Sunday, June 29, 2008

How does Marie Arana decide which books to review?

This question must get a lot of attention at the Washington Post. I asked myself this question pondering this morning's Washington Post Book World. I was thinking of Rohit Bhargava and his book "Personality not included". He is a local author and a brilliant guy. The topic of his book is not politics, fiction or prose but a easy to understand book on how businesses can win in the changed new media world. I hope Rohit's book makes it to the Washington area bestsellers list.

Rohit told me he was writing a book when we met at the Digital Media Wire conference  in 2007. He wrote on Fridays and his book is based on his experiences working in the Digital Influence team at Ogilvy. The book arrived almost the same time as his second child was born. As Rohit's wife Chaavi says they actually had twins late last year! We met again in SXSW and this time Rohit told a bunch of us he met at lunch about the book and had some publicity materials to give away.

I got a preview copy  of "Personality Not Included" when I went to the Blogger Social in New York in April. In the spirit of the book's preaching Rohit had a contest where he asked any Blogger to send him questions for an interview and he would answer all of them ( limited to the first 50). From these interviews Rohit selected 12 for a contest. He followed that by a contest asking people to vote for the best interview. This created buzz and I watched 2 of my good friends Jonny Goldstein and Linda Sherman battle for the best blog interview with Rohit Bhargava. 

At Blogger Social Rohit hosted a breakfast where he asked the bloggers present to give ideas on how they would promote a book if they had $250. he collected the answers and named the winning idea.

At a recent Speaker's dinner for Blog Potomac Rohit was the speaker and his post http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/06/speaking-to-a-r.html explains the modus operandi !

Bottom line this guy has worked hard to write a interesting book and I agree with a reviewer who has categorized him akin to Guy Kawasaki ( Guy actually wrote the foreword for the book) and Seth Godin. How he is promoting the book is another great watchable story. I hope to see his book reviewed in the Washington Post soon.

He is speaking to Small Business at a Network Solutions organized event tomorrow June 30th .

Details here :http://solutionsarepower.com/2008/network-with-other-entrepreneurs-and-rohit-bhargava-author-of-personality-not-included-june-30th/

Now to answer the question from my headkine for this post I suggest you read this article by Deborah Howell the Washington Post Ombudsman http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/08/AR2006090801536.html

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Gmail Activity Limits

Stephen Shankland of CNET news posted this http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9979697-7.html

• Ever wonder what the limits on Gmail activity are? Well, here's the answer, according to a Google Apps posting: "500 messages per day (i.e., you can hit 'Send' a maximum of 500 times); 500 unique recipients; 2000 total emails (for example, you could send one message to a group of 500 people four times)."

Thursday, June 26, 2008

I got scooped By Shel Israel

I say this in a lighter vein ;) as  I was glad to see that Shel Israel posted the news of Connie Bensen joining the Network Solutions blogging team .

Connie is a great person to have on our team and I depend on her to keep me straight. This is also a exciting time for us at Network Solutions with a lot of social media activity and the excitement within the company as we take more steps in reaching out wherever our customers are.

I am also happy that Steven Fisher is also helping us with covering local events and interviews for Solutionsarepower.com.

With such a star studded team I am hoping some of the brilliance rubs off on me :)

Thanks Connie and Steve.



Shel Israel gave me an opportunity to talk about my new job as a Social Media Swami for Network Solutionsin an interview on his blog in February.

Lunch Time Karma - KidDesktop.com

Today at the Digital Media Conference I randomly chose a table and had great company. Melissa Clark from Siteworx and Dan Werbel. of http://www.kiddesktop.com. As we ate lunch Dan told us about http://www.kiddesktop.com. and how he got the idea from his kid deleting important files by mistakes on his computer. As he described the features I was virtually drooling as these are things any parent wants for their family computer. I got inspired to take a live video interview that 11 other people have seen so far.

