Outward Bound Learning

M R Sreesha of Pegasus Institute for Excellence says....



Pegasus Institute for Excellence is one of the premier institutes in India offering comprehensive Outward-bound Management Learning and Organizational Development services. Our Learning Center nestles in a picturesque valley and is located around 60 km north of Bangalore (beyond Doddaballapur). Our expertise in consulting & training combined with the beautiful location managed by skilled staff makes for a totally refreshing learning experience.

Pegasus started its operations in 1997 to offer Outward Bound Learning (OBL) courses to leading organizational teams in India and the Asia Pacific region. The innovative programs, skilled faculty, robust infrastructure and facilities have since then catapulted Pegasus into becoming one of India’s leading outbound organizations in the field of leadership & team development. In the last nine years we are richer with the experience of having worked with over 47,000+ participants from over 280 companies. Some of our elite clientele includes top names such as ABB, Accenture, Bharti Group, Cisco Systems, Dell, Dr Reddy Labs, GE, IBM, ICICI, Infosys, Intel, ITC Group, HLL, L&T, Microsoft, Motorola, Muragappa Group, Oracle, Robert Bosch, Samsung, SAP, Standard Chartered Bank, Toyota, Tata Teleservices, Texas Instruments, The World Bank, Volvo, Wipro, Yahoo etc.

The success of Bangalore centre propelled us to establish a pan India presence and today we have our own full fledged delivery centers in Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Pondicherry & Dehradun ( 2007 )

We bring in the collective experience of our team in the area of human behaviors, group dynamics, psychometrics, management, outdoors and hospitality. Our 80 person years of experience as organizational development consultants and program facilitators have made us leaders in the leadership development & teambuilding industry. Our core training and consultation services involve helping our clients in:

* Transition from campus to corporate
* Building teams faster and better
* Improving alignment with organizational mission, vision, and values
* Developing highly effective leaders
* Reducing process inefficiencies
* Inspiring participants to achieve the seemingly impossible



Approach and Methodology

The uniqueness of the courses we offer lies in our approach and methodology. OBL is based on the principles of David Kolb’s “Adult Learning Cycle”. Participants are put through activities simulating back home business situations that help them discover their “self” and group. Through these activities the participants also learn the gaps if any, that exist between “knowing the way” and “going the way”. OBL programs are conducted in a completely risk free, non-threatening environment, where the consequence of all action is only Learning. This innovative learning technique is based on the popular axiom “Experience is the best teacher”.

Pegasus Outbound Learning (OBL) programs helps to increase teams effectiveness in the real world work environment. In addition, our client engagement model ensures that every program that we conduct is customized to meet your objectives & expectations effectively and consistently.



All programs commence by subjecting participants to an activity that simulates a back home business scenario or situation. This activity is followed by a reflection process, which focuses on the happenings during the activity. Our faculty members facilitate these reflection sessions to help participants identify traits that are enablers or disablers. Applying the same in another activity then validates this learning and throws up fresh learning.

Activity Reflection Learning Application Activity (New)

The process continues in a spiral throughout the program.



The Pegasus Team


The faculty at Pegasus is a multi skilled team comprising of behavioral experts, psychologists and outdoor experts and is a vital element in the Outward Bound experience. The team has over 80 person years of organizational development consultantancy and program facilitation. Their collective knowledge in practical outdoors, client business processes and human behavior, enables them to design & deliver programs effectively and consistently.

In addition to technical expertise in their respective fields, the team is a highly motivated group of people equipped with a blend of empathy, insight, sensitivity and patience, characteristics that are of utmost importance while anchoring programs containing real physical and psychological challenges. In fulfilling the role of program anchor, trainer, facilitator or consultant, these experts initiate and engineer diverse situations and experiences, and provide individual and group counseling and feedback as appropriate.

The teams also comprises of dedicated support staff, well trained in all aspects of hospitality and are equipped in providing outdoor support for all types of OBL programs.



Key Differentiators


Pegasus success does not just lie in its unique approach to learning and delivery excellence, other distinctive aspects of the organization are:

* Is the only structured OBL institute in the country with pan India presence
* Has successfully used OBL to address a variety of organizational needs such as Strategic Thinking, Visioning, Leadership, Team Building, Service Quality Improvement, Customer Orientation, Effective Communication, Mentoring, Conflict Management and many others
* Time tested program engagement & delivery model simulates real time business scenarios and processes in the outbound environment facilitating quicker connects by the participants with back home issues & challenges.
* Having successfully addressed needs of diverse industry segments such as IT, ITES, Telecom, FMCG, Pharma, Manufacturing, BFSI, etc… Pegasus has productized its offerings to meet unique & specific needs of industry verticals.
* Having successfully addressed Leadership competency development at different levels, across industry verticals using OBL methodology, Over the years we have a established a credible mindshare in the industry in this space. So when IIMB runs MDP programs today, Pegasus is their natural partner.




