Posts Tagged ‘ bangalore

Social media primer for politicians

It has been something that has been going on in my head for a significant amount of time and I believe that it is the right time for politicians and famous individuals to take their online reputation management as seriously as the offline one. Here, i will outline a very basic strategy that i believe will equip celebrities and politicians to strengthen their brands.

So lets start with some assumptions that will make our lives easier as the post goes on.

  • Paid advertising stand-alone is not an effective way of reaching out.
  • A holistic or integrated approach towards internet marketing is what will allow long-term gains.
  • Like most blog posts, this is highly subjective. Feel free to improve, argue, debate any points.

So with this initial setup we can charge into how a politician X can become an online brand.

Goals

To plan for the next coming elections, which means that it has to be a sustained campaign over the next 2-3 years to make a meaningful impact.

It also has to ensure that he remains at a peak during his election times, and is able to sustain public interaction at a locality level.

Mechanisms available

We all seem to assume that social media, by default is the internet. In a country with nearly 430 million wireless connections, a strategy also needs to address the offline, but mobile populace.

So here is a list of potential ways of reaching the user using social media

  • Internet – Blogs / content
  • Mobile (SMS, MMS or GPRS)
  • Internet – Social networks
  • and many more …

The list can go on, but it is all dependant on the target audience which may be some remote district in West Bengal (India).
Why ? Why not ?

“One does not fit all”, and that is the reality. I would love to use social media to create and enhance everybody’s reputation. For an example, an MLA from a remote bihar village has no use for social media in his political career (unless of course he has national / state level ambitions).

Cosmopolitan cities like kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore have all shown that the internet may emerge as a potentially important mechanism for party propaganda as well as reputation management.

So if you guys want to have a chat with me discussing this further, do comment or email me at me@dipankar.name.

bangalore, h1n1 and queues

So for that last one week a major area of work has been queues and here are the various queues that i encountered

  • memqueuedb - a speedy message queue based upon the memcached client protocol. The idea was to use it to cache certain objects in a system.
  • JMS – Seems to be an integral part of my J2EE learning, this is what often defines performance in an application. Especially when good high speed JMS library implementation cost big money.
  • Airport taxi queue – Now you get in line to get a coupon for a taxi (10 people ahead of you) and then you get on a line with 40 people ahead of you all waiting for taxis at My capital city airport. Awesome. (Did I just see a newspaper whack me on the head :P )
  • Python queue(or Queue) - The real star :) , it actually is well synchronised with locking and all. Quite a rock star data structure he he, must use one of these days for something.

That was the end of the queue rant. Forgiveness for having to bear that. Next on line is Bangalore, I regret carrying a camera as it is super picturesque. Though once i landed the really really dusty air got to me. So by day 2, I ended up with a fever. Sorry to Pallav, and the rest of my friends whom i could not catch up with.

Any how, the point is the first question I asked myself do I have H1n1 (aka swine flu). To make sure i did not, i have taken the pains to outline a checklist for symptoms for the same.

  1. fever
  2. cough
  3. sore throat
  4. body aches
  5. headache
  6. chills
  7. fatigue

Now I did not have 4,5,6 and 7, but just for precaution am going to the doctor and getting myself tested. The only way to stop this from becoming the “plague” of our generation, is that we all consciously take precautions (especially when you can afford to, which I believe most of my readers can).

It is 100% treatable (well, that is what they say) when diagonosis is early. Tamiflu is also going to be available at drug stores. Take care everyone.

Be a Shotgun Startup, at Proto.in January Edition

How many times have you had a cool idea that never saw the light? Or that amazing conversation you had with your best friends which resulted to nothing? It can be that amazing facebook application to solve all the problems of your single friends, or that Iphone game that will rock the world, or an android application, or that robot which will help elderly people remember their pill times. Whatever it is, this is a time to build it and ride the wave with the support of the entire startup community. Surprised?

Well, we hear ya! We call this Shotgun Startup and its your way to huddle together for 48 hours and work on something which will change the world.

How do YOU participate you ask?

Step1 : Get those scribble books out and start going through all those ideas. Once you have decided on the idea you want to implement go here and submit it. This is where the fun begins, The ShotGun Team will go through all your proposals and pick 20 ideas which have the most potential – In other words, that which sounds uber cool and useful.