Features of kiddesktop.com:

  • Protect your files, pictures, music and other programs. Kids don't even see your desktop so they can't open, change, or delete anything.
  • Simplify computer use with our kid-friendly start screen, customizable Activity Bar, icon-driven features, and spoken help. Your child will love having everything he or she wants to use in one place!
  • Set up a favorite activity once and your child can re-start it without your help. No need to re-type URLs again!
  • Protect your child online by setting browsing limits, preventing downloads, and/or blocking pop-ups on a site-by-site basis.
  • its $29.99 for each computer with no recurring fees. If you had heard Dan talk you would be immediately convinced that you need this for your computer (if you have kids)

    Digital Media Wire 2008 :Ron Berryman

    Fox interactive

    • 186 million unique visitors per month to Fox interactive properties
    • ppl spend 3 hrs and 22 min online
    • ppl spend 3 hrs and 45 min watching TV
    • Media moved from print to Radio
    • newspapers depended on ads, subscription and position
    • Radio had advertising
    • Entry of Satellite radio provided subscition models
    • Then TV came in
      • TV subscription models came in with cable and satellite
      • Most business models remain intact and more emerge
      • TIVO, DVR, VCR
      • new business models
        • CPM,CPC, Lead generation, etc
        • Viewers don't want to pay to watch TV shows online
      • On demand content
        • showing ads when the show is paused ( Cool !)
        • showing ads based on local area online

    Digital Media Conference Analyst Presentations

    Shawn DuBravac, Chief Economist, CEA
    11 phenomenon Alive and Well

    • moving to a 2nd generation devices
    • analog to digital cameras
    • digital DVDs
    • 360 deg solutions emerging
      • Companies providing way to create media from strat to finish,
      • Example - Amazon kindle
    • Distribution is evolving
      • living room is digital device battle field
      • Broadband moves to more than 50% users
      • setup boxes emerging as a viable alternative to content
      • MSOs are changing the landscape - DVRs, digital feature rich
      • Gaming and computers play a important role WII, XBOX
      • Physical media - 30% of consumers will have docking stations
      • Consumers are comfortable with physical media
      • 3D video in the homewill emerge
      • 20% of digital tvs are 1080p i.e full hD
      • What's next for television
        • view digital video files
        • access internet
        • control and personalize experience
        • share content on tvs
      • Mobile devices
        • top use broadband emerging trend
      • 700MHZ will give more digital trends

    Mark Donovan, CMO and Senior Analyst, comScore

    • 5 trends on mobile
      • Mmetrics acquired by Comscore
      • 10 min too short for mobile trends
      • 29% mobile broadband penetration
      • mobile boradband lifts media consumption
      • Smartphones
        • 45 models in 2005 to 152 models in April 2008
        • geek phones to chic phones
        • 7% of users are smartphone users but 122% growth YOY
        • 50% of smartphone have unlimited dataplan
      • Mobile web
        • 46% growth in people using mobile web
        • utility web audience is growing- things that you need,
        • IPhone effect
        • Iphone crashed the party
        • 59% of smartphone users browse the internet and with the entry of the iPhone it became 90%
    • software is the mew mobile battleground
    • customer ownership is a battle
    • connecting phones to PC is a new trend in improvement

    Jim Wolak, Senior Executive, Accenture

      • 20 billion spent in digital advertising for customer acq
      • top performers from survey conducted among top executives
        • work force talent  top Google
        • applied business analytics- Google
        • Salesforce and channel performance: Microsoft (Google came second)
        • Investments and business development : Both Microsoft and Google top ( news corporation second)

    Wednesday, June 25, 2008

    Why Do I Blog ?

    Liana Evans Interviewed people at Blog Potomac on “Why I Love Blogging”.

    See the completed masterpiece here:

    SMG Post on Why I Love Blogging Videos: http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/2008/06/why-i-love-blog.html

    My Video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBZ68iPohQQ

    Blogs:
    Technology & Social Media : http://www.shashi.name
    Digital Thoughts: http://readythoughts.blogspot.com
    Restaurant Reviews: http://eatcurry.blogspot.com

    Network Solutions: http://www.solutionsarepower.com

    Tuesday, June 24, 2008

    Meeting Saul Colt - Freshbooks Dinner

    I have met Saul Colt - Head if Magic at Fresh Books twice before and he is always so full of ideas and experiences. Did you know he worked for ZipCar before? I am also excited that he is coming to Network Solutions tomorrow to talk at a learning lunch.Freshbooks Dinner - Lauriol plaza DC

    He organized a dinner today with a few Fresh Books customers and friends  at Lauriol Plaza in DC ad I was honored to be invited. Did'nt get to see if Saul wore any funky shoes today but here is a picture courtesy of David Crow)

    Saul Colt's funky Nikes

    Among the people I already knew at the dinner were Technosailor, Maddiegrant , Lindy Dreyer Matt and Justin Thorp . I enjoyed the conversation with Gabe Klein ontheflydc.com and Tiago Soromenho of Salongeeks.com and http://www.stickystreet.com.Freshbooks Dinner - Lauriol plaza DC

    Gabe and Stephanie ( I hope I spelt it right and atleast i didnt say Bethany) were great company and Gabe told us about his experiences in growing his company http://www.ontheflydc.com . The theme is eco friendly catering and I think he told me that all their catering vans were electric powered. I am hoping to demo some Indian dishes for him as I mentioned that I was a chef in my previous life. SO DC area fans and DCConcierge you know who to recommend now.