They do have an impressive client list to back their claim:
1. 24/7 CUSTOMER
2. ABB LIMITED.
3. ABS INDIA PVT. LTD
4. ACCENTURE
5. ASCENDAS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
6. ADAPTEC INDIA PVT. LTD.
7. ALCON LABORATORIES (INDIA) PVT. LTD
8. ALP MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.
9. AMAZON DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
10. AMERICAN POWER CONVERSION PVT. LTD.
11. AMERICA ONLINE MEMBER SERVICES INDIA PVT. LTD.
12. AMP SANMAR ASSURANCE COMPANY LTD.
13. AMSURE INSURANCE
14. ANZ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
15. APCOM COMPUTERS LTD. (CHENNAI)
16. ARVIND BRANDS LIMITED
17. ASHA KIRAN SCHOOL
18. ASTRA ZENECA PHARMA INDIA LTD.
19. AUDCO INDIA LTD. (CHENNAI)
20. AUMA INDIA PVT. LTD.
21. AXA BUSINESS SERVICE CENTRE
22. AZUL SYSTEMS
23. BALMER LAWRIE & CO LTD.
24. BCCI (INDIAN CRICKET TEAM)
25. BEA SYSTEMS INDIA
26. BFL SOFTWARE LTD.
27. BHARTHI TELESONIC LTD (DELHI)
28. BHARTI INFOTEL LIMITED.
29. BHARTI MOBILE LTD (AIR TEL)
30. BHARAT PETROLEUM CORPORATION LTD.
31. BHARTIYA VIDYA BHAVAN (M P BIRLA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT)
32. BHORUKA POWER CORPORATION. LTD.
33. BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
34. BIRLA 3M LTD.
35. BPL TELECOM LIMITED.
36. BRIGGS OF BURTON PVT. LTD.
37. BUSINESS OBJECTS SOFTWARE INDIA PVT. LTD.
38. CABLE & WIRELESS
39. CAE VISUAL SOFTWARE PVT. LTD.
40. CANARA BANK
41. CAPGEMINI CONSULTING
42. CAPTRONIC SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.
43. CARBORUNDUM UNIVERSAL (CHENNAI & COIMBATORE)
44. CELSTREAM TECHNOLOGIES.
45. CGI INFORMATION SYSTEMS & MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.
46. CHEMPLAST SANMAR LTD.
47. CIENA INDIA PVT. LTD
48. CISCO SYSTEMS LTD.
49. COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INDIA PVT. LTD
50. COMMIT TECHNOLOGY.
51. COMPAQ INDIA LIMITED.
52. CONVERGYS INDIA SERVICES PVT. LTD.
53. CORE OBJECTS.
54. COLEHAAN INDIA LIASION.
55. COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT
56. CSR INDIA PVT. LTD.
57. CUSTOMER OPERATIONAL SERVICES BUSINESS
58. CYBERCASH (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
59. DATA CRAFT INDIA LIMITED
60. DELL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES
61. DELPHI AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS PVT. LTD
62. DEUTCHE BANK
63. DHARMA COMPUTERS PVT. LTD.
64. DIGITAL EQUIPMENT LTD.
65. DR. REDDY’S LABORATORIES LTD.
66. DSL SOFTWARE LIMITED.
67. EDS TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.
68. EDUQUITY CAREER TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.
69. F F E MINERALS
70. ESSILOR SRF OPTICS PVT LTD
71. EUREKA FORBES LIMITED.
72. EPSON INDIA PVT. LTD.
73. FIDELITY BUSINESS SERVICES INDIA PVT. LTD.
74. FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL
75. FISHER SANMAR LIMITED.
76. FLEXTRONICS TECHNOLOGIES (I) PVT. LTD.
77. F L SMIDTH LIMITED.
78. FORBES GOKAK LTD (GOKAK FALLS).
79. FREESCALE SOFTWARE INDIA PVT. LTD.
80. FUTURE TECHNO DESIGN PVT LTD. (TOSHIBA)
81. G E CAPITAL HYDERABAD
82. G E INDIA
83. G E HEALTH CARE TECHNOLOGIES.
84. GENERAL MOTORS INDIA PVT. LTD.
85. GENISYS INTEGRATING SYSTEMS INDIA LTD.
86. GENPACT SOFTWARE
87. GLOBAL EDGE SOFTWARE LTD.
88. GODREJ AGROVET LTD.
89. GOOGLE
90. GUHRING INDIA PVT. LTD.
91. HAL STAFF COLLEGE.
92. HARITA INFOSERVE LIMITED.
93. HCL PEROT SYSTEMS.
94. HCL TECHNOLOGIES LTD. CHENNAI.
95. HENKEL LOCTITE INDIA PVT. LTD.
96. HERBALIFE INTERNATIONAL INDIA PVT. LTD
97. HEWITT OUTSOURCING SERVICES INDIA LTD.
98. HINDUJA TMT LTD.
99. HINDUSTAN COCA – COLA BEVERAGES PVT. LTD.
100. HINDUSTAN LEVER LTD.
101. HLFPPT – SWAGATI PROJECT
102. HONEYWELL SOFTWARE OPERATIONS LTD.
103. HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD.
104. HUGHES SOFTWARE SYSTEMS LTD.
105. HUTCHISON ESSAR SOUTH LIMITED
106. ICICI ONE SOURCE
107. ICICI PRUDENTIAL LIFE INSURANCE CO. LTD.
108. ICODE SOFTWARE PVT. LTD.
109. IFLEX SOLUTIONS
110. IHS PARTS MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LTD
111. INATECH INFOSOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.
112. INDUS TRUST.
113. INDUS LEAGUE CLOTHING LIMITED.
114. INFOCOM SOLUTIONS LTD. (SOCRATES).
115. INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
116. INFOTECH ENTERPRISES LIMITED.
117. INFOTRONICS PVT. LTD.
118. INGERSOLL-RAND (INDIA) LIMITED.
119. INSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.
120. INTEL TECHNOLOGY INDIA PVT. LTD.
121. INTUIT TECHNOLOGY SERVICES PVT. LTD.
122. IONIC MICRO SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.
