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ANAND PARTHASARATHY’S TECH BLOG |
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| A sobering amber sign marked Kolaveri |
Like most of the Indian media, IndiaTechOnline noted the huge popularity of the Tanglish – Tamil and English – song ‘Why this Kolaveri Di’, and its meteoric rise in YouTube viewership numbers. As chroniclers of technology with an India slant, we could have hardly ignored what was the biggest Indian phenomenon of the Internet Age and its media outreaches, during 2011.
But for me personally, the dizzy progress of this creation via Cyberia, has been a scary amber signal… a sobering reminder of the bushfire rapidity and unpredictability, of the Internet’s social media-driven crazes and trends. I could see the relentless peer pressure amongst younger people to be seen as trendy and up-to-date, as proof of which they kept pumping up this balloon called Kolaveri, online, on TV and in the print media, not to speak of a hundred lucrative merchandising spin offs. Yet try as I might, I could discern not the slightest iota of merit, creative or otherwise, in this utter nonsense of a lyric and an apology for a song. Coldly calculated, skillfully manipulative marketing had elevated a piece of rubbish, into iconic status – all thanks to the flag-wavers of so-called social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter… and the ubiquity of the mobile phone.
In the past 8 weeks or so of the Kolavery phenomenon, I can recall no hint of questioning in the Indian media, except veteran Indian composer Javed Akhtar’s lone voice of disgust and his apt recalling of the fable of the Emperor with no clothes. The abuse that this attracted was also a scary signal that the same social media vehicles that were deployed so powerfully and successfully to achieve what has been called the Arab Spring , awakening nascent democracy in the Middle East, and to rally a nation of lay Indians under Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement, could equally effectively be used to create cardboard idols – or even worse – to promote silly trends, half baked ideas, even dangerous agendas.
Like the ‘urumi’, the flexible sword used by combatants in the ancient Kerala martial arts known as Kalaripayattu, the mass appeal of Net-driven social media can – unless carefully deployed -- be a double edged sword, cutting the legs of the wielder as easily as those of the opponent.
We are yet to adequately understand the full implications of many of the technologies which are being pushed towards us. The Internet is uncharted territory; there are no road rules; we are all willy nilly, pioneers, forced to tread untested paths. Some of the boulders – technical as well as ethical -- may not be natural obstacles, but those created by early and less scrupulous travellers. Can we stop walking down this path for this reason. That’s not an option we have. Should we, as the government seems to be trying in a ham-handed way, put up more procedural roadblocks that will make the journey unviable. That too is no way to go. Legitimate travellers will accept reasonable restrictions by way of traffic signals – even the occasional toll station. But most of us have no option except to continue our hesitant safari into Cyberia. An occasional aberration like Kolaveri Di, is something we must understand and ignore, having absorbed the lessons and drawn the appropriate lessons. As that classic Raj Kapoor film told us half a century ago, Jagte Raho – be awake and alert. A sobering thought for a Happy New Year!
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IT HAPPENED IN INDIA |
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2012 may see early deployments of zippy new WIFI standard The acquisition last year of the largely Indian IP-driven Beceem Communications and access to its India team of developers, had strengthened Broadcom’s technology muscle in the 4G communication products space and was helping drive its own initiatives in leveraging the new WiFi
standard. http://www.indiatechonline.com/802.11ac-642.php
2012: Year of Bring-Your-Own-Device, Big Data and Gathering Clouds
Which of 2011’s IT innovations will coalesce in 2012, into industry trends? To wrap up our Tech Trends series, we turned to K.P. Unnikrishnan, Singapore-based industry veteran and Marketing Director ( Asia-Pacific) for networking solutions leader Brocade.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/2012-year-of-bring-your-own-device,-big-data-and-gathering-clouds--119.php
IITians create tablet for Indian schools: Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi alumnus, Rohit Pande, returned to his alma mater this week, to launch Classpad, a tablet for personalized and interactive teaching & learning.Classpad has a touch screen with a 7 hour battery life, 1.3 Ghz processing speed and a built-in memory of 4 GB expandable upto 8 Gb. http://www.indiatechonline.com/classpad-tablet-for-education-639.php
Indian-driven analytics leader Mu Sigma, receives $ 108m infusion
