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  • Silicon Valley Tech Entrepreneur Karl Mehta Launches: Code For India

    Silicon Valley Tech Entrepreneur Karl Mehta Launches: Code For India

    MUMBAI: Karl Mehta, the Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, today announced Code For India (CFI), a global community of software engineers from around the world to build technology for public service to solve developing world problems. With India as the test-bed, CFI proposes to build tools that will help solve problems on the ground, and empower citizens to actively participate in partnership with local government to give communities the power to help themselves.

    “As a firm believer in the power of crowd sourced and open sourced technology, we have created Code For India to provide tools to fight day-to-day public service issues,” said Mehta.
    “Code For India’s use of technology will promote transparency, participation and efficiency in the way local people can voice their concern and find solutions. The transformative power of technology will aid India — and other developing countries facing similar problems.”

    Code For India has support from Indian-origin tech professionals around the world. Software engineers from Microsoft, Google, eBay, VISA and Facebook have volunteered in developing social awareness apps in the first phase of Code For India. Potentially adding thousands of volunteers, the organizations TiE Silicon Valley, TiE Mumbai, TiE New Delhi and The Morpheus Fund have partnered with Code For India to encourage their large network of tech community members to get involved. In addition, Professor Vijay Pande of Stanford University, Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education and Vish Mishra, Venture Director at Clearstone and mentor to The Hive and The Fabric have joined the Advisory Board.

    “Code for India is a unique and commendable initiative whereby the sharpest of computing minds can apply themselves to altruistic causes. TiE Delhi NCR are proud to be associated with the program,” said Deep Kalra, President of TiE-New Delhi.

    “TiE is volunteerism at its best as demonstrated since its inception. We are thrilled to partner with Code For India in leveraging Silicon Valley technology and entrepreneurial talent to solve pressing needs of the Indian society,” said Venkatesh Shukla, President of TiE-Silicon Valley.

  • Scarecrow and Only Vimal observe No Tie Day today

    Scarecrow and Only Vimal observe No Tie Day today

    MUMBAI: The textile brand – Only Vimal – has launched a new campaign to reach out to the newer, younger generation of formal wear users.

    The campaign No Tie Day to be held today has been conceptualised by Scarecrow for the brand after a study and market feedback pointing to a clear shift in preferences among the formal wear users (read corporate).

    Through the campaign, the brand aims to serve the day as that momentous occasion when people will discard their ties, thereby acting upon the larger thought of liberating themselves from their existing boring formal wear. To gain momentum various activities have been launched such as the tie burning party where people are called to burn ties (literally) and witness the launch of the informal range of ‘Only Vimal‘. These tie burning parties will be held in nine Indian cities. There is also a nationwide one-day boycott of ties, so that people living outside these cities can also participate.

    A set of eight viral videos and a especially composed No Tie Day anthem were made to create the buzz around the day. The micro-site, www.vimalunformal.com was the centre point of all No Tie Day activity. On-ground, especially designed tie collection vans visited corporate parks and engaged people in playing tie-killing games. On Facebook a fun app called tie obituary contest was created, where people could write a fun obituary for ties and celebrate their demise.

    The campaign is promoted through radio, digital, on-ground and print in select cities.

  • DDB Mudra and McDowell’s ‘BossPatrol’ to save you from trouble

    DDB Mudra and McDowell’s ‘BossPatrol’ to save you from trouble

    MUMBAI: Everyone likes to take a break at work every now and then, with YouTube videos, online games, Facebook, Blogs and so on. But what does one do, when your boss walks past your computer and catches you in the act? You may not see your boss coming, but your friends just might.

    Hence, DDB Mudra’s team came up with a downloadable app – ‘BossPatrol’ which lets you save your friends from trouble. It lets you choose a secret phrase example What’s the time? And then add your colleagues to the group. If you spot your boss nearby, while your friends are slacking off, all you need to do is speak out the secret phrase. BossPatrol picks up the sound through the microphone, sends a signal to your friend’s computers and instantly opens safe windows on all their computers (eg: presentations, spreadsheets etc.), just in time and your boss will never get to know what they were up to.

