Edu-training 600 Million + is the opportunity -Mobile Industry now 2% of the World’s GDP!

Sharing an interesting report which give some numbers to “gut feel”, that mobiles have made & are making far-reaching positive changes to how we live, learn,work,  & “Socially Network “.

 In India   it has provided access to people across  “digitally divide” and empowered all, much more than the State could have done – 2G/3G Scams not withstanding!

 India is  the place where much of the innovation in  mobile  Value Added Services & applications is happening.

 My current work is to leverage the mobile ecosystem to deliver, affordable, high relevance, (even 100 % customized) Education & training – direct to each user to his hand-held device . There are /will be 800 Million of them in India and increasingly all of them “smart Phones” with data access, in over 75% of  inhabited area -deep down to the villages

The universal access provided by delivering content in text +video (read You Tube ) format in the their own language, has transformational potential .

 This has to be made   fun & engaging for the “learner “ and save many years otherwise lost in the traditional literacy route from local dialect to  – Hindi /English.

And the so-called IT training which is focused more on Hardware & Software –taught again mainly through English.

If you can hear& see it you can understand it much faster.

 I am happy to mentor application developers in this space with product ideas, validation, and technology guidance, share   customer insights  & save on their learning curve.

I have ”been there & doing that”!

 The market for education & training is 600 Million plus, at conservative levels, just in India.

 So what are you waiting for?

 Today India. Tomorrow the World!

Full report below

Solicit your opinion &guidance  and ,as I said, Happy to Help

Manoj Pant

Mobile Industry is Now 2% of the World’s GDP, Analyst Reports

By Dan Rowinski / July 7, 2011 1:31 PM /

Researchers for the Chetan Sharma Consulting group have put together a 2011 State of the Global Mobile Industry mid-year assessment and have come up with some very interesting results.

The entire global mobile market weighs in at about $1.3 trillion or close to 2% of the world’s gross domestic product. Of that giant $1.3 trillion pie, about $300 billion is expected to be through data revenues. That means that people are starting to use data at much higher rates and Americans are on the forefront of data usage even as India and China are the fastest growing mobile markets in the world.

The report notes that mobile is fundamentally changing the way people interact with the world and is a heavy influence on how people buy goods and services. Here is the money quote concerning mobile applications in the report.

“Mobile is fundamentally reshaping how we as consumers spend from housing and healthcare to entertainment and travel, from food and drinks to communication and transportation. Mobile not only influences purchase behavior but also post purchase opinions. When the share button is literally a second away, consumers are willingly sharing more information than ever before. Mobile is thus helping close the nirvana gap for brands and advertisers who seek to connect advertising to actual transactions. The long-term battle is however for owning the context of the users. Having the best knowledge about the user to help drive the transaction is the simply the most valuable currency of commerce.”

There will be more than six billion mobile subscriptions by the end of 2011. According to the report, it took 20 years of mobile development to reach one billion connected devices. The jump from five billion to six billion took 15 months.

The global market for smartphone users stands at 26% of all phones (which are a subset of total “mobile devices“). The U.S. recently passed the threshold of 50% of every new phone purchase is a smartphone and the Sharma group predicts that the U.S. will be the first market to eclipse 50% smartphone ownership (it stands at 38% currently).

Here is a graph of the largest telecom operators by revenue.

The Sharma group notes that Apple is dominant in the tablet space and that is not going to change any time soon. This, as we know, is not news and the report does not say anything that we do not already know (a Windows 8 tablet could make inroads and cheaper Android tablets will eventually gain market traction).

In terms of smartphones, the report says that the battle is now on for third place behind Android and iPhone, respectively. Nokia/Windows Phone and Research in Motion are the contenders for third place, which actually is being very kind to Nokia/Windows and bearish on RIM’s prospects. HP Palm gets a nod for finally bringing products to the market but also says the “lack of an effective ecosystem means lack of traction in 2011.”

When it comes to actual devices made, Nokia still has the global lead, tough its numbers are down from the last several years when the Swedish cellphone maker was absolutely dominant.

In terms of market dynamics, Sharma notes that the landscape is difficult to judge because everybody wants a slice of the pie and certain companies want certain slices where they may not have traditionally created revenue. AT&T is now going after former partner Cisco in enterprise and unified communications. Verizon and Visa have been traditionally separated from each other as market leaders in different industries but are not clashing as in the mobile payments realm. Mobile has muddied the waters of the traditional industry model. That tends to happen when $1.3 trillion (and growing) is on the line.

p.s. From : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mobile_industry_is_now_2_of_the_worlds_gdp_analyst.php

Training World-class technicians -short term intensive hands on training programs.

We all  know how difficult it is to get a skilled electrician, fitter, plumber, electrician, carpenter or    masons, for your home, office, factory
Even when available it is common experience that they are mostly self trained over a period of time and do not have either the education or training, to do the work professionally and with new materials and equipment.
There is a huge shortage in the quality & number of such skilled technicians we need to sustain the projected Indian growth rate of 8.5 %.
While there has been a lot of investment in providing MBA, Engineering and IT courses all over the country very few have focused on providing technician training in large numbers so that the country’s growth requirements can be met.

While there are ITI’s( Industrial Training Institute) the total number of certified technicians each year is not more than ~10,000  while the need for such technicians is in hundreds of thousands .

Majority of the Govt. run ITI’s do not have the faculty or facilities to actually impart any quality education and just of shortage, just having degree from these ITI’s is often enough for such students to get a job in industries. As the skill gap is huge.

But are they adequately trained for the needs of today &Continuous Professional Development 3 rd EDU ConvEx 5 Feb11 Rev 1 tomorrow?

The answer sadly is, no!

The current and projected situation in terms of shortage of the right skills is a matter of great concern to the government, who are encouraging setting up of such technician training through various initiatives including National Skill Development Corporation, India & asking private companies to run the ITI’s.

“NSDC Objective

To contribute significantly (about 30 per cent) to the overall target of skilling / upskilling 500 million people in India by 2022, mainly by fostering private sector initiatives in skill development programmes and providing viability gap funding.

The NSDC was set up as part of a national skill development mission to fulfill the growing need in India for skilled manpower across sectors and narrow the existing gap between the demand and supply of skills.

The Finance Minister announced the formation of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in his Budget Speech (2008-09):

“…There is a compelling need to launch a world class skill development programme in Mission mode that will address the challenge of imparting the skills required by a growing economy. Both the structure and the leadership of the Mission must be such that the programme can be scaled up quickly to cover the whole country.”

I am attaching a powerpoint presentation which was delivered at the 3rd Annual EDUConvex Seminar held at New Delhi on 4&5 Feb 2011.

A video file of part of the Seminar is also uploaded.( Not great quality but will have to make do, with this , for now !)

Go to : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cetK7RJegE

Maybe you’d like to read it &solicit  your feedback, comments & guidance

This is a pioneering venture in a domain which has been neglected by most as it is neither “fashionable nor trendy “!

But an area where need is greatest for any nation building effort.

Happy to help others in anyway I can.

Thanks you for your patience to read uptil the last line !

Related Articles

• huge shortage of qualified technicians – Patna – Computer – Multimedia Classes – gaya – how to learn mobile phone repair (hitechforu.wordpress.com)

The future of communication is very “Social”. Twitter & Facebook likes will rule!

Suddenly email has become “fuddy duddy”/dated?
See the  pace of digital morphing:)
PLU ( People Like us eg on FB ) seek  more real time interactions -One to  One or One to  Many /all-
Future is very “social ‘ and the future is here :

Sharing an interesting post below :

It is truly remarkable how the right people with the right idea at the right time can change the world. Larry Page and Sergey Brin did this in 1999 with PageRank. To a large extent, this simple fundamental insight helped Google organize the Internet in the early days just as the web was exploding. Building on this, Google became the de facto front door to what I will call the “content web,” where most users are searching for, and finding, information created by publishers in a fairly static manner.

Fast forward a decade, and today, more and more content is created and curated by people on networks such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The content web has lost its primacy as the main source of information that matters to most people on a daily basis. Instead, a person’s Facebook news feed or Twitter stream is increasingly becoming the place to go for people to tap into the web. Users discover interesting news articles, get recommendations for movies and browse funny videos via their social streams. On an average day, I click on more links from these places than from a Google search results page.

This “social lens” to the web is becoming more valuable and Twitter and Facebook are evolving to be the new gateways to the Internet.

Just as PageRank fundamentally revolutionized how the content web evolved, I think there’s a new metric, which will shape how these social streams evolve and become more useful. I like to call this an “engagement score.” The link juice of this world is basically the level of social engagement that a person can generate with a post on their stream.

Tied to a web identity across many platforms, this score would be a measure of how “useful” the person’s stream is to other people. Whether it’s curating good content, creating interesting social content or just being important enough to make news, a person’s engagement score is a measure of how much they contribute to the quality of the social web.

For example, Om sharing this post on Twitter will be more effective than me doing the same. His tweet will reach more people, get more impressions, clicks, re-tweets and more “@” mentions than mine, and his Facebook update will get more likes and comments than mine. Om’s social engagement is clearly higher than mine.

It’s likely that users who engage with Om’s tweet have a higher social engagement score than users who engage with mine. Just like the PageRank of a website is determined not just by the number of links to the website, but also by where the links are coming from, social engagement should be determined not just by the sheer number of followers, re-tweets, comments but by considering who the commenters and re-tweeters are.

It’s also valuable for this engagement score to be network-agnostic and tied to a web identity rather than a single network. Om’s audience is his, irrespective of whether his posts are read on Twitter, Facebook or this blog. A robust model for measuring social engagement will help shape and organize the social web and will become integral to effective information organization and discovery on the Internet.

Bindu Reddy, is CEO of MyLikes, a word of mouth advertising platform. Previously, Reddy was a product manager at Google. During her career there, she worked on multiple Google products, including Google Search.

Image courtsey flickr user crsan: http://www.christianholmer.com

Add your ” take outs ” on  this .

Thanks

Manoj Pant

manoj.pant@shankhinc.com

19 Nov 2010

Mumbai, India

Read more at
http://gigaom.com/2010/11/18/why-we-need-pagerank-for-the-social-web/

12 iPad applications that mean Business

Assuming you’ve got yourself a funky iPad and had  multiple orgasms playing around with the sleek form factor etc you may feel the need for using it for some “real business work ”

That’s when you may find some limitations of what can be done with present version of the iPad! {“But an out-of-the-box iPad can be a disappointment for business tasks. Its rudimentary word processor, e-mail client, contacts directory and calendar are slim pickings, especially for those who want to use the device for work on the road.”}

Link below is worth reading up and where it suits you buy the Apps from iTunes store .

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9188986/12_iPad_apps_that_mean_business?taxonomyId=15&pageNumber=1

The ones specially recommend for the ‘road warrior ” in you, are summarized below for ready read .

Feedback your experience with them should you buy /use any of them .