    Freshbooks Dinner - Lauriol plaza DC

    I dropped Tiago off at Grosvenor so we enjoyed a 30 min conversation on the ride home. Stickystreet has a lot of promise. in case you are a small business and you are managing a loyalty program then he is the man for you.

    Here is a link to the QIK video I made http://qik.com/video/112866 from the event. Pictures from the event http://tinyurl.com/6dl2e4

     

    Thanks Saul for inviting me. i had a great time. Lauriol plaza was packed and the dinner experience was great. Right service, great food.

    Congressmen using Social Media

    Here is a Qik video made by a Member of Congress John Culberson who is also on Twitter http://twitter.com/johnculberson. I am really impressed about how tech savvy this Congressman is and he proves that responsible members of the Legislature should always be in tune with technological advances.

    This is a must see video and I got to this video from Robert Scoble's Tweet and Blog post on his trip to Washington DC. Andrew Feinberg is the guy who is making many connections for Scoble and has also organized a event tomorrow night which I am attending.



    I am having problems embedding the video so here is the link http://qik.com/video/112713

    Sunday, June 22, 2008

    Local phone search heats up In Hyderabad


    I just saw a couple of blogs mention that Google has started Voice search in Hyderabad ( I am going to be there in July). The Economic Times has a story where Microsoft is introducing local Search using SMS.

    Hyderabad already had a similar service called JustDial.you cannot use the Google Hyderabad voice search on Vodafone because you have to dial a 1-800 number for Google voice search 1 800 41 99 99 99.

    I am going to check it out when I am there. I am thrilled that Google has decided to try this service first in Hyderabad.

    One of the first services that I liked here in the US was Tellme that microsoft has since bought.

    When I was in Hyderabad India last summer I got a pre paid card from Airtel . getting the intenrnet was easy -I would just send a SMS message "Internet On" and get a GPRS internet connection for my phone.

    Gary Vanyerchuk Book signing in Rockville MD on 26th June

    Washington Post Literary calendar has listed this book signing event with @GaryVee

    26th june 2008

    7:30 P.M. Gary Vaynerchuk, director of operations at the Wine Library and creator of the Internet site http://www.winelibrarytv.com, discusses and signs his new book, Gary Vaynerchuk's 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World, at Barnes & Noble-Rockville, 12089 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., 301-881-0237.


    I will be going to an event that Andrew Feinberg is organizing on 25th where Robert Scoble and Gary Vee will be making an appearence:)

    Saturday, June 21, 2008

    Jeremiah Owyang's Community Managers and Swamis list of Enterprise Companies

    Jeremiah Owyang has a list on his blog Web-Strategist of Social Media Strategists and Community managers of Enterprise companies (His definition is 1000 employees or more)

    The difference between Social Media Strategist and Community Manager according to the post is :

    The Social Media Strategist, whose job is to lead the internal charge, develops the program, gains resources, convinces management, and measures success.

    Key differentiator for this group? They are primarily internally focused program managers.


    And

    The Community Manager, who’s job is to primarily be a community advocate is a social media user, and is externally focused, they are primarily the face to the online community. As companies scale, I expect to see these types or roles appear often for each product group at larger companies, they often report directly to the strategist or at least have a dotted line.

    Key differentiator for this group? They are primarily an externally (customer/community) facing role.


    The people I know in the list:

    Bryan Rhoads, Sr. Digital Strategist at Intel Corporation

    Richard Binhammer
    , Senior Manager, Dell
    Scott Monty, Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford Corporation
    Lionel Menchaca, Community Manager, Dell
    Joseph Loong, Managing Editor, AIM Social Media Blog, AOL
    Marilyn Pratt, Community Evangelist, SAP Labs

    Meeting and knowing the rest of the list is only a few moments away.

