I often think about the impact of technology on me 10-15 years back, which was hardly any, and compare that to the huge influence it now has on my daily activities, my lifestyle and my life as a whole.
Back then, apart from studying which has to be a solo activity and mostly through physical books, I used to crave for going to the park and playing with my friends and visiting a friend's place and actually doing things together. I didn't have a phone then, neither any online email account. I used to be much more physically active and healthy than I am today.
Today, when I come back from work (which is mostly on a computer) or get up in the morning, I find myself having an impulsion to go online and check out all the different things happening out there, checking out all these different sites that I have an account on, I can't even keep up with my emails. I feel like doing some physical activities too but the compulsion to go online is much greater.
A few moments back, I opened Twitter, browsed around some tweets from different people, landed on a link from Techmeme that pointed me to another link on Huffington Post that had a video from Youtube in it, that made me go to Youtube since I wanted to bookmark it, I then checked out Facebook since the post talked about a thing or two about it, researched a topic on Kosmix, and went back to Twitter to post a few interesting links.
All this is well and good, and not that these websites don't add value to me, but I just happened to wonder how easy it is to go on and on in this online world. Feel a bit of concern, can't really articulate what it is exactly. Its as if I'm losing focus, on what, I don't really know!
March 29, 2009
June 26, 2008
Kosmix launches alpha
Kosmix had the much-awaited new release earlier this week, and I am very excited about it as well as curious to know people's reactions. Everyone has been on it for months and the momentum has been really great throughout.
Our new release is a big leap from what we had before, we now allow any search as opposed to before when we only supported vertical (Health, Travel and Autos) specific searches. You can give it a try here http://www.kosmix.com/. Kosmix's mission is to organize the information on the web for any topic on earth!
And I should add that this is an early alpha version and we hope to make significant improvements as we go forward.
Our new release is a big leap from what we had before, we now allow any search as opposed to before when we only supported vertical (Health, Travel and Autos) specific searches. You can give it a try here http://www.kosmix.com/. Kosmix's mission is to organize the information on the web for any topic on earth!
And I should add that this is an early alpha version and we hope to make significant improvements as we go forward.
May 15, 2008
Can young people not be "friends" with old people in the online world
http://tinyurl.com/6zxrz3
I like the idea of Facebook trying to protect young customers. But...
"To prove people are as old as they say they are on the service, the company is developing behavioral technology to weed out the fibbers, says Chris Kelly, Facebook’s privacy czar. Such technology could, for example, identify when someone is friends with people of a significantly different age — an indication something is amiss."
This sounds funny and ridiculous!
I like the idea of Facebook trying to protect young customers. But...
"To prove people are as old as they say they are on the service, the company is developing behavioral technology to weed out the fibbers, says Chris Kelly, Facebook’s privacy czar. Such technology could, for example, identify when someone is friends with people of a significantly different age — an indication something is amiss."
This sounds funny and ridiculous!
October 18, 2007
We Are Orange!
At Kosmix, all the women decided to wear orange one day, just like that, just for fun! Three of us - I, Monika, and Barbara - came up with this idea a few days back while we were chit-chatting in Monika's cubicle. And then Barbara, our office manager, sent out an email to all the women with the subject line 'Code Orange'! I simply love this!
Then comes Tuesday, the day when we all wear orange, and anxiously wait for others (guys) to notice that something wierd is going on! Then one guy asks Monika, "How come everyone is wearing orange today!" to which Monika replies in a sincere, matter-of-fact tone, "It's just a co-incidence!"
Barbara also especially brought her camera and we got Nagraj to shoot our pics with different poses. The one up above is just outside our office back door with Manyam mischievously managing to pop-in within the frame just before the click!
Well, thanks to all the Kosmix women - Monika, Barbara, Pooja, Poorwa, Yang, Jill, Tracy and Jyoti.
October 17, 2007
Designing Information
Continuing to think about the idea of "a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention", as stated by the late cognitive psychologist Hebert Simon, I think the biggest goal as the Designers of information should be to be able to show RELEVANT information that a user WANTS to the best of her SATISFACTION and in the QUICKEST way.
At Kosmix, we are at a stage trying to define a vision for our company that very much deals with the above challenge I think. And I have been finding myself being part of discussions around comprehensiveness. Is comprehensiveness of information a good or a bad idea? I think thats totally driven by the motivations of the user at the time of a query. But how do we design a system that is meaningful to most users but still meets expectations and motivations of each individual user.
The factors that, I think, influence the process of 'designing information' are:-
* The type of information
Different types of information could present unique needs. For example, a travel query demands a different experience than a video games related query
* Technology or the underlying algorithm
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the technology?
* Presentation of Information (Information Architecture)
The same set of results could have different impact on findability of the desired information when presented in different ways.
