A Time To Reflect

charukesi April 26th, 2006

Mobile phones. At first large and comfortable, brick-like. Then suddenly as in everything else, small was beautiful - mobile phones got smaller and slicker. And now, I find mobile phones, especially higher end versions becoming large again. People want to pay for a phone that looks ugly and is unwiedly to carry around - and I wonder if most such mobile phone owners even know of or use other than basic applications on their phone…?

This interesting article from informationweek says - people are turning to mobile phones for Internet use more quickly than they’re adopting laptops for the same purpose in many parts of the world - large for a phone but very small and compact for a personal computer. [link through putting people first]

Welcome to mobile-phones-meet-personal-computers…

But coming back to my initial thought, do people actually use the enhanced features or applications that they pay a premium for? I was reading about the “paradox of enhancement” in a paper titled The Upgraded Digital Divide: Are We Developing New Technologies Faster than Consumers Can Use Them? - When people are considering buying next-generation products, they find the bells and whistles attractive and decide to make the purchase, but when they acquire the products, they find the complexity of the new features overwhelming and end up using only the products’ basic features.

In other words, people may buy a higher end version of a product, fascinated by the “add-ons” - they may actually serve as a status symbol (the class diferentiator, so to say), but with the product in their hands, may not aware of all these extras, or find them relevant at all. And this sometimes leads to what has been called ‘technology dissonance’ - what did I pay for? I wonder if this is happening with mobile phones too…

[cross-posted on mindspace]

• Technology
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charukesi April 18th, 2006

Blogging could help prevent Alzheimer’s, expert says - says the social software weblog pointing to an article from USA Today on healthy habits that help you stay sharp.

Research on animals and humans suggests mentally challenging activities such as playing bridge, learning a new language or even blogging might help build new connections in the brain, says Molly Wagster at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Hmmm, I wonder if this is true only of blogging (as in writing blogs) or does reading blogs regularly help in the same way? Or what about commenting on blogs?

• The World of Indsight
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charukesi April 13th, 2006

When you have nothing to say, link it…

Or post photographs. Or cartoons from other blogs.

Like this great one :

[from blog discovery of the day - what blog men!]

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Elsewhere :

The Future of the Internet on red herring. If Mr. Cerf and about two dozen other pundits Red Herring interviewed about the future of the Internet are right, in 10 years’ time the barriers between our bodies and the Internet will blur as will those between the real world and virtual reality.

And a lot more… Definitely read it.

• Technology
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charukesi April 12th, 2006

Gotcha!

[image from Bhupinder Singh’s blog - Why Capitalism is the best possible system]

• Pot-pourri
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charukesi April 11th, 2006

So here is the thing that has been puzzling me (for the last five minutes, to be honest) - a portal called Sulekha has been sending emails to a lot of bloggers - whom they have decided are popular - asking if they would like their blog posts to be parallelly posted on Sulekha. Sure, no altruism here, the blogger gets more readership (which is what bloggers want anyways?) and the portal more whatever…

I got the email too and I ignored it. And what has been puzzling me is the strong negative reaction from bloggers that this email has provoked. I first came across it on sambhar mafia and went on to read a few other blogs he had linked too. Chandru, for instance, has a very strongly worded post on this.

Sure, this is unsolicited. Spam, if that is what you want to call it. But why Sulekha alone? I did not see these reactions when desicritics wrote to bloggers asking for their presence on the new site. Or with the spate of metroblogging blogs that have sprung up in the last few months. Then what is Sulekha doing that is different? Take, for instance the questions about Sulekha’s intentions - what are the bloggers making out of say, desicritics? Other than wider readership?

I am, as I said, genuinely puzzled (that is the third time I am using this word, I know) - but I am… What am I missing here?

• The World of Indsight
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charukesi April 10th, 2006

A great post on NY Times on how language makes everything official - the minute there is a word for it, any action or attitude becomes universally recognised and acceptable.

Overly Wired? There’s a Word for It

Was there gridlock before there were automobiles? Was there jet lag before there were airplanes? Who was the first person to say “I Googled it” or “he’s cyberstalking me”? At what moment did a “web log” turn into a “blog”?

[image courtesy : NY Times article]

Lisa Belkin, writing on Dr.Hallowell’s original list of words, adds a few more interesting ones of her own - here are a couple I could identify with immediately…

- Cellopain: the jerk who talks loudly and obliviously on his cellphone in a crowd. There are other words for this person, but they are not printable.

- Logonorrhea: a related condition that renders you unable to use certain online accounts because you can remember neither your screen name nor your password.

Read the entire list here. As an aside, you need to register at the NY Times site and log in to read some of their articles - I would do it except I cannot remember my log in name and/or password. huh? So here is hoping the link I have provided here works!

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Cross-posted on mindspace

• Language & writing
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charukesi April 10th, 2006

I was recently going through a UNICEF report ‘The state of the world’s children‘ published in 2004 - the report focusses on the millenium develpoment goals, primarily universalisation of education and gender equality - to be achieved by 2015.