    I also saw that Mario Sundar has list of Community Managers on Twitter

    Friday, June 20, 2008

    Listening and acting - Good news from ICANN next week

    In advance of next week’s ICANN conference, Network Solutions is putting pressure on the entire industry to place penalty fees on Domain Testing, in hopes of front running forever.  I posted this on Solutionsarepower.com today and am looking for the community support . I think this is good for everyone.

    Tuesday, June 17, 2008

    Hospitality to Social Media on the Adam Zand show today

    I enjoyed being on the Adam Zand's Really Big Shoe today Tuesday June 17th. We discussed a lot of things about my career, my background and how I got my present job as the Social Media Swami of Network Solutions.

    I was honored to be on. Thank you Adam Zand. I am looking forward to a curry dinner with you soon some where soon.

    Listen to Adam Zand's Really Big Shoe today with the Swami

    I am honored to be invited to the Adam Zand's Really Big Shoe today Tuesday June 17th at 2 p.m. I met Adam Zand at Blog Potomac last week and we had a great corridor conversation and exchanged experiences. Listen to the show today  if you have the time and would love to hear your questions. Check out Adam Zand's  Linkedin profile here http://www.linkedin.com/in/2008adamzand

    Personal Message from Adam :

    Hi Really Big Shoe fans, Blog Potomac http://www.blogpotomac.com in fabulous Falls Church, VA on June 13 was awesome. Great job Livingston Communications, presenters, attendees and bartenders. I really wanted to speak more with Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda of Network Solutions www.networksolutions.com. So today, we get to catch up on the conference, his blogs www.shashi.name and www.solutionsarepower.com, his career path and how social media determined his job title at Network Solutions. As always, check out http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/18410 for Shoe details. Listen to the Swami, Adam Zand (ThisDudeAbides) P.S. Now on some lame platform called iTunes.  http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=282771596
    Call ID: 18410

    Host: ThisDudeAbides - ThisDudeAbides.Zand@gmail.com
    Episode: EPISODE8 - Adam Zand's Really Big Shoe

    Scheduled Time:
    Date: Tue, June 17, 2008
    Time: 02:00 PM EDT
    How to participate:
    Call in:

    1. Dial: (724) 444-7444
    2. Enter: 18410 # (Call ID)
    3. Enter: 1 # or your PIN
    Join from your computer:
    1. Click here to join the call or just listen along
    2. (Optional) Become a TalkShoe member
    Facebook user? You can join this Call directly through the TalkShoe Community Calling Facebook application.

    Monday, June 16, 2008

    GSPEAST - Meeting Patrick Chanezon Open Social API Evangelist- Google

    On the 3rd day the first session at GSPEast was a technical overview of "OpenSocial + Google App Engine" by Patrick Chanezon , Paul McDonald  of Google. I met Patrick after the session and we had a nice chat.  Open Social and Google App Engine along with Friend Connect are some of the Social Media initiatives that Google has undertaken. I hope Patrick's job as a Evangelist will bring him to back to the DC area in September. If it does I am looking forward to organizing a local meetup.

    Here is the video of my interview with him.

    Here are the slides he presented at GSPEast posted on his blog : http://wordpress.chanezon.com/

     

    BlogPotomac - Wish I had met Angelina Jolie

    I know a lot of celebrities were there at BlogPotomac at the State Theater in Falls Church but I did not meet Angelina Jolie. We all love Flickr and I use it a lot . Well according to Flickr here are pictures of Blog Potomac http://flickr.com/search/?q=blogpotomac&m=tags&page=4 ( pay attention to page 2)

    Well I would advice you from reading the descriptions on these Angelina pictures.The pics do have the tag "blogpotomac" so someone considers this tag important. I had a good laugh at this.

    AP vs. ZDnet

    I read the TechCrunch post about their new policy on AP stories  http://tinyurl.com/464xu8 and then remembered how different the ZDNet blogs were.

    On the ZDNet blogs you actually have a button that says "Blog This" and they give you the code to add to your blog . example http://blogs.zdnet.com/Greenbaum/index.php?blogthis=1&p=170

    Granted most bloggers will choose the quote from a blog post themselves and will appropriately credit the original post but the fact that ZDNet makes it easier is a positive in my mind.

    Chris Brogan has a plugin on his blog that says "reblog" and it is from Zemanta. I have not tried it yet. Again this is a question of confidence that people will help spread the message by reblogging your content and that is why you write blogs .