Step 2: Now that your idea is shortlisted, you need to put together a team which helps you realize this idea. All shortlisted projects can publish list of open roles and participants can apply to be part of this team. You get to pick the ones you like! Use your blogs, twitters, facebooks to find these people and get them as part of the team.

Step 3: Its 22nd January evening and there are 20 teams eager to make it happen. We have experts on various platforms like Android, Iphone, Php, ROR etc, Just in case you need some expert advice. This is where we give you plenty of wifi, coffee (maybe food) and get out of your way. For the next 48 hours its you, your team and your product. Make it happen, and breathe life into your idea.

The Proto.in attendees will start voting for your ideas on the 24th, The top 5 teams will then move to Innovation Jam where they get 5 minutes to present the idea and then the audience can suggest enhancements to the product so it can move towards being a full fledged product.

As the adage goes “Let the Startups win”, sharpen your pencils now! and for more information head to http://shotgun.proto.in Now!

PS: Have you registered for the event yet? if not, head to www.proto.in/register

Proto.in January edition is in the dates of January 23, 24 2009 in the Nimhan’s Convention Centre in Bangalore.

Proto.in January’09, Bangalore

After its resounding successes in its past four editions, Proto.in is back on 23 & 24 january at bangalore to further strengthen its position as India’s premier start-up event. Proto.in has built a reputation of being the one event the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem looks forward to, across the length and breadth of India. Having witnessed successful past editions in Delhi and Chennai and gearing up for the next one in Bangalore, Ravi Narayanan, a well known entrepreneur and an advisor to proto.in, believes “proto.in is poised to become a nationwide phenomenon.”

Proto.in – A Binding force within the Start-up Community

Over the last four editions, proto.in has showcased over 75 startups of whom many have leveraged the platform to close funding, develop new business opportunities, create media traction and even connect with potential hires.And as Alok Mittal, one of most successful internet entrepreneurs and a leading venture capitalist in india, says “Proto.in has emerged as an integral part of the Indian startup ecosystem.”

The last edition of Proto.in at India’s capital city played host to the 15 most exciting startups in the country amidst an audience that included the most prominent venture capital firms and angel investors to the who’s who in the technology and media circles. Amit Somani, Head of Mobile Products for Google APAC and a distinguished delegate at the last edition, believes that proto.in will be known as one of the pioneers for helping technology entrepreneurs get started in India in years to come.

The last event also saw a slew of new activities that churned out the most innovative ideas amidst a bunch of hyper enthusiastic entrepreneurs. Guess what, its only going to get better (and wackier) this edition.

What’s Special this proto.in?

Apart from the most anticipated Proto.in showcase of india’s top 15 product startups, the fifth edition of proto.in is breaking new ground by letting the audience experiment with entrepreneurship, through a set of globally unique activities for a technology conference under our exciting new initiative – Proto.in Labs.

Proto.in Labs will play host to a set of activities that will engage the crowd like no other indian conference has attempted before. Here’s a sneak peak into the exciting set of activities you’ll experience as an audience in this edition of proto.in:

Shotgun Startups – Teams of technologists, programmers, designers, and product architects compete with each other to build a product in 24 hours, and get them voted by the audience at Proto.in, with one emerging as the winner.

Pitchcamp! – The first pitch that you make, be it an investor, partner, employee or client about what you do, makes all the difference to that first impression. Pitchcamp will be a workshop for startups to help them sculpt their pitch that will sell every time.

Innovation Jam – Ideation is a simpler process. With the success of the process that started last time, at this proto.in, here’s a chance for the entire audience to participate, in chipping and brewing fresh ideas off of their head. If you have a creative block, this will ensure that its flushed out.

Proto.in Conversations – we are not alone. We are a community of entrepreneurs and some of us have tread this path before us, and have valuable experience to share. Listen from fellow entrepreneurs and get that dose of reality driven into yourself on everything from funding to hiring.

Startup Job board – Sometimes, old school works. If you are a startup and looking for people, put up a post. If you are a professional and looking for a job in an exciting startup, take a card and give them a call. Make it happen, when the entrepreneurial energy is flowing all around you.

Be There!

Add to that, an invite only dinner and a startup mixer on both nights to network and meet others in the space.Make no mistake, Proto.in 5th edition is ‘THE’ place to be, if you want to spruce up your entrepreneurship journey.

Startup nominations are closing on December 16. Hurry up!
Event registration opens on December 15.