123. ITC LIMITED (HYDERABAD)
124. JET KING INFOTRAIN LTD.
125. JINDAL ALUMINIUM LIMITED
126. J K ORGANISATION
127. JOHN F WELCH TECHNOLOGY CENTRE (GEI)
128. JOHNSON & JOHNSON LTD. (MUMBAI).
129. JUNIPER NETWORKS
130. JWT
131. KANBAY SOFTWARE INDIA PVT. LTD.
132. KENNAMETAL WIDIA INDIA LIMITED.
133. KESTONE RESEARCH PVT. LTD.
134. KIRLOSKAR SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.
135. KIRLOSKAR TOYODA TEXTILE MACHINERY PVT LTD
136. KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK LTD.
137. KSHEMA TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
138. L G SOFT INDIA
139. LM GLASS FIBER (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
140. LOGICA SYNECTICS PVT. LTD.
141. L&T JOHN DEERE PRIVATE LIMITED.
142. L & T LIMITED
143. LUK INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED.
144. MADRAS ALLUMINIUM CO. LTD.
145. MADURA GARMENTS.
146. MAHINDRA HOLIDAYS AND RESORTS INDIA LTD.,
147. MAX HEALTH SCRIBE
148. MCAFEE SOFTWARE (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
149. MERU NETWORKS
150. METLIFE INDIA INSURANCE CO. PVT. LTD.
151. MERITOR LVS INDIA PVT LTD
152. MICROSOFT INDIA DEVELOPMENT CENTRE. (HYDERABAD).
153. MOOG MOTION CONTROL S PVT. LTD.
154. MOTOR INDUSTRIES CO. LTD.
155. MICROLAND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CENTER
156. MILLIPORE (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
157. MIND SPEED INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.
158. MINDTREE CONSULTING PVT. LTD.
159. MISYS HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS.
160. MODERATION GROUP OF INDIA.
161. MOTOROLA INDIA LIMITED (BANGALORE & HYDERABAD)
162. M. S. RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT.
163. MURUGAPPA GROUP.
164. MISYS INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.
165. NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR
166. NATURAL TEXTILES PVT. LTD.
167. NESS TECHNOLOGY
168. NEULAND LABORATORIES LIMITED.
169. NOKIA INDIA PVT. LTD.
170. NOVELL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT (I) LTD.
171. NOVELLUS SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD.
172. NOVO NORDISK PHARMA LTD.
173. NT5 SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
174. ORACLE INDIA PVT. LTD.
175. OWENS CORNING.
176. P.S.I.DATA SYSTEM.
177. PEOPLE ONE CONSULTING.
178. PHASE 1 WORLD
179. PHILIPS SOFTWARE CENTRE PVT. LTD.
180. PIVOTAL BANGALORE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PVT. LTD.
181. PK4 SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.
182. POLARIS SOFTWARE LAB LIMITED. CHENNAI.
183. PONDI AURO SERVICE CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.
184. PORTAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDIA PVT. LTD.
185. PRICE WATER HOUSE COOPERS PVT. LTD.
186. QUALIHYDRON
187. QUALITY ENGINEERING & SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.
188. QUICK LOGIC SOFTWARE (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
189. RAMBUS CHIP TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD.
190. RAMCO SYSTEMS
191. RCI INDIA PVT. LTD.
192. RMZ CORPORATION
193. ROBERT BOSCH INDIA LTD.
194. SAINT – GOBIN GLASS INDIA LTD.
195. SAMSUNG INDIA SOFTWARE OPERATIONS. (SISO)
196. SANDISK INDIA
197. SAP INDIA PVT LTD (MUMBAI).
198. SAP LABS INDIA PVT. LTD.
199. SASKEN COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
200. SATYAM INFOWAY LTD.
201. SATYAM VENTURE ENGINEERING SERVICES
202. SAPIENT
203. SELLA SYNERGY CHENNAI
204. SHANTI BHAVAN SCHOOL (GEORGE FOUNDATION)
205. SHELL INDIA MARKETING PRIVATE LIMITED.
206. SIEMENS PUBLIC COMMUNICATION NETWORK LTD.
207. SIERRA ATLANTIC SOFTWARE SERVICES LTD.
208. SINGULARITY SOFTWARE (INDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED
209. SNECMA AEROSPACE
210. SONATA SOFTWARE LIMITED.
211. SPECTRUM PLACEMENT & MARKETING SERVICES PVT. LTD.
212. SPHERIS INDIA
213. SPICE TELECOM
214. STANDARD CHARTERED BANK.
215. STAR INDIA
216. STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED.
217. ST.JOSEPH COLLEGE
218. SUBEX SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.
219. SUNDARAM FASTENERS LTD. (CHENNAI)
220. SUN MICRO SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD.
221. SYKES ENTERPRISES INDIA PVT LTD.
222. SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD.
223. SYNOPSYS INDIA PVT. LTD.
224. T. JOHN COLLEGE
225. TAEGUTEC INDIA LTD.
226. TAJ HOTELS
227. TALISMA CORPORATION PVT. LTD.
228. TARANG TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.
229. TATA CELLULAR LIMITED (HYDERABAD).
230. TATA ELXSI LIMITED
231. TATA IBM LTD.