    I think more bloggers who think their content is worth reblogging should have buttons that make it easy for other bloggers to spread the word. What do you think ?

    How to become a PITA Blogger?

    I interviewed Technosailor at BlogPotomac and he mentioned that a project is keeping him awake at night (By his own admission he slept at 3.30 a.m the previous day). The project is http://painintheassblogger.com/ :)

    Aaron is never short of ideas and this new project will be interesting to watch. :) I am not sure what the secret is to join this list .

    BREAKING NEWS:

    @dcconcierge reports "Congrats to @jjgardner3 on becoming @technosailor 's latest PITAB!!! http://painintheassblogger...."

    BlogPotomac - Give your feedback

    BlogPotomac on Friday the 13th was educational. I got to talk to a lot of the attendees and speakers and share my thoughts. The conference had the right mix of topics and networking time. OF course as you all know the networking continued even after the conference was over. My actual blog post about the conference is still in the "incubator". In the meantime wanted to make sure you saw this feedback link http://tinyurl.com/5c48ov that you should take some time to fill up if you attended the event.

    Thanks Geoff Livingston , Debbie Weil, Larissa , Qui and the rest of the wonderful people who worked for this event.

    See the pictures from the event here http://flickr.com/search/?q=blogpotomac&w=all

    Sunday, June 15, 2008

    Network with other Entrepreneurs and Rohit Bhargava - Author of Personality Not Included

    Monday, June 30, 2008
    6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
    Small Business Networking Event With Rohit Bhargava Author "Personality Not Included" Herndon VA
    Powerful Solutions for Small Businesses - A Networking Event for Entrepreneurs With Rohit Bhargava Author “Personality Not Included “ Hosted by Frank Gruber Monday June 30th Pres...
    Network Solutions Offices
    13861 Sunrise Valley Dr
    Herndon, VA 20171   USA

    Wednesday, June 11, 2008

    Listen to Chris Brogan on your phone thanks to Jott

    I follow Chris on Utterz so I already listen to him on my phone. Now there is another way I can listen to his Twsitter feed and for that matter to any of my 1971 friends. The way to do it is through Jott.

    Jott has added an additional feature called Jott Feeds. You can use that feature to have Twitter feed, Blog posts, your gmail (?)or listen to the preloaded feeds - "Lifehacker", "Mashable", "News" or "Weather".

    If you are Chris Brogan who would you listen to on Jott feeds ? Would love to get your recommendations on people who should be added to the Jott feeds.


    Details of the feature http://jott.com/jott/feeds.html

    Mark Gibbs has written a extensive post here http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2008/060408-gearhead.html

    LiveBlogging Tools

    At GSPEast there are several people who were live blogging and the two tools that I saw were.

    Scribblelive being used by Jimmy Gardner
    coveritlive used by Technosailor

    Do you know other applications that can be used for Live blogging?

    Tuesday, June 10, 2008

    GSPEAST08 - How to keep everyone awake

    Not that anyone was sleeping ! Between sessions there was always a funny video on the screen that helped bring a smile to the attendees. Dave McClure spent a lot of time selecting video clips that were played in between sessions. I was among the people who asked him to put the links to these videos up . Here is the link: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2008/06/graphing-social.html

    Comment here and let me know which video you liked the best. :)

    Today was a good day with a lot of content. And here are some takeways :

    - Widgets are the new ad media
    - social advertising - people are getting influenced by what their friends do or buy

    -new term I heard - replacement media

    - Linkedin seems to be where the businessmen are and opp for highly targeted non-intrusive advertising. 5M linked members in Europe. 50% of Linkedin users are US based.

    Paul Worsham- http://ChiefSocialofficer.com 
    "A common thread @ GSPEast08 so far is to have speed. Fast app development & fast app updates. Update your app / functionality every day"
    "mobile social presentation... overseas sites have figured out how to do this already. And make money."

    gbrandonthomas: decline in activity of apps across the board due to overall audience growth, demographic and psychographic shifts

    gbrandonthomas: 1% drive 85% of activity for FB, and 74% for MySpace

    Local peeps attending the conference - there is a  PMI Parking Garage (2600 Crystal Drive or 2611 Clark Street, Arlington, VA. 22202) next to the hotel at a rate of $6 vs. $23 at the Hyatt and its right next door.

