Tag Archives: community

Growing a Community Powered Website

Technology, Websites,

(In this article, Manas Garg, a regular contributor to PuneTech, explores the various factors involved in the growth of a community powered wesbite. These ideas are relevant to any website/company that expects to get a lot of its content from the actions of its users – and there are a number of such sites from SadakMap, and JustMeans to the Pune OpenCoffee Club, and of course, PuneTech itself. Even otherwise, these are important issues that any technologist living in a web-2.0 world must understand.)

Community Powered Websites (CPWs) are a rage today. And there are good reasons for that. First, you only build a website and the content (which is the primary value to these sites) comes from people. These people don’t charge you anything, in fact, you can make some money by running ads to these very people.

Secondly, the people who bring in the content also become the users of the website. Which means, people bring the content, people consume the content, and you just provide a framework for doing that using a website. Great!

Two primary factors contributing to the success of a Community Powered Website (CPW) are its tendency to grow and its immunity to abuse. This is, of course, in addition to the functional value that this website has.

Growth for a CPW means, more data, more contributors and more users. Simple. And immunity to abuse means when bad people come to your site to do bad things, your site can shrug off these attacks and get on with life. For Wikipedia, a bad thing is someone putting spam on a page. For twitter, a bad thing is someone hacking the system and making thousands of people follow him/her.

In this article, I have put down some of my thoughts on how we can make a CPW “tending to grow”. I do not claim expertise in this area. Nor do I claim to be exhaustive. I am just trying to make sense out of the way web is evolving today and community power is a very interesting phenomenon in that.

So, let’s start…

For any CPW, we anyway have to do things which people find valuable/useful and for which they would want to use the website in the first place. For instance, facebook, delicious, twitter, wikipedia have some fundamental value for which people would like to use them. On top of that functional value, there is a social design which makes them “tending to grow”.

A simple example is Blogger. It has some functional value (i.e. a blogging platform) for which people use it. But as long as the game is purely functionality based, people will choose Blogger only if its functionality is the best. Tomorrow, if a new blogging platform with better functionality comes along, new blogs may use that platform. That’s the reason blogger team is adding some social touch so that more and more people “choose” blogger if their contacts are already on blogger.

So, this is the “tendency to grow”. It is outside the purview of functionality. And it’s becoming more and more important because it’s becoming very easy for anyone to match a given set of functionality.

Now, let’s look at the contributors to this “tendency to grow”…

The Network Effect

In short, network effect is when a service becomes more and more valuable when more and more people use it which thereby increases its adoption and hence the value. This creates a self sustaining loop. The loop doesn’t go infinite as eventually there is a max limit to the final value. But it can certainly take us very far.

The general purpose social networking sites are the best examples of network effect. More the users we have, more the chances of getting more users. That’s why they have grown phenomenally in a short time span. Delicious doesn’t trigger the network effect even though it is social. There is no reason for me to join delicious even if all my friends are using it. On the other hand, I would naturally join LinkedIn because all my “connections” are using LinkedIn. Blogger, by being more social, is trying to bring in the network effect.

How to bring in the network effect is a subject worth another complete article or may be a book. Suffice it to say that a network effect has to be designed for in any CPW. Once we have modeled our website, we can test that model (mentally of course) for what kind of network effect this model can produce. If we are building a CPW but don’t design it for network effect, we are limiting the mileage we can get out of it.

Ease of contribution

It’s difficult to have a general purpose definition of what contribution is as it depends on the website. For flickr, photographs are contributions, for facebook, pretty much everything a user does on the site is a contribution. Even visiting someone’s profile on facebook is a contribution to facebook as the very fact that you visited that profile is shown on that profile.

On every Wikipedia page, you’ll see a clear “Edit” link to edit that page. For every section within the page, the edit link for that section is well placed. It almost “invites” you to edit. When the very design of a website has a look that invites you for contributions, it’s got the tendency to growth 🙂

For receiving contributions, there are two possibilities –

  1. Unintentional contribution. We contribute bookmarks to delicious for our own purpose. We contribute photographs to flickr for our own purpose. While we are doing our own things, unintentional contributions are being made to the system. When we share something with our friends on facebook, the system is getting richer automatically even though the users are not working towards making the system richer 🙂
  2. Intentional contribution. Wikipedia is a place where people specifically contribute with the intention of making the system richer. It’s not like sharing something with friends or saving something for future reference. There is an explicitness here.

Needless to say, it’s easier to get people on board when their contribution is unintentional i.e. they are doing their own thing and the system just gets richer. This lends a greater tendency to grow to the CPW.

I am sure there would be several other aspects of making a CPW tending to grow which escaped my limited knowledge and the retarded mind. Will some people with experience in this area throw a little bit of light here?

About the Author – Manas Garg

About the author: Manas is interested in a variety of things like psychology, philosophy, sociology, photography, movie making etc. But since there are only 24 hours in a day and most of it goes in sleeping and earning a living, he amuses himself by writing software, reading a bit and sharing his thoughts.
About the author: Manas is interested in a variety of things like psychology, philosophy, sociology, photography, movie making etc. But since there are only 24 hours in a day and most of it goes in sleeping and earning a living, he amuses himself by writing software, reading a bit and sharing his thoughts.
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Liveblogging POCC’s Startup Speed Date – Meet Pune’s startups

Events, Featured, , ,

I’m liveblogging the Pune OpenCoffee Club‘s “Startup Speed Date” meetup. This is a meeting to get to know a bunch of Pune startups in a short amount of time. Here is a list of the startups here, with a short introduction.