232. TATA LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. (BANGALORE & HYDERABAD)

233. TATA TELE SERVICES LTD. (BANGALORE, HYDERABAD & KERALA)
234. TAVANT TECHNOLOGIES LTD.
235. TCI FOUNDATION
236. TEAM PRODUCTIVITY CONSULTANTS LTD.
237. TECHNOLOGY MEDIA GROUP PVT. LTD.
238. TELELOGIC INDIA PVT. LTD.
239. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS.
240. TEXTRON
241. THE ACTIVITY
242. THE WORLD BANK
243. THE VYSYA BANK LTD.
244. THINK 3 DESIGNS INDIA PVT. LTD.
245. THOMSON (PRIMARK INDIA PVT LTD.)
246. THREE HEAD DESIGNS
247. TITAN INDUSTRIES LTD.
248. TORRY HARRIS BUSINESS SOLUTIONS (P) LTD.
249. TOYOTA KIRLOSKAR AUTO PARTS PVT. LTD.
250. TOYOTA KIRLSOKAR MOTORS PVT. LTD.
251. TRANSWORLD SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.
252. TSI VENTURES (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
253. TYCO ELECTRONICS SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD.
254. T V S ELECTRONICS LIMITED. CHENNAI
255. UTI VENTURE FUNDS MANAGEMENT CO. LTD.
256. USI NETWORKING SYSTEMS
257. UXL TECHNOLOGIES
258. VALTECH INDIA
259. VISTEON AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD.
260. VOLVO INDIA PVT. LTD.
261. VIDESH SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED.
262. WATERS (INDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED.
263. WAY 2 WEALTH SECURITIES PVT. LTD.
264. WEB METHODS DEVELOPMENT CENTER (I) PVT. LTD.
265. WEIR MINERALS (INDIA) PVT. LTD.
266. WELCOME GROUP GRADUATE SCHOOL OF HOTEL ADMINISTRATION MANIPAL
267. WENDT INDIA LIMITED.
268. WILCO INTERNATIONAL LTD. (HYDERABAD)
269. WIPRO CONSUMER CARE & LIGHTING.
270. WIPRO ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS.
271. WIPRO EPERIPHERALS LTD.
272. WIPRO INFOTECH.
273. WIPRO FLUID POWER.
274. YAHOO SOFTWARE INDIA PVT. LTD.

Nokia Forum wants startup action

Dear BarCamp Participant,

The huge Indian market potential for mobile applications brings in opportunity to tap into this wonderful new world limited only by your imagination. With over 100 million devices shipped and out there in the market, your mobile application could be used by millions of people in India and globally.



Fuelled by consumer desire for cooler devices, added convenience and greater bandwidth, mobile operators all over the world are looking to find new and innovative applications that will pique the interest of mobile users and generate recurring revenue.



If you’re are a developer/university student and looking at how to get into mobile application development and trying to identify the market channels that could generate revenues then here we’re to support you all through that process.



Forum Nokia has recently sponsored the BarCamp events in Mumbai and Bangalore and is pleased with the interest in the developer community. To give a helping hand to the potential startups and also who are already in the business, we invite you to join Forum Nokia to further boost your opportunities.



Register now to take initial advantage and participate in the Discussions boards, Wiki, Blogs and experience the extensive technical support and development tool kits and go to market channels.



http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/registration/registration.html or http://www.forumnokia-india.com/



If you’re looking at sharing your images/video or thinking of submitting an application for others to use and feel, please visit http://www.mosh.nokia.com/









You can be part of the next growth in India coming in the form of mobile applications and services.



Please write to me @ prakash.sayini@nokia.com to discuss on how Forum Nokia can help you.



Best Regards

Prakash Sayini

Forum Nokia India, Bangalore

What was he thinking?

What was he thinking?
Originally uploaded by Pandiyan

They said it is greener on the other side?
Yea it is surely greener but it is bitter neem!

Damanhur, Dhyanalinga and

Hall of the Earth
Originally uploaded by Clan McClarty

It took me a while of reading and rereading to realize that this is a photo and not a painting.
Check out the Damanhur Temple history for its Idea, how it got executed Falco the founder of the temple was driven by intuition and vision to build the temple.

If you are interested in such, Dhyanalinga Multi Religious temple, by Isha Yoga Center will be of interest. Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev was intuitively guided by his guru in establishing the Dhanalinga.

It is very interesting to note how the two contemporary visionaries went about gathering support for their project.

