India Speaks 3G for the First Time

Author: Business Beyond Reality

New Delhi: State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd became the first mobile company in India to launch 3G mobile services.

Speaking to Business Line, R.S.P. Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director, MTNL, said, “MTNL has been the pioneer in introducing the latest technologies on its network. We were the first to launch broadband service, IPTV and Voice over Internet Protocol. Now, we are all set to become the first to launch 3G services in the country.”

The service was launched by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Click on the link to view the video of the launch: http://broadband.indiatimes.com/showvideo/3825537.cms

3G services have already become popular in Japan, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden and Denmark. NTT DoCoMo has a subscriber base of more than 3.5m in Japan. Swedish mobile service provider ‘3’ has a subscriber base of 350,000 in Sweden and Denmark, adding around 150,000 customers since mid-August. In UK, Hutchison is the 3G service provider. India will soon join the elite club of countries that have 3G mobile services with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) setting up India’s first 3G network in Delhi and Mumbai. The network will have a capacity of 4m lines and will be operational next year. The total investment in the project will be to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore.

Government has also decided to allow up to 10 players in the 3G space, including eligible foreign players. The 3G spectrum will be auctioned in 450 mhz band, 800 mhz and 1,900 mhz and the guidelines exempt operators from paying any annual fee in the first year of operations. Operators, however, shall be liable to pay an annual spectrum charge of one per cent of AGR after a period of one year. All those who hold a Unified Access Service Licence or those who are otherwise eligible for obtaining UASL as per DoT guidelines of December 14, 2005 would be eligible to apply for 3G radio waves.

Indian mobile telephone operators signed up a record number of over 10 million users in October. At this rate of growth, the total telecom subscriber base is expected to reach 700 million by the year 2012 (covering nearly 70 percent of the country’s population), with about 650 million mobile users and 50 million landlines.

“We expect to see 10 to 15 million 3G subscribers in India by the end of 2009,” said Madhusudan Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner. “By 2012, we expect only 20 per cent of subscribers to be using 3G. And, unlike the trend in other 3G markets, where the data services used by subscribers make up as much as 30 per cent of the average revenue per user, in India it will be up to 20 per cent.”

Good going India…

MELLANIUM Scans The Horizon And Sees A Bright Future

Author: Joe Rigby 

Market Manager & Owner at MellaniuM Inc Kitchener, Canada Area

He has introduced a unique method of importing 3D Studio Max and AUTOCAD models into the UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004 multi-participant platform. His paper has also been accepted at the VSMM 2008 in Limassol,Cyprus.

MellaniuM can announce that they have chalked up another technological first in the virtual world arena. During the conference proceedings of VSSM 2008 Marco St.Pierre , HANDYSCAN 3D Director at CREAFORM3D http://www.creaform3d.com/ who markets hand held scanners for generating 3D models met with Ken Rigby of MellaniuM (www.mellanium.co.uk) who are producing virtual realistic environments in the UNREAL platform. The UNREAL platform has some unique attributes for developing environments with per-pixel shading, lighting and particle effects. He enquired about the potential for importing scanned museum assets into the environments generated in the UNREAL platform by the MellaniuM application. We obviously saw a huge potential for any collaboration that could yield virtual environments festooned with realistic replicas of entire famous museum collections from around the world. Within the week we received from CREAFORM3D a Chinese mask model reminiscent of an Easter Island profile with a floral, jade green texture overlay and a bird themed headpiece.

The 3D model itself was a relatively high polygon sample which was intended to test the MellaniuM application to some extent. However the final model was successfully imported into UNREAL and looks identical to the as scanned actual mask.

3D MODEL AS SCANNED BY THE VIUSCAN FROM CREAFORM3D AND IMPORTED INTO THE UNREAL PLATFORM

ACTUAL MASK BEING SCANNED BY THE VIUSCAN HAND HELD SCANNER

The VIUSCAN hand-held device is capable of scanning objects as big as a car and has been used successfully to reproduce a digital copy of a fountain (in the order of 6-7 metres high). The possibilities are enormous with respect to recreating archaeological reconstructions which we are positing in our new business concept dotVidi.com.

It is entirely possible at this present moment to import 3D interpretations of the ancient buildings of, lets say for example, ancient Athens or Rome into an interactive, multi-user domain. However, more importantly, an impressive, immersive experience of the décor can now be reproduced by importing the digital representations of the furniture, statues and fountains. The assets required to realize this dream actually exist on digital storage devices all over the globe we only need the collective will and enthusiasm to develop the vision into an astounding, virtual ancient panoply for all to experience together over the Internet.                                                                                                                                                       

Small and Medium Business – Some Facts, Analysis & an Idea

 

Author: Kanishka Ajwani

Kanishka Ajwani works as a Researcher R&D, Tata Consultancy Services and has expertise in Software As A Service.

