I’m totally delighted to announce that I have been selected as the Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet for 2008-09 at The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) associated with The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University.

The fellowship is funded by the $1 million Yahoo! Fund on International Values, Communications Technology & the Global Internet, which was established at Georgetown University by a gift from Yahoo! Inc. There is only one such position open for each academic year and I’m the second Yahoo! Fellow.

The Yahoo! Fellow is chosen from applicants drawn from the government, corporate, non-profit and academic sectors with interest in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Two graduate students from the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program at the SFS are also selected to as Junior Yahoo! Fellows to engage in research associated with the Yahoo! Fellow. Part of the research done by the Yahoo! Fellow is also incorporated into the MSFS program as guest lectures, special seminars, case studies and/ or course modules.

My research will focus on how social media in BRIC countries will develop differently from the first world countries and the implications this will have on how individuals and institutions in these countries engage with social media. Some of my posts in the ‘Flat or Not’ series are a precursor to the research I’ll be doing during my fellowship.

I must tell you, by the way, that Dr. Irene Wu, who was the Yahoo! Fellow for 2007-08, has set impossibly high standards for me.

First, she has a really impressive background, both in terms of academic credentials (B.A. from Harvard University and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University) and work experience (Director of Research in Federal Communications Commission). As the Yahoo! Fellow, Dr. Wu not only did some excellent research on how technological change transforms political power, but also taught a course in the MSFS program at the SFS. If that doesn’t sound impressive enough, this will — Yahoo! co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang attended Dr. Wu’s research presentation. And, yes, her book on telecommunications policy reform in China is being published by Stanford University Press.

Phew! If I manage to do half of all that during the ten months of my fellowship, I’ll think of my time as well-spent.

I had applied for the fellowship way back in March (thanks to Juliana) and Georgetown University confirmed my selection almost two months back. While most of my online and offline friends already know about it, I was waiting for my J1 visa to be issued before I made a formal announcement on my blog.

No, I haven’t left my job. The Tata Group, like always, has been good to me, and given me a sabbatical. But I will have to leave my lovely house (sigh!) and give away or put away the overwhelming number of things I own.

My tickets are not done yet, but I’ll be in Washington DC in the second week of August, after a week’s detour to Chicago to meet a friend. So, if you are in Chicago or Washington DC, do send me an e-mail and we’ll meet up. If you are in Washington DC, and know of a furnished one bedroom apartment for up to $1500 a month, walking distance from send me an e-mail and we’ll meet up. If you are in Washington DC, and know of a furnished one bedroom apartment for up to $1500 a month, walking distance from The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, do ping me, and you’ll have my undying gratitude.

Finally, if you are in India, and dropping into Mumbai in July, do give me a call at 9223366624 to meet up. The going away parties start this Saturday and everybody’s invited.

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I was quoted recently in a Deccan Chronicle story on online advertising in India, along with advertising legends Alyque Padamsee and Piyush Pandey and fellow blogger Chandrachoodan.

Basically, we all agreed that online advertising will become the core of the Indian marketers’ marketing budget in the next few years. I also pointed out that the internet works best when marketers use it to reach one person at a time. So, search advertising for generating leads and social media initiatives for building community engagement are both great, but not plain-vanilla banner ads.

Here is the complete text of the story –

Consumer Caught in the Net
Online or web advertising is the next big thing in the sphere of advertising
Ashlin Mathew
Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Online pie is getting bigger and better. Of course with almost every youngster choosing to buy tickets or shop online or even home in on the optimum brand through the Internet, even conservatives are willing to put their thumb into it.

Until a few years ago most companies were unwilling to consider advertising on the Internet. But with most of the population in India getting tech savvy, companies are ready to invest 10-15 % of their spends to advertise on the web, say experts in this field.