311: To be a giant

311: To be a giant
Originally uploaded by Turtblu

Cannot resist blogging this at the pic was good and there is 311 mentioned as in 311pm.com

311: To be a giant

This is Bobb, one of the 42 newly hatched children of Bob and Lusy (sic), two of the land snails that my students are raising in their miniature ecosystems. In this particular ecosystem, all 42 are named Bobb, except one, who is Fred. Go figure.

Oh, and that is my pinky finger, so...Bobb is really really small.

Uploaded by Turtblu on 8 Nov 07, 8.05AM IST.

Tokyo Linux Users Group meeting featuring S3

Tokyo Linux Users Group meeting featuring S3
Originally uploaded by labsji

Tokyo Linux Users Group meeting featuring S3

Restless Avatars.
Lars Kotthoff giving a presentation on a Ruby script he has developed for backup using Amazon S3 . The presentation in English was presented with the voice feature of SL.

The Second Life portion of the meeting took place in the Conference Center on the Amazon Developers 1 Island at 9 PM Second Life Time (that's the same as Pacific Standard Time) onwards on Friday, November 9th.

The RL portion at Tokyo on November 10th at 14:00 JST at the following location:

Cerego Japan Offices
Ninomiya Bldg, 4F
18-4 Sakuragaoka-cho
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Avatars attended from across the globe from Japan, Seattle, Vancouver, Colorado, Chennai etc.

Edmund Earp(Lars Kotthoff) presenting S3 based backup at Amazon Dev Island, SecondLife

Edmund Earp(Lars Kotthoff) presenting S3 based backup at Amazon Dev Island, SecondLife
Originally uploaded by labsji

Edmund Earp(Lars Kotthoff) presenting S3 based backup at Amazon Dev Island, SecondLife

Lars Kotthoff giving a presentation on a Ruby script he has developed for backup using Amazon S3 . The presentation in English was presented with the voice feature of SL.

The Second Life portion of the meeting took place in the Conference Center on the Amazon Developers 1 Island at 9 PM Second Life Time (that's the same as Pacific Standard Time) onwards on Friday, November 9th.

The RL portion at Tokyo on November 10th at 14:00 JST at the following location:

Cerego Japan Offices
Ninomiya Bldg, 4F
18-4 Sakuragaoka-cho
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Avatars attended from across the globe from Japan, Seattle, Vancouver, Colorado, Chennai etc.Edmund Earp(Lars Kotthoff) presenting S3 based backup at Amazon Dev Island, SecondLife

Lars Kotthoff giving a presentation on a Ruby script he has developed for backup using Amazon S3 . The presentation in English was presented with the voice feature of SL.

The Second Life portion of the meeting took place in the Conference Center on the Amazon Developers 1 Island at 9 PM Second Life Time (that's the same as Pacific Standard Time) onwards on Friday, November 9th.

The RL portion at Tokyo on November 10th at 14:00 JST at the following location:

Cerego Japan Offices
Ninomiya Bldg, 4F
18-4 Sakuragaoka-cho
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Avatars attended from across the globe from Japan, Seattle, Vancouver, Colorado, Chennai etc.

Chennai Photo Snapshot 03 Nov, 3:11pm

Idea: Take a photo samples of a city at a specified time(3 Nov 3:11pm), consolidate in one pool, make snapshot of city life forever.
Execution: Ask a anyone and everyone to take a photo and submit it to a photo pool in flickr. Pre and post moment support garnering through every communication channel including blogs, news item, sms, etc. Coordinated by website 311pm.com.
Profit: Snapshot for posterity. Community bonding.

Update: Now, remote participation via SecondLife is possible.
From Remote participation via SecondLife:

Not in Chennai on Nov 3, 03:11pm?

Not to worry, SecondLife and Avatar Voodo to the rescue. Labsji has setup this amazing facility to help you participate in 03:11 PM campaign virtually via SecondLife. Visit SecondLife Sim Treepu. While there, launch a virtual balloon with your request for a photo shoot at a particular location, as if you are taking it! Some kind natured 03:11 PM enthusiast might take your request seriously and shoot a snap exactly as you requested. Your requests are actually queued as Human Intelligence Task request in Amazon Mturk.

Want to help someone wanting to participate from afar?

Log on to http://mturk.com and search of HITs titled AVooDo. Fulfill the HIT as requested and make someone’s day! As a token of appreciation your good natured gesture, there will be small inconsequential (yet fun!) rewards that you will be able to claim against your successful HIT completion.

Help spill the fun from Virtual to Real and vice versa.

More details can be found here: http://treepu.in/wp/chennai-311pm-photo-freeze-event-now-from-anywhere-via-secondlife/79

Extending SecondLife Avatar Action to Real Life with Mturk

Idea: Avatar Voodo: Extending Avatar Action from SecondLife to Real Life
Execution: Avatar Voodo, Avoodo for short, is a mashup of SecondLife with Amazon Mturk. Avoodo is a way to extend/spill Avatar action to real world. The way it is done is, Avatar action is set to trigger posting of Human Intelligence Task(HIT) in Mturk market through Linden Scripting Language(LSL) scripts. The Linden dollar based micropayment mechanism is bridged to the Mturk based micropayment to make the HIT enticing enough for Mturk worker to complete. The HIT can be geographically targeted so that the SecondLife as geography barrier basher can be further enhanced.
Profit: One of the biggest complaint about SecondLife as a marketing medium is that it is just toyland and activities there and transactions there cannot be linked to real world and revenue generating commerce. With Avoodo, it is possible to engage the user in mixed reality play which can be a very effective marketing tool. For the seocndlife developers, they don't need to huge budget to create a mixed media experience like the CBS CSI:Virtual that involves huge hype and fanfare to work. As an illustrative case of the profit,

Teepu is an use case that uses Avoodo to give opportunity Avatars to participate in mass tree planting movement despite geographic barriers. In short, Avoodo, Treepu makes (digital/real) tree a social object for participation and conversation!.