1. Pages, Numbers and Keynote – Mac names for MS-word, excel & powerpoint .

In case you haven’t used these on a Mac , I find Keynotes awesome & so far ahead of PowerPoint that I don’t consider .ppt as any competition . Do go to any demo to see why I say so . BTW If you’re currently using Windows machine & planning your next /replacement, take my advice. Go for a Mac in any shape, size or form( Mac Book, iMac, iPhone or iPad or all of them if you want to really splurge ) connected in your home/office over a Airport Extreme ( Apple Wifi With back up hard disk( 500 GB or 1 TB) . Its streets ahead of any normal Windows WiFI Router /back up . More on Airport later)

2. Fax Print & Share Pro for iPad

{“One thing you won’t find on an iPad is a button for printing. (Some resourceful people have actually put the iPad screen-side down on a photocopier to print what is on its display.) Ndili Technologies’ $8.99 Fax Print & Share Pro for iPad (FPSP) is a better way to put it all on paper. Apple’s iOS 4.2 upgrade, due in November, will add native printing, but for now, FPSP is a valuable addition.”}

3. Pocket Informant for iPad

4. FlightTrack Pro ( Dont undersestimate the functionality of this !)

5. Desktop Connect

{ “Antecea Inc.’s Desktop Connect ($14.99) lets you view the files you need when you’re away from the office. The $15 app works with Windows, Mac and Linux.

Because Desktop Connect has to take over the host computer, setup is a little complicated and takes about an hour. After that, however, the application is easy to use. The app uses password protection and 128-bit encryption to safeguard your data.”}

6. Network Utility ( For the serious Network Admin in you 🙂

Have fun discovering what you need !

If you know of others please share them also.

Most apps under $ 10 each

Most people tend to dismiss Twitter & Facebook as juvenile applications.

Fact is,the future will be leveraged using such applications

As I said elsewhere even the future of education is via Facebook & Twitter .

In a lighter vein, children will tweet their mothers for milk /feeds :->)

Read below for some pointers in this direction

Manoj Pant

manoj.pant@shankhinc.com

Twitter: @manojpant

How CEOs Will Use Social Media in the future

Today’s CEO is not social. So says Forrester Research’s CEO George Colony. Very few of the CEOs at top companies in the U.S. and the rest of the world have any material presence on the popular social media sites. Colony believes they should be social though, and all signs are pointing to a future filed with CEOs who can speak the language of the people — social media.

While one can only speculate about the future of CEOs and social media, there’s no question that social media plays a huge part in life and the world as we know it right now.

As younger CEOs replace older ones, news consumption habits change and social media continues its trend towards ubiquity, there’s little question that the man (or woman) at the top will need a firm grasp on social media — whether that be for recruiting, scouting, public engagement or social CRM.

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The Next Generation of CEOs

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When it comes to CEOs, there’s a vast disparity between the young ones heading up startups and the more seasoned CEOs running the world’s most powerful companies. That disparity is social media — the young are more versed than the old. The difference between the two groups can be attributed to different generations and different attitudes around content and information meant for the public and private domains.

No one is predicting that the venerable CEOs will be booted from their lofty perches for lack of a Twitter () account. In fact, younger CEOs with a predilection and savvy for social media may find their visibility to either be a contributing factor to their rise or a liability once they graduate to bigger, hence more vulnerable, publicly traded companies.

Let’s have a gander at some stats on the status quo. In April, Colony let it be known that most CEOs are not social. In fact, by his own research and calculations, Colony has concluded that, “None of the CEOs of Fortune Magazine’s top 100 global corporations have a social profile.”

Social media abstinence even appears to extend to CEOs of tech companies. “Eric Schmidt of Google is an infrequent Twitterer and is not a blogger; Steve Ballmer at Microsoft has no blog and no Twitter account; Michael Dell is on Twitter but is not an external blogger … Steve Jobs of Apple, and Larry Ellison of Oracle have no Twitter, Facebook (), LinkedIn (), or blog presences that we could find.”

His findings paint a bleak present tense. In the coming years, however, there will be a changing of the guard that favors social media over silence.

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We Live in a Social Media World

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Let us pause and reflect on the fact online users spend 22.7% of their time on social networking sites. That’s twice as much time as we spend on any other online activity. Consider where people are getting their news today. More and more, it’s not through direct sources like USA Today, The New York Times, or TV broadcasts, but through social networks.

Plus, industry is social. In the future, every company, no matter how small or how big, will be influenced and impacted by social media internally or externally. In the entertainment industry, for instance, social media has the potential to significantly bump up live television viewing audiences. Network executives such as Greg Goldman, formerly an executive director at ABC and now CCO at Philo, are nearly certain it’s happening now and will become more obvious with time.

Take what you know about the world today and then ask yourself, can a CEO remain relevant if they’re not versed in the new language of the people they serve?

SCVNGR’s youthful CEO Seth Priebatsch doesn’t believe so. The 21-year-old CEO says he’s “never lived in a world where I didn’t use social media.”

Priebatsch compares social media to cloud computing, and makes the analogy of how building applications for the cloud is a given. “It never occurred to me that you would write software to run on machines as opposed to access it through a browser. Why would you do that?”

For Priebatsch, social media is a given.

“Those companies that actively monitor, react and engage with what people are saying about them are at a huge advantage. If I’ve just launched a new feature on SCVNGR and people like it (or don’t) I know immediately. And that’s powerful. And what’s even cooler is that I can dig deeper. Someone says on Twitter: ‘Hey @SCVNGR, love the new social check-in. Way cool!’ and I can tweet back immediately ‘Thanks @user. What have you been using it for?’ And immediately get more information on how people are using SCVNGR, why they like it (or don’t) and how to make it better. That’s real power. It combines huge scale (tons of people talking) with massive granularity (ability to dig deep into one response).”

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CEOs and the Future

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The business leaders of tomorrow will be versed in social media, and we don’t need a crystal ball to predict how CEOs in the future will use social media. It’s the socially versed CEOs of today who help manufacture the following:

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Opportunity Knocks

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LIVESTRONG CEO Doug Ulman, himself a social media advocate and user, believes that perceptions around social media being too risky for CEOs are beginning to change.

“I would predict that more and more executives will see this as an opportunity rather than a risk,” he says.

Certainly the opportunity is there. Ulman pulls from his own work at LIVESTRONG as proof of concept. “Transparency and authenticity are two important factors in our work and social media allows us to amplify both in a significant way.”

Plus, given the digital landscape of the world we live in, future CEOs using social media is practically a given.

“Those who are currently growing up using these tools and mediums will have them integrated closely with their daily lives as they begin to enter the workforce, so they will come to expect their colleagues to be engaged as well,” according to Ulman.

Colony also sees social media as a platform paved with opportunity. He believes that CEOs should be social if the CEO “has something valuable and distinctive to say,” and has “a specialized strategy for social.”

For CEOs looking to start their social path, Colony prescribes a four part methodology that involves targeting the right audience, defining a clear reason to be social, setting up social expectations, and choosing the right platform(s).

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The Ultimate in mobile phones ! Pomegranate NS 08 : How do you want your coffee, you said ?

Concept phones are always “wish list” design concepts which later transform into something as close or beyond , as possible .
I am not sure how real is this story but for sure the designer has captured
what you & I  would love to get  from our mobile devices – of the (not too far ) future !

As a”tongue in cheek ” also it’s hilarious

I shall buy one ahead of iPhone 8 or whatever is then avatar of iPhone
Unless Steve adds the “bells & whistles “& steaming coffee brew by then!

Visit YouTube below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-v8c7J1xCw

(p.s. Added 21 Aug 2010, Sure enough .Pomegranate is a fake ad  . See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate_%28phone%29
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/11/11/pomegranate-ns08-the.html

But except for the  Shaver & Coffee maker most other features do exist /can become real )

Have great day ahead

Manoj Pant

Mumbai

Privacy issues in Facebook & such Social Networking sites ( Orkut , etc )

Facebook is one of those “killer Apps ‘ which is the stuff dreams are made of !

$ 20-25 Billion =valuation of Facebook .

Current stats for this site read like( Source Business Today Aug 22, 2010 page 26)

500 Million =number of users on Facebook ! They crossed this number circa ,end July 2010 .

12 Million is the number of Facebook users in India .Indian users upload 53 Million photos /month

2 Hours /day = time that  Indian urban youth spend on networking sites , every day . ( Source IndiaBiz news & Research Services )

17 % of all Europeans who are on Facebook

Facebook has spawned an entirely new class of PC users from the very young to the very old -the ones one did’nt think would come to a keyboard !

Now all this is great but in all this fun and oh so very easy to do stuff , lurks a great danger of what are called Privacy Issues .

I shall post some tips & tricks & warnings on how to make your Social networking presence “controlled ” & as private as you wish -if you wish

My  2 cent advice remains – “better safe than sorry “

Sharing the recent on this issue( 13 Aug 2010, Networking URL at end  ), from Computerworld – a very reputed site .

)

Urge you to read carefully { (Highlights /Bold are mine  Manoj}and immediately go and at least find out and change your privacy settings from the Account  tab then privacy settings  at top right- drop down menu

or ask me .

Take care

Watch this space for more

More below

Share feedback and add your own inputs please

Thanks

Manoj Pant

manoj.pant@shankhinc.com

Mumbai Sat 14 Aug, 2010

Computerworld talked with analysts to come up with five suggestions to protect you and your personal information if you’re one of the half a billion Facebook users sharing pictures, videos and updates about your latest dates or upcoming vacations.

1. Understand Facebook’s security settings and use them

Most analysts called this step absolutely mandatory. Users need to find out where the security settings are on Facebook and take the time to learn how to use them to control what information is shared with people, applications and Web sites.

Users should seriously consider sharing their information only with their online friends.

To do that, users can access their privacy settings by clicking on “Account” in the upper right-hand corner of their Facebook page, and then clicking “Privacy Settings.” People who want to set their privacy settings as tight as possible can select “Friends Only.” Also uncheck the box marked “Let friends of people tagged in my photos and posts see them,” and then click “Apply these Settings.”

2. Who’s your buddy?

Come on. This is not high school and Facebook isn’t a popularity contest. You don’t need to be “friends” with everyone.

Actually, a good reality check is if this person is actually a friend or family member in real life. If they’re not an actual friend, why would you want them to know when you’re stuck working late, getting ready to go on vacation or that you just bought a new computer or flat-screen TV?

Remember that sharing with friends only is the strictest level of security that exists on Facebook. Be sure the people you befriend are ones that you know and trust.

Corollary: Review your list of friends and delete the names that ought not to be there.

3. Beware of those applications

Using a Facebook application can give broad permission for whoever developed that application to access your data … and your friends’ data.

That means you may want to think twice before you take quizzes with titles like “Would you make a good FBI agent?” or “What’s the theme song to your high school years?”

Only use applications from sources you trust. And periodically check the list of applications you’ve used and given permissions to. You might be surprised how many you’ve approved. Much like your PC, you probably want to regularly remove any applications you don’t use and trust.

Go to the bottom of Facebook’s Privacy Settings page to find the “Applications and Websites” link. There, you can click on the “Remove unwanted or spammy applications” option.