According to a study by MSN, the target for companies going online is the 40 million Internet users in India. Moreover, the online segment is likely to cross the $100 million mark by 2010, states the same study. However, online advertising comprises just about five per cent of the pie. On a global level, India is nowhere in terms of online advertisements yet, said ad guru Alyque Padamsee, who is the chairman of London Institute of Corporate Training. “In 10 years when computers will become as affordable as telephones, we will see a revolution in online advertising,” he added
.
“Online advertising does have its share of viewers but it is yet to reach its peak in India,” says Chandrachoodan Gopalkrishnan, creative supervisor with Publicis Ambience, a global advertising agency. But, advertising online has definitely come a long way from those banner ads, he adds.
Earlier, most agencies would just put up banner ads on major sites. This could be skipped as it would come in the way of most users. But now websites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN fall back on text-based advertising. When users search for material on the net, related text-ads are placed on the same page. This is most effective for financial and automobile services, says Gaurav Mishra, who heads the sales and marketing division of an automobile brand.

Interactive ads and the viral concept of advertising are the latest concepts in online advertising. The former creates interesting content for the user to interact with. According to Chandrachoodan, this concept has been followed by www.sunsilkgangofgirls.com and www.hondamentalism.com.

The television ads of both these end with the website addresses prompting users to check it out. In the viral concept, the creators put an ad on a prominent website and from there it should usually spread through word of mouth. Chandrachoodan says this is a brilliant and effective concept if it gets accepted.

Internet is also being ventured into by organisations, as it is cost effective too. “The medium as such costs you nothing and it is much cheaper that television,” Padamsee states emphatically. “Internet has the power to reach out to one person at a time unlike television and radio ads and can engage consumers with a brand. We can also target customers based on their intention to purchase a product,” says Gaurav Mishra. When customers get engaged with a brand, then brand loyalty is just a step away, he adds.

Most admen agree that it is the next big thing in another five years.

“It will grow very fast and will see its boom in five years, so ad filmmakers have to be ready for it. But, it is not going to ring the death knell for television ads either as brands will need all media vehicles,” said Piyush Pandey, executive chairman, Ogilvy and Mather, India.

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I was quoted copiously in Indian daily DNA in a story on whether blogging in India is mature enough to act as a change agent.

A good approach to answer this question is to compare social media usage in India with social media usage in China –

Social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

Social media usage in India and China also have significant differences in terms of the topics that drive conversation. Richard Edelman has written an interesting introduction to the Chinese blogosphere –

Social media in China has two constant themes: the rich/poor divide and nationalism… The best Chinese bloggers are… incredibly impressive, committed to change, convinced that they were part of a new China where individual expression and frank speaking will win.

This type of strong activism isn’t really visible at least in the more popular Indian blogs.

In the interview, I also talked about how brands can use social media to build authentic relationships with customers and citizens and how individuals can use social media to build solid reputations as experts in a topic.

Here’s the complete text of the story –

Blogging Pains in Mumbai
Surekha S
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 20:34 IST

In the US elections, blogs are seen as an effective medium to sway voters’ minds. But in Mumbai, the impact of desi blogs to bring about social change is minimal, say bloggers

In a bid for the presidential seat, US senator, Barack Obama relies on a team of bloggers whose sole job is to quell any negative publicity during the course of the campaign. And the fact, that Internet-savvy Obama is successfully harnessing the power of the web is a point worth noting.

Which makes one wonder whether the blogging medium in Mumbai, and the India, has that kind of power. Can it be used as effectively here for political campaigns, for promoting companies, products or to bring about a social change?

“The Batti Band campaign, which saw the participation of a large number of Mumbaikars, was promoted primarily through blogs,” says Gaurav Mishra, who has been blogging for the last three years. However, he says, that while activism through blogs is very strong in China, it has still to pick up in India.

As the head of sales and marketing for a national automobile company, Gaurav writes about how marketing is changing, how people are tired of being bombarded by commercial messages, and how marketing needs to adopt a more humane approach. “Though blogging as a trend is picking up, the blogging community is still very small. It is not big enough to bring about a change in the election results, but it surely can mobilise 3,000 to 5,000 people”, he says.

With the increasing popularity of social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook, the next trend is blogging to bring about change. And this trend is seen not only among youngsters, but also among companies and marketing agencies, that have recognised the potential of a blog to reach out to a new generation of users.