* Interaction flow and the user experience
Interaction can help users navigate among different depths of information.
* The user intent
The intent of a user could be implicit or explicit. Example of explicit intent is 'diabetes symptoms', or 'diabetes blogs'
* The user motivation
It could be personal reuse of information, or sharing with others, or just learning what you want to learn and moving on. Share? Bookmark? Move on? Own it?
* The user type
Explorers have a different behavior than Navigators than Researchers
* Interaction Behavior
More people browse than search
* The temporal factor
Does the user want to save and come back to the content for future use, or is it a one time search and she wants to move on
* Sustainable model
What will make the user come back to a service?
At Kosmix, we are at a stage trying to define a vision for our company that very much deals with the above challenge I think. And I have been finding myself being part of discussions around comprehensiveness. Is comprehensiveness of information a good or a bad idea? I think thats totally driven by the motivations of the user at the time of a query. But how do we design a system that is meaningful to most users but still meets expectations and motivations of each individual user.
The factors that, I think, influence the process of 'designing information' are:-
* The type of information
Different types of information could present unique needs. For example, a travel query demands a different experience than a video games related query
* Technology or the underlying algorithm
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the technology?
* Presentation of Information (Information Architecture)
The same set of results could have different impact on findability of the desired information when presented in different ways.
* Interaction flow and the user experience
Interaction can help users navigate among different depths of information.
* The user intent
The intent of a user could be implicit or explicit. Example of explicit intent is 'diabetes symptoms', or 'diabetes blogs'
* The user motivation
It could be personal reuse of information, or sharing with others, or just learning what you want to learn and moving on. Share? Bookmark? Move on? Own it?
* The user type
Explorers have a different behavior than Navigators than Researchers
* Interaction Behavior
More people browse than search
* The temporal factor
Does the user want to save and come back to the content for future use, or is it a one time search and she wants to move on
* Sustainable model
What will make the user come back to a service?
Information and Technology
I was reading through the post 'The Hidden History of Information Management' on Boxes and Arrows, and here the author mentions a line by Hebert Simon, "a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention". I realized this is THE biggest problem we face today as consumers of information.
And this is a bigger challenge that companies like Google, and ours (Kosmix) are up against, who attempt to make information easier for consumption by people through the use of a unique technology.
If we are able to discover or know a way or a model of categorizing information that enables most users to find what they want to find, learn what they want to learn and know what they might discover in a quick and efficient manner, also giving them good user experience, AND we have an underlying technology that enables us to do so, then that would make for a powerful design.
And this is a bigger challenge that companies like Google, and ours (Kosmix) are up against, who attempt to make information easier for consumption by people through the use of a unique technology.
If we are able to discover or know a way or a model of categorizing information that enables most users to find what they want to find, learn what they want to learn and know what they might discover in a quick and efficient manner, also giving them good user experience, AND we have an underlying technology that enables us to do so, then that would make for a powerful design.
October 16, 2007
Ek Anek Hindi Commercial/Ad from old times - Doordarshan -DD
I love this old ad that used to be shown on Doordarshan - the Indian National channel. It teaches the power of unity.
August 28, 2007
wow! you can 3D-cally animate your photo!
http://www.motionportrait.com/e/about/. I am anxiously waiting for them to make their technology available in public so that I can try animating my photos. I hope they at least give a trial version free if not the whole product!
August 08, 2007
Startup Search
I came across this interesting website thats a directory of startup companies, products, people etc and lists the traffic gainers for each day! http://startupsearch.org/.
Wondering how they make their list of which companies to track.
Wondering how they make their list of which companies to track.
August 07, 2007
SST: Semantic Search Technology
I had heard of Semantic Web before but came across this term Semantic Search Technology in this article. SST tries to surface only relevant information and hide the rest of irrelevant, bad quality content in today's world of information pollution.
One of the differences that the author points out between Semantic Web and SST is that Semantic web relies on people's best behavior of semantic structuring when creating new documents, while SST attempts to figure out the garbage/junk/unrelated content regardless of how good or how poorly documents are formatted.
SST is still in its infancy, lets see where it goes.
One of the differences that the author points out between Semantic Web and SST is that Semantic web relies on people's best behavior of semantic structuring when creating new documents, while SST attempts to figure out the garbage/junk/unrelated content regardless of how good or how poorly documents are formatted.
SST is still in its infancy, lets see where it goes.
July 21, 2007
Friday fruits and vegetables market
Here is a glimpse of the Friday market just in front of our place. It has all kinds of things - fruits, vegetables and even plasticware. I love it since it is so convenient - there is no need to go to a grocery store, the grocery store literally comes to you every Friday right in front of your home! The first pic is the same place when it was raining.
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