Gauravonomics Blog

Welcome to Gauravonomics Blog! Subscribe to my feed in a feed reader or by e-mail and you'll never miss a single post!

I’m delighted to announce that my new startup 20:20 Web Tech is hiring.

20:20 Web Tech is a social media analytics company based in India, serving international clients. We follow a unique holistic approach to social media analytics and add value by adding a layer of human analysis on top of the technology.

Working at 20:20 Web Tech combines the best of both worlds: you enjoy the work environment of a web 2.0 startup and the benefits of being a part of an established organization (thanks to our association with 20:20 Media, one of India’s largest independent PR firms).

We are a young company at the cusp of the exciting business opportunity, poised for exponential growth. We invite you to join us and grow with us.

We are looking for the following positions in Delhi. For all positions, the compensation package will include a competitive salary and attractive performance based incentives.

- Social Media Analysts who are at ease with social media tools and intuitively understand the dynamics of online conversations.

DigiActive co-founder Mary Joyce and I are delighted to announce our new co-authored blog Netfluence.org, which is an investigation into whether and how networked technologies influence political power structures.

The debate on whether internet and mobile technologies are transforming traditional power structures is dominated by three divergent narratives.

According to the first, utopian, narrative, internet and mobile technologies enable individuals to publish and distribute content, self-organize into communities of interest and participate in collective action. As a result, they can create new types of media outlets, build new types of civil society organizations, and monitor, protest against and even bring down governments. Even though these new degrees of freedom are far from universal, they are fundamentally changing political power structures. The future has already arrived, this narrative insists, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.

According to the second, status quo, narrative, power structures are ingrained into our society’s institutions, and internet and mobile technologies don’t really change these institutions, or create new ones. The case studies compiled by the utopians constitute anecdotal evidence, at best, and the influence of networked technologies will always be limited because of issues related to access or ability. So, internet and mobile technologies are a minor influence on political power structures, at best.

I have written before that one way to ensure that your predictions come true is to do yourself what you predicted others would do.

After saying for more than a year that social media outsourcing will be the next big business opportunity for India, and lead the third wave of Indian outsourcing, I’m setting up a business to exploit this opportunity.

I’m setting up a social media company called 20:20 Web Tech with Sunil Agarwal, the founder of 20:20 Media. We’ll be based in Delhi, but focus on providing social media analysis and brand monitoring services for international clients.

There are more than 50 social media analysis tools, but no tool is more than 50-60% accurate, due to the difficulties in decoding spam, slang, sarcasm and sentiment. We will add value by adding a layer of human intelligence on top of the technology, and increasing the accuracy of the results to as much as 90-95%. As we will be based in India, where manpower costs are really low, we’ll be able to do it at a really competitive cost.

I have spent the best part of the last two years studying the intersection of technology and society, first as a marketer using internet and mobile technologies to connect with consumers, and then as a researcher studying and teaching digital activism, and dabbling in it.

I have been writing about how social media changes society, in good, bad and ugly ways, at Gauravonomics Blog, which has a small but engaged readership now. My hope is that my weekly True/ Slant column, Flat or Not, will help me spread these ideas to a mainstream audience.

The name Flat or Not, as you might have noticed, comes from Thomas Friedman’s seminal book ‘The World is Flat’. At the core of the book is the very valid idea that we live in a connected world, thanks to internet and mobile technologies, and that creates new challenges and opportunities. The rather misleading title, however, has misled many readers to conclude that the world is indeed flat, that internet and mobile technologies have converted us into global citizens with similar cultural references, values systems, and aspirations.

My year of being the 2008-09 Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet at Georgetown University is almost over, and it’s time to give my final talk and submit my final paper.

Georgetown University is hosting an event on April 23, 2009 where I’ll present my research on digital activism in India and China and then moderate a panel consisting of my friends Evgeny Morozov, Ivan Sigal and Trebor Scholz to discuss issues related to international digital activism.

If you are reading my blog, you probably know all three of them, but here are their short bios –

- Evgeny Morozov is a Open Society Fellow and an expert on international digital activism.

- Ivan Sigal is Executive Director of Global Voices.

- Trebor Scholz is professor of media studies at New School University, NY.

