Describing Web 2.0

Do yourself a favour and take some time to watch Professor Michael Wesch’s brilliant presentation to the Library of Congress, June 23, 2008. The video is 55 minutes long, but is an excellent backgrounder to social media, user-generated content, and online communities through the lens of anthropology.

Topics to be explained

Please don't read this - Absorb and reflect.
Step1: Theory of Evolution: Nothing exists alone
Everything that tried to exist alone died. Life has always been about growing. So imagine a tree in a desert, it will die with out any offspring - some day soon. So for a species to survive long, they have to be in groups. all together. Or else that species becomes extinct. Now everyone knew this, at some part of time in their life. And they wanted this truth to be known to everyone. The truth is that we all need to be together for our species to survive. Everyone had their own way to telling this. That is how idiosyncrasies, practices and religions evolved. All for a very good cause of being united, being together, being one to SURVIVE.

Step 2: Religion and Ideosyncrasies
How story telling evolved into religions?
Bible, Quran, Bhagwadgita, Panchatantra -- Good examples of Stories, so more people can understand the meaning of life faster, easier and can form that Unity, that oneness.
Is there God -- Immaterialistic question.
Question is about survival. Survival of fittest - if mankind has to survive against billions of forces of nature, we have to be one, united. That is what religions, people have been trying to tell.

Life and Death:
You don't die, until you have reached the apex. If you die without reaching the Apex, you are born again to serve your journey to go to the apex. To reach the Apex, you have to be part of a bigger group - imagine growing the pyramid under you. To know your Apex, always know your Nadir. Imagine going to the skies, heavens. The journey or distance to the skies, heavens is told by the depth you have in yourself to reach that inner you.

Don't Think , Act:
When you think, you have stopped your other senses to stop doing their job of observing and acting effectively. Your 6th sense is your common sense that will just do that for you..dont have to think...when you think you die - your one cell die's. Just do it as it comes to mind, common sense. ZEN. A swordsman never thinks, observes and acts. Don't think, do it. When you think you die. Common sense has the capacity to bring all your past (knowledge, people, process, technology) in an act for you.

Relate:
we don't agree or deny - We Relate
Relate to something that you have and make it grow. That's why star's relate. They can absorb everything. Sun can absorb everything. Creation is truth, just relate and grow. Everytime that you try to deny, you have curtailed and killed atleast a cell. Relate to Grow.

Talk Less , Do More:
Talk less, but do talk. When you don't talk , you don't help relate. Do more, to do justice to your existence.

Everything exists in two's. even one ness and the thought of oneness exists in two's.
For every question there is an answer. My job is to try to search for that question. Answer is already out there.
My Job is to search for work, the work that can live by itself, serve by itself. Discover a way to make myself 24x7. Discover a way to be eternal. understand why should I be eternal. To be united with everyone else. Because I am everyone else.
Everyone who formed a religion - died early - because they became everyone
Everyone who were absorbed by many - served their purpose, in helping know that you are an aggregation of who know you.

Now lets see this - who is everyone today?
Everyone is some billion people that world statistics data says.
That everyone might be different, in different time period. Only thing constant in life is Time.
Everything else is Change. So that Change calls for leadership to ensure that everyone stays together and doesn't break apart.

Image of the Day: What does this image mean to you

This is the image of the day.

What are the thoughts that come to your mind as you observe this image?. Include them in the comments

My Thoughts:
This image certainly brings the words from Art of War to life. The Five Components described in the art of war

1. Philosophy: I, You, Oneness, Shared values and goals, VISION

2. The Earth: Scope of Control, Certainities, our reality, what we are, what we have control on

3. The Heaven/Skies/Weather : Uncertainities, luck, fate, trends, Our limitations

4. Leadership/ Thought/Creativity/Innovation

5. Methodology, Process, Repeatability/Duplication Of Success/Harvesting : leaves, flowers blooming

Good To Great

Always try to be great. I think the true realization of being great is knowing that we are back to being good the next day.
Always doing the best, getting the greatest invention award and then working towards getting a patent of proving the defect in that best thing. Then the obvious step of defining the new best.