New Cartoon: Getting Drowned in Search Engine Alphabet Soup!

Hat Tip to Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid.com for inspiring me and making me try cartooning.

Dawnkey's MyFridj: Cartoons as Social Objects

Idea: Cartoons as longtail tradable social objects. Dawn Douglas through MyFridj is adding a new twist to User Generated Content. She is creating scarcity mechanism for the content( cartoons and animations) through the virtual goods route. An interesting aspect of the idea is that the virtual goods are user tradable.
Execution: Just like people are ok with the idea of buying songs, people will get used to buying cartoons and animations to enhance their online presence. Slowly saying it with a cartoon will be easy and fun way to express yourself - Just as saying it with flowers or saying it with your dress. Slowly when the supply and demand equations work out, this long tail syndication mechanism will gain momentum as investment opportunity. Yet the success of MyFridj depends largely on the scale of execution, choice of platforms that will make the micro-payment frictionless and more importantly how mashable and developer friendly it emerges.
Profit:

Wisdom of Crowd Weather Prediction

Idea:Weather as a source of profit! Much of economic activity in some form or another is a response to Weather and its cycle. With economy becoming more and more knowledge centric, weather information and weather related prediction( knowledge) becomes source of profit. Hackshaven Harford of NOAA build in Secondlife has an interesting idea for the complex compute intensive weather prediction biz. He is proposing to simply ask the crowd. Let the wisdom of the crowd work for the prediction!
Execution:Amazon Mturk with automated script that rewards bonuses based on accuracy of prediction post fact. The script could be coupled weather derivative market through a mashup with WeatherBill like service.
Profit: Predicting weather( or the lack of it) is a big biz. Weather is something where everyone participates already. Market linking it and wisdom of crowd linking it will widen the market and thereby widen the opportunities.

This could be a good way to widen the base of Mturk Workers on a world wide basis. This will engage the workers on a daily basis. The variable reward makes it very sticky.

Shel's SAP Global Survey: Push vs Pull

As for a survey by big corporations goes, typically, suites decide what market intelligence they need. Then they charter an internal or external market research team to do the market research/survey. They churn out data, charts, and reports and the Suites further decide on their course of action.
Shel Isreal spearheading the SAP Global Survey is approaching the Social Media survey in a When In Rome approach. It is a clear demonstration of shift from Push to Pull.


This video/machinima was part of Survey Answer by K G Prasad, Universal Print System, Chennai. He is going ga ga about Mashups and Wikis:

There is a lot SAP can help to make doing business through Social Media sustainable. There is a lot of drudgery in engaging with multiple social media. For instance, uploading photos and tagging each one of them takes a lot of time. SAP with its tight involvement with the internal and external ‘business process plumbing’ can make Living the Business Aloud easy and drudgery free. For example, workflow could auto generate a draft of a blog post summarizing the work done for a customer, with pictures and link to relevant customer public profiles, relevant tags, etc. This draft could be further embellished with human interest elements by a human and published.
I have high hopes on SAP in helping SME businesses ride two significant trends, viz., Mashability and Serendipity. Let me explain.

Make Our SME Business Mashup Ready. I believe judicious exposition of capacity through mashup(interface) is a good technology antidote for technology driven rapid commoditization. I believe mashup is an attractive channel to graduate cold calls into revenue generating relationships. An ERP with built in support for mashup exposure: a doorway that knows both sides – the internal business process, as well as the Wild Wild Web, will be very attractive. I believe mashup is a potent strategic tool to increase capacity utilization as well as a low cost business development method.

Enhance Serendipity for Our Network of Suppliers and Customers. When Geography is History, Serendipity is the new Geography. This, I believe, again is a strategic tool that will prevent premium erosion. With our continued practice of Living our Business Aloud, our social media engagements will increase the findability of whoever that has done business with us. In other words we want ‘Doing/Done business with UPSL’ as a social networking factor just like musical preference, interest in books, pet ownership, etc. And of course the ERP will have to help in achieving it in a sustainable manner.

The machinima is of course whipped up in SecondLife, and Incidentally, SAP is all set to open their Sim featuring their clients and partners soon( Oct 1?).

Autotwit: Making mundane automatic

Idea:AutoTwit - Unix Cron job like twittering service.
Execution:

Tired? Stressed? Overworked?

No time to keep Twitter informed about what you're doing?

AutoTwit takes the effort our of updating Twitter.

Simply write a post and schedule an update.

It's that easy!

Key Benefits:

1. Make you wealthy
2. Improve your appearance
3. Help you to be more well-liked by your family or friends
4. Make you live longer
5. Attract members of the opposite sex
6. Update Twitter automatically

About AutoTwit

AutoTwit is the rather hare-brained idea of Toby Hede.