    Speaking on the new app, DDB Mudra Group chairman and CCO Sonal Dabral said “BossPatrol is an exciting app and a wonderful twist to McDowell No.1’s positioning as the true spirit of friendship between close friends. The idea has social interest, community feeling, bonding and friendship at it’s core all wrapped in a fun package. Not just perfectly relevant to the iconic McDowell No.1’s positioning but also all the ingredients of going viral. So it’s really heartening to see it become such a huge success in such a short time.”

    The main objective behind the app is to make McDowell’s No.1’s long running campaign “The Spirit of Friendship” relevant to younger audiences.

    The new app created by DDB Mudra for McDowell’s is surely going to be everyone’s best friend soon.

  • Delhi Court stays proceedings against 13 websites accused of undermining national integrity

    Delhi Court stays proceedings against 13 websites accused of undermining national integrity

    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has stayed the proceedings against 13 websites, including Facebook and Google, on a complaint which accused them of promoting “class enmity” and “undermining national integrity”.

     

    Citing denial of assistance from the American authorities, Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja stayed the proceedings against the websites, including Orkut, YouTube, Yahoo and Microsoft.

     

    The court said: “The proceedings qua accused (13 accused websites)… Have already been stayed due to denial of assistance by the US department of justice,” the court said.

     

    The court said recording of pre-charge evidence against other accused websites would commence from 28 September.

     

    The complaint was filed against the websites by transparency activist Vinay Rai for allegedly committing offences like selling obscene materials to the youth and hatching criminal conspiracy.

     

    The central government earlier told the court that the US authorities were unable to execute the request for assistance in serving summons on these US-based websites.

  • Muslim Clerics globally feel posting photos of women on Facebook is un-Islamic

    Muslim Clerics globally feel posting photos of women on Facebook is un-Islamic

    NEW DELHI: A Pakistani website quotes Muslim clerics in India agreeing with their counterparts in Pakistan that posting pictures of girls on Facebook is un-Islamic.

    The website moremag.pk says ‘this problem is not just limited to Pakistan where social media has become subject of criticism but Muslim leaders all over the world are somehow trying to establish their writ on social networks where it is virtually impossible to ban anything permanently.’

    It says Muslim clerics in India have shown reservation on posting pictures of girls on Facebook. The viewpoint is divided and according to few, it is un-Islamic to post pictures of girls on Facebook since it becomes a cause of social evils and creates problems for girls.

    Abul Irfan Naimul Halim of Sunni sect said, “There are so many crimes taking place each day. The animal instincts of men are not sparing girls even within the four walls. In such a case posting pictures is extending an open invitation to such crimes.”

    A Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas Naqvi also endorses the thoughts of Abdul Irfan. He says that hundreds of Muslims call on helplines asking about if making an account on facebook and twitter is permitted in Islam or not.

    “There is no harm in making accounts on social networks as it is a practice to gain knowledge but posting a picture of women on internet for public without hijab is un-Islamic. Purdah should be practiced if it is important to post a picture”, Maulana Saif added.

    To some, it is better to maintain a physical relation than getting involved in virtual relation because the latter is more deceiving in case one of them is playing with a fake picture.

    But there are few like Ali Nasir Syeed who is of the view that the definition of Purdah should be clear and that there is nothing un-Islamic in posting a picture of facebook or other social networks without hijab.

    To him, coping up with the technological advancement is more important for Muslims today rather than getting lost in vague things.

  • Sab campaigns for votes

    Sab campaigns for votes

    MUMBAI: With the general elections due next year and almost everyone talking about it, Sab has decided to cash-in on the idea for its award show too.

     

    In just its second season, Sab ke anokhe awards, has election as its theme this year. The campaign ‘saal ka sab se anokha election’ will enable the viewers to vote for their favourite nominee from each category.

     

    The viewers will be able to vote for five categories – Sab Se Anokha Prani, Sab Se Anokhi Jodi, Sab Se Anokha Musibat Ka Mara, Sab Se Anokha Romance and Sab Se Anokhi Nari. And the winner will be declared only on the basis of the votes. As for the other categories, winners will be decided by a jury.