But we still have a long way to go. Ramya, a suburban resident who has been blogging for the last four years, says, “In India, Internet usage is low, and blogging is still a new concept. It surely will be ineffective in political campaigns as among the voters, only a small section have access to the web.”

The bottom line is simple: Blogging as medium of change and a tool to spread awareness is picking up, but the impact is marginal. “Most people do not understand the scope of the medium. Also, there is the question of reliability and responsibility. There are many random blogs, and most of them deal with personal issues,” says Ramya.

Nineteen-year-old Yashashri got hooked to blogging around two years ago thanks to her brother who was an avid blogger. “You can write about your experiences, you can use it to spread messages and most importantly, it helps connect with like-minded people across the globe,” she says. “It can also act as a platform to talk about socially relevant issues and get the participation and perspective of people miles away.”

Most people in Mumbai blog at a personal level, and see it as a means to connect with other people. Nikita Banerjee, a journalist with the magazine Animation Reporter, sees blogging as a great medium to meet new people and make new friends. “Blogs are also a good place to showcase your work.”

Even our celebrities have got into the act. “Though blogging is becoming increasingly popular, it still seems far fetched to think of a day when every second person will have a blog. In India we still do not feel the desperate need to be heard,” says Mishra.

And more importantly, will the blogs have traction among surfers? “We need more blog readers, but more than that we need knowledgeable people to write. Authenticity is driven by the person writing the blog. It is not about how well you write, but how much you know about what you write,” says Mishra.

And while it might take us a few more years to get there, we seem to be on the right track.

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In my previous post, I had compared the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on why the social web is not flat.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Ladder classifies consumers into six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media –

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

I ended the post by wishing that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India –

However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits.

Well, I have spent a few hours in mashing together data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and here’s how it looks –

- Metro India: I have defined Metro India as the top eight cities in India in terms of population (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune). The total population of Metro India is 52mn (as per World Gazette estimates).

- Active Internet Users in Metro India: IAMAI’s I-Cube 2007 report there are 46mn Internet users in India (with 70% or 32mn active users), out of which 38% or 17.5mn are in Metro India. Assuming a higher active internet user percentage of 80%, the number of active internet users in Metro India can be estimated at 14mn (80% of 17.5mn).

- Creators in Metro India: The number of blogs in India has been estimated between 0.5mn and 1.2mn (see JuxtConsult India Online 2006, Ankit Maheshwari of Instablogs in The Hindu, Amit Ranjan of Webyantra, Debashish Chakrabarty of Indibloggies in Asian Age), even though most sources agree that the number of active blogs in India is much less than 50000. Starting with this baseline, and factoring in users uploading self-created content on photo-sharing and video sharing sites, we can estimate the number of Creators in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Critics in Metro India: India’s largest product review site Mouthshut claims to have 2.3mn registered users out of which 50% or 1.2mn are in Metro India (link). Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Critics in Metro India at a maximum of 5mn.

- Collecters in Metro India: India’s largest social voting site site IndianPad has less than 50000 users. Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Collectors in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Joiners in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2008 report, 50% of all internet users in India use social networking sites, putting the size of the user base for social networking sites in India at 16mn (I had recently estimated it at 10mn). Assuming a higher social networking usage percentage of 60%, the number of Joiners in Metro India can be estimated at 8.4mn (60% of 14mn).

- Spectators in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2006 survey, 85% of all Indian internet users regularly read blogs. Assuming that 85% of all Internet users in Metro India engage with social media in some form, the number of Spectators in Metro India can be estimated at 11.9mn. This is also intuitive because at least some internet users who are not on social networking sites must still engage with social media in some form.

- Inactives in Metro India: Once we have estimated that out of 14mn people in Metro India, 11.9mn are Spectators, the number of Inactives in Metro India can be safely estimated at 2.1mn.

To provide a context on how small these numbers are, here’s the social technographics profile for Metro China from my previous post –

It is evident even from a cursory look at the two charts that social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

In my upcoming posts in the series, I’ll try to understand the reasons for such a difference between social media usage in India and China. Stay tuned.