4. Ummm, sorry Grandma! Think before you type

You have to protect yourself and think through every post that you put online. The golden rule, say several analysts, is to think about whether you want your mother, your boss (and any potential future bosses) and your significant other to read what you’re about to write. If you don’t want any of them to see it, don’t post it.

It’s a simple concept, but people still just don’t get it.

It’s so important for users to realize that when they post personal details on social networking sites, they have to assume that information could be exposed to everyone in the world with a computer and a screen.

One approach is to ask yourself if you’d wear a T-shirt with the details you’ve posted about yourself. If you would, then you’re probably OK. But if that thought makes you cringe, then you’d better re-evaluate what you’re putting on the Web.

5. Malicious eyes

Sit down and closely look at your Facebook page and consider what a malicious person could do with any of the information you’ve posted.

Try to be objective and ask yourself, ‘If I really hated this person or wanted to take advantage of her, is there anything I could do with this information to mess with her?’ If the answer is yes, then consider what kinds of information you’re posting on your Facebook page and make the appropriate adjustments.

Do not post any information that could be used in an identity theft scheme. Avoid listing your full birth date, home address, children’s names, phone numbers and social security numbers.

Summarised from:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180642/5_tips_to_protect_yourself_on_Facebook?source=CTWNLE_nlt_networking_2010-08-13

Not just BlackBerry, now 3G Video Calls also on hold

Home ministry tells DoT to put 3G on hold

TNN, Aug 11, 2010, 12.21am IST

Tags:dot|3g mobile services|3g

NEW DELHI: Users of third generation (3G) mobile services face the prospect of being disconnected with the home ministry asking the department of telecommunication (DoT) to direct service providers to put all 3G services on hold till an effective system of tapping infrastructure was put in place.

Though currently only public sector telecom companies – BSNL and MTNL – provide 3G services to nearly 19 lakh customers across the country, the move may affect the year-end schedule for launch of third generation mobile services by private players if they fail to put in place the required infrastructure to intercept all services including video calls.

The freeze order is aimed particularly at J&K where secessionists have used modern telephony to circulate streaming videos and clips to inflame opinion on the streets.

The order also marks a toughening of stance of the government towards service providers who have not heeded its security concerns. The home ministry is upset with the continued failure of service providers to verify users of SIM cards. Home ministry and intelligence agencies are also annoyed because telephone companies have defied the directive not to provide services on handsets which don’t have the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. This despite the finding of security agencies that terror gangs were using unverified SIM cards as well as handsets without IMEIs – all Chinese – to plot violence.

The exasperation found expression in the tough stand against Research in Motion, makers of BlackBerry, after they pleaded their inability to provide access to encrypted messages being sent and received by users of the smart phones.

All these issues are likely to figure in a meeting of service providers called by home ministry on Thursday.

Sources said the ministry was all set to read the riot act to telephone companies, even telling them to discontinue encrypted services on BlackBerry if the Canada-based RIM refused to play ball.

“The issue along with other matters including that of interception of the BlackBerry messenger service will be discussed in a meeting of service providers and DoT officials on Thursday,” said an official.

It was recently found that there were nearly 30 lakh unverified SIM cards in Jammu and Kashmir alone. A sample study in the border state revealed the use of unverified SIMs to an extent of 50% of total active connections.

Similarly, in case of IMEI number, it was found that compliance rate from service providers over shutting down services to handsets without a genuine IMEI number had been extremely poor. As a result, law enforcement agencies are finding it very difficult to intercept targets that do not have a legitimate IMEI number.

The move may affect the year-end schedule for launch of 3G mobile services by private players if they fail to put in place the required infrastructure to intercept all services including video calls.

Read more: Home ministry tells DoT to put 3G on hold – India Business – Business – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Home-ministry-tells-DoT-to-put-3G-on-hold/articleshow/6289803.cms#ixzz0wFATjJSC

Its all here :http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Home-ministry-tells-DoT-to-put-3G-on-hold/articleshow/6289803.cms

Does RIM/BlackBerry have (face saving )solution for Saudi Arabia ?

My Views :

RIM ( Research In Motion ) now faces a surging demand from many Countries to open their messaging for “monitoring ” .

Saadi Arabia , UAE ( From Oct 16 2010, ) India ( imminent ) for starters .

As long as they allow Messenger services between BlackBerry (PIN’s ) I personally dont care if my messages are monitored or not .

Big Brother US is anyway sniffing away at all the “bits& bytes ” passing on any media including ether !

Saudi telecoms test fix in tentative BlackBerry deal

Souhail KaramSun, Aug 8 07:54 AM

The Saudi telecom regulator told the kingdom’s telecom operators on Saturday to test a proposed fix to the perceived national security threat posed by certain services available on Research In Motion ‘s BlackBerry smartphones.

The regulator had threatened to cut off BlackBerry’s Messenger function to Saudi Arabian users on Friday, but so far has allowed the service to continue.

On Saturday, the Communications and Information Technology Commission said it gave the three telecom operators — state-controlled Saudi Telecom, Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia — 48 hours to try out “the proposed solutions and fulfill the requested regulatory requirements.”

The regulator’s brief statement did not say what the solution was, but a source told Reuters on Friday that the makers of BlackBerry were looking into using servers in Saudi Arabia to address government concerns.

The Saudi Arabian government wants access to RIM’s encrypted network.

RIM has come under increasing scrutiny from governments, including India, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Algeria, over the potential threats its network could pose to security.

With about 700,000 BlackBerry users, Saudi Arabia is RIM’s biggest Middle East market.

Neighboring UAE, with 500,000 users, has proposed a ban starting Oct. 11 targeting email and Web browsing, as well as the Messenger service, on the device.

The U.S. and Canadian governments have expressed concern about the implications of banning such services.

(Reporting by Souhail Karam; Writing by Ann Saphir in Chicago; Editing by Eric Beech)

From : http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20100808/371/tbs-saudi-telecoms-test-fix-in-tentative.html

Shankh Inc :Technology Strategy Consulting services .What we can do for you.

  

 

 

 

Shankh Inc. provides boutique consultancy for organizations /individuals who are looking at ways& means of using technology, specially communication technology, to leapfrog their operational and people productivity & efficiency .
Our focus area & experience is in the field of Mobile communications specially Value Added Services, User Interface , end to end linkages from content to display & controls from Mobile devices , Customer Service, as well as adding a telematics & telemetry capability to legacy systems through SMS/GPRS based Mobile access & control .
We are based out of Mumbai and can be contacted on       +91 9820018300   +91 9820018300    +91 9820018300       &  manoj.pant@shankhinc.com 

Manoj pant presentation on Education without Boundaries at 6 th Edu convex

Edu Convex Presentation (click here)

Happy to help guide, design your education & training communication architecture & platforms

Staff training & certification
Skill Development programs
Email : manoj.pant@shankhinc.com
Mobile :+919820018300
Skype : manoj.pant
Twitter : @ manojpant
Visit: www.shankhinc.com & http://www.jktechnician.com

Great time for India to become Centre of Excellence for edu training the world

As they say “You ain’t seen nothin yet”.
With a need to skill over 600 Million Indian youth , the prices & features of Tablets as “weapons of mass education” by passing the limitation of MS Office teaching from PC’s in English & many choices in Broadband wireless access at very affordable costs ( and 4G is around the corner too), time is ripe to focus on creating “Knowledge Workers ” with “timeless lifeskills “.
Also use of technology as “prosthetic aids ” opens many new ways of providisng revenue opportunities for the differently abled
In the last 3 months have done some interesting work in all these spaces & shall soon share my learnings & ability to run ” Schools from a briefcase ”
I’m lovin’ it!
Watch this space

‘Personal Cloud’ to Replace PC by 2014 & I’m lovin it!

‘Personal Cloud’ to Replace PC by 2014, Says Gartner

Smartphone  users sometimes dont realize that most of the processing of their commands /queries is actually being done  somewhere in the clouds& not on their devices 

The user experience is so smooth, swift& seamless .

iCloud like offerings will take this user experience to a different level where  content becomes device independent  & one has access to same content from any device & from where one may have signed off.

This has great value for all & with the “Personal  Cloud ”  forecast to replace the PC , the future is even more exciting .

For starters read below & keep your head in the clouds 🙂

Cheers 

Manoj Pant 

http://www.shankhinc.com 

There’s no doubting the cloud invasion. But the research firm Gartner believes the personal cloud will replace the PC as the center of our digital lives sooner than you might think: 2014.

“Major trends in client computing have shifted the market away from a focus on personal computers to a broader device perspective that includes smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices,” Steve Kleynhans, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement on Monday. “Emerging cloud services will become the glue that connects the web of devices that users choose to access during the different aspects of their daily life.”

Google plans a cloud-centered future with Google Play and its market-leading Android mobile OS. But the personal computer will also not miss out on the cloud, as Microsoft and Apple are planning to weave the cloud into the next generation of their desktop operating systems, Windows 8, and OS X Mountain Lion.

But a cloud-happy future will not be as easy as that, because “it will require enterprises to fundamentally rethink how they deliver applications and services to users.” That’s a point echoed by two new bloggers at Cloudline. Todd B. Nielsen outlines what he sees as the perfect storm for cloud computing, noting that he is “in awe at the businesses and executives that are not treating cloud computing as a strategy to improve their company.” And Contributor Alexander Haislip drove home the missed-opportunity sentiment recently in his post, What the New iPad Won’t Do:

The new iPad may be the most impressive piece of computing hardware I’ve ever seen. Yet its true power is held back by large enterprise software corporations that cannot keep pace with the new devices designed with cloud computing in mind…. It’s as if they’ve completely ignored one of the most successful computing platforms ever built, outselling the total number of PCs its closest competitor sold last quarter.

With the new iPad sold out, it seems only a matter of time that those not on board with the cloud — and with their wares available on any device — will face an existential question.

And Gartner says a number of factors are converging to make for a perfect personal cloud storm by 2014:

Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization — You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
Gartner has discussed the consumerization of IT for the better part of a decade, and has seen the impact of it across various aspects of the corporate IT world. However, much of this has simply been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of information technology as several key factors come together:

• Users are more technologically-savvy and have very different expectations of technology.
• The internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users.
• The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users.
• Users have become innovators.
• Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have similar technology available to them.

Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments….

Megatrend No. 3: “App-ification” — From Applications to Apps
When the way that applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users changes, it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market….

Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do….

Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices….

“The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud,” Gartner’s Kleynhans said. “In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.”

But he says it’s not about the oft-referenced post-PC era, “but rather about a new style of personal computing that frees individuals to use computing in fundamentally new ways to improve multiple aspects of their work and personal lives.”

That’s a point former Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie made recently, saying, “People argue about, ‘Are we in a post-PC world?’. Why are we arguing? Of course we are in a post-PC world,” Ozzie is is reported to have said at a GeekWire-sponsored conference last week. ”That doesn’t mean the PC dies; that just means that the scenarios that we use them in, we stop referring to them as PCs, we refer to them as other things.” Ozzie, who left Microsoft in 2010, started a company called Cocomo, which he said last week has it sights set on the center of the personal cloud storm: mobility and communications.

