OPEN SOURCE & DEVELOPING COUNTRIES…

OPEN SOURCE, Yes there is wider adoption, this view from worldchanging.com on OPEN SOURCING is interesting. Some highlights from the piece:

- Every license for Office plus Windows in Brazil - a country in which 22 million people are starving - means we have to export 60 sacks of soybeans," says Marcelo D'Elia Branco, coordinator of the country's Free Software Project and liaison between the open source community and the national government, now headed by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "For the right to use one copy of Office plus Windows for one year or a year and a half, until the next upgrade, we have to till the earth, plant, harvest, and export to the international markets that much soy. When I explain this to farmers, they go nuts."

- "...Windows XP together with Office XP is US$560 in the U.S. This is over 2.5 months of GDP/capita in South Africa and over 16 months of GDP/capita in Vietnam. This is the equivalent of charging a single-user licence fee in the U.S. of US$7,541 and US$48,011 respectively, which is clearly unaffordable.“

I am an Indian, it is a DEVELOPING country. I work in the software industry, I want to continue earning my bread, but don’t want it to be at the cost of my countries economic growth. - HOW?

But why are the Brazilians thinking/talking/doing something about this and not the country that has by far the largest number of IT/IT related population...(IT Ministry…will need to pull things together in this space)

As a recent UN summit put it, "to get the economy of a developing country going, its government must stamp out corruption, ramp up efficiency and use open-source technology to build a cheap, reliable information infrastructure..." Having that information infrastructure is now fundamental to education, jobs, democracy and good government.

There are some ventures already rolling, by organizations to try and use technology to deal with poverty! - ITC e-Chaoupal...is pretty successful...(Read "Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid..CK Prahalad)

Another point to note here, Is that Software Piracy is rampant in India. – WHY?

Source: http://www.worldchanging.com

Open Source

What is Open Source?

Open source is a form of decentralized production in which an information commons is cooperatively built, maintained, and evolved. This commons forms the primary (but not exclusive) basis of value from which individuals and firms draw and to which they contribute.
The centrality of the commons in an open source paradigm contrasts with private ownership of assets in the existing one, and the dynamic of use and fostering of the commons stands in sharp contrast to the dynamic of market-based competition.
Open source projects have dynamics of active contribution and community participation over time as a distinguishing characteristic.

Important Points:

- Open source heralds a global paradigm shift in social and economic value creation of enormous proportions

- Interesting times to look forward to as the irresistible force of open source meets the immoveable object of corporate entrenchment

- Will force enormous economic dislocations with opportunities for new undertakings

- Provides the ability to start from nothing and crafting a business based on inspiration and hard work

Via Mitch Kapoors Blog)
http://blogs.osafoundation.org/mitch/000815.html
Jan 04. 2005

WHAT WOMEN WANT ?

People who have been following this blog for sometime will know that I sometimes use movies as a base for some of my blog entries, this one is going to be no different. To be very honest i love movies, i blame it on my genes (parents) they were/are movie buffs too, well that is not the point of this blog, While watching movies, i tend to try and analyze and sometimes even learn from them …..on points of behavior/character.

Last night i was watching "What Women Want“ a Mel Gibson, Helen hunt movie. It is an old one but watched it again anyways...While watching this movie, two things came to my mind, one how close the movie is to what TP (Tom peters) talk about in his Re-Imagine! Slides –” Women Roar” & the other was an interview TOM PETER did with his cool friend “Martha Barletta” – Author of “Marketing to Women”.

Points that made an impact on me from both these sources:

91% women: ADVERTISERS DON’T UNDERSTAND US. (58% “ANNOYED.”) - Source: Greenfield Online for Arnold’s Women’s Insight Team (Martha Barletta, Marketing to Women)

“He simply wants the transaction to take place. She’s interested in creating a relationship. Every place women go, they make connections.”

Male/Female go shopping for black slacks,
Male – Time(6min) Spent (33$),
Female – Time(3hrs 26 min) Spent (876$) – Source: Martha Barletta Presentation

“Women don’t buy brands. They join them.” -EVEolution

MEN ARE … TOTALLY, HOPELESSLY, CLUELESS ABOUT WOMEN.

Women’s Market = Opportunity No. 1.

Women tend to reject anything that for women specifically, as do men.

Women notice things more, they notice smaller things than men, women can perceive the finer detail.

Women feel emotions more strongly …

Insurance - Life time of a customer, a women on an average provide 28 referrals, vs. 13 from men. (Referral Ratio – 21.0:2.6 = Women:Men)

"Take the hint ...get with it...get a (helen hunt) on your team...or a mel gibson...who can listen to womens thoughts!!!!"


Source:
www.tompeters.com/slides/
www.tompeters.com/cool_friends/

Monetise Blogs

Well, Here is a organisation, which has made a business model of providing blogs a business model, blogkits.

Thier approach....in thier own words.."The BlogKits BlogMatch Network is an opportunity for anyone who owns a blog to be matched with businesses, marketers and/or advertisers looking to partner with niche-filled, content specific, quality blogs.

Until today, bloggers primarily embraced tools such as Google Adsense or Henry Copeland's BlogAds.com to generate revenues,” said Jim Kukral, Blogging Guru and founder of BlogKits.com. “While both excellent solutions, the fact remains that both of those tools rely on a blogger's ability to generate large amounts of web traffic for any real income opportunities, leaving 99% of all blogs out in the cold.”

The BlogKits BlogMatch Network will allow all blogs, even those without high levels of visitor traffic, the no-cost opportunity to earn revenues in a multitude of ways by matching them with advertisers/marketers that care more about reaching the right target audience, not just necessarily the biggest one, and not necessarily through only traditional methods like banner ads."

Blog Book - 1

Scoble, the microsoft blogger and shel (a pr person)...are working on a book on bloging, well this project is name red couch & has a blog...recently they hosted thier TOC...(below) quite interesting....will follow this project quite closely.....

Name - Blog or Die

1. Scoble's First Microsoft Dollar
2. Blog or Die
3. Word-of-Mouth Engines
4. Too Many Influencers: Not Enough Influence
5. Invisible and Direct Influencers
6. "RSS” Letting Customers Decide
7. Getting Started & Noticed
8. How Blogging Can Get You Fired
9. The Transparent Company
10. Ah, There is an ROI!
11. Behind the Firewall
12. Breaking Taboos
13. How Blogging Can Get You Fired
14. Who Should Blog. Who shouldn't.
15. Bridging Chasms
16. Winners and Sinners
17. The Business World in 2014