Now I have understood this since I managed to put in my own words. As you must have guessed, the very next step of understanding this deeper is to, put it to practice. So I will update comment on this, when I have some practical examples of my practice. Until then, for me this is only Gita, Bhagwadgita, as Srini says. You can update the comments, if you got a chance to practice good to great.

Image of the Day: What does this image mean to you

This is the image of the day.
What are the thoughts that come to your mind as you observe this image?. Include them in the comments

My Thoughts:

• Best way to change something is, start from me. That is the fastest proven way to change - Bring a Change in my house, Bring a change in my company, change my system, change my nation, change the world.

Charity, cleanliness starts at home

People Process Technology

Its always about people, we only need to invest in them, they will in turn invest in process and technology. People are extra ordinary. We just have to help them realize the same.
Never tell them, when you tell them, you are only trying to make them feel small and the worst you are feeling you know the solution. Just tell them what the vision is, what the goal is.

If the vision or goal is to reach 1000, just help them realize the same, its the same vision that they have in their own words.
when you tell them – you are telling 499 + 501 = 1000, yes that is right, that worked for you, that might not work for them.
But when we help him/her realize himself/herself, you have spread that vision. He/she might figure out other “N” number of ways [ 1 + 999, 39 + 941, 10 * 10 * 10, 10 + (12*12)+(13*13)+(14*14)+ (15*15)+(16*16)] to achieve the vision, which we never thought about.

Just tell them how good they are. They are not small. They are just too good. We will have to continuously hear. Just Counsel and Mentor. Answer is already out there. We just need to get the question right. Continuous learning and giving, contagious learning and giving. learning and giving always go hand in hand, if we need to multiply knowledge. There is no him/her. Its you in him that you are coaching and mentoring. Only learning, understanding self as you are coaching.

Birth of a Leader

We are all firm believers that no one is a Born leader. This whole blog is to prove the same subject. Please see our blog from day 1, as it started and as it evolved. If you have come to this blog, the birth of a leader has already happened. It is you.

Necessity is the mother of invention. You have come here, because something in you craved for leadership and it is the only thing that is needed at this point of time. Everything else will happen, it will have its usual course of action to reach you. Take an example of all great leaders, they had some great event in their life. Do you need an event in your life?. Their are already events in lives of somany of our family, colleagues, friends, nation, world that brings that need for you to be the leader. Just take that to burn that desire in you to be the leader and drive that vision of yours, live and breathe that vision day in , day out. It is bound to happen, you are bound to see results every day. Your success is only bound to grow, every day. Notice those energies that are coming towards you, from fellow leaders, they are all trying to give you all the tools to be successful. Your success is what they care for. Everything that you think you need - is only a tool. Everything that you think you don't have is only a tool. If you have the passion, interest, zeal, enthusiam, determination and tenacity to do something - you have the recipe. All those tools are only water to go with the food.

My Customer

Who is my customer? What does he want?
Identify my customer - it can be internal, it can be external.
Realize what is he seeking - he is seeking his best self. Understand what is his best self.

Lets revisit some of the Characteristics of a leader with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as our example of the day.

Physical : He related himself with his customer, the common man in India, by being bare chested.
Emotional: He related himself with his customer, by doing what he wants to do. Feel proud of himself with what he has. He demonstrated simplicity. The beauty of simplicity. Charka, Salt - basics. Connected to basics
He made a solid connection with the customer.
Connection with the Customer:

Just for a game: Lets go back to 1910 and imagine we are Gandhi. what comes to your mind. Independence for India. Thats it. Nothing more nothing less. Don't know how and what about it. That is the Vision. Everything else will transpire, it will happen, it will evolve, it will uncover. My principle's are set. As I move into days to come, I form some strong goals and most importantly make my Vision stronger by spreading and validating the same with my fellow members. Isn't it great all of them have the same vision. Now let me formulate goals for myself to continue to measure myself as I enter the funnel of growth. every day is my growth measurement. My only measure is me from yesterday. My only thread of success is Love. Eternal peace, that is bliss.

