I had a surprise meeting with James Baty, Sun Microsystems strategic architect, today. Our subject of discussion was how to increase the world's interest of our Mayapur project. It really turned out as a fantastic class.
He uses Macbook. He
gave me to feel how light it is. Then he
said, “If you think that iPhone does not cater to Blackberry segment, then
that's wrong approach. It does not matter because if it only suits Blackberry
users, then it is nothing. Instead iPhone finds a way to increase the market by
giving a device for every teenager and grandma.
Future of Internet
How many IM accounts
do you have? Older people have 1–3. Young generation normally 5–10. Different
account for different relationships or groups – friends, girls, parents etc.
A telecom who wanted
to develop data services, he advised that there system allows only one IM
account and that was a limitation. If they don't users to use this service,
then it is another matter. But it will limit young users.
End of 5 things
1. End of programmers
– user communities that provide content, design and also code.
2. End of computers –
rent servers from bigger companies (google, etc.) instead of supporting server farm.
3. End of IT –
companies providing merging things. Telecoms want to be ISPs and ISPs want to
offer services that the difference between them becomes fuzzy. Paypal is not a
bank to avoid regulations but it provides Visa cards etc.
We didn't discuss the
last two because of lack of time.
Once he asked another
ISP who wanted to create services for users, “What kind of services you provide
for users?” They said, “mail, news portal”. But these are not real services for
communities that want to take active part. Internet of future
will be different of the internet of the past. The old generation used to work
on screens/slow speed etc. Its call nearnet.
Next generation internet won't be on small screens but rather everywhere –
cell phones, big screens etc. and will be used much differently.
Arising communities
Communities will arise
providing different things. For example, flood disaster victims:
1) suggestions and
experience people who have suffered floods in the past
2) their recommendations
for future disasters
3) board to evaluate
the recommendations and selecting ideas that are applicable
4) Implementing
committees etc.
Advices for creating web service 1) Be more open to
others – do not limit it only to few selected people 2) Allow tiered
identity system. Never make system that forces one to register. That will drive
many people away. Allow anonymous access, then make it possible to create a
virtual identity (account) later not requiring actual name, data, make way to
convert this virtual identity to real identity, for
example, when making
purchase. 3) Do not force to
sign-up before seeing products and information 4) What is the mantra
that will cause people to come to your site?
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