    GSPEAST 2008 - My Flickr feed

    l pictures tagged : gspeast08 http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=gspeast08&w=all

    Shashi Bellamkonda feed: http://tinyurl.com/4v87cm

    GSPEAST08 - Frank Gruber moderates panel on White Label Social Networks

    From Zero to Community in 60 Seconds: White-Label Social Networks Frank Gruber (Somewhat Frank / TECH cocktail / AOL), Alex Blum (KickApps), Michael Jones (Userplane / AOL), Kerry Pearce-Parkins (Mixx.com), Sean Roach (Got Access)

    TakeAways:
    - subscription model works
    - give compelling reasons for people to come back to your site
    - get your passionate customers to manage your community
    - Go where the users are ( example - one of the panelists found more users from Germany and went there to see what they could develop for their users)
    This video is courtesy Jimmy Gardner http://eastcoastblogging.com/2008/06/10/gsp-white-label-social-networks/


    My Live QIK video sound is not so good since I was away from the stage

    GSPEAST08 - Adam Nash of LinkedIn

    GSPEAST08 - Dave McClure

    Dave McClure GSPEAST08

    5 things that fail on social networks
    too many friends
    too many apps
    virality is dead - go back to working in coal mines
    ain't no money - bargain rates for women drivers
    your privacy isn't
    Top 5 Wins
    Multiple social platforms
    News feeds
    App vertising
    Data portability
    Social Commerce

    The conference 2nd Day stated with a very humorous video and then Dave gave his view on Social Networks.

    Jimmy Gardner is live blogging at eastcoastblogging.com and Aaron Brazell at technosailor.comGSP East 2008

    Monday, June 09, 2008

    Using a .name for your blog like www.shashi.name

    Ages ago I had a Blog post Can .Name be the default for Blogs and Social Media? .I was inspired to do this post when I checked out Jill Foster 's new name for her blog http://jillfoster.name/.

    Call it coincidence I noticed Hiten Shah's (@hnshah)blog is http://hitenshah.name/ and he is at Graphing Social East.

    " where Hiten says whatever he feels like...usually something about Life, Crazy Egg, Serph or ACS. "

    I know people want a .com first but if you do not have that opportunity then would you go for a .name domain ? Already have a .name domain leave a comment here and I will add you to this list.

    http://www.shashi.name
    http://www.jillfoster.name
    http://hitenshah.name

    http://www.mayank.name

    Sunday, June 08, 2008

    Kalidas to Kamalesh - Bringing epics back to earth with Google Earth

    kamalesh dwivedi

    I spent the weekend reading Kamalesh Dwivedi's book - a translation of "Kalidas' Meghadutam"  The book title translates to "Megha" means cloud and "Dutam" means messenger. The book consists of poems from a husband asking the clouds to carry back a message to his wife who he misses.
    Kalidas' Meghdutam - Kamalesh Dwivedi

    In the introduction to the book Kamalesh Dwivedi  writes about how his moving to Colorado and leaving his family behind in Minnesota inspired him. I think if more modern techniques of communication had not existed he may have sought the help of the clouds to convey his message to his wife. Now being a CIO with successful stints at tech companies Kamalesh Dwivedi adds a technology twist to the translation. The book contains images from Google Earth to show the places mentioned by Kalidas about 1500 years ago and it must have been a tough job to research and find these places as names must have changed.

    Google Earth shows places mentioned 1500 years ago in Kalidas' Meghdutam - Kamalesh Dwivedi

    Kamalesh is a linguist and his mastery over Sanskrit gave him an edge in translating Kalidasa's Meghdutam into a modern day version. He told me he learnt my mother tongue - Telugu also as a hobby.

    Sanskrit & English translation in Kalidas' Meghdutam - Kamalesh Dwivedi

     

    About Kalidas:

    According to a researcher at Colorado State university
    "KALIDASA, (kaalidaasa), India's greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist. In spite of the celebrity of his name, the time when he flourished always has been an unsettled question, although most scholars nowadays favor the middle of the 4th and early 5th centuries A.D., during the reigns of Chandragupta II Vikramaaditya and his successor Kumaaragupta. Undetermined also is the place of Kaalidaasa's principal literary activity, as the frequent and minute geographic allusions in his works suggest that he traveled extensively

