www.DaneshZaki.com

Finally, I've got a domain of my own and have setup a Lifestream through Tumblr that aggregates content from this blog, my Twitter feed and my Flickr account. Please stop by.

Chittr - First Impressions

I have been using Chittr - a Twitter like Indian site for micro-blogging, sporadically. It seems to be a good start and has the first-mover advantage in India (I don't think there is any other Indian site that plays in the micro-blogging space). Chittr has done a few things right by providing multiple options for updating posts - through SMS, IM and E-mail. The ability to send SMS to an Indian number scores over Twitter. Sign-up is easy and straight forward, within seconds you can send a post(though you can even post without signing up). That leads to my next point on why would it want to allow anonymous posts. Anonymous posts could lead to junk/inflammatory stuff being posted and cannot be controlled. This is something that needs to be addressed immediately. The usage of the site appears to be among the young crowd, looking for "friendship" as opposed to Twitter that seems to have all kinds of demographics. But I am willing to be patient and hope the usage becomes widespread as the site becomes well-known and more people get an idea of micro-blogging.

One other thing that Chittr needs to address quickly is their interface, which is kind of slow. And in order to enable widespread usage in India, it maybe a good idea to offer a low-graphics site for people with slow connections. A few other features that can be implemented quickly are:

• ability to refresh automatically/periodically
• ability to see all posts made by an user at one place/page

Lastly, the usual question on the business model: how will Chittr make money? If its through ads, then what about the updates that are sent through email and SMS? Some answers would be charges for ad-free usage or sending occasional ads over SMS/e-mail.

In summary, a good start in a super-niche area (in India at least) that can be built upon by reading user reviews/comments(such as this one) and implementing the suggestions periodically. If the site improves regularly, it is bound to attract more visitors through better reviews and word of mouth publicity. If it stagnates, it will die.

Pros

• First mover advantage in micro-blogging in India
• Ability to send SMS to Indian number (not yet available in Twitter)

Cons

• Allowing anonymous posts
• Slow interface

Social Networks I am on

Looks like I have managed to get into most of the major social networking sites - Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, WAYN and now Twitter. Twitter seems interesting - one can generally prattle about what he/she is doing (like eating a Kebab etc) and there would be people reading your stuff. They may also "follow" whatever you update by subscribing. The idea appears weird and interesting at the same time. Will definitely want to give it a go.

Mukesh Ambani is richest man in the world!

India is strange - on the one hand you have him

and many like him

Junior Arrives

The arrival of D Jr., a customary work-related visit to the US of A and Ramzaan fasts have kept me occupied for the last few months. The arrival of Jr. is easily the most interesting of events and as with the wedding, I have been receiving advices from all and sundry on parenthood. I look forward to being with the guy soon and "experience" the events first hand.

Viva Mocha!

I have always prided myself to be a tea-drinker, but off late, with offices moving towards tea bags and my increasing sleepiness throughout the day, I find myself drinking more and more coffee, black and bitter. Black coffee gives a jerk and shakes off the drowsy state, who cares about the taste. Viva Mocha!

Office Resort?

I went to the ITC Infotech office in Bangalore and I must say that it looks like pretty good. It was apparently a factory earlier, which was converted to a software development facility and has the ambience of a holiday resort. The cubicles were very colorful with some really flashy colors thrown in. The atmosphere inside felt very informal.
I met with a senior manager there who said that it was one of the few companies where smoking was allowed inside the office rooms; no wonder, since tobacco is their business.