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Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have played an important role in increasing our understanding of the social media space over the last year, both through their book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (website) and their Social Technographics Study.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Study classifies consumers into a ladder with six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media. The six levels in the Social Technographics Ladder are –

1. Creators, who publish blogs, maintain websites, or upload self-created photos, podcasts or videos on social sites (like Flickr or YouTube).

2. Critics, who post ratings and reviews of products and services on user review sites (like Amazon), comment on someone else’s blogs or contribute to online forums or wikis (like Wikipedia).

3. Collectors, who create metadata that’s shared with the entire community, by aggregating RSS feeds in a feed reader (like Bloglines), by saving or tagging URLs on a social bookmarking service (like del.cio.us), or by voting for websites on a social voting site (like Digg).

4. Joiners, who visit and maintain profiles on social networking sites (like MySpace or Facebook).

5. Spectators, who read blogs, online forums and customer ratings/ reviews, listen to podcasts and watch peer-generated video.

6. Inactives, who do not participate at all in social media activities.

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

The core idea is that, instead of starting from a list of social media tools, companies should start with their target audience, and develop their social media strategy based on the social technographics profile of their audience.

Now Forrester has made their finding available in a nifty free Social Technographics Profile Tool. The data is based on Forrester Research Technographics surveys conducted with more than 40,000 respondents in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific in Q1/ Q2 2007. It’s a useful tool that allows you to split the data by age, gender and geography, and I’m sure that I’ll return to it frequently over the next few months.

In this post, however, I will focus on the geographical split and compare the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on how the social web is not flat.

First, only one fourth of the consumers in Japan/ Metro China are Inactives, compared to more than half the consumers in USA/ Europe. If Forrester’s claim that about three-fourth of all consumers in Japan/ Metro China engage with social media in some form or the other is indeed true, then the social media opportunity in Asia Pacific is much bigger than I expected it to be.

Second, and even more importantly, more than one third of the consumers in Metro China are Creators, compared to about one fifth of the consumers in Japan and USA and one tenth of the consumers in Europe. If you add to it the high percentage of Critics and Collectors in Metro China, it’s obvious that the social media scene in Metro China is much more vibrant than Japan or USA, and especially Europe.

Third, even in the specific context of social networking sites, almost one third of the consumers in Metro China are Joiners, compared to almost one fourth in Japan and USA and one eighth in Europe, pointing to a huge potential for social networking sites in the Asia Pacific.

I must point out here that the data has some limitations. The sample sizes for Japan and Metro China are limited, so that splits by age and gender are not possible, but they should be realistic at overall levels. Then, to compare Metro China to Europe isn’t really fair, as we are comparing a few cities to a continent. Finally, the six levels are overlapping and it will be interesting to look at the overlaps between the different levels in each geography to see, for instance, how many consumers in Metro China are either Creators or Critics or Collectors. Still, given China’s huge population, even Metro China must add up to a sizable segment.

Finally, I wish that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India. However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits. What do you think?

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I have just submitted my chapter for ‘The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t People Get It?’ and it’s called ‘The Case for Social Media Outsourcing’.

The chapter is based on my earlier post about social media outsourcing (also see), and its basic premise is that social media outsourcing will be a significant part of the third wave of Indian outsourcing (worth $50bn by 2012), making it the next big business opportunity for India.

As I had mentioned earlier, ‘The Age of Conversation 2′ will have 275 contributors against the 100 for the original ‘Age of Conversation’ and the chapters will be focused on eight sections related to the broad ‘Why Don’t People Get It?’ theme of the book. Here’s a sneak preview of the eight sections to whet your appetite –

# Manifestos — Declarations, up front, on the Age of Conversation. Why don’t people get it? What about companies? Where are things going? What can you help clarify?

# Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation — With everyone talking so much, why do we need secrets? What is the role of privacy? What about different personas and identities? Why don’t consumers understand that their online conversations are tracked and can come back to haunt them?

# Moving from Conversation to Action — Talk is cheap, or so they say. What are the practical steps that businesses and brands can take to move from conversation to something more valuable to their business? And if it is so easy, why don’t they just do it?

# The Accidental Marketer — People “fall into” marketing. They may study and qualify in a different discipline but somehow find themselves in marketing and advertising. What is the attraction? Or…have you known a company or brand who just seemed to naturally fall into marketing success? How do you think that happened?