Over the last few years, the software industry in India has grown like a monster alien grows huge out of heat.  Big players have entered the software market at a fast pace, with all those jargonized software services and products. And the use of IT in the industry has enabled these players to mature and strengthen their stand in the market. Such a condition, on one hand has fortified the Indian markets, but on the other hand has led to the demolishment of SMBs: the Small and Medium Business. 

What exactly is SMB?

SMB is a term used for a collection of small or medium sized companies in terms of infrastructure and count of employees. The concept is standardized by European Union which tag companies with fewer than 50 employees as “small“, and those with more than 50 employees but fewer than 250 employees as “medium“. Such organizations are unable to maintain and sustain themselves against the expert thespians in the market. It has become extremely difficult and challenging for them to compete with the complex technologies today used by the huge established groups due to the lack of capital, resource and opportunity.

There are large number of consultancies and expert associations in the market that offer strategic plans and resources for SMBs to let them grow with the same rate.  

• Many of them aim at engaging the right talent and skill set, designing the right organizational structure for a small/medium company and collaborating with many of the world’s leading service providers and emerging players. 
• Some groups also make available to SMBs IT products/services/tools used in the markets, at lower prices. There are some products specifically designed for SMBs that provide easily manageable, all-encompassing solutions that cover the critical elements of an IT infrastructure such as intranet, email, instant messaging, security and many others. 
• Other organizations provide a model driven approach towards SMB wherein a model is designed to provide an end to end solution following the “pay as you grow” methodology. The SMBs pay to the provider as they keep growing using the solution provided to them. 

These solutions available today in the market do help the SMBs to stand against the big actors, but again the concern comes back to the money that they pay to the providers, which is sizeable to make the SMBs think over it.

An Idea Suggesting a New Approach:

What I suggest goes like this: 5 to 6 SMBs group join together and invest the capital that they have to purchase excellent and superior quality hardware as a joint possession. This system/server/environment will be used by the SMB group to host their IT Infrastructure together on the same host. Say for example, one mail server can be used across 5-6 small companies to provide the employees a mailing facility. This technique would make it possible to develop the entire IT infrastructure without any extra cost being incurred. The only sticky situation this would create is the extra effort of maintainability and security of the hardware.

ECOTEL – The Ecofriendly Hotel

Author: Mukul Kumar

Has worked with some of the best hotels in the world (Oberois & Fairmont, Dubai). Is presently working as the Business Development Manager for an Educational Company in Gulf and looking after ventures and networking in the Indian Sub Continent.

ECOTEL – The Concept

Ecotels were started with a view to focus on environment consciousness. The need to maintain a fine balance between business and eco-conservation became the driving force in building the Ecotel. The Ecotel took shape of a major campaign by the hoteliers around the world to show their guests that even though profit may be the motive for running a hotel, they were equally conscious about the well being of the environment.

Thus Ecotels are environment friendly hotels which follow certain regulations, processes and implement certain measures, which lead to reducing the harmful waste released by the hotel. The hotels put plants and processes to ensure maximum usage and recycling of resources. Most waste that is disposed is of non toxic nature to the environment and is bio degradable or recyclable.

Being an Ecotel needs inputs not just on part of the management but also needs equally conscious and responsible team to support the idea. This concept starts from the very basics like disposing wastes separately, this is only possible if the belief of the employees coincides with the belief of the organization i.e. to be an environmentally conscious hotel which gives as much as it can back to the society and help maintain the ecological balance. 

The Certification

The ECOTEL Certification is based on five areas of environmentalism, each of which is designated by a Globe award.  These five areas are referred to as the cornerstones of environmental responsibility, or simply as Globes.

1. Environmental Commitment

2. Solid Waste Management

3. Energy Efficiency

4. Water Conservation & Preservation

5. Employee Environment Education & Community Involvement

Hotels can apply for 1 to 5 Globe awards, although all hotels certified or recertified after 1999 must achieve at least two globe awards to be certified.

Within each globe inspection there are three levels of criteria and scoring: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary scores. All hotels applying for certification must satisfy all of the primary criteria before an inspection will be scheduled. The hotel must prepare an application including descriptions of how the primary criteria are achieved, and include descriptions of other environmental efforts and programs that are at the hotel.

