Gauravonomics Blog

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I’m speaking tomorrow on a panel at Georgetown University on social media implications for the defense community. Here is a summary of what I’ll be talking about.

The defense community needs to understand the social media phenomenon in order to do five things well: listen, understand, engage, defend, and collaborate.

The interesting thing to note is that the diplomatic community also needs to understand social media for the same reasons, and there is great value in the two communities working together in their use of social media tools.

The other thing to note is that I’m only discussing the public part of the social web. I don’t research, and have no expertise in, traditional cyber security concerns like critical infrastructure security, viral warfare, or the surveillance of private email or phone conversations.

My research is focused on how business and civil society organizations use social media, and the pointers here are rooted in that understanding.  Read More

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself included in Nielsen Executive Vice President Pete Blackshaw’s list of bloggers and influentials who made a mark in 2008 –

- Arriana Huffington & Huffington Post Team
- Forrester’s Jeremy Owyang
- Dooce.com (Top Mom Blog)
- Gaurav Mishra (Mumbai commentary)
- Xeni Jardin (Boing Boing)
- Pete Cashmore (Mashable)
- B.L. Ochman (Blog + Twitter)
- Twitter Social Media Commentator Chris Brogan
- Comcast’s Frank Eliason (via Twitter)
- Michael Arlington (Tech Crunch)
- Ford’s Scott Monty (via Twitter)
- Power Mom Jessica Gottleib
- Steve Rubel

It’s a great way to end a great year and begin what promises to be an even better year (even though he forgot to add the link to my blog). Thank you, Pete.

According to the recent Mobile Media Marketplace report from the Nielson Company (via Ashish Sinha), gaming and entertainment are the most popular categories amongst mobile internet users in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) whereas email, weather, news, and search are the top categories for both American and European mobile Internet users.

Jeff Herrmann, vice president of mobile media at Nielsen, suggests that –

In the U.S. and Europe, broad access to media and entertainment has been available for decades through a large fixed distribution infrastructure, and more recently in specialized devices like iPods, to meet consumer’s entertainment needs. Users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India, and China markets haven’t had the benefit of broad-based content distribution thereby limiting their exposure, and are filling the service gap by embracing mobile’s transition into a personal entertainment platform.

Mobile internet penetration in BRIC countries continues to lag US/ EU (10% to 16%). Still, Russia at 11.2% and China at 6.8% are far ahead of Brazil at 2.6% and India at 1.8%.  Read More