Ok lets come out of that now. what did we do just now. We just managed to get into Gandhi. Connected to him and got his Vision, goals, definition of success. Lets see what is your definition of success, what is your Vision.

Thought Leadership

Indians and Thought Leadership.
You are right, we Indian's have a ton of Thought leadership because we have every source of inspiration , goading power required. We are divided the most based on - Politics, Religion, Caste, Creed, Color, State, Richness, hierarchy -- and there are people who are continuously working towards bringing more divides. So as long as these divides keep increasing our thought leadership is bound to multiply in 1000's and millions.

Whereever across the world , there is a divide, there is bound to be Thought leadership.

This is all our good intent with wrong implementation I guess. But every wrong has a good in it. Every past has a present. Every Vali has a Sugreev. Shantiniketan/ Rabindranath Tagore says it is all about knowing that the biggest Competition for you is YOU from yesterday. And everytime you beat yourself from yesterday, you are growing.
Our good intent was to bring some like minded ideosyncrasies together - like say one religion was born to bring some common belief's together. Little did we know that there was one more group being formed and these both groups will start fighting among each other.
So that was past, now the present.- get smaller, get connected. Whatever you use, Google, Facebook, linkedin, - use technology to your advantage to eradicate these divides.

Question of the Day

Ok lets keep spiritual stuff aside for a while. Lets talk Scientific. This I know, we can relate to easily.

Today a big doctor was talking about Brian imaging, just 5 hours back on NPR radio. He said about this wonderful student's research, who has now gone back to Harvard. This is how the scenario is.

Scenario 1: There is a train with 5 people which is on a death trap and everyone is going to die. So the survey question was: there is a parallel track and there is one person on that track. If we take a shift now to the other track, we will kill the other person, but save the 5 people. 90% answered that yes, we can do that.
Scenario 2: The same train is now going on a bridge and we will have to throw one 200 pound person off the train, so that others can be saved. 90% said No. that is not an option.

Think what does that mean to you about - Relationship, Connection, a sense of belonging

What it means to me: As long as we have a way to connect ourselves, link ourselves - we build a ton of love for others. Solution is to continue to break existing barriers like - religion, caste, creed, race etc to become smaller and smaller, closer and closer. All these Web 2.0 technologies or technology in general today, are doing just that, bringing the world closer, making it smaller and smaller. That way, we will have all hatred, crime and evil removed.

Its just a bunch of words, until you have given it life. Breathe your words into it. As Atchut says it - breathe your actions into it. Update comments.

Characteristics of a Leader

What are some of the important characteristics of a leader?

1. Physical Appearance: They say when in Rome, be a Roman. What do I interpret of it. If I have to be approachable, communicable and reachable - I need to be someone that the other person can relate to and feel comfortable with. Whatever that shape is. So if I appear to the other person as an elephant or an ant, it does no good for a perfect relationship. I have to be fit like him/her to facilitate an adult to adult communication.

2. Emotional Health: If they want to talk to me, I must be able to empathize with them. Understand them , clearly feel the system they are coming from to complete the 4 levels of communication.

3. Intellectual growth: Its always about growing, continuously growing. What was being taught by Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan. He said, your only competition and measuring scale is you from yesterday. Compare yourself to what your knowledge was yesterday and keep growing. Its always about growing, continuously growing to serve. Miles to go before I sleep.

4. Spiritual depth: Spirituality is about past, present and future. What are the words that come to my mind about them
Past: lessons learnt, experience, accomplishments..
Present: life, happiness, sense of being, doing, giving..
Future: Anxious, guessing, speculate, eager,
What I am writing is absolute truth now, that is present. The same thing when you read (this is already past - for you), and what you interpret, give that a shape in your mind, give that thought a life- that is truth in future. Congratulations - you just gave that idea a life. Whatever that you thought, interpreted that is life for that idea.

5. Relationship Management: Look at the comments in the flame image. It tells you why relationship is so very important. All people around you are transmitting good thoughts to you. Its in your interest to get in touch with them and maintain a relationship to grow yourself. They are all contributing to your growth. Everyone has something to give. At least speaking to them, ignited those dormant thoughts in you with some fuel that they gave - with just their presence. So when you talked, built a relationship with them, you are doing the highest level of communication as spiritual transmitters and spiritual receivers are being formed.