Once it is evident that all of the primary criteria have been satisfied, inspections are scheduled to ascertain the lodging facility’s score according to the secondary criteria. Inspections – guided by hotel staff and unguided – are completed throughout the lodging facility to determine if the environmental programs that the hotel reports are actually part of the day-to-day operations. Each department or function area of the hotel (i.e., main restaurant kitchen, banquet kitchen, room service kitchen, front desk and office area, executive office areas, etc.) is inspected and scored individually. A percentage score is calculated for each department inspection and each department must score above a set level to be awarded the certification. If any department scores below that level, but above a minimum threshold, the tertiary criteria (described herein) can boost that department’s score in order that the hotel may achieve the award.

The tertiary criteria are most easily described as a bonus system. The hotel receives bonus points for environmental programs discovered in operation that are not part of the primary criteria, and are considered to be above ordinary levels of environmental responsibility. An example of a program that would earn tertiary points in the solid waste management category comes from a hotel in Latin America that collects cigarette butts and soaks them in solution to draw out chemicals, which are then used as pest-repellent for the fruits and vegetables grown on-site before the butts are disposed of.

Based upon the final scores of the hotels under the five different categories or the globes, a hotel is given an Ecotel status. Any hotel which is given an Ecotel status has to be ready for an inspection to check the standards and guidelines are adhered. This inspection may be carried out by surprise checks or the hotel may apply for it. A hotel to gain the Ecotel status must pass the classification for any two globes.

Benefits of an Ecotel

Being an Ecotel member can be beneficial in many ways. Apart from the increased publicity due to Ecotel tag, the hotel also sees best management of its resources which leads to lower operating costs. A very good example to show how a hotel would benefit from the Ecotel tag is “Uppal’s Orchid” in Delhi.  The hotel acclaims to be the first Ecotel in the continent and believes that along with all the publicity it gets as an Ecotel the guests who stay also are given a chance to contribute in different way to conservation of resources. The hotel believes that the Ecotel tag serves as a positioning statement for them and lures the guests to experience luxury with responsibility. A guest feels more responsible, when he is able to contribute even in the smallest form to the environment.

The hotel maintains a huge guest history and welcomes its guests to be a part of any programs that it does on environmental awareness and ecological drives. Also to quote in words of Junko Tsuda – Hilton International, Director of Marketing & Communications, Japan “ECOTEL is a great concept that any Hotel should be after. Under Ecotels guidance, we have been very successful in PR since the certification, receiving endless press inquiries and the saga still continues.”

It is clear that Ecotel as an effort is not based upon revenue maximisation but for making hotels more conscious towards the ecological balance and environment. The Ecotel is benchmark for showing responsibility towards the society and it individuals. Also apart from the environmental efforts the Ecotel also acts as a positioning statement to differentiate the hotel product from the rest of the hotels and creates inquisitiveness in guest’s minds.

Recruitment/Talent Hunt in Second Life – Initial Considerations for Organizations

Author: David D’Angelo

 

About Author:

David has worked in Human Resources for seven years primarily as an analyst.  He is a member of the International Association for Human Resources Information Management.  David’s Blog “Recruiting in Second Life” can be read on the ere.net blog network and was referenced by Governing online in their September 2008, article “The Reality of Virtual Reality” which appeared in “The Managing Technology Letter”.  His article “Try Second Life Beyond the IT Department” appeared in September 19, 2008, online issue of ere.net.

The technology has very much arrived for virtual worlds to impact real world business and they will only improve in time.  Many of the early adopters have reaped the benefits of these technologies and improved their brand globally. 

Many organizations are now recruiting in Second Life.  Universities recruit students, police departments recruit cyber savvy officers, IT organizations look for talent and evidence of it in Second Life, and the list goes on.  You may also have an interest in doing the same.  Where would you start?  This post will discuss some of the discussions and due diligence you will want to perform as you frame your case for recruiting in Second Life.

 

The first step to take to recruit in Second Life is to assess if you have the talent in house or would need to outsource the work.  One caveat to consider even if you have talent in your organization that could conceivably perform the work is that it may be well worth the additional cost to have a professional design firm set up your first virtual presence.  You want to be on a competitive level and project a professional image to recruit professional talent. There are many design firms with competitive prices that will tailor a package for your needs.  Interview several before making a decision. Once you have an established presence in Second Life, your onsite technical staff may be more than adequate for modifications and maintenance.  You may even want to have them shadow the design firm when your site is created so they can perform the routine maintenance. 

 

Your next step should be to define how your goal to recruit in Second Life would benefit your business both directly and indirectly.  You will need a project plan of what you would want to achieve in Second Life along with costs and benefits.  Also, note other stakeholders in your organization who could benefit from your presence.  The obvious benefactor is your marketing and branding team.  They can assist in announcing your presence in Second Life along with leveraging their branding focus.  It is also important to discuss your recruiting strategy with marketing.  They may be able to provide some demographics of your customer base that will give you some indication of how many people you may potentially have an opportunity to recruit. 