From the foreword by Kofi Annan,

Every boy and girl around the world has a right to expect that we will do all we can to ensure that they will enjoy their right to an education. But in most countries, girls are the most disadvantaged when it comes to school. As this year’s State of the World’s Children reports, millions of young girls never attend school at all, millions more never complete their education, and countless numbers never receive the quality education that is their right. These millions of girls slip easily to the margins of our societies – less healthy than they could be, less skilled, with fewer choices in their lives and less hope for the future. As they grow into women, they are ill-prepared to participate fully in the political, social and economic development of their communities. They – and their children in turn – are at higher risk of poverty, HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation, violence and abuse.

Conversely, to educate a girl is to educate a whole family. And what is true of families is also true of communities and, ultimately, whole countries. Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutrition and promote health – including helping to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation.

I found a summary of the most recent report on the internet - The 2006 report is about children excluded and invisible - not just denied access to education and other rights that the UN considers basic but additionally coping with armed conflict, HIV, exclusion and discrimination… I have not yet read this latest report but a quick glance showed no indication of the progress made towards the set goals, but sadly additional goals to be met…

Here is an ad I came across while searching for some information on gender and education: More education for girls in Islamic countries!

[Image courtesy : adsoftheworld]

Here is the video of the ad - I personally prefer the print version - it is simple and powerful…

• Society & Development , - Education , - Gender issues
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charukesi April 5th, 2006

Lack of women turns tables on suitable boys, says a rather optimistic report on yahoo news. [link through anthropology.net]

The report says that young men wanting to get married (and their parents) face a problem in finding girls - not surprising since the gender ratio in many districts is 922 girls for every 1,000 boys, and shockingly, in a few villages, less than 500 girls for every 1000 boys.

This apparently has led to a situation where parents of young girls have been spurning offers of marriage from men unless the potential groom’s family also has a marriageable daughter for their son…

The joint engagement pact, called “aata-saata,” or the “double-couple plan,” has emerged as young women find themselves much in demand in a state where the traditional preference, as in much of India, has been for sons.

Now the slightly incredible part - …dowry, where traditionally a bride’s father had to bestow riches on a groom to secure a marriage, has completely disappeared from many parts of the state. Rather the groom’s families are now offering to bear the cost of finding a suitable bride for their sons.

I doubt if the change is as drastic as all that. It is nice to think that people will wake up to the dangers of a skewed gender ratio, but that will happen only in the long run, if at all. I am skeptical - what do you think?

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And this is why I am skeptical - Gaay aur Gori… The cow and the girl (gori also means fair-skinned, to look at another level of this). Better off than the donkey and the housewife, which again Harini points out in her post…

But, obviously for the guys who set the curriculum and write the text books in Rajasthan, the film has some sort of sacred symbolism. This from the ToI - “A donkey is like a housewife. It has to toil all day and, like her, may even have to give up food and water. In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents’ home, you’ll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master”

This is my point - are people going to wake up to the fact that young men are finding it difficult to get married and therefore, hey, I need to keep my daughters and not kill them? I think it takes a lot more than a feeble threat of non-marriage in the distant future to achieve any progress in the gender bias and the female foeticide issue. And that is a fundamental shift in attitudes.

Harini also pointed out this piece to me from the Indian Express - Women versus girls - what about the right to abort?

What if aware, literate Indian women, who are not necessarily influenced by their families, consciously seek to give birth to male children by exercising their right to abortion? Here we confront one of the biggest conundrums in this debate: a woman’s right to abortion — a crucial right that has been the centerpiece of many a feminist struggle the world over — militates against the right of the girl child to exist, which is again a crucial social and feminist concern. How do we reconcile these two rights?

• - Gender issues
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charukesi April 1st, 2006

You know you are not suited for corporate life when:

- your boss says, we have never faced that problem before. As a company, we have grown organically. And you think, like fungi?…

- your colleague emails you on how a certain simple action needs to be a two way process with definite entry and exit points, and you are too embarrassed to even say here what you were thinking about when you heard that…

- your client mentions paradigm shift and you choke on your coffee and make it worse with that fake cough, trying to stifle the laughter that threatens to spill out…

- you in turn, hear your colleague discussing the date for the kick-off meeting with the client, and develop completely unacceptable fantasy themes around the ‘kick’ bit…

- your boss (again) complains about how there has been no buy-in yet from top management for the new business idea, and you catch yourself (in a totally unguarded and extremely painful-to-admit moment) wondering about why they have not been able to leverage their positive synergy with the guys on top…

- you promise yourself that you will not physically attack the next person who suggests that the team needs to start thinking outside the box…

- you begin to spend at work less time on blogging and more on thinking up new jargon that sounds complicated enough to throw the listener off track for a few moments and at the same time impresive enough to ensure that the listener feels like a fool asking for an explanation…

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Why, oh why, this love for jargon (the sillier the better)…

Why do people wish to obfuscate when they can merely confuse? Or request to you check the document for equivocalism (I didn’t make this word up, someone else did - really) when they can simply as for a quick review?

Does it really make people sound more knowledgable as they believe? Or is this a shield to hide their basic ignorance behind?

These are just questions I have in mind. I however, have no time to think of the answers. I would rather spend quality time working on a professional profile for me to add to this website. I have selected the words that go in, I just need to work out the required modalities in the best possible order so as to to maximise functionality and ensure transparent work-flow models.

List open for suggestions : value-based, architect, re-engineering, competitive advantage, multidisciplinary approach, capitalizing on inherent needs, recontextualize and finally, delightful deliverable…

• Pot-pourri
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