Jon Udell, another newcomer to Cloudline who will chronicle the personal cloud weekly on Fridays, writes in his first post:

The cloud platform has become a real option for companies needing managed, pay-as-you-use IT capacity. But you have to squint hard to see the emerging personal cloud. That future is already here, as William Gibson would say, but it’s unevenly distributed.

I see signs of the personal cloud in services like Dropbox, Evernote, and Flickr. You can use them for free, or you can pay for higher capacity and enhanced customer service. But the personal cloud also arises from a way of thinking about, and using, any of the services the web provides.

Weigh in: Will the personal cloud replace your personal computer at the center of your digital life? Extra fodder for discussion: Any way we can rebrand to drop “PC” once and for all, or is it now set to live on for another generation?

 

Posted originally by Mike Barton

 

 

iMessage Vs. BBM, which will come out on top?

One key reason I have stuck with the Blackberry has been its amazing innovative, secure  Messenger Service – with its unique “read” notification as well as ability to send “Voice Notes ” across to any other BBM user  -free over a wi-fi network /unlimited Data Plan .

No other platform/device came even close !

This has stopped me from  migrating to iPhone  ,till now that is. 

Tried the  cross-platform messenger services like whatsapp but somehow they  didn’t really work for me.

 Now with Apple announcing launch of iMessage for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad,as Apple’s answer to BBM  the scenario will change for me – & for many other die-hard BBM users

 Sharing a  good post below by Cell Guru – which captures key aspects of  emerging service and competition for RIM

May the best Messenger win!

Manoj Pant

iMessage Vs. BBM, which will come out on top?

When RIM launched their proprietary BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant messaging application, it was nothing more than a convenient, secure way for business men around the office to keep in touch with each other; using their monthly allotted data plan to chat without the annoyance of filling their already saturated email inbox’s with short sentences, and also avoiding the then costly regular use of standard text messaging.  Companies loved it because it saved money, RIM loved that they had created a niché; everyone was happy.

Then the unthinkable happened: BBM went viral. Though very bare-boned, it worked. It was an efficient, quick, and cheap way to keep in touch with friends locally or worldwide without incurring the often exorbitant fees associated with standard text messaging. RIM was floating high with their newly found fame; no one offered what they did and more importantly, no one could. At the same time, Microsoft was losing market share by the minute with their then rapidly fading Windows OS’s, Apple was getting ready to unleash their iOS device software to the masses, along with a then very basic – but still game changing – iPhone 2G, and at that time, Google’s Android OS was nothing more than an unconfirmed rumor.  So on top of having a proprietary instant messaging app, they also had little to no competition in the mobile space. In short, RIM owned the smartphone market and quickly became the go-to device for both companies and consumers alike, largely because of BBM.

Now you would think things are all peachy keen right? Wrong. BBM was – and still is – only for BlackBerry OS and with competition naturally comes imitation; iPhone (and soon Android) users’ wanted an IM (instant messaging) solution as well and developers saw it and recognized it, thus ushering in a wave of apps claiming to fill the void lost when users’ made the switch from BlackBerry. Many briefly did well, but as fast as they grew, they also lost steam; whether it was due to a lack of consistent updates or what not, there were – and are – only a select few that really caught on over the years and are still widely used now (whatsapp, kik, and liveprofile just to name a few). But the biggest reason for said apps losing steam? They just weren’t BBM, nor were they official apps acknowledged by Apple; this has forced many, myself included, to annoyingly carry two devices. Many of my contacts/friends around the world are active on BBM and it remains the fastest, cheapest, most widely used and easiest way for us to communicate. It also provides a sense of security; because unlike most apps you aren’t forced to give out ANY personal information and have the ability to delete and/or block if conversations get inappropriate. To put it boldly: BBM has become a benchmark IM that, to date, no one has successfully duplicated to its entirety.

Then came today’s World Wide Developers Conference or WWDC  for short. Apple’s yearly conference which – as per normal – gives them the worlds attention to announce the latest and greatest to come from their labs in Cupertino. Other than the expected iOS5, OSX Lion, and Cloud announcements, Apple pulled something from way out of left field: iMessage for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, directly positioned to be Apple’s answer to BBM. If anyone could finally compete with RIM, Apple was it. The instant chat app  (set to launch this coming fall as an added feature of OS5) will let Apple users exchange text messages, photos and videos, just as BlackBerry users do with the popular BBM program. And like with BBM, iMessage will include prompts showing when a message has been received and read, and when other users are typing. Apple says all messages will be securely encrypted – one of the biggest selling features of B2B BlackBerry sales.

While this news is well and good for Apple die-hards, BBM has become an entity in itself, a household name if you will; brand recognition of that caliber doesn’t go away overnight, regardless of falling stock prices. BlackBerry’s are and always will be the best communication devices around, period.  That being said, do I think iMessage will “take down” BBM? No. BBM is too big for that. I don’t even think that RIM should look at it in that way. iMessage has a lot of potential and will definitely give BBM a run for its money if launched properly, becoming a solid catalyst going forward for consumers – business or non – to take the full leap. But I think it’s way to early to start assuming it’s the “be all end all”.

As I stated before, MANY have tried to steal BBM’s thunder, many have also failed. Maybe this latest news will be the final push RIM needed to open up the use of BBM for other OS’s. Does iMessage – and its solid backing – even have what it takes? Or is it another destined to fail? Many questions are left unanswered, and until official release, will remain that way. So for now, sound off in the comments with your thoughts.

From : http://thecellularguru.com/2011/06/06/editorial-imessage-vs-bbm-which-will-come-out-on-top/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

MP3 for phone calls An idea whose time has come !

MP3 for phone calls  An idea whose time has come !

Telephone calls and video conferences with a sound quality that approaches that of direct communication are now possible with a new audio coding technology — it is almost as if the discussion participants are sitting across from one another.

MP3 for phone calls — Considering the poor sound quality of many phone calls, this is a great idea. Videoconference phone calls in particular can be unintentionally awkward because the participants start to speak at the same time due to the time delay in the transmission. The reasons for this are long delay times and the poor quality of today’s video calls. Fraunhofer’s task was therefore to improve the quality and simultaneously minimize the delay time. The technology that makes this possible is called Enhanced Low Delay Advanced Audio Coding, in short, AAC-ELD. It was developed by Manfred Lutzky, Marc Gayer, Markus Schnell and their team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen.

Fraunhofer IIS is known as the main inventor of MP3, the audio codec that made it possible to greatly reduce the size of music or other audio files without impairing the sound. To implement something similar for the telephone and other devices was easier said than done. “The algorithm requires a certain amount of time to encode the data and to decode it again at the other end of the line. The process requires data that is still in the future, as it must wait for the data to arrive. This can result in a situation where interactive communication is very difficult,” explained Markus Schnell.For several years, the IIS team continued to improve the algorithm even further to shorten the delay and not impair the quality at the same time. The solution, “We attempted to further minimize the area that is forward-looking and to only process current data. We did that until we found an optimum balance between quality and delay,” said Schnell.

One technology — many applications

The results are audibly good as the delay with Enhanced Low Delay AAC is only about 15 milliseconds. During this extremely short timespan, the algorithm manages to reduce the audio data to less than one-thirtieth of its original volume without major losses of sound quality. Due to its enormous performance capacity, the coding process has already prevailed in many areas. Marc Gayer explains, “Currently, AAC Low Delay, the forerunner of AAC-ELD, is the actual standard for many video-conferencing systems. But the process is also increasingly applied in radio broadcasts, for example for live sports reports.”

The advantage of improved speech transmission is also heard in mobile devices, such as the iPhone4 and in the iPad2, for example. Video telephone transmissions in particular are supported in these devices. The developers created a very special application was to promote the communication between groups that are socially close to each other. A system was created that makes it possible to play games across the borders of cities or countries. “Thanks to the optimized image and sound quality, there is the impression that game partners who are far apart from each other are not in front of screens, but actually sitting across from one another,” said Manfred Lutzky.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110526091254.htm

How to make “Social Network” work for you. Starter kit FAQ!

Recall some time back one used to hear  ” I don’t need/want – mobiles, PC, email & then Facebook & Skype et.al. (My children use it & Yes I use it but only to talk /see my children & grandchildren in US but its not for me /may age/need!

Then suddenly Social Networking happened & now it’s Mobile Social Networks (MSN).

Looking forward -email is already “passé/too slow/”my fathers generation & thus fuddy duddy:).

Because you are reading this you are “On Facebook ” have many Friends all over & pretty much hooked on it.

Maybe some miss their daily “fix ” if net/device deprived

For those on Facebook who have not tried Twitter (twitter.com Register now). Get yourself a Twitter “handle ” which is basically your name you choose – it can be any name for anonymity and send 140 character “free SMS “ to  your “followers “
You can control if you don’t want to be followed too just in case you started getting worried !.

It reads like @manojpant which is my twitter “handle”

On Twitter you can send me a “direct message “ only to one or to all.
User has full control.
I am sharing this to show you the seamless integration of Twitter & Facebook & all other Social Apps.

Invite you to read more on SN on another page here & below
https://manojpant.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=216&action=edit

Signing off with my Thought for today :My  daily Prayer -” Lord, give me today, my daily Net!

Have  a great day ahead, hopefully tweeting away .
Watch this space for more or just call/mail/tweet me ,

Happy to help anytime, if able

Higher education The latest bubble? by Schumpeter in The Economist: Apr 13th 2011,

 While written with a US centric view, situation in India ,is not very different or better.

Some collected thoughts below &  solicit your feedback & views.

My mail trails on this below  :

1.Madan :Thanks for sharing.

 Great piece that only reinforces what you’ve been forecasting for long – except not reported in The Economist under your byline. Yet!

 

Now Paul Krugman saying the same thing in same words!

“Paul Krugman has pointed out that, contrary to popular wisdom, expounded relentlessly by the OECD among other august bodies, technological progress may reduce the demand for high-end jobs, not just low-end jobs.

Computer software is now employed to perform tasks that used to require armies of lawyers, engineers or highly educated workers.”

2. One reaction to above was

“I do not agree. Indian situation is very different, if not diametrically opposite. It would take another piece like Schumeter’s, to fully state the reasons and arguments. And I would leave it for the chat, when we meet the next time,”

3. To which below clarification by Dr. M. M. Pant.

 “The key fact is that in India quality higher education is scarce and good education is being out-priced.

 We have already seen trends of closure in mediocre Engineering and Management Programs.

 Even the IIT’s with 40% faculty shortage, inability to attract enough high quality faculty and 3 fold expansion may not be able to keep their brand value for too long.

 So a better school education with programs emphasising technical and behavioural skills to follow will replace a large chunk of erstwhile higher education.

Also do observe the higher ‘intelligence’ and sensory dimensions of emerging software.

 So shouldn’t dismiss the argument straightaway. Of course there are differences and the details may vary but the overarching trend has to be taken cognizance of

 Do read the article below .

Share comments , Thanks

Higher education The latest bubble?