Indian-owned and Indian innovation driven, Mu Sigma, the world's largest pure-play provider of analytics and decision support services for global enterprises has received $108 million in investment arguably the biggest private-equity investment made in the emerging market for analytics services. http://www.indiatechonline.com/$108-million-investment-in-mu-sigma-638.php
More to Solan than tomatoes and mushrooms: Now it boasts a global BPO! http://www.indiatechonline.com/xchanging-comes-to-solan-himachal-pradesh-641.php
Indian offering tops paid iTunes entertainment apps
An India-specific music-news-radio offering -- IndiaONE -- has emerged as the global number 1 paid application in the entertainment category at iTunes, the Apple resource for iPhone and Ipad http://www.indiatechonline.com/indiaone-tops-itunes-entertainment-apps-637.php
India Semiconductor Association honours indian innovation… we bring you the full list of winners http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=317
Tanglish song, a Youtube sensation! A video of a song recording for an upcoming Tamil film, has become a You Tube sensation, notching over 10 million views since it was uploaded on November 16. http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=310
IT People 1: Rajdeep Endow is to be the new managing director of Sapient India http://www.indiatechonline.com/rajdeep-endow-sapient-india-managing-director-75.php
IT People 2: Debjani Ghosh to be Intel MD for South Asia http://www.indiatechonline.com/debjani-ghosh-intel-md--south-asia-74.php
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IT’S FOR YOU… IT NEWS YOU CAN USE |
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With Huawei joining trend, wireless data dongles increasingly unshackled from operator lock-in The year-end announcement by Chinese telecom products leader and the world’s no. 1 dongle-maker, Huawei Devices, of new wireless access devices for the Indian market underlines a trend that has been quietly building up during 2011: freedom from service providers when it comes to personal Wi-Fi hardware: http://www.indiatechonline.com/operator-free-wireless-data-cards-from-huawei-368.php
From Thecus, an affordable home/office storage system, below Rs 15,000 Taiwan and US-based digital storage solutions leader, Thecus has brought to India what is arguably the most affordable Networked Attached Storage solution, the N299, seemingly positioned as a cross over from small office to home. http://www.indiatechonline.com/thecus-n299-nas-366.php |
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AVAILABLE IN INDIA: PRODUCT REVIEW |
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INDIA IT… THE NUMBERS THIS WEEK |
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EVENT WATCH |
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ClickAsia Summit Mumbai, India, 15-17 Jan 2012, Taj Land’s End
“The power of digital marketing event in Asia” www.clickasiasummit.com Internet and Mobile Association of India’s India Digital Summit NewDelhi, India, 18-19 Jan 2012 http://www.iamai.in/events/india_digital_summit_2012/?utm_source=newsletter375&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=india_digital_summit_2012%2F-375
India Digital Awards 2012 New Delhi January 18 2012
http://www.iamai.in/india_digital_award_2012/
Mobile World Asia 2012 mHealth, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Enterprise, Mobile Cloud, Augmented Reality, mPublishing, Mobile TV, Mobile Money, etc.
Shanghai, Feb 21-23 2012 http://www.szwgroup.com/2012/mobile/
Kerala State Business Excellence Awards
Kochi, March 17 2011
Organised by Cochin Herald and Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry http://www.cochinherald.com/
Convergence India 2012 South ASIA’s largest IT show
New Delhi March 21-23 2012 http://www.convergenceindia.org/
InfoSecurity World Exhibition and Conference incorporating three other dedicated showcases: Data Storage Showcase 2012, Cloud Computing Showcase 2012, andSoftware Development Showcase 2012
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Putra World Trade Centre March 21-22 2012 http://www.infosecurityworld.net/
Mobile Payments and NFC World Summit 2012 Hong Kong, April 19-20 2012, Eaton Smart Hong Kong
Encompassing: Mobile Payments, NFC Technologies, Mobile Money Transfer & Mobile Remittance, Mobile Banking, Banking the Unbanked & Microfinance Services & Sustainable Mobile Payments Services
http://www.symphonyglobal.com/index.php/event/page/mobile_payments_nfc_world_summit_2012/overview
Are you organising an upcoming conference or trade show in the Middle East/Asia/Pac region that will interest the Indian infotech community? Send us the details in a mail to feedback@indiatechonline.com with Event Watch in the subject line and we will be happy to feature it in this section.
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TECHIES TIMEPASS |
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POSTED 2011-12-31
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