    Wikipedia says 'Kalidasa (3rd-4th cent AD) is easily the greatest poet and playwright in Sanskrit, and occupies the same position in Sanskrit literature that Shakespeare occupies in English literature"

    I met Kamalesh Dwivedi after he became the SVP and CIO of Network Solutions. See my previous post. Rising from humble beginnings he got inspiration from his father Pandit Ramchandra Dwivedi who was a Sanskrit teacher and a Purohit at the village Kesath, which is approximately 20 miles southeast of Buxar in Bihar. Kamalesh completed his Engineering degree from IIT and and a master's degree in engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

    He has established a chair at his alma mater , IIT kanpur in honor of his father Pandit Ramchandra Dwivedi who taught Sanskrit in the village middle school for thirty years starting in 1940's. During the Quit India Movement of 1942, launched by Mahatma Gandhi, he was kept in captivity by the British in the central jail at Buxar. He got out of the jail by teaching Sanskrit to the daughter of the British jailor ( Source :http://www.iitk.ac.in/drpg/facultychair.htm ).

    I heard about this epic during the bedtime stories my mother used to tell me about during my childhood in India. The book is a great gift and is self-published. The book contains Sanskrit and the English interpretation side by side to make it easy to read.

    Reading this book added to the great respect I have to the Scholar and technologist - Kamalesh Dwivedi.

    Saturday, June 07, 2008

    One must not marry a blogger.- !8 Reasons Why

    This is courtesy of my wife who saw this article here and decided to share what she was reading :)http://sunshinenjoy.blogspot.com/2008/06/18-reasons-why.html.

    Interesting article but this blogger is not alone in this kind of sentiment. Try doing a Google Search

    The Cost of Acquiring a Customer - A Thomas Tank Engine

    Companies have to think of new ways to engage the customer interest in their products in the light of customers being bombarded by ads and marketing all day. According to a PRSA class I went to recently an average American sees 5000 marketing messages a day . This NY Times has a article that confirms it http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html .


    Thomas the Tank Engine

    A few weeks ago I saw a thread on SlickDeals.net about a Thomas The Tank Engine for $2.99 with free shipping. I jumped at the offer and ordered one. It was a no brainer - My son loves Thomas and these things retail for $10.

    Thomas the Tank Engine

    Yesterday I received the Thomas Tank engine and my son is thrilled with it and is sleeping with it beside him. This morning he brought the catalog that the company had sent with the engine and we both spent at least 90 minutes reading about the various Thomas products from Learning Curve.

    I think this is good marketing, You got me hooked and gave me a product that I know about for free and in turn the company got 90 minutes of my time. I enjoyed the catalog and the time spent with reading it out to my son. I didn't check how Learning Curve rates in customer satisfaction so please do that before you order. The smart guy at Learning Curve who thought of this campaign deserves a promotion. Guess where I am going to my next toy for my kid. Cost of Acq. of a customer $7.

    Social Media Club : Geoff Livingston & Brian Solis : Now is Gone Book


    Geoff Livingston & Brian Solis : Now is Gone Book Signing
    Originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda












    This week has been a week of meeting, greeting and eating with authors. The Social Media Club DC organized a meet up at the Barnes and Noble , Clarendon. After the book signing we went to the Tandoori Nights next door. I enjoyed the conversation with Brian Solis, Ryan Moede, Jill Foster, Sean Stickle, Qui Diaz, Frank Gruber, Aaron Brazell,Geoff Livingston, Paul Hyland, Jen Consalvo and Jared Goralnick

    I took a video of the talk here.




    Pictures from the event:
    http://flickr.com/photos/drbeachvacation/sets/72157605488121175/


    Jimmy Gardner has a recap and video on EastCoastBlogging.com

    Monday, June 02, 2008

    Meeting Jay Berkowitz in DC

    Jay Berkowitz Tengoldenrules.com Internet marketing Guru

    I met Jay Berkowitz when he came to DC recently for the SIPA conference. Jay is the CEO of Ten Golden Rules and an expert in Internet Marketing.  We had been following each other on Twitter and Facebook and this is the first time I met him in person. He is very down to earth personable guy and we had a great conversation along with other attendees of the SIPA conference. Jay is eagerly looking forward to his new book "Ten Golden Rules". I interviewed him about his advice for small business  and you can read the post at SolutionsArepower.com

    IMG_2562

    His podcasts are very informative and you should subscribe to his podcasts here http://podcast.tengoldenrules.com/

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