Business and management: Apr 13th 2011, by Schumpeter

The Economist

ON September 2nd 2010 I wrote a mischievous column (“Declining by degree”) likening America’s universities to its car companies in about 1950: on top of the world and about to take an almighty fall. Since then I have heard the argument dismissed and denounced by the presidents of Harvard, Princeton and New York University. John Sexton, NYU’s affable president, even likened me to a member of the tea party, for which there is no more damning condemnation in academic circles.

So I am particularly delighted to read Peter Thiel’s latest thoughts on the higher-education bubble. Mr Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and a legendary investor, has a long history of identifying bubbles. He insisted on striking a deal, against everybody’s advice, when the market valued PayPal at “only” $500m, on the ground that the dotcom bubble was about to burst (this was March 2000). He refused to buy property until recently, figuring that the dotcom bubble had simply shifted to housing.

Mr Thiel believes that higher education fills all the criteria for a bubble: tuition costs are too high, debt loads are too onerous, and there is mounting evidence that the rewards are over-rated. Add to this the fact that politicians are doing everything they can to expand the supply of higher education (reasoning that the “jobs of the future” require college degrees), much as they did everything that they could to expand the supply of “affordable” housing, and it is hard to see how we can escape disaster.

Here is Sarah Lacy’s summary of Mr Thiel’s argument about the safety-blanket role of higher education:

Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about security and insurance against the future. Both whisper a seductive promise into the ears of worried Americans: Do this and you will be safe. The excesses of both were always excused by a core national belief that no matter what happens in the world, these were the best investments you could make. Housing prices would always go up, and you will always make more money if you are college educated.

Mr Thiel’s own solution to the problem befits a man with money and a mission: he is offering 20 students $100,000 scholarships, over two years, to leave school and start a company rather than enter college.

While I’m on the subject of higher education, I’ll point to three other bits and pieces that have caught my attention. Paul Krugman has pointed out that, contrary to popular wisdom, expounded relentlessly by the OECD among other august bodies, technological progress may reduce the demand for high-end jobs, not just low-end jobs. Computer software is now employed to perform tasks that used to require armies of lawyers, engineers or highly educated workers.

 

    The belief that education is becoming ever more important rests on the plausible-sounding notion that advances in technology increase job opportunities for those who work with information — loosely speaking, that computers help those who work with their minds, while hurting those who work with their hands.

Some years ago, however, the economists David Autor, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane argued that this was the wrong way to think about it. Computers, they pointed out, excel at routine tasks, “cognitive and manual tasks that can be accomplished by following explicit rules.” Therefore, any routine task — a category that includes many white-collar, non-manual jobs — is in the firing line. Conversely, jobs that can’t be carried out by following explicit rules — a category that includes many kinds of manual labor, from truck drivers to janitors — will tend to grow even in the face of technological progress.

And here’s the thing: Most of the manual labor still being done in our economy seems to be of the kind that’s hard to automate. Notably, with production workers in manufacturing down to about 6 percent of US employment, there aren’t many assembly-line jobs left to lose. Meanwhile, quite a lot of white-collar work currently carried out by well-educated, relatively well-paid workers may soon be computerized. Roombas are cute, but robot janitors are a long way off; computerized legal research and computer-aided medical diagnosis are already here.

Of course, the value of education cannot be reduced to dollars and cents, as much as elite universities try to do so. Education is its own reward. But I wonder about the quality of a great deal of higher education, especially in the humanities. The best academics, the Gordon Woods of this world, produce wonderful stuff. But I am regularly shocked by the quality of the books that flow into The Economist’s offices from university presses, by the tediousness of the subject matter, the contortions of the prose and the willingness of the authors to bow the knee to various exhausted academic pieties (the various “isms”) in the name of challenging conventions (try looking at anything produced by Duke University Press, for example).

I was struck by a recent review in Slate, by William Deresiewicz, of Marjorie Garber’s new book “The Use and Abuse of Literature”, which begins thus, and goes on to become even more brutal:

Marjorie Garber’s new book brought me back to my days as an English professor; I thought I was reading a freshman essay. My marginal comments might as well have been written in red: “What is the point of this paragraph?” “Where are we in the argument—and what exactly is the argument?” “Sloppy thinking.” “You need to unpack this.” “Again, is there a point here, or just a mass of notes?” “You have to develop your thesis, not just keep reiterating it.” The Use and Abuse of Literature purports to be a rallying cry for serious reading by a decorated and prolific Harvard professor, but once you pick your way through its heap of critical detritus—its mildewed commonplaces and shot-springed arguments, its half-chewed digressions and butt ends of academic cliché—you uncover underneath it all a single dubious and self-serving claim: that the central actor in the literary process is, what do you know, the English professor.

And Ms Garber, remember, is a leading professor at America’s leading university, or one of them anyway. Imagine what the average exercise in literary theory is like from a professor at a second- or third-division school. It is hard to regard this sort of stuff as a contribution to either knowledge or civilisation.

 

My third article is also from Slate. This suggests that applications for law school have dropped by more than 11% since last year, in part because students are beginning to realise that it makes no sense to pile up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in order to join the legion of unemployed lawyers.

According to data from the Law School Admission Council, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the number of applicants to law school has dropped a whopping 11.5 percent year-to-year—to the lowest level since 2001 at this point in the application cycle. Some schools are still accepting applications, so the numbers will change in the coming weeks, says the council’s Wendy Margolis. But about 90 percent of applications are in, and the pattern is clear.

This fits in with my own observations of what is happening in business schools, which have been relentlessly raising their prices by 6% a year. Middle-ranking schools are seeing a significant drop in demand, which they have masked by taking weaker candidates, but which will eventually force them to start cutting back.

Perhaps the education bubble is already beginning to burst.

Save money in International Roaming:Reliance Passport World SIM Passport International Calling Card

Reliance Passport World SIM – Travel Anywhere in The World With A Single SIM

Sounds like a good option to carry around-  better than Matrix cards maybe.

Just read about below

http://www.reliancepassport.com/mainindex.html

Prima Facie a very good option to carry around for international travels ( carry a second GSM Mobile for this)

Its International Calling Card service via GSM SIM

So no need to enter painful 16 digit codes !

In fact can be used by other country residents also

In Country calling Rs 15 / Calls to India Rs 40 &/SMS rates at Rs 10 ( For most countries )are better than GSM Roaming and Matrix cards

Even lower than calls billed in Euro/GBP/$/minute rates, maybe?

Available as Post & Pre paid

Corporates can keep this in stock & issue to outbound travelers with good Budgetary controls and no need for activating International roaming on Home SIM .

You have an International Calling in Number

Just get one & keep for use anytime needed.

Can only be used out of Home Country Network

Smart Product in my view .

I am going to try one soon

Haven’t read (* ) Terms & conditions apply – if any !

Let me know if you find such * hidden away somewhere in the fine print

Passport World SIM Passport International Calling Card

Introducing Passport World SIM – travel to over 100 countries with a single SIM. Make and receive local, national and international calls and save not only on exorbitant international roaming charges, but also the hassle of carrying multiple SIMs.

Passport International Calling card allows you to save up to 90% compared to international roaming! Available in denominations of Rs. 500, Rs. 1000 and Rs. 1500 with full talktime, Passport international Calling card can be used from over 30 countries. Make calls to India and over 200 countries across the globe from any local mobile, landline or payphone at highly affordable rates

Rates are on

http://www.reliancepassport.com/g_World_SIM_tariff.html

Why nobody can match the iPad’s price.

Summary:
“That’s what it all boils down to: ecosystems and control. Competitors are struggling to match the $500 price point because they aren’t as fully integrated as Apple, in terms of retail strategy, a digital content market, hardware and software engineering — everything.

As Steve Jobs famously put it one day, “Apple is the last company in our industry that creates the whole widget.” Competitors are having trouble beating the iPad widget.”

My 2 cents : I  opted for  the Samsung Tab on Android & the 7 inch “puny” form factor works better for me than  iPad at  11 inch!
I’ve bet on Android OS & see it overtaking iOS very fast.
More on this later, and enough posted earlier.
Manoj Pant.
http://www.shankinc.com

CNN Tech
Why nobody can match the iPad’s price
February 21, 2011|By Brian X. Chen, WIRED

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad last January, the biggest surprise wasn’t the actual product. (Many shrugged and called the iPad a “bigger iPhone.”) It was the price: Just $500.

Nobody expected that number, perhaps because Apple has traditionally aimed at the high end of the mobile computer market with MacBooks marked $1,000 and up. And perhaps we were also thrown off because Apple execs repeatedly told investors they couldn’t produce a $500 computer that wasn’t a piece of junk.

But Apple did meet that price, and the iPad isn’t junk. The iPad is still the first, and best-selling, product of its kind. Competitors, meanwhile, are having trouble hitting that $500 sweet spot.

Motorola’s Xoom tablet is debuting in the United States with an $800 price tag. (To be fair, the most comparable iPad is $730 — but there’s no $500 Xoom planned, and the lack of a low-end entry point will hurt Motorola.) Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, with a relatively puny 7-inch screen, costs $600 without a contract.

Why is it so hard to get to a lower starting price? And how was Apple able to get there?

Jason Hiner of Tech Republic suggests it largely has to do with Apple’s retail strategy. Apple now has 300 retail stores worldwide selling iPads directly to customers. That’s advantageous, because if the iPad were primarily sold at third-party retail stores, a big chunk of profit would go to those retailers, Hiner reasons.

Apple has partnered with a few retail chains such as Best Buy and Walmart, but those stores always seem to get a small number of units in stock. Hiner rationalizes that the true purpose of these partnerships is probably to help spread the marketing message, not so much to sell iPads.

“The company can swallow the bitter pill of hardly making any money from iPad sales through its retail partners because it can feast off the fat profits it makes when customers buy directly through its retail outlets and the web store,” Hiner says. “However, companies like Motorola, HP, and Samsung have to make all of their profit by selling their tablets wholesale to retailer partners.”

The retail advantage is a reasonable theory, but Hiner neglects to mention the high overhead costs that Apple must pay handsomely for each of its 300 stores. To Hiner’s credit, Apple running its own stores does present clear benefits: the customer outreach is enormous, and of course, in Apple stores, Apple products don’t have to compete with gadgets sold by rivals on other shelves.

Original Post from : http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-21/tech/ipad.price.wired_1_ipad-samsung-s-galaxy-tab-apple-execs?_s=PM:TECH

Primer on Mobile Operating Systems( OS): Demystifying geek speak :) I plug for Android !

