try to answer the question: "What's the next step in social skill based games, entertainment and engagement?"

Skill Games, Entertainment and Engagement model in India?

India has showered love and affection for massively popular Game shows on Indian Television and recently audiences have also been hooked to the twisted humour, sensationalism and sometimes vulgarity in Reality TV in India.

Around the year 2000 games shows on TV started to pick up steam in India with the launch of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) the Indian version of Who wants to be a Millionaire?. And then it kept the momentum going with more game shows like 10 ka dum, Sawaal Dus Crore Ka, Jeeto Chapad Paad Ke etc. followed suit by exploiting one or the other human behavioral instinct. The undying hope of humans to succeed with their skills was well leveraged. From a legal perspective these games shows leveraged the fact that any game of skill played for money is deemed legal and if you can involve masses to participate across India with TV as the popular medium, you can make huge profits not just with advertisements but also with user engagement through SMS or online voting systems.

India saw a shift in Entertainment from such pre-recorded games shows to the reality TV. Reality television frequently portrays a modified and highly influenced form of reality, utilizing sensationalism to attract viewers to generate advertising profits. For the Reality TV game shows it is about social connection eg: Leveraging Dating in young men and women in MTV Splits Villa or Channel V's Dare to Date, or it can be about vengeance and physicality like MTV Roadies or channel V's V the Player etc. which taps in to human psychology and delivers a value which not fulfilled well earlier.

What has changed now?

While these reality TV shows continue to exist and flourish along with soaps and other genres there has been a substantial paradigm shift in consumer mindset. The shift is more apparent in US and UK and other countries where internet penetration is high, however, it's catching up in India pretty fast.

Let's take a look at how communication technology changed consumer behavior and media interaction over years. In early years of television, TV shows used to interact with audiences through posts. I remember an interesting TV show "Surabhi" aired on Doordarshan used to ask people to send Postcards to a Mumbai address. Obviously that was an era when Email didn't exist. We saw the emergence and rapid expansion of email technology in 1990s and how TV media started getting feedback or interaction from viewers through emails. The communication paradigm shifted a lot with the emergence and popularity of Internet and Mobiles. India became on of the fastest growing mobile consumer worldwide. TV content producers started to interact with audiences through mobile SMS voting etc and started to engage audiences in online voting systems.

However, the instantaneous response still lacks in the reality TV and the content is well edited to ensure certifications and abiding by censorship rules. This is the limitation in the TV as a medium.

A paradigm shift!

The paradigm shift is REAL TIME information access, participation and sharing for enhancement of one's social status, social contact and instantaneous gratification.

Since early 2000, India saw growth in Internet penetration and a lot of dot com companies emerged. Majority of the companies had a revenue model based on advertisements. Some of the companies later in the decade started to offer e-commerce and allied services. Slowly with the increase of internet penetration the sources of finding entertainment also started to move online. In 2008 India's internet population was almost similar to internet population in US and China few years back. So India was on a brink of rapid internet growth and penetration across country. This is being leveraged by some skill game sites in India and some recent Online TV Shows like Jay Hind. May be real time SMS voting and Online voting to decide results may soon become the norm...or the REALTIME TV.

To answer the questions: "What's the next step in social skill based entertainment and engagement?"

An apt answer would be: Emergence of Real Time Social Entertainment - RTSE.

Rapid expansion of Facebook and Twitter are clear indicators of this paradigm shift and the emergence of Real Time Social Entertainment. Even online games industry leveraged this paradigm shift eg: companies like Zynga and Playfish etc. tapped well into the growing online population. However, when it comes to monetization and producing sticky content especially for Indians which stays for years and people continue to pay for it, we need to go back to basics.

Changyou.com and Shanda Games are extremely successful chinese online games companies and they have successfully demonstrated that, with local games like: Mahjong, Blade Online, MMOGs etc., content is the king and it stays with the people and clicks super fast with them.

Local content providers in India like Games24x7.com offering Online Rummy in India and more such real time turn by turn played games like: nomination, pool, carrom, chess etc. are all set to tap into this real time social entertainment paradigm shift.

The love affair between Indians and card games spans all demographics right from working men playing in subways and buses, housewives playing at social parties, middle aged and retired men playing in social clubs, to friends and families playing on weekends. With over 1 Lakh players registering on Games24x7.com in just 9 months primarily with word of mouth marketing, playing Rummy online is becoming the new face of entertainment in form of Real Time Social Indian Games.

New tools and technology helps people to answer simple questions like: Where are you now? What are you doing now? Where are your friends Now and What are they doing now? This gives that instantaneous gratification of social contact and if you can interact and enjoy with them while being miles away from them either through a mobile device or accessing internet on a laptop or PC, you get the social entertainment in Real Time. Eg: Foursquare.com engages friend circles in real time updates and engagement to explore cities etc through any mobile device like: iPhone, Google Android based phones, Blackberry etc. Similarly Gowalla.com also allows you to share real time experiences to discover new places anywhere and everywhere.

Most of the innovations in today's time are being built on these psychological paradigm shifts in consumer mindset. Skill games and real time social entertainment derived out of them thus is a huge opportunity out there.

Engage, Participate & Enjoy in Real Time, seems to be the new mantra for 2010.

Rummy Online - New Face of Social Indian Games!

A recent press release that I did.

Pioneers in offering Rummy online, Games24x7.com goes Social with new interaction features and the company promises a complete social roadmap ahead. With over 1 Lakh players, Rummy is becoming the New Face of Social Indian Games.

The love affair between Indians and card games spans all demographics right from working men playing in subways and buses, housewives playing at social parties, middle aged and retired men playing in social clubs, to friends and families playing on weekends.

The growth and popularity of social networking and interaction websites like Facebook and Orkut has altered significantly the shape of the worldwide online games industry. Connecting through games is the new paradigm in online entertainment.

Games24x7.com is undoubtedly beginning to transform the future of the Indian games industry with the introduction of its latest Social Interaction features. The latest features include Personalized Player Chat, Private Rummy Invitations and the ability to create your own Rummy Circle. With these new features and many more to come, Games24x7.com is revolutionizing the online skill games space with a new face.


“We have managed to bring over 1 Lakh Indian Rummy players together in just 9 months of our BETA launch. This has helped Games24x7.com emerge as India’s favorite Online Rummy site. We aim to offer entertaining and engaging game play in local Indian games of skill where people can connect, play and win cash prizes too.” said Mr. Sachin Uppal, Games24x7.com’s, Marketing Director.

Furthermore, Mr. Trivikraman Thampy, CEO, Games24x7.com addressed the legality of the website by mentioning that “All games offered on Games24x7.com have been expressly approved as skill games by the Hon. Supreme Court of India. Rummy was deemed to be a game of skill in 1968. The card distribution methodology used by Games24x7.com has been certified by the prestigious ‘I Tech Labs’, Australia.”

Mr. Thampy continued, “Seeing the popularity of Games24x7.com’s Rummy on popular social networking sites like Facebook , Twitter and Orkut we will launch a Rummy Application on social networks soon.”

Games24x7.com offers unlimited free rummy games, 24x7. The biggest hit among the Indian audience is their premium version of rummy starting at just Rs. 25. To build your own Rummy Circle and be part of this new phase of Social Indian games, log on to www.games24x7.com.