     

    Talking on how the nominees were selected Sab EVP and business head Anooj Kapoor says, “If one looks at our shows it is quite evident that which character from a particular show will fit a certain category.”

     

    The channel hasn’t left any platform to market the award show. From hoardings plastered on buses to a vote appeal on television, the channel has a pan India line of attack to get in as many votes as possible. It has booked 10,000 spots on TV, 600 hoardings across 40 cities, tie-up with Café Coffee Day outlets apart from advertising on 40 newspapers (Hindi, English & vernacular). It is also active on social media and will allow the viewers to vote through its Facebook page, Sab Play mobile app, SMS etc.

     

    With digitalisation and the change in TAM ratings, the channel is optimistic about its reach and the number of people voting in. Last year the channel received close to five lakh votes for the awards. “With TVT, of course, we know what our reach is and hope to engage as many viewers as possible,” sates an optimistic Kapoor.

     

    The main sponsor of the award show is Rin and it is powered by Cadbury 5 Star. Kotak Mahindra, Asian Paints and Badshah Masala are the associate sponsors.

     

    The show will be aired on 31 August and we can only hope that viewers choose the right and the deserving candidate at least in reel if not in reality!

  • Vin Diesel in talks to join ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’

    Vin Diesel in talks to join ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’

    MUMBAI: Vin Diesel just might be Groot. The Fast and The Furious franchise actor is in negotiations to join Marvel’s newest ensemble tent pole. If it all works out, Vin Diesel would play the tree-like alien in the James Gunn-directed Guardians Of The Galaxy.

     

    Diesel posted a captionless pic of Groot up on his Facebook page. For a while the drawing from the GOTG comic stood as his cover page before being taken down and then disappeared all together from his public timeline.

     

    The Groot character can absorb wood to gain strength and recover from injuries as well as control trees. While hyper-intelligent, the alien seems to only ever say the line “I am Groot” over and over to those who cannot hear his real voice.

  • YouTube’s founders challenge Vine and Instagram with new video app

    YouTube’s founders challenge Vine and Instagram with new video app

    MUMBAI: After months of teasing, the wait is finally over: Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who brought forth the video-sharing site YouTube, are taking the wraps off their newest project, a video creation app called MixBit.

    Versions for Apple mobile devices and the Web are already live, and an Android version is due in coming weeks.

    On the surface, MixBit resembles two other leading video apps, Twitter’s Vine and Facebook’s Instagram. As with those apps, users press and hold the screen of their smartphone to record video. Instagram users can capture up to 15 seconds of video, a bit longer than Vine’s six-second maximum. MixBit allows 16 seconds.

    But as the name suggests, MixBit is all about mixing and editing video. Both the app and a related website, MixBit.com, are aimed at making it easy to clip and stitch together snippets of videos. Simple tools built into the app allow users to edit each 16-second clip and combine up to 256 clips into an hour long video. The final product can then be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or the MixBit website.

    Think of it as “shoot, mix and share.” You don’t even have to do the shooting – the MixBit site allows anyone to snip and remix any publicly shared video content.

    In fact Hurley said encouraging users to remix other people’s videos to create new works is the principal goal of the service, which is the first big product to emerge from Avos Systems, the start-up he co-founded with Chen two years ago. (The company has received funding from the venture arm of Google, which bought YouTube, as well as from Innovation Works, Madrone Capital and New Enterprise Associates.)

    “The whole purpose of MixBit is to reuse the content within the system,” Hurley said in an interview. “I really want to focus on great stories that people can tell.”

    The ability to create those more complex video stories could give MixBit an edge, at least momentarily, over Vine and Instagram, which are growing rapidly. Vine has no editing tools and Instagram introduced rudimentary ones recently.

    But one crucial decision by Avos is likely to hold it back: the app is totally anonymous and communal. Users cannot post their videos under a name, and they cannot comment on each other’s work.

