Author Archives: Amit

Indian Web2.0- different strokes, different folks.. what do YOU think?

19 Replies

images.jpgI had been internally debating whether or not this blog post made any sense. What precipitated my decision in the affirmative was this piece of news that I read on ContentSutra. As things stand today, I can sense a general environment of conjecture about Indian Web2.0 amongst its thought leaders. There is a continuum of opinions, with people’s reactions ranging from cautious disbelief to speculative anticipation. Different people (or organizations) seem to be taking divergent positions and while everybody has a right to a course of action that best serves their own interests, I wonder what this collectively means to the readers of this blog. For a big chunk of Webyantra’s readers have Web2.0 as their ‘occupational karmabhoomi’. Many of them are betting their lives & careers on Web2.0 and/or committing significant resources to carve out their livelihood in this space. Hence this issue needs much closer introspection, at least for the sake of that specific group of people.

Let me piece together a bunch of recent news item, or some of my own observations to give you a sense of what I am driving at.

Avnish Bajaj Says Social Networking Is “A Waste Of Time” In India – Avnish Bajaj surely knows a bit about the Indian internet industry; he is co-founder of Baazze.com, one of India’s biggest ecommerce site and now a venture capitalist, so when he voiced his concerns, you have to accord credence to his views. He did clarify later that he was referring to pure SNS sites. In fact its not just online social networking, he has earlierexpressed general skepticism about Indian Web 2.0, saying that our internet industry has not reached a state of maturity.

Sequoia Capital invests 7 million in Minglebox – Sequoia is a big name in venture funding of internet startups. They have internationally backed some of the biggest names in this business, so when their Indian arm invests a sizable sum in a SNS startup, that hasn’t really set the roads on fire (as yet) and is just one in an increasingly crowded space, you have to notice it. Personally I think this decision makes sense for them, for as an investor you have finite choices and if they have to bet on somebody in the Indian SNS space, Minglebox is a better choice than many of the others. But my main point here is that they are certainly not as skeptic as Avnish about Indian Web2.0.

Canaan Partner says Web 2.0 not high on its priority list– Canaan, another Silicon Valley VC firm said that while they are looking at the software & internet space, they are not hugely kicked about Web2.0; they are more aligned towards transaction based models. Canaan incidentally is headed by Alok Mittal, who surely has a good sense of the Indian internet space for he founded JobsAhead, before it was acquired by Monster.

Media/Entertainment industry hots up to internet (incl Web2.0) – One recent trend worth noticing is that the big Indian media companies (having huge reach through their TV channels)– Times, NDTV, CNN IBN, Reliance Entertainment are getting their internet act together. They obviously think that the internet is the next big medium after the television. In fact, its not just Indian media companies but foreign ones as well. Take the case of MIH India, which has been promoted by a South African media house, Naspers. MIH has made some high profile top mgmt hiring decisions, is committing serious advertsing money to their products- in general they are betting big on this space. I must add that the media companies are eyeing the internet space in general, but it’s safe to assume that they are partly influenced by the buzz around ‘web2.0’.

No dearth of VC money for internet space – You would agree that there is more venture capital money available for the Indian internet space that what the market can absorb. (in fact in India, that’s probably true not just for venture capital but for big ticket private equity as well); and the blame for this clearly lies with us- the startup guys, the entrepreneurs themselves, for not creating enough compelling products & services that can be considered ‘investment grade’ by owners of the capital.

So what do you think about all this? Are you confused about Indian web 2.0 ? I’d like to hear from you, specially if you are a Web 2.0 entrepreneur yourself. Or even if you are just a gazing onlooker….

I have my own point of view on this and a pretty strong one at that. but without being judgmental, I’d like to listen to what others have to say.

Educatorslogin..the community for teachers 2.0

2 Replies

I’ve previously written about the adoption of Web2.0 in various spheres in India – ecommerce, media, arts etc, but not education. Whereas the defining character of web2.0 makes it very suitable for integration with education- open exchange of ideas, free sharing of resources, community based learning etc. I am glad to be finally giving education its due on this blog.

Untitled.jpgEducatorslog.in is an online space for Indian teachers & educators, where they can share or discover teaching resources, learn exemplary best practices and initiate meaningful dialogue on issues of shared interest. It is intended to work as a combination of a blog, an online library, a discussion forum and a marketplace for items of interest to the educators community. And it straddles across the entire educational spectrum (pre-K through higher and adult education). The site is built on drupal, and has web2.0 features like group blogging, commenting, organization by themes & tags for easy search. Educatorslogin is a commercial venture; it is angle funded by a technology incubator that invests in early stage consumer internet ventures. Though currently ad free, advertising could be a possible revenue stream in future. The classifieds section of the site (currently non-functional) is intended to be a space for people/institutions to place ads for resources/services that are offering or in need of. Its FAQ section details the different ways by which teachers could gain from the site.

The website is run by Shuchi Grover and a team of IIT-K alumni who are doing the technical development. Shuchi is a teacher educator based out of Bangalore. She is an alumnus of Harvard Univ and has worked extensively at the intersection of technology and education.

While I am no expert in education, here’s some spontaneous feedback to Shuchi and her team. I feel that the site (in its current form), is under leveraging the true potential of multimedia in education. The vast majority of educational content is text based, but that is changing. And the internet in its role as a repository and means of sharing different content types- videos, images, audio (podcasts), animations, documents etc is a catalyst in bringing about that change. So there is a case for enabling better sharing of multimedia realted educational content on the site. Multimedia has another advantage- it is more involving than plain textual content, hence increasing the site’s stickiness.

So if you are an educator, check out the site, or if you have friends or relatives who are in the teaching profession, do let them know this; this could be their date with Teaching 2.0.