Hate 2.0 in Web 2.0. Industry insiders time for little introspection!

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center,  shared key findings from his  organization’s annual study of online terror and hate. 

I feel repulsed by these numbers - 

(he)..attributes a third of the 30 percent spike to blogs and discussion groups that support terrorism. The rest is the material of age-old hatreds–40 percent anti-Semitic, [...]

Get your own social police

CommVenture VC partner Baris Karadogan has a very interesting take on the recent Digg fiasco:
.. social networks need to get organized.  This requires a level of hierarchy above ‘friends and contacts’.  That level will be determined by a political system within the network.  Leaders will be chosen and they will use the collective power of [...]

Laurie Baker passed away

Laurie Baker, social worker and champion of low-cost housing, passed away at the age of 90 years.
I first learned about his work in 1991 while arranging temporary shelters for earthquake affected villagers, which happened in the cold Himalayan region of Uttarkashi. His key contribution was the unique architectural style.
Baker’s architectural method is one of [...]

Contenders for the social entrepreneur award

World Economic Forum will be selecting a winner from the impressive list of social enterpreneurs:
Amitabha Sadangi of International Development Enterprises India (IDEI). IDEI has developed and marketed affordable small-plot micro-irrigation technologies to India’s marginal and small farmers.
Padmanabha Rao and Rama Rao of Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER). RIVER has developed a multi-grade, multi-level [...]

How do you short a private web2.0 company

If there was a way to short a private company then I will go for Digg.
Digg lawyers  send C&D to similar named site called DiggGames. They did what they were getting paid for. Which is to protect Digg’s intellectual property interests. This is a totally legitimate way to protect company’s interests. Comments on TechCrunch [...]

Technology: Second only to death

Sam Pitroda on the current controversy related to quota system in India:
Technology gave me an equal footing for everything I have done in my life and career. I have said this before. Technology is a great leveler, second only to death. I have always negotiated challenges on the basis of my whatever little intrinsic merit [...]

Where there is a will there’s water and electricity

Billions and billions of dollars have been pledged and pillaged but Indian government is still not able to provide water and electricity to all it’s citizens. World famous innovator Dean Kamen thinks this problem can be solved without any big bang approach. Creator [...]

Managing events

Blogging is very slow these days. It has always been slow for me but last 10 days of hectic travel it came to a virtual crawl.
I am so overwhelmed with events and observations that I will need good time to soak up [...]

Plausible Impossibility

According to Narayan Murthy “plausible impossibility is better than convincing possibility”, when it comes to rooting out the rampant corruption in India.
Speaking at the technology institute here in Bangalore he quoted some depressing numbers: nearly 1% of the GDP circulates as bribes. [...]

Potholes in the orphanage

So far I have been going through the pain of either walking or driving over infamous potholes of Bangalore. Yesterday I witnessed first hand how pothole gets created and the very t=0 of pothole creation.
Most of these are the signs of unprecendented pace of economic development taking place in Bangalore. So dusty work-in-progress is [...]