In no particular order:

1. AutoTwit came together in a Friday lunch break and Sunday afternoon.
2. It's made with Ruby on Rails and Love!
3. It's dedicated to Scoble in the interest of making Twittering much easier.
4. Toby lives in Melbourne, Australia.
5. He works as a software engineer for a small web company in between hacking things and creating games.
6. He is increasingly obsessed with Rails, Prototype and Scriptaculous.
7. He is available for project work.

Contact: tobyhede {a t} autotwit

About AutoTwit

Most things © AutoTwit 2007

Twitter posts probably belong to the people who write them

AutoTwit: Automatically Pointless! Now with 50% more Web 2.0.

Made with Ruby On Rails and a pinch of love

Profit: A washing machine does the washing for you, a VCR watches TV for you, similarly AutoTwit will twitter for you! Yet another playful profitable idea out of twitter ecosystem like TwitterLit. How small thing can make big leverage.

Advantages of Blogging

Idea:Five Advantages of Blogging
Execution:When I talk to students I tell them these five benefits:
1)Blog can improve your communication skills: By blogging your clarity of thought improves. Reinforced by written communication, the overall communication skills improve.
2) Blog is great way to keep your network of family and friends posted: Only if you keep them posted they will be able to add value to the relationship. Cluttering them with email is a bad idea. Inbox overflow is a major problem for many people.
3) Blog can be a good way to increase your network of family and friends: What you write about may not be relevant for your family and friends. But your writing gets found by people who are interested in it. They start interacting with you and becomes part of your network. Serendipity works!
The above three are personal benefits. Here are the biz benefits.
4) Blog can be a wonderful marketing tool. Many people simply google anything and everything. If they find you in google, your ideas have reached them before you. That is marketing. Google, 'paper file tracking' and reach me! Enough said.
5) Blog can be a good sales tool. If you are into selling low value item where people trust that it will be shipped. You can sell off your blog itself. Blog +paypal will just do wonders.

As an added bonus blogs by itself can make money. You can feature ads( like google ads) and make money off your blog. There are people like Amit Agarwal( http://labnol.blogspot.com) that pay highest tax bracket due to earnings from single blog.

Nuf blog sermon.

Profit: Make money with blog. Make money because of blog.

Unconference the Book

Idea: Unconference The Book
Execution: Wiki
Profit: Fun!

TwitterLit: Terse teasers that kills the cat, milks AZ

Idea: TwitterLit?
Execution: Interesting first line of an interesting book, twittered!
Profit: Amazon referral fee.

Online Backup software

Idea:Online Backup service DataDeposit and a book by David B Little)
Execution: With DataDeposit it is much easier to implement suggestions made in the book Implementing Backup and Recovery: The Readiness Guide for the Enterprise (Paperback) And it is a good deal at $2/GB month.
Here is an overview from the site

Online Backup Features
Easy to Set Up

* Register online for our secure online backup system
* Installation is easy and takes less than 5 minutes
* Backups are instant and will never interrupt your work

Extremely Secure

* Bank grade encryption protects your data
* All data is encrypted before it leaves your PC
* Only you have the key to access your web storage data

Affordable Price

* With our online file backup system you can store as little or as much as you need for just $2 per GB per month.

Ideal for Small Business

* Backup as many computers as you like with our web backup system!

Fast Recovery

* Restore lost files from your secure online file backup system in a matter of seconds.

Web File Sharing

* Share files or entire folders with others by emailing password protected links.

System Requirements

* This web storage system runs well on any Windows PC with an Internet connection.

Profit: Data is more valueble than money. A backup can save a lot of angst!

I, II, III Life, Kitkat video

Via aTTa boy Rajat

Of incompetence, innovation and cashcow

Nitin Borwankar has an interesting post on how companies 'settle down'
The Peter Principle of Innovation

He also talks about why potentially viral innovative ideas dont take off due to self created containment:
Virus in a Petri Dish and instantly illustrates it with an alive example on the post itself.

Interesting!

Intent Signals With Twitter Enabled Devices

Intent Signals with Twitter.
Twitter the new fad in town 2.0 - dubbed the prom queen of SXSW - all the top geeks are at it. Even if they hate it. I'm trying to figure out what the hell the fuss is all about. I guess a good way of figuring out is think up cool applications for twitter. Here you go: I'm fascinated by the shift in economic paradigm from scarcity based economics to surplus inundation based economy( Just 10 years back I had to wait for a phone connection, now the telcos are queuing up to give me connection along with value added packages like mobile, broadband etc) . In this new market, the customer is the real king. Just grabbing the attention of the potential buyer is not enough. It is not just enough to fulfill the potential buyers requirements. Appealing to his/her ego is a good strting point. To cut a long story short, paradigm is shifting from Attention to Intention. Being tuned to Intention signals of the market becomes the key. My conjecture is, twitter like tools can become Intention signalling mechanisms.

Twittering, in combination with Intent Economy based tools like roots.net could make it a way to signal intents. With tools like yahoo pipes, the intent could be responded by other players - possibly a supplier of a product or a service that will facilitate the intent.