In the talk and the panel discussion, we will touch upon case studies of successful digital activism initiatives around the world and outline trends in international digital activism. We will talk about how the nature of digital activism in different countries is shaped by factors like socio-cultural norms, government control and access to technology. We will also discuss the challenges in documenting and making sense of international digital activism initiatives in real time.

This is a long and winding story, so let me first give you the quick short version.

I’m honored to be part of the wonderful team that launched Vote Report India yesterday.

Vote Report India is a collaborative citizen-powered election monitoring platform for the 2009 Indian Lok Sabha elections.

Basically, users contribute direct SMS, email, and web reports on violations of the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct (PDF). The platform will then aggregate these direct reports with news reports, blog posts, photos, videos and tweets related to the elections from all relevant sources, in one place, on an interactive map.

We are hoping that Vote Report India will not only increase transparency and accountability in the Indian election process, but also provide the most complete picture of public opinion in India during the elections.

So, that was the short version of what Vote Report India does. Here is the long story behind how Vote Report India came into being.

Ushahidi, as many of you know, was started last year by a group of Kenyan bloggers led by Erik Hersman, to track post election violence in Kenya. Over time, it has become a robust crisis reporting platform, with a vibrant ecosystem around it, and partnerships like the one with Al Jazeera during the Gaza conflict.

It’s amazing how quickly a year went by.

It seems as if I told you about becoming the 2008-09 Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet at Georgetown University only last week and it’s already time to announce the call for applications for the 2009-10 Yahoo! Fellow.

The Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University pursues educational and research activities that explore the interplay between international values and new communications technologies, with a focus on BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The projects explore how the use of new communications technologies, like internet and mobile, is shaped by national and socio-cultural context, and how such technologies, in turn, often change that context itself. The projects may also explore how new communications technologies are enabling the formation of virtual public spheres to support human values like democracy, citizenship, freedom of expression and empowerment of disadvantaged communities, but also raising serious questions related to personal privacy, homophily, propaganda and censorship. Projects can draw on insights from many disciplines, including politics, economics, business, and socio-cultural research.

The appointment is for one academic year, from August 15, 2009 to May 15, 2010.

As I get ready to wrap up my stint as the Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University, I’m beginning to think about what I’ll be doing next year.

There’s some early good news: I’m one of the fourteen 2009 Fellows of the Society for New Communications Research.

I have known about the fellowship for a few weeks, but I was waiting for SNCR to officially announce it in a press release, before I shared it with you.

The Society for New Communications Research is a global think tank dedicated to the advanced study of the latest developments in new media and communications, and their effect on traditional media and business models, communications, culture and society. The Society’s Fellows include a leading group of futurists, scholars, business leaders, professional communicators, members of the media and technologists from around the globe - all collaborating together on research initiatives, educational offerings and the establishment of best practices.

SNCR fellows include social media stalwarts like Elisa Camahort, Dan Farber, Shel Israel, Shel Holtz, Joseph Jaffe, Katie Delahaye Paine and J. D. Lasica.

The SNCR 2009 Fellows consist of a fascinating group of new media thinkers and practitioners and I’m delighted to be one of them –

Some of you may want to join me at the Government 2.0 Camp at Washington DC on March 27-28, 2009.

Government 2.0 Camp is an unconference about using social media technologies to “create a more effective, efficient and collaborative U.S. government on all levels (local, state, and federal)”.

Government 2.0 Camp is the brainchild of Maxine Teller, Mark Drapeau and Peter Corbett, who have also formed the Government 2.0 Club. The national organization, similar in structure and spirit to Social Media Club, that will “create opportunities for government, academia and industry to share ideas and solutions for leveraging social media technologies to create a more collaborative, efficient and effective government”.

You can join the Government 2.0 Club and register for the Government 2.0 Camp on Facebook.

Cross-posted at Social Media in Business, Development and Government.

Armando Alves has compiled a great list of the top 150 Twitter users who blog about marketing and advertising — The Twitter Power 150 — based on Ad Age Power150 Ranking, Twitterank and Dapper.

I come in at #114 and WATBlog is at #147. In the AdAge Power 150 list, I’m at #117 and WATBlog is at #141. However, as Armado points out, the ranks of many other users vary significantly between the two lists, with SEO/ SEM blogs doing well on AdAge Power 150 list and social media blogs doing well on Twitter Power 150 list.

Here’s the complete list –