# A New Brand of Creative — With the changes in the way that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team. What do these “creatives” look like. What are their skills? Why do they evangelize digital and new media? And what are the challenges that they face?

# My Marketing Tragedy — A topic only for the brave … Do you know a project that failed? Was it yours? What prevented success? What worked? And most importantly, what did you learn? Who didn’t “get it” — was it your client, your boss, the board, or (dare we ask) you?

# Business Model Evolution — Just as the markets and people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and agencies. What is your take on this? What is working and what is not? Where will things go? What happens if an agency doesn’t “get it”. How do you measure “it” … and where will things go?

# Life in the Conversation Lane — Bringing it all back to the individual — how is life in a digitally connected, social world impacting our lives? What is the personal cost and what is the attraction? Is there a balance or are we just kidding ourselves?

My chapter will be a part of the Business Model Evolution section.

If that wasn’t enough to get you interested, here is the complete list of the 275 authors of ‘The Age of Conversation 2′, which reads like a who’s who of the world’s best marketing and social media thinkers –

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Watch out for ‘The Age of Conversation 2′

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It has been fashionable for a while now to describe the world as ‘globalized’. Ever since Thomas Friedman’s ode to globalization, ‘The World is Flat’, became a runaway bestseller in 2005, it has also become fashionable to describe the world as ‘flat’. Indians, in particular, have a special fondness for Friedman’s book because Friedman is enamored with the Indian IT industry and the title was derived from a statement by Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Infosys.

While the ‘world is flat’ metaphor has been much abused over the last three years, even Friedman’s original argument (that historical, regional and geographical divisions have become irrelevant in a global marketplace where all companies and countries have a level playing field) is quite exaggerated.

In a series of posts written over the next few weeks, I’ll establish that the world is not truly globalized, but ’semi-globalized’ (as Pankaj Ghemawat describes it in ‘Redefining Global Strategy’) or ‘rough-correlated’ (a term used by Eric Beinhocker in ‘The Origin of Wealth’).

In fact, not only will I establish that the world is not flat, I’ll also prove that the internet in general and the social web in particular is not flat either. This is an important argument because Friedman’s ‘the world is flat’ theses is based on the premise that information technology in general and the internet in particular has flattened the world.

Finally, I’ll establish that it’s a good thing that the social web (and the world) is not entirely flat, because it allows entrepreneurs to exploit opportunities, for instance, to create a uniquely Indian social network or build a social media outsourcing business.

Watch out for more posts in this series under a new category called ‘Flat or Not’.

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The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 4

- Sanjay Anandram and Vijay Anand explain why startups should choose their investors/ board members carefully.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time getting their product and their team right, but few spend as much time getting their investors and board members right. When I set up my own startup, I’ll do well to follow Sanjay’s and Vijay’s advice and look for investors who’ll not only invest in the business but also help me build it.

- Vijay Anand and Snigdha Sengupta point out that all is not well with the Indian version of BarCamps.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most of my friends who attended BarCamp Mumbai 3 were disappointed by it. Vijay and Snigdha wonder if we have interpreted the concept of unconference wrongly and appeal for a more conversational, startup-focused BarCamp. Well, I personally like the idea of Startup Weekends. If you are in Mumbai, you may get an invite to one soon.

- Jinal Shah wants to make sense of the chaos of the social web.

My top-of-the-mind views: Many practitioners are beginning to see social media conversations as a valuable, but under-utilized, opportunity for ‘free’ qualitative research to provide insights that can be used to develop both products and messages. The tools aren’t quite in place yet, but with natural language and machine learning algorithms becoming increasingly intelligent, this may become a big business opportunity soon. I personally see another model evolving simultaneously — the wisdom of the crowds aggregated via social media outsourcing.

- The Sans Serif blog looks forward to the upcoming Hindu vs ToI battle in Chennai

My top-of-the-mind views: The Jains have proven time and again that nobody else gets the newspaper business like they do. With the launch of The Times of India in Chennai, The Hindu will learn that it has already lost the battle it is preparing to fight.

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