My biggest complaint with Twitter is that I have to actually do it: The lack of automation. If smart devices around me are able to pick up my intent and my activities and post it to twitter, then I can fill in the gaps with more quirky stuff. With so many geeks becoming fans of the Twittering, we can expect a horde of gadgets tuned to twittering soon. And in the mid term, everyday objects becoming twitter enabled.

In a way, Metaverse like SecondLife is striving to do.

Today Twitter looks like a useless waste of time and a fad that will fade. Yet it has lot of potential as a enabler in the conquest of the plenty. Accelerating the era of attention/intention as new currency.

Idea: Secondlife as a business tool
Execution: Secondlife, the online 3d game that is fast evolving as a mini economy is an active breeding ground for innovations. IBM alumni meeting has proved that it can be a wonderful way to convene a meeting. It has good potential as an unconference medium. Recently it is being experimented as a recruitment tool: a place to hold job fairs and such. With the membership base zooming beyond a million, online money spent per day at a million dollars, it will be taken seriously by innovators. The avatar can be more expressive than a chat or an IM making in the process reducing the travel expenses and lost time in travel.
Profit: Richer interaction.

Better Retirement Plan = Better Productivity?

Idea: Better Retirement Planning for Employees using a professional Specialist
Execution:Today I came across a unique service company called Retirment Capital Group. They offer executive compensation seminars in the changing dynamic world of retirment planning. Retirement is a constant nag in every employees back of the mind. If this constant nag can be addressed effectively, it gives peace of mind to the employees and productivity for the employer. Defined contribution, and custom design of plans are hot areas that can differentiate an employer and improve their chances of retaining talent. The Retirment Capital Group's offereing and Knowldege Centre are worth checking out!
Profit: Retirement worry taken out of the employee's mind => better productivity!

Wikicamp.in Video made with SecondLife

Amazon Mturk earnings now in Indian Rupee:: Tap the housewife resource pool

Idea: Tap the housewife resource pool
Execution:There are a lot of household with a PC and internet connection sitting. Just decorating the living room. Where the kid plays the 'educational' game. And the grown ups use it for email and google. Now with mturk earnings available in Indian Rupee, the housewife glued to the TV serials, sob soaps can be given a gainful alternative. Mturk is part of suite of services opened up by Amazon Web Services as part of Jeff Bezeos strategy of increasing the utilization of Amazon installed capacity. To quote the Amazon FAQ on Mturk:

What is Amazon Mechanical Turk?

In 1769, Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen astonished Europe by building a mechanical chess-playing automaton that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. A life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, Kempelen's "Turk" was seated behind a cabinet and toured Europe confounding such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. To persuade skeptical audiences, Kempelen would slide open the cabinet's doors to reveal the intricate set of gears, cogs and springs that powered his invention. He convinced them that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a human chess master cleverly concealed inside.

Today, we build complex software applications based on the things computers do well, such as storing and retrieving large amounts of information or rapidly performing calculations. However, humans still significantly outperform the most powerful computers at completing such simple tasks as identifying objects in photographs—something children can do even before they learn to speak.

When we think of interfaces between human beings and computers, we usually assume that the human being is the one requesting that a task be completed, and the computer is completing the task and providing the results. What if this process were reversed and a computer program could ask a human being to perform a task and return the results? What if it could coordinate many human beings to perform a task?

Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate "artificial artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans. Developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. Behind the scenes, a network of humans fuels this artificial artificial intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.

All software developers need to do is write normal code. The pseudo-code below illustrates how simple this can be.

read (photo);
photoContainsHuman = callMechanicalTurk(photo);
if (photoContainsHuman == TRUE) {
acceptPhoto;
}
else {
rejectPhoto;
}

In a nutshell, Mturk is a way to give out tasks to the crowd and get the task done by a human. Typically, the task are too difficult for computer, but effortless for the human. The person accomplishing the task, gets paid. The Amazon's ecommerce system takes care of the trust, reputation, transaction etc.

Thus mturk can be used to give out work to housewifes, and the housewifes can do the task and get get paid, all risk free for both the work giver and the work doer.
Profit: The housewife of India are a talented lot. They give up pulme jobs to become housewife. They may be well qualified educationally. They can be meticulous in their work. Tapping this talent pool in a risk free way could be wonderful way to gain competitive advantage for businesses.

Electric Scooter Available in Chennai!

Idea:Electric Scooter/Bicycle is a reality in Chennai.
Execution: Sometime back I wrote about Electric Bike maker survival guide. When I went to a Motor Show at Chennai recently I came across an interesting company displaying electric scooters for sale. The bikes are called Petra and they are made by EPL Technologies Pvt Ltd( Ph +91-44-6453 3333) The bikes are pricey but it will fall whne there is enough demand( A scooty like version costs Rs 27,000 while a luna like version costs 22k and a electic bike like version costs 18K). If someone can bulk buy them, and make them available on short haul rent/lease, it will make them popular and because of the voluem effect bring down the prices and create a demand spiral.
Profit: Apart from attractive gains in running such an operation, the social goodwill earned will go a long way in boosting up the valuation of the leasing/operating company. With the economy very upbeat, I will not be surprised if someone is already thinking/executing this in stealth!


Photo Courtesy Snazzo