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En route to PTC +

Social Media & Mobile Operating Systems

( Click on hyperlink above to reach the Powerpoint presentation. Thank You)

Social Media & Mobile Handheld Devices: The Platforms, Operating Systems, devices& Applications
The wireless last mile & User Interface choices

Does it matter what devices  we use ? Yes.
Does it matter to know the  platform& operating system  we use ? Yes again.
Why does it matter?
Facebook and Twitter Access via Mobile Browser Grows by Triple-Digits in the Past Year
Social Networking Penetration via Browser Reaches 30% among Smartphone Owners
Mobile devices: The Last Mile & Final Frontier
Mobile’s outnumber PC’s by many times and this rising faster than before
Some applications & how to choose your Mobile
Now the boring techie stuff :->)

Mobile Phones, and Smartphones in particular, are changing the way we will do many things,
From accessing Social Media sites, to augmented reality, to instant purchases, photography, music, the list goes on.
With mobile phone technology capable of doing multiple tasks, rivaling basic notebooks in computing power, & outnumbering the PC’s good to know what  type of devices & OS work best to match your needs

The impact of operating systems and the ways in which users interact with them via their smartphone is crucially important to operators and the future development of the mobile market
Share of Smartphones is rising fast and more than 50% chance your next buy will be smart one
Good to know what’s behind the screen & why does it matter

More in ppt attached ( Link at start of this post)

Solicit feedback, updates & your take on this .

Many Thanks

Android Rising.Don’t I just love it? You should too!

Before you ,dear readers, wonder why I am pushing  Android, it’s because  I am happy that   my “trend spotting ” of “Open Source ” Android as one which will rule the Mobile “desktop ”  is being proven every day.

Read how  Android   is making waves at CES , LA last week.

Still waiting for my “personal ” Android  OS  Hand held & my current plug is for a Samsung . Galaxy S  is as good as it gets

There are many later releases on the shelves .

Pick up the latest Android OS .

And laugh all the way to “digital wire free ” spaces .

Happy to help if still not clear !

Manoj Pant

12 Jan 2011

Mob :+91 98200 18300

Several floors above the rows of slot machines in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, Matias Duarte sat on a gold velvet couch overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

 

Mr. Duarte, the head designer and interface architect of Android, Google’s mobile operating system, had just helped demonstrate the latest version of the software to an enthusiastic audience.

 

Just a few years ago, industry experts and analysts doubted that Android’s one-size-fits-all approach to software would be successful with phone makers eager to differentiate their devices from one another. But now, many hardware manufacturers are focusing on creating products that run on Android.

 

This year at C.E.S., it seemed impossible to turn around without bumping into a smartphone, tablet or kitchen appliance running a version of Android, which Google gives away free.

 

“It’s the beauty of the open-source model,” said Mr. Duarte. “Anyone and anything can work on it.”

 

The popularity of the Google-powered phones helped the market share of Android phones slip past Apple’s in November, according to the analytics firm comScore.

 

Some industry experts say that may not last, especially as the iPhone becomes available on carriers other than AT&T.

 

“The success of Android hasn’t been put to a test,” said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray. When popular smartphones like the iPhone migrate to other carriers, he said, “we’ll see how it plays out.”

 

But Mr. Duarte was undeterred.

 

“It seemed like a crazy idea when Andy came up with it,” he said, referring to Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Android. “But this C.E.S is proof that Android is a juggernaut, that it works.”

 

For more visit ” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/technology/personaltech/10ces.html?_r=2&hpw

Top Social Brands of 2010 – iPhone, Blackberry, Android: Expect this to move Android way!

This is 2009 vintage using "sepia" tone of iPhoto .

Top Social Brands of 2010 – iPhone, Blackberry, Android

I am not surprised & see that mid 2011 Android would move to No2 & by 2012  be numero uno!

BB occupies No 2 slot because of USP of BB Messenger -the only reason that has kept me away from iPhone & Android –as yet .

BBM is “awesome ”

My study shows that even in BBM most are unaware that it has much more than P to P Chat with Read Notification feature. Want to learn what all it can do? Ask me!

Happy to help

More below.

Manoj Pant

 

The Vitrue 100 annually ranks the most social brands by analyzing online conversations on a daily basis across social networks blogs, micro-blogs, photo and video sharing sites using the Vitrue Social Media Index (SMI).

 

30% of the Vitrue 100 list consists of consumer electronic brands, followed by fashion and retail (20%), transportaion (17%) and media and broadcasting (12%).

 

During 2010, Apple’s iPhone continues to be at the #1 position for the 3rd year. Blackberry generated tremendous buzz and news headlines and moved up to the second position. Android made itself into the fourth position, while the iPad brand managed to be at the fifth position. Other consumer electronics brand names at the top of the list are Sony, Apple, Samsung, iPod and Xbox.

 

Vitrue Social Media Index scores are comprised of various mentions from social networks like Facebook and Twitter to popular media sites like YouTube and Flickr. The Vitrue SMI score provides a snapshot in time to help make sense of the overwhelming amount of measurable data.

 

The Vitrue SMI is updated daily based on different dimensions of social interactivity including Social Networking, Video Sharing, Status Updates, Photo Sharing and Blogs. The rankings represent the sheer volume of social mentions and not sentiment or perception of a brand.

 

 

Read more at TECK.IN: Top Social Brands of 2010 – iPhone, Blackberry, Android http://teck.in/top-social-brands-of-2010-iphone-blackberry-android.html#ixzz1Ah3LebYM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Fractured Android leaves orphan tablets behind”? My view”It’s a limited “fracture ” if at all

Sharing a recent post on

Fractured Android leaves orphan tablets behind By M. Alex Johnson

His main thrust is

(1) Possible limitation, that earlier devices, may unable to upgrade to later Android OS.

(2) “Those on earlier releases will essentially be stranded — Google orphans left to rely on the cleverness of an already-thriving community of hackers who fill in the holes in Android on their own. Meanwhile, developers must weigh whether it’s worth the resources to bring out yet another version of their applications for yet another version of Android.”

(3) And seems to imply that Apple design is better because ” appeal of the iPhone and the iPad is in their predictability: It’s one phone and one tablet, and Apple keeps rigid control of its closed iOS, even deciding for itself what applications you’re allowed to install.”

While I also just love iOS  the main reason I believe that Android will rule in future is that  Apple  will remain a “walled garden ” while Android is Open Source & will offer many more user options/applications  than  iOS, Symbian, Windows or Windows Mobile et al

I have just got myself  to “test drive ”  a Samsung S Mobile  & Samsung Tab ( Tablet ).

Raring to ride  on soon to be rolled 3G “bearer channels ” on my existing GSM ( Vodafone ) carrier.

And with Number Portability( MNP) coming very soon , like the feeling that I wont be “carrier locked ”

Will come back with my user experience on above, I can say that some of the applications I have used on Android are just “out of the charts : )

Watch this space & do share your own feedback/comments on below

Manoj Pant

9 Jan 2011

 

Fractured Android leaves orphan tablets behind By M. Alex Johnson

 

If tablets are the stars at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, then the headliner is Google, whose Android mobile operating system runs most of the devices getting so much attention this week in Las Vegas.

 

The iPad is still the king, but Apple isn’t here — as usual. This gives Google’s little green robot command of the spotlight almost by default. Nearly every major computer maker already has an Android tablet or is debuting one (or more) at CES; by the end of the year, Android will have grabbed a third of the tablet market to go along with half the smartphone market, analysts Piper-Jaffray projected this week.

 

But by mid-year, consumers will have to wade through a half-dozen different Android operating systems on tablets. Those on earlier releases will essentially be stranded — Google orphans left to rely on the cleverness of an already-thriving community of hackers who fill in the holes in Android on their own. Meanwhile, developers must weigh whether it’s worth the resources to bring out yet another version of their applications for yet another version of Android.

 

At least four major “flavors” of Android now hold significant positions in the tablet market: the early-generation Android 1.6, which is still being installed in some new tablets, like the ViewPad 10 from ViewSonic; 2.0 and 2.1, which are on most smartphones and many tablets; and 2.2, or “Froyo,” which is on some smartphones and tablets and will be on many devices coming out in the near future.

 

The reasons are complex: The manufacturers, not Google, determine which OS runs on their smartphones, and once carriers get their hands on them, they like to customize them further to their own specifications.

 

Carriers have struggled with these bottlenecks as Google rolls out newer, more polished versions. And Google doesn’t even officially support Android on any tablets currently on the market, so manufacturers that want to install it do so — with a handful of exceptions, like Samsung’s popular Galaxy Tab — mostly without Google’s help.

 

If you succumb to the hype and buy one of those tablets, be aware that it’s very possible you won’t have basic built-in apps like GMail, Google Maps and the Android Market, where you go to install new apps and fix omissions like that.

 

It’s going to get worse before it gets better. In the pipeline are Android 2.3 (“Gingerbread”), which is beginning to pop up on a handful of the latest smartphones, and 3.0 (“Honeycomb”), the first version that Google’s building for tablets. (Andy Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering and one of the original creators of Android, posted the above preview video on Google’s YouTube Android developers channel Wednesday.)

Contrast Google’s approach with that of Apple. Much of the appeal of the iPhone and the iPad is in their predictability: It’s one phone and one tablet, and Apple keeps rigid control of its closed iOS, even deciding for itself what applications you’re allowed to install. While this drives advanced users nuts — until only very recently, you couldn’t even multitask without jailbreaking the system, installing “forbidden” software and voiding your warranty — it’s a big comfort for ordinary consumers, who know their machines will work and that they will all work the same way.

 

Microsoft is getting in the game, having announced the coming of tablets running Windows 7. If Google is paying attention, it will study Microsoft and learn some lessons. Like Windows, Android is in danger of fragmenting into too many versions, some more powerful and flexible than others — reminiscent of the experience Windows customers have when they try to install software built for Vista or Windows 7 on machines running XP, or vice versa.

 

Google itself insists that fragmentation is a made-up controversy — “a bogeyman, a red herring, a story you tell to frighten junior developers.”

 

“Stories on ‘fragmentation’ are dramatic and they drive traffic to pundits’ blogs, but they have little to do with reality,” Dan Morrill, Google’s program manager for compatibility, vented (in a blog post of his own).

 

Except he’s wrong. When Honeycomb comes out, it will run on powerful hardware, like NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2, which is inside the Motorola Xoom, the first “official” Honeycomb tablet. How well it runs on the millions of tablets that are already in users’ hands we’ll never know, as it is highly unlikely that any current tablet would be upgraded to the new OS. And it won’t run on any of the phones, either.

 

And that means that anyone who jumped in and bought an Android tablet will become second-class citizens virtually overnight — they’ll be locked into carrier contracts for devices that can’t be upgraded, or on the hook for several hundred dollars invested in what they thought was a state-of-the-art tablet that won’t offer state-of-the-art performance or options. It’s likely they’re in for a big, big letdown, and no matter how much Google dismisses the issue as fake, the reality is that it’s the Google name attached to Android, even to adaptations it doesn’t support.

 

It’s possible this will leave an opening for Microsoft. Because it’s been close to dormant in mobile software for several years, its Windows Phone 7 and Windows 7-on-tablet systems will essentially be unified across devices, offering simplicity and predictability to a huge user base that already lives in the company’s computing universe.

 

Just like Apple. But Apple’s still the king.

Mobile Wallet means many things .The future is here& how !

Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Monday that the smart phone will eventually supplant the credit card – and showed off just the handset that could do it.

During an interview at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, he took out what he called the “unannounced device I carry around with me” onstage and demonstrated its ability to use Near Field Communication. The wireless standard allows consumers to make a payment, or accomplish other tasks, by waving a device over an electronic reader.