6. Financial success: Financially I need to be very stable, so that I have a strong sense of giving. This need not mean I need millions, I need something that I feel good about, helps me put the thought of money outside my frame of mind for atleast 24 hours in a day. Necessities, comfort, luxury --- Comfort level.

7. Charitable Giving: Learning and giving go hand in hand, as mentioned in the purpose of this blog. Charitable giving is like giving away all the time. Imagine a overflowing jar of water. Continue to give that overflowing water a direction - give it off in charity. That way, it helps the jar and the system around it from getting wet. This also helps GOD , the almighty to continuously fill you up with water , the wealth of knowledge. That way, you are happy, they are happy , God in the shape of everyone around you are happy.


We get minimum of million ideas in a day. If we write that idea somewhere - a diary, a blog, an email - you are giving it a house. Then you nourish it - pour water, give air, and food that idea grows, it bears fruits, and they grow again.

My idea now on this subject is -- if you give this idea using today's technology to 100 people, their interpretation of the same will generate minimum of 10,000 ideas. and that will be the best knowledge management system. Those 100 people will keep educating you, reminding you that this was the original idea.

As I write this, there is one thing I am learning all the time. I am not telling you, I am helping you realize, that thought in your mind that is sparked to life.

These are other characteristics that are born out of these. A Leader should also have great capability to motivate and inspire - importantly to bring that idea of his/her colleagues to life. Continuously investing time and effort in the fellow team members. It need not be team members, just others, other leaders around you.

Breathe Life

Its all about you.

These images and these questions that we are posting here are all to bring life into those questions and those images. The idea, the thought that I, he or she brings doesn't matter.

What really matters at this very moment is - Your Idea.
What comes to your mind, what you bring to life is what matters. It has to be your idea, its your responsibility to breathe life into those images and questions. These images and these questions are only tools to bring that life. Its your life, its your idea, its your thought.

Think about it - everything that is happening NOW is all about YOU. Everyone around want you to grow. Just continue to look for those vibes. Think again for a moment - do a search on google for - Carnegie Mellon Professor, Lace reader, self efficacy - Just about anything, its all about you


TWO SUBJECTS:

In this blog as of today, we are dealing with two subjects [ we will continue to increase those tools as we hear from you]:

1. Images :Visual thinking/ Modern Art/ - Its to bring your idea, thought to life.

2. Questions: To know and discover about oneself. Understand what you want, what you care, what motivates you, whhy it motivates you, what is your purpose and reasoning of existence in this world. We all have come to this world for a purpose. Lets continue to go on the journey of discovering the same.

Questions and Images are only tools for that growth in you. Please think today once - everything that is happening around you is only teaching you, continuously teaching you, helping you grow. My final point - why am I saying this -- Its about you. We all want you to grow. World revolves around you and only one person is always on context. Its you. All energies of these world are focussed just on you and want you to grow.

One of my good friends told me - Best things in Life are free.

While the subject is about you, why am I feeling happy. I am feeling happy because the flame in the image below is already spreading. You have already started thinking about those good things happening around you, that are continuously teaching you, helping you grow, you have started understanding yourself.

The answer is already out there. Its trying to reach you , in various directions, from various sources. Its just looking for you.

Please do us a favor. Start your blog and share it in the comments section. We want those great ideas of yours to keep flowing. The world cannot let go that great ideas from you.

Image of the Day: What does this image mean to you

This is the image of the day.
What are the thoughts that come to your mind as you observe this image?. Include them in the comments

My Thoughts:

Words that come to my mind are Fire, Light, Red, Knowledge.

Fire is the only element among the five elements, that has the capability to reproduce, self sustain and only grow as long as it gets get oxygen, heat and fuel. Same is the case with Knowledge. Spread knowledge to "x" number of people, they give it to "y" number of people each. It only grows and multiplies. My Father used to say, that is the only thing that cannot be stolen from you, everything else I give you can be stolen.