 

Be sure to reach out to other areas in your organization that engage in training or travel frequently.  There may be an opportunity to develop virtual training in Second Life and virtual meetings for those that travel or video conference often.

 

It is a good idea to have a discussion with your legal department on your specific plans for recruiting in Second Life.  They will be reassured if you stick to initial recruiting and keep the paperwork, secondary screening, and paperwork outside of Second Life.  You may even be surprised and find an interest in recruiting an intellectual property attorney in Second Life.  There is probably no other target so rich with intellectual property use and abuse as Second Life is.

 

The last step in your consideration is your budget.  In consideration of the difficult economic environment we are in this could be a deal breaker for some.  List the costs of development and having an island in SL along with anticipated benefits.  Some of these such as branding will be intangible.  I would suggest one of the best cases you can make for recruiting in Second Life is to participate in a job fair for minimal costs with avatars that display your logo. There are organizations that might do very well with representation at job fairs periodically.  Those committed to recruiting in Second Life will want to move forward with developing an Island to build on your success in the job fairs.

 

I am certain there are other considerations but I am hoping this will provide you with a starting point on how to frame your analysis if you plan to recruit in Second Life.  One final suggestion is to make your presentation to management in Second Life to give them an ideal how virtual business can work for your organization.

Riel Life Productions – A Real “Second Life” Virtuography

Author: Ecocandle Riel
(Brian Meeks in Real Life | CEO & Owner at Riel Life Productions)

Birth of Ecocandle Riel in Second Life (April 25, 2006)

In early April of 2006, the Washington Post ran an article about this obscure virtual world, where people hang out, chat, dance and even shop.  Several weeks later, on April 25, I decided to give it a try, and so I went to www.secondlife.com and got my first avatar.  I remember that the sign up screen indicated that there were 187,000+ people who had come before me.  That seemed like a pretty big number at the time.  The process was simple; I selected a last name, Riel, from a list and then checked out the first name to see if “Ecocandle” was taken.  It wasn’t, it never is.  Some years before signing up,  I had run a candle manufacturing plant that made candles from soybean oil.   My moniker was Ecocandle back then and it sort of grew on me.  After a couple of more questions, I choose the free option, and Ecocandle Riel was born.

A Bond Builds With Second Life

Many people have tried SL and only about 10% of the people which create an avatar, are active after a month.  This isn’t a good statistic, but the realities are that the world is so massive, that to fully enjoy all which is offered, one must spend a little time learning the ins and outs.  The common thread among the older avatars, is that we all knew someone very early in our experience that would help us get accustomed to the new frontier.  Linden Labs, the company behind SL, provides Introduction Islands, as do companies like Cranial Tap and The Electric Sheep Company, which are designed to explain different aspects of using your new avatar.  These are helpful, but it is the connection which one makes that determines if they will remain.  Within 2 hours I met Lupo Drake, and after 15 minutes of chatting, he introduced me to Gracie Gable and Cavalier Goodnight.  Lupo and Gracie were there for me that first month, answering questions, helping me find out how to build fun things, and teaching me how to wear the cool new hair I had bought.  Today, Lupo and Gracie, are valued team members on my projects.  It is because of them that I stayed and it changed the direction of my life.

I Start Earning in Second Life

There are many ways that people make a living in virtual worlds.  I have a good friend who designs women’s clothing.  He isn’t the top designer but he has made very good money.  There are those who sell furniture, pre-fab houses and buildings, animations, custom textures, skins for avatars, art.  If you can imagine it, it is likely being done in Second Life.  My company is involved in the building of spaces, called sims, in SL, for corporate clients.  I have 7 contract workers who live all over the world, in the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Canada,  and France.  When a project begins we gather, layout the plans and everyone is given their tasks.  Then they start working, according to their schedule.  Because all of them are brilliant designers and hard workers, I don’t worry about the time of day they are working, because I know they will get it done.  This means that the time zone differences (eight of them) don’t get in our way.  It does make for some odd days for me, managing all of it, but I so love what we do, that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It was 9 months after I discovered SL, that I left my real life job as an auto insurance analyst, to start my company.    With my first big contract in hand, I assembled my team, and we began building a 2 sim space for a major Seattle real estate firm.  They had 2 building, one that was complete, and one that wasn’t started, which they wanted reproduced in SL.  The project was never opened to the public, but merely an R & D project.  They wanted to understand what was possible.  So we created their buildings, the second building, based upon the scale model that they had produced.  The Condominium contained two of the floor plans, completely furnished, and allowed one to tour the space and get a feel for what the real world unit would look like.  They wanted to know if this could be used to give tours to potential buyers.  We included features like click through counters.  If you didn’t like the counter, just click on it, and the surface would change to the next choice.   The CEO and staff declared the experiment a success and maintained the island, for their staff, for a year.