    Showing off is a big part of modern internet culture. The competition to create popular videos helped build YouTube into the powerful force that it now is, and it propels social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

  • Social networks stepping up efforts to get TV ad budgets

    Social networks stepping up efforts to get TV ad budgets

    NEW DELHI: Facebook and Twitter are stepping up their efforts to increase their share of the global TV ad budget as technical developments begin to enable advertisers to target people who use digital devices while watching television.

    A report in The Financial Times quoted by CASBAA says the two social network giants have been rolling out a number of initiatives over the summer in a bid to earn more from global TV ad spend, which is expected to be worth $205 billion this year.

    Facebook has launched a campaign, dubbed Reach for the Beach, to highlight the fact that holiday makers take their mobile phones with them while leaving their TVs at home.

    Recent research from eMarketer has shown that the amount of time people in the United States spend consuming digital media will overtake the hours they spend watching TV for the first time this year.

    Facebook vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson said that today mobile has overtaken TV to become “the primary screen”, although she didn‘t expect TV and Facebook to be locked in rivalry. “I think we‘re at a stage where the conversation is really TV plus Facebook,” she said.

    The company has commissioned a study from Nielsen, the market research firm, which found that more people aged 18 to 24 used Facebook than any of the four major US TV networks between 8pm to 11pm during weekdays.

    It is currently developing 15-second video ads that can replay TV ads on Facebook and plans to launch the initiative in October. It is also working on the means by which ads on Facebook could be linked to a TV show in real time.

    Twitter, meanwhile, has formed partnerships with media companies to monitor what people tweet while watching TV and it expects to use the information to help target ads on Twitter.

    Twitter chief revenue officer Adam Bain said, “We often have thought about Twitter plus TV, but we are now thinking about Twitter Times TV.”

    However, advertisers are weighing up the pros and cons of linking in their offerings to the social networks.

    Razorfish senior vice president Joe Mele has cautioned whether consumers would want to receive ads while tweeting, for example, about the presidential debates or the Super Bowl.

    He said, “There is a question about whether or not just because you are watching something on TV means you want that same experience on a different device.”

  • Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduces ‘New Media Wing’

    Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduces ‘New Media Wing’

    NEW DELHI: Almost a year after guidelines were framed for the use of social media by government agencies and citizen engagement for e-governance projects, the proposal for establishing a ‘New Media Wing’ in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for publicising its initiatives through multiple social media platforms has received the official nod.

     

    The move has come even as the government is gearing itself for the general elections next year. Both All India Radio and Doordarshan launched its new series yesterday to highlight the initiatives of the government.

     

    According to the proposal approved by the union cabinet, the new wing to be headed by a joint secretary level officer would address the communication and dissemination requirements of the government on social media platforms. The wing would integrate the communication tools horizontally and vertically through various social media platforms.

     

    The proposal for establishment of new media wing has been drawn on the basis of the experience of the initiative undertaken by the ministry recently, on a pilot basis to position itself on the social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

     

    The administrative and operational support will be provided by a unit under the ministry – the Research Reference and Training Division – which would be the new wing.

     

    The expenditure for establishing the wing and the recurring expenditure thereon would cost the exchequer an amount of Rs 22.5 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan (1012-17) which has been approved by the cabinet committee for economic affairs under the development communication and information dissemination plan scheme of the ministry.

     

    In August last year, the government had issued framework and guidelines to enable the various agencies to create and implement their own strategy for the use of social media. The document was to help them to make an informed choice about the objective, platforms, resources, etc. to meet the requirement of interaction with their varied stakeholders.

     

    The official statement had then said, “As more and more projects are getting implemented, an increasing need has been felt for wider and deeper participation of an engagement with all stakeholders to ensure that citizen centricity is maintained in all projects. There is now a consensus that citizen participation and civic engagement are the building blocks for good governance and e-governance is a critical component of good governance.

     

    It had added that, “Media is transforming the way in which people connect with each other and the manner in which information is shared and distributed. While at a personal level, the uptake and usage of social media is gaining rapid popularity, use and utility of such media for official purpose remain ambiguous. Many apprehensions remain including, but not limited to, issues related to authorisation to speak on behalf of department/ agency, technologies and platform to be used for communication, scope of engagement, creating synergies between different channels of communication, compliance with existing legislations etc.”