“This could replace your credit card,” he said during the discussion moderated by Federated Media CEO John Battelle and O’Reilly Media Inc. founder Tim O’Reilly.
Schmidt added that even credit card companies believe the technology is more secure than traditional plastic.

The logo on the smart phone was taped over, but it was widely believed to be the much anticipated Nexus S built by Samsung Electronics, photos of which emerged earlier this month on the tech blog Engadget. It was running the next version of Google’s popular Android mobile operating system, known as Gingerbread, which Schmidt said will become available in the coming weeks.

Google, of course, isn’t alone in pursuing the mobile-payment market.

Apple Inc., maker of the popular iPhone, is also believed to be working on so-called contactless payment technology for coming mobile devices. The Cupertino company recently tapped Benjamin Vigier as a product manager of mobile commerce, who previously focused on the NFC during stints at mFoundry and SanDisk Corp.

Meanwhile, a collection of big name telecommunications and credit card companies are testing various mobile-payment technologies, including AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc.

“All together, they add up to significant change,” Aaron McPherson, practice director at IDC Financial Insights, said of the trials in an earlier interview.

The Nexus S is the follow-up to the Nexus One, the powerful Google-designed and branded smart phone from HTC that came out in January. Google initially only sold the phone itself through an online store, which limited sales despite a generally warm reception among reviewers. The company pulled the plug on the device in July.

It’s unknown how the company will sell and market the new phone, or who its partners will be. It was visually clear that Schmidt’s device was operating on the T-Mobile USA Inc. network.

Schmidt spent much of the rest of the interview responding to various controversies surrounding Google and himself, including privacy complaints surrounding the images taken for its Street View product and his past statements like: “The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”

He joked that, from now on, he will more clearly indicate when he’s joking – suggesting that past quips have been misinterpreted as serious in the press. But he did acknowledge that the company has sometimes adopted an overly engineering-driven mind-set, releasing products without taking time to consider how they would be perceived.

“There is clearly a line that we should not cross,” he said. “What we learned is people disagree on where that line is; it’s not up to Google to decide.”

Schmidt was the biggest name speaker during the opening day of the popular technology conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, produced by O’Reilly Media and UBM TechWeb.

The next two days will include talks by Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo Inc. CEO Carol Bartz and Twitter Inc. co-founder Evan Williams.

E-mail James Temple at jtemple@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/15/BUFU1GCCLK.DTL#ixzz15QI6QQ00

Security monitoring aka “lawful Interception ” affects BlackBerry & now 3G Video Calls in India

For those us who have been involved in setting

Manoj Pant

up a Telecom/ IP /Data network one of the more onerous license conditions comes under the moniker of “lawful interception ” .

I recall when I  started with the ,launch of the original GSM networks and I was Vice President Network Operations  of  Hutchison Max ( current avatar Vodafone Essar India ) Mumbai .

DoT based on inputs from Home Ministry specified  that we needed to give access to 6 named agencies for monitoring incoming & outgoing calls to identified numbers  .

Technology for such “monitoring ” was not as sophisticated as now and was initially required only for Voice Calls .It was a simple “Conference Call bridge”  set up over dial up line and was rather basic then

Note this was limited to voice calls as no one realized till later that people could easily bypass voice monitoring by using SMS and /or email – both of which were not “monitorable ‘ then .

More on all this later .Today every bit & byte over every “bearer services ‘ are monitored for A & B party information a s well as content inside SMS, emails and of course Voice which is  recorded -real time

They do seem to have a problem on monitoring of 3G Voice calls an latest reports state that s uch serviecs are being stopped in Jammu & Kashmir

For now latest reports below

“Meta data ” solution reportedly offered by RIM will not be acceptable by GoI ( Govt Of India ) in my view so lets see what happens next .

I would like my  BB messenger services to continue & have no issue with “lawful Interception “

Do you ?

Share your views on the matter & watch this space

Cheers

Manoj Pant

BlackBerry row: Govt convenes meeting of telecom operators

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/blackberry-row-govt-convenes-meeting-of-telecom-operators-88043

Press Trust of India, 09 August, 2010

With BlackBerry makers passing on the buck to telecom operators for monitoring its services, the government has called a meeting of service providers this week to discuss the issue.

Official sources said while the onus of giving access to security agencies to monitor the information on these phones lies with the service providers, the Home Ministry will ask them as to which services were not accessible.

“We will tell the service providers in categorical terms that the government will allow them to offer only those services which could be intercepted by the security agencies. If any service cannot be intercepted, we will not allow them to run such services in India,” sources said.

According to the licensing conditions, service providers are liable to put in a mechanism allowing security agencies to intercept any conversation or message of any subscriber whenever required.

As telecom service providers like Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, the Tatas and the government-run BSNL and MTNL are offering BlackBerry services, it is the responsibility of these operators to ensure that the security agencies get access to all services they offer.

Sources further said the maker of BlackBerry phones, Research in Motion (RIM), has conveyed to the operators that services like email and voicemail can be intercepted by the security agencies but no commitment has been given to services like BlackBerry Messenger.

Last week, Blackberry made a fresh attempt to break the logjam over its services in India by offering “metadata” and relevant information to security agencies which will enable them in lawful interception but failed to enthuse them.

RIM representatives explained that BlackBerry mobile device sends the encrypted email which is sent to BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) located with the service provider. BES decrypts messages and sends it to email server of the service provider where it remains stored in decrypted form. Then it is pushed to the BlackBerry device in encrypted form.

After some persuasion, the representatives agreed that “they can provide the metadata of the message like Internet Protocol address of BES and PIN and International Mobile Equipment Identity of the BlackBerry mobile,” sources said.

Metadata is loosely defined as data about data. It provides information about a certain item’s content like how large the picture is, the colour depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document’s metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.

However, the sources said the RIM, which has nearly one million subscribers in India, failed to enthuse the security agencies who want an uninterrupted access to the messaging services on BlackBerry platform.

Related Stories

• BlackBerry security stance sows anxiety
• India BlackBerry ban looms large‎
• US in talks with India on Blackberry issue
• US in touch with India over BlackBerry issue
• Saudi Arabia orders BlackBerry ban starting Friday
  

Black Berry Torch 9800 -First impressions from reviews. Sound good to me!

While it’s very possible that Govt . Of  India will stop BlackBerry (Messenger Services -BBM for some) soon you may still want to read up on the latest review of BlackBerry Storm Model 9800 just released in US ( AT& T – $199 with  subscription )

Sounds like a pretty good device  to me .

Crackberry addicts would know what all below means

Best yet from RIM .

The USP of BB( BlackBerry from RIM Research In Motion, Canada ) for me , is Messenger take that away & I shall move towards iPhone .

I like the idea of “seamless synching across the Mac platform of Mac Book, Airport , iPad& iPhone .

Nothing comes  even close to that “experience ” .

Highlights for me for  Torch are.

1.  A mix of touchscreen and familiar QWERTY keyboard, this is the first slider BlackBerry and looks like it could possibly be the best BlackBerry to date. It will also be the first device to have BlackBerry 6, RIMs latest “revamped” OS.

2. A collective “wow” gets inserted here. It would take forever to sum up all the new features, but BlackBerry 6 is where it’s at. The homescreen has five views — All, Favorites, Frequent, Media and Downloads — all of which serve their purpose and do it well.

3.

Save the best for last? Of course! How bout that WebKit browser??! Its what a browser on BlackBerry should be. No longer will we avoid using it (admittingly we have in the past). Tabs, speed, pinch to zoom and more – its all there. MUCH more on this to come so stay tuned.

Ultimately the Torch is where its at. We’ll have loads of BB6 and Torch coverage in the coming days, so keep it here as things get rolling.

Read more at

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-torch-9800-first-impressions

Curriculum Vitae : Manoj Pant

Graduated ( B. Tech . Mechanical Engg.) From  I.I.T, Kanpur  in 1973.

Over 38 years experience across high technology complex businesses with a   high Customer service focus.

First 23 years starting with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI India)as Management Trainee  covering all aspects of Project Management, design, erection, commissioning and operations in sophisticated/hazardous Chemical Plants and large integrated Housing colonies in India & overseas .

Made a career shift in 1996  to the GSM Mobile telephony field.

Started with building up and launching India’s pioneering GSM networks in Mumbai (Max Touch) and then operated the network for many years as V.P. Network Operations

I bring an end to end experience in the Communications field from License bidding process to M&A’s, Regulatory, Network design and initial roll out. Operations .

Pioneering work in designing and setting up the first GSM network in India in 1996,as Vice President – Network Operations with Hutchison Max Telecom (Orange), Mumbai.

Responsible for  design and roll out of the Mumbai GSM Network infrastructure & Value Added Services(VAS), like Voice Mail,SMS, Mobile Data ,Roaming  and then managing Network Operations.

Bring high level expertise on  technology and business end of wireless business starting from conceptual design up to launching and expanding the services.

Have been responsible for formulating technology strategy and defining road map for next generation services..

Appointed Vice President – Corporate Affairs and Quality for all Hutchison GSM Cellular properties in India in May 2000.

Joined Reliance Infocomm ( Now Reliance Communications ), India’s largest CDMA Operator, in 2002 as President –Application Services and Quality.

Held additional charge for setting up All India Field Customer Services at over 1500 locations including after sales services for Handsets and Accessories.

Responsible for VAS selection and implementation. Identifying and sourcing content.

From 1 June 2005, with Roamware, a leading mobile solutions company, as Managing Director, India and Head of Global Support.

This completes a very important knowledge of the VAS software & Services & content end of the Mobile business apart from experience of running Global support in over 250 networks across 120 countries .

 

 

Our USP !

• Wide hands on experience covering all aspects of the mobile business with two of the largest Mobile services providers in India and selling Products to wireless covering all aspects of Mobile Telephony covering Network Operations, setting up and running pan India Field Customer Service Operations, business strategy, technology evaluation, contract negotiations, Project Management of Radio and Switch and Value Added Services implementations for GSM networks.

High degree of evangelism, coupled with passion and commitment.

• Track record of versatility, innovation, adaptability and a missionary zeal in building teams, designing, developing and launching services and content that add value to customers and demystify technology for the end user.
• Proven team leader and team builder with good analytical and communications skills and flair for working across diverse cultural and environmental milieu.
• Strong project management skills, across a range of industries
• High personal and professional equity at all levels with operators and organizations associated with Mobile Telephony in India At the CXO levels as well as high equity in the industry to be able to attract
• Wide ranging experience in managing wireless networks and applications.
• Keeping track of emerging technologies and regulations, implementing network expansions to provide service differentiation while minimizing Capex and Opex spends and future proofing network infrastructure is an area of particular interest and achievement.  .
• Have a good feel for identifying features and services that should be provided to attract and retain high value customers and be ahead of competition. My  operator experience has been very useful in identifying with customers to understand and translate their needs   and match with product offerings

• Good understanding and high level experience in Regulatory & Interconnect issues and senior most level contacts in Bureaucracy & Industry and credibility with Operators and Regulators spanning all aspects of the business.

I have been a leading Industry representative on regulatory matters.