I Expand the Base

            This project led other builds and to an entirely different service.  The first client also wanted to know what it would take to create a video of the project.  I devoted countless hours to learning about something called Machinima, the art of creating film with your computer in virtual worlds or games.   It is different than the more common CGI, which is creating film by rendering scenes, one frame at a time, using a computer.   In Machinima, one actually films, real time, the subject in the virtual world.   Perhaps one of my most enjoyable projects was the “movie trailer” we created for an author in Quebec.  In October of 2007, she was releasing her new children’s book, Terra Incognita.  It is a story about children stranded on an island which has an active volcano.   We created the island in SL, built a volcano, and hired actors to play the parts of the children.   The client gave us the story board and we created the film.  I purchased some royalty free music online and finished the project, which was a huge success and her publisher was thrilled with the response.

                Projects in SL can range in cost, based upon the amount of work required to fill the clients request.  It is typical to see a one sim build cost between $20,000 – $50,000, though incredibly complex builds can be as much as $250,000.  Machinima and custom scripting projects vary greatly, but simple projects can be as little as $500.  There are many ways to approach a project.  Does the client need to have products duplicated in great detail?  Do they need space for events?  Do they want to gather marketing information?  All of this information factors into the cost.  There are some unforeseen benefits to virtual worlds.  Rivers Run Red built a space for Adidas in SL, which they used to promote their brand for a year.  Their goal was to get exposure, but was pleasantly surprised when the build generated over $8000.00 in virtual shoe sales. I have a pair, they are great.

 When I Look Back Now

                When I first started there were roughly 18,000 regular users in SL, today 1.3 million have logged in the last 60 days.   It is remarkable how much it has grown.  My company still creates builds, does custom scripts, and produces films, and I look forward to what every day will bring.  Mitch Kapoor, the founder of Lotus Notes, spoke at the 2006 Second Life Community Convention, and said that he believes that 3D Virtual Worlds are the natural evolution of the internet. 

After 31 months, I am more convinced than ever.

Driving Business – Interpersonal Team Dynamics

Author: Business Beyond Reality

“No matter how good your project or the technology you have to work with, if your team doesn’t mesh – your project’s in trouble” , Says Stephen Howard-Sarin, Vice President, CNET’s business sites.

Team Dynamics are the unseen forces that operate in a team between different people or groups. Team Dynamics can strongly influence how a team reacts, behaves or performs, and the effects of team dynamics are often very complex.

Team Dynamics

A lot of issues personal and professional come up, when a Team is asked to collaborate between itself. They are:

1. Picking a Leader: Until and unless there is a Leader defined by the heirarchy of the organization, the team generally suffers the issue of lack of directionality. Once the leader is chosen by the team members, directionality is observed.
2. Unclear Team Objectives: Due to conflicting personal objectives, team goals are often randomly chosen and rarely tied up with overall objectives of the team. It is imperative for the leader to step in and define the team objectives clearly and objectively to avoid ambiguity.
3. Inadequate Communication: It is important for every teammate to be updated on whatever happens and to have a transparent reporting system to ensure that all misunderstandings are ironed out. It is also important to deal with contentious issues without delay.
4. Ironing Out Differences: Every inter-personal and intra-personal issue has to be addressed instantaneously for the team to function smoothly.

How Can Team Dynamics Be Managed Constructively?

1. One has to look for the team dynamics – the ‘natural forces’ at play.
2. One has to determine whether the natural forces are acting for good or bad.
3. One has to make interventions to make the effect of those dynamics more positive.

To access the level of team playership among people, LinkedIn is conducting a survey sponsored by Nokia. I had an opportunity of participating in the survey and the consolidated results as on November 20, 2008 are as follows:

 

Statistics - Level of Team Spirit

As the above graph shows, 97% people believe that working as a Team is a good way to work.

 

Responses By Seniority

The above graph indicates that senior associates believe more in team work than the others.

 

By Company Size

The above graph points out that more or less, all companies believe in the power of team work and collaboration.

 

Responses By Job Function

As expected, the product team works best as a team.

 

Responses By Gender

Women, known as having better inter-personal skills then men, are more in favour of working as a team.

 

Responses By Age

Older people, being more matured, realized the benefits of team work and are found to be in favour of team work more than their young counterparts.

 

It is rightly said…”The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”