Here’s some SlideShare news that I would like to share with readers of this blog. We just announced the constitution of our board of advisors. Joining that board are Guy Kawasaki, Hal Varian & Ross Mayfield, all of whom are widely respected thought leaders in their respective fields. Actually, all three of them have informally been involved with SlideShare for a while now, but we thought this is an opportune moment to formalize the association. They bring different perspectives and experiences to SlideShare. We look forward to their suggestions & criticisms as we try to drive SlideShare to the next level. Here are their brief intros-

Prof. Hal Varian– Prof. Varian is Chief Economist at Google. He is one of the world’s leading thinkers about the socio-economic dimension of the internet. He is a renowned economist researcher, teaches at the Univ of Berkeley, has written some of the best books about the information economy and writes a monthly column for the NYT.

Guy Kawasaki– Guy needs no introduction- Silicon Valley legend, former Apple think-tank, sharp marketing brain, investor, entrepreneur, A++ list blogger and something else that is of immense importance to us- he is an icon in the field of communications and presentations; his 10-20-30 rule for making presentations is widely acclaimed.

Ross Mayfield- Ross is the co-founder & CEO of Social Text, the world’s first and biggest enterprise wiki company. He is widely respected as a leading thinker about Enterprise 2.0. and has a very rich & diverse background, that includes a diplomatic stint with the Government of Estonia!

We welcome all the advisors to SlideShare. Something that appeals to us (and what I have also talked about very frequently on Webyantra) is the role of diversity within your startup as you take critical decisions about your product, strategy, competitive position, pricing et al. We have tried to bring that diversity to the board with this team.

There’s something else we are releasing on SlideShare very soon. We have been working on that feature for almost six months now. I’d like to get specific (if possible, detailed) feedback about the same from Webyantra readers, when we put that out. More on that, in a couple of weeks…stay tuned.

In my previous posts about photo sharing & printing sites, I had theorized how their online gifting business is likely to face competition from dedicated gifting portals. To see that competition in action, look no further beyond two websites, DilSeBol & Myntra. These sites offer a more comprehensive solution for online gifting. In fact their modus operandi has the potential to actuate the long tail and turn them into a full fledged bazaar for buying/selling online gifts. They also have the advantage of a clearly defined revenue model, unlike many other Web 2.0 ventures.

DilSeBol & Myntra both look very promising and they are quite similar. They allow you to either select from a ready collection of pre-designed gifts, or use a web interface to custom design your own. The gift items they offer are simple, daily use things like T Shirts, mugs, coasters etc (Myntra seems to have a slightly bigger set of items).

DilSeBol– Based out of Chennai, this has been started by a three member team with a diversified techno-managerial backgrounds. You can custom-create your own gift using their web interface (called Artist), that gets shipped to you in three days. And there is no MOQ; you can order just one piece. I think this is great, for if you were to get customized gifts made by your local vendor, there is bound to be an accompanying MOQ. This factor by itself could be one of their USPs. DilSeBol has a system of reward points whereby for every creation of yours that you offer for sale and someone else buys, you get reward points accrued in your account, that can be redeemed for other products. Their FAQ page has the pricing info for the items.

Myntra– Its catchline is “your style factory” and they offer a larger set of gifting items to choose from. Based out of Bangalore, Myntra seems more focused on building a complete marketplace around online gifting. Their community section showcases some featured designers, a monthly contest, besides listing upcoming events for promoting gifting. Designs can be rated or reviewed by users. Users who offer their creations for sale to others are compensated in cash (paid as a royalty of 10%). Myntra seems to be have a large library of designs (running into 1000sas per the website) to choose from.

I think these two websites could actually prove VERY USEFUL, not just to individuals but also to small to medium corporates, who are constantly running marketing promotions and need a steady stream of artifacts or collaterals as gift items (I can vouch for this from personal experience). Corporate gifting is a small industry and most organizations use local vendors for this purpose; if these websites can offer competitive prices and consistent quality, they have a HUGE market potential to tap into.

With these two sites, the online gifting space looks poised for some real competition. Look forward to how the photo printing guys react to this. I expect a shift in orientation for some of them.

Related posts:
itasveer…scripts novel deal with Microsoft for photo prints in Windows Vista
MeraSnap..digital photo printing & delivery picks up in India
Picsquare- offline photosharing for Indians

Thanks Lakshmi for the tip-offs about the two sites.