• Strong Project Management skills and a keen insight on customer expectations and behaviour

 

• Have a good feel for what features and services should be provided to attract and retain high ARPU customers and be ahead of competition at all times. Also strategy for Churn Management from present Operators

 

 

 

 

 

Experience Details

From June 2005 :

Managing Director: Roamware India. (Indian Subsidiary of Roamware Inc. a San Hose based Software Company).

Roamware is Value Added Software provider to over 300 operators in over 120 countries

• Responsible for operations, management and service delivery for the India Development Centres in Mumbai and Delhi.

Have overall responsibility for managing a team of high quality professionals covering Product Management, Software development, Quality Assurance, Implementation and Customer Support and General Administration.

• Also responsible for driving sales opportunities and network partnerships with the main Indian Cellular Operators where I have strong brand equity with the company leadership and decision makers as well as with operational level staff.  I am driving many strategic initiatives to increase productivity and efficiency, validating cutting edge products for the future, recruitment and development of key professionals and improving and top and bottom line performance.
• I am able to use technology for achieving scalability of operations, improving efficiency, reducing costs and have been using my experience and knowledge in this field for fast track sustainable growth.
• I have a track record, internalised commitment and flair for delivering Customer Delight in whatever I do.  I have been tasked to handle this sensitive area and in Roamware am also handling the function of Global Head for Enterprise Customer Support across 300 cellular networks .

• Building up ethical, professional and personal relationships with customers and sustaining them has enabled me to open doors for future sales and good references across customers globally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2002 to June 2005:   Reliance Infocomm( CDMA ) as President, Application Services.

 

Initially responsible for identifying & developing Applications, Services and Content to be provided on Reliance Infocomm’s  pan India CDMA Network.

 

Key role was to identify, understand Marketing wish lists of Services & get the Technology Group to translate them to Products and validate user experiences. Also associated with identifying and tie up with Content Providers.

 

Contributed to the User Interface for Voice Mail and SMS /Java services.

Instrumental in tying up SMS Services including the Inter Operator (CDMA to GSM) SMS at time of launch when there was no Interconnect Agreements with GSM Operators and later in direct interconnect SMS with GSM.

Have been responsible from start for the specifications, design and testing of the User Interface of all the CDMA Handsets including standardisation for future products, translation into Multiple languages on the Native Menu.

User testing of all Menus and Services including adaptation to network elements, to make the user experience simple & intuitive. Designing multiple Indian Language input interfaces along with LG & Samsung handsets.

Responsible for setting up the After Sales Service for Handsets and Accessories, in more than 110 towns through the Handset Manufacturer, implementing Warranty and Insurance handling  for the all India launch

 

In April 2003, was also assigned the task of setting up Field Customer Service Operations to provide Customer Services in all the towns to complement the Voice Based Contact Centre Services.

Covered all aspects from Organisation Structure, dimensioning, laying down processes, setting up communication infrastructure, recruitment and training of a large number of staff and running the field operations. Demonstrated strong customer relationship skills and have used CRM tools to improve the Service Quality and delivery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 2000-July 2002: Vice President Corporate Affairs & Quality: Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd, Mumbai

Reporting to the M.D. responsible for all statutory and regulatory matters for Hutchison properties in India, existing (Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Gujarat) and those on the anvil.  Key Performance Areas

1. 1. Technical representative for the Hutchison India group for pursuing mergers and acquisitions of new properties specifically focusing on pre bid Due Diligence of Infrastructure, obtaining, influencing and monitoring all Telecom Regulatory aspects at local, state and central govt. levels.   Synergised the technical operations of separate Companies to derive the benefits of hardware, software and people ware!
2. 2. Telecom Regulatory Matters: Directly responsible for influencing and obtaining approvals in this critical area from all Statutory bodies. Have been carrying out top level lobbying with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Dept. of Telecom, City and State PSTN, Wireless Planning Commission, Min. Of Finance and Home, Customs and Industry Associations and Operators with notable success and high credibility with all of them. Good networking with senior officials and top level contacts with Industry leaders.

Flair in handling this crucial area of regulatory and statutory affairs

 

3      Lead technical member of team bidding for the fourth Cellular licences which resulted in        getting the licences for Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Chennai. Headed the task of sending out RFP’s for infrastructure implementation, technical and commercial negotiations with 7 vendors, evaluating competitive advantages and evaluating their respective technology paths .Thereafter monitoring the timely launch of services. Integrated key common services across existing network elements Ensured all required statutory approvals were obtained in time and network was designed to be ready for roll out of high-speed data and value added services.

January 1996 to May2000: Vice President Network Operations, Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd, Mumbai

• Network rollout: Lead the effort on setting up a State Of The Art GSM Cellular Network with lowest Capex and Opex /Sub. Then  running the operations for the large Mumbai licence with a large work force of skilled professionals
• Recruitment and development of Staff and increase self-reliance in this highly knowledge intensive business. Developed local, cost effective and relevant solutions, while keeping an eye on local regulatory and global technology trends
• Valuation and acquisition of Other Licenses: Spent time in Mexico while bidding for the Mexican License for the Parent Company and intimately involved in estimating the status and worth and future spends required for acquisition of other Licenses in the country.

 

• Leading  contribution in identifying and launching Value Added Services including India’s first Retail Pre Paid product and advanced Voice/Fax Mail /SMS services which have been very successful.
• Keeping abreast of technology was a key part of my job and interest .Have been main  driver in pushing for implementation of wireless data access .Finding ways and means of minimizing Capex and Opex spends at a time when business  revenues were very low  without compromising on Network quality,  is an area of acknowledged contribution

1992-1995 Indokem Limited, Mumbai Vice President Diversification and Projects

•  
• Identified Agro based industry, covering Drip irrigation,Hybrid Seeds, Agro Chemicals and Agro Technology as future growth areas for the Group. Negotiated and evaluated Israeli and Dutch technology in these fields and recommended to Business heads for implementation. Member of first APEDA ( Govt of India ) Expert body which visited Holland & Israel many times for  starting Floriculture as business in India .Extensive experience  on greenhouse & micro irrigation, fertigation, Agro Contril systems
  

 

 

1973-1991 Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) India

• Joined on graduation as Management Trainee and worked for 18 years with the same Company on a Fast Growth Career Track covering the entire range of Technical, Engineering and Project functions in a large professional Multinational. During this period personally handled large value, technically complex and very time sensitive projects in many Products and worked in India and Overseas. Consistently recognised for high quality of work and achievement of targets.
• Apart from being Chief Project Manager for many large projects, have also been the Works Engineer and second in site hierarchy for a large plant with over 1000 workers with nearly 200 workers under me. Handled sensitive Industrial Relations with firmness and fairness and achieved dramatic reduction in Stores Inventory.
• Have worked in nearly 6 plants at many different locations and set up overseas projects for ICI plc UK (Indonesia and Taiwan) using Indian skills and products.
• Extensive experience in Project Management of large-sized projects. Have demonstrated use of this experience in the planning and implementation of Telecom Infrastructure in later jobs.

 

EDUCATION

• 1973: Bachelor of Technology Mechanical Eng. Institute Of Technology, Kanpur, India
• Date Of Birth : 8 Oct  1950

Cross Cultural Training for the Face Book generation

Manoj Pant

Collaborative& team skills in a multi lingual environment
Corporate Training Program by Manoj Pant

Future education will be via Face Book & Twitter !
Cross -cultural collaborative& team skills in a multi lingual environment

If you continue to do things the way you’ve been doing them you’ll reach where you are at!
    Need for training in skills & crafts for a large number of people in the location they are.
    Training in a form, time & language naturally preferred by subjects is what needs to be leveraged.
    Technology available widely and costs are dropping .
    Content  remains King! New delivery mechanisms require a new approach to content design, User Interface & delivery 1

Cross -cultural collaborative& team skills in a multi lingual environment
    Educational content not limited to available teacher, school, geography.
    Key need is to teach at least 2 skills & crafts, presentation skills & English speaking between Class 8 to 12 .
    Requirement is to be  able to constantly “reinvent” oneself.
    Skills  to be globally relevant/applicable .
    Fastest learning happens if delivered in local language -compress  time taken in traditional literacy route-Local language -Hindi-English. Uptake & retention is highest and also opens “second life ” options for experienced “retired” people.
    Biggest benefit is ability to learn in  time, place & speed that suits the subjects when they are most able/efficient .

    Telepresence or Virtual Teams is the game changer.
    “Presence Aware “ communication models give  “Big Bang” results.
    Digitizing, ab initio , all forms of teaching- aural, visual & imagery enables  scale & consistency in quality .
    Technology available enables ability to scale up in millions .
    Technology applications  enable customize content to needs & learning ability of each  student .Focus on weak areas for improvement & building up on areas of strength.
    Content in any language can be converted to any language or milieu & thus reach becomes global markets/needs

Cross -cultural collaborative& team skills in a multi lingual environment
    Learning by seeing & doing with interactivity under experienced  mentors  versus only  listening is huge improvement in learning quality & time taken.
MSN : Mobile Social Networking & UGC ( User Generated Content aka (also known as) Web 2.0 ) adds a great multiplier effect in the learning process, mentoring & traditional “Train the Trainer “ approach .Read Face Book, Twitter, Google Wave, Skype , IM et.al. Interconnecting Schools communities across national   will be great multiplier & provide locally relevant UGC .Globally relevant, proven  “Best Practices” focused learning’s We provide  nil cost solutions which can provide unique digital identity to 100% of students & develop enterprise grade solutions using Open source software & applications .

Cross -cultural collaborative& team skills in a multi lingual environment
    In actual /Virtual On Line classes we train “teaching by doing “  Live demo of Virtual Tele working using applications running real time .

    Happy to help with any queries /help clarifications you may need by emailing to
    manoj.pant@shankinc.com
    Or leave comments at http://www.manojpant.wordpress.com
    Or call Mobile +919820018300 ( IST GMT+5.5 hrs )
    Skype ID : manoj.pant
    Twitter : @manojpant

Details about event where presented
Presentation at Edu Convex Event Delhi. 5 Feb 2010
By :  Manoj Pant : CEO Shankh Inc
manojpant@shankhinc.com
www. manojpant.wordpress.com
Mob : +919820018300
Current Rev 2  -3 Aug 2010

Innovative large area , low cost controlled droplets size irrigation design at work !

Controlled pressure , flow rates & droplet sizes .Coverage area can be controlled to Ass smart sensors & relays -GSM telemetry capabilities

Tools ‹ Manoj Pant’s: Shankh Inc. Blog — WordPress

Tools ‹ Manoj Pant’s: Shankh Inc. Blog — WordPress.

Some pictures which you may like to see & understand what they mean .Ask me for more?

Innovative work with Bernoulli’s principle for lowest quantity /unit area for outdoor irrigation .
Design delivers . 75% saving over current methods of large area irrigation for crops,resorts, Golf courses, , parks etc.
Watch this space

Green house hi tech irrigation controlling droplet size & velocity !

Smart mist irrigation of large acreage

Using LED lights for creating outstanding ambiance .