Pringoo – personalized products. Go to their website, create your own T-shirt, using your own images or text. Or a mug, or mousepad, or keychain. Print it and have it delivered to your home. You can order even a single T-shirt, at reasonable rates.

Sokrati – a product for search engine marketing and optimization. Targeted towards SMBs. $1million revenues so far this year. Moved to Pune from Seattle last month.

Kaboodle – Social network for shopping. Each person can upload information about things they’ve bought, or want to buy. Can check the same info for friends and others. If you can’t decide what to buy, you can create a poll that your friends vote in. You can create a style statement by putting together an interesting assortment of products that would go well together. Clientele is mostly young women. One of the top sites in the US.

VirtuaResearch – SaaS for equity research. A web-based platform for getting equity research. The provide the website, they also provide the actual equity analysis. In addition, they allow free-lancers to add their own research, which others can use. Sort of a social network for equity analysis.

Lipikaar – Be able to input text in 17 Indian languages, anywhere – website, desktop software. Blog, gmail, etc. Unique, patented, key entry method, different from all other competitors, especially easy-to-use for people who do not know any English.

Hover.in – in-text, customized, content and ad-delivery platform. Widgets to insert in your blog which can automatically add content from various websites (e.g. wikipedia) or third-party ad network.

ThinkingSpace – ActiveCiti.com a service for managing events, invites. EventAZoo.com a service for creating webpages for college festivals.

Chroma Systems – Image analysis software as well as hardware.

Alabot – Wants your computer / mobile phone to understand you when you talk to it. Natural language processing. For example, be able to send an sms for buying some train tickets without having to learn any specific command formats.

Markonix – Help startups with marketing their products in the US and elsewhere.

IndicTrans – A non-commercial group aim at building ‘social capital’ through making the communication and networking feasible and affordable among the people knowing indian languages. This we believe is a primary requirement for a democratic regeneration of our society as also a condition for harmonious globalisation.

laxmiroad.in – Provides you with an ability to shop online at Laxmi Road shops (for example Chitale!) and get delivery within 24 hours.

startupforstartups – Helping a wannabe entrepreneur build the first prototype of their startup without having to spend a lot, or build a team, or even quit your current job. See PuneTech interview with the founder.

Wissen Technologies Hukum Mere Aka is a learning program sitting in a instant messenger window that can talk to you and understand your commands, and get you data from its database based on your queries.

POCC Meetup Reminder – Meet Pune Entrepreneurs on 18th Oct

Events, , , ,

What: Pune OpenCoffee Club get-together. Startup speed date. Get to know a lot Pune startups/entrepreneurs in a short time.

When: Saturday, 18th October, 4pm – 7pm

Where: SICSR, Model Colony. Here is the map.

Registration and Fees: This event is free for everyone, but RSVP unmesh at gmail dot com

Details:

The idea is for POCC members to get to know the city-entrepreneurs better and on the flip side, the entrepreneurs get to practice their elevator-pitch, field biting questions, and maybe find that one person they sorely need on their team. Please note that this is not a hiring event so please leave those resumes behind.

Here’s the format of a Startup-speed-date:
1. All the startups will first give a brief introduction.
2. Startups will occupy tables
3. Folks would get to do a sit-down with the startup for a max of 5 (? tbd) minutes
4. At end of the 5 min round the folks move on to the next table
5. this process continues till all in the room have gotten a chance to meet the ones manning the tables
6. At the end of the event you have a chance to win prizes (no iPods – all startups here) by guessing the startup from quiz questions.

Entrepreneurs signed up so far

1. ThinkingSpace Technologies – http://thinkingspace.in
2. Chroma Systems Pvt Ltd. – http://www.chromasystems.com/
3. Lipikaar – Express yourself in Language – http://www.lipikaar.com/
4. pringOO – express your Individuality – http://www.pringOO.com
5. Shop Online at Laxmi Road – http://www.laxmiroad.in
6. http://www.justmeans.com – News, Jobs, and Networks for people who create change
7. Pay for Performance SEM Solution – http://www.Sokrati.com
8. A Wissen Systems initiative – http://startupforstartups.com/
9. Kaboodle – Social Shopping Network – http://www.kaboodle.com
10. Information Engine (Search Startup) called “42” – http://42.dnsdojo.com/wiki42/42_video.html
11. AI for information access on mobile – http://www.alabot.com/
12. Sales/Marketing services for SME’s – http://www.markonix.com
13. Contextual widgets for your website/blog – http://hover.in
14. Prasanna Walimbe – http://www.virtuaresearch.com/ SaaS for equity research.
15. Parth Pandya – http://www.wissentechnologies.biz Provider of software solutions

…and the list is growing.

If you are an entrepreneur then you should sign up, because letting the community know what you are upto is always a good thing. Just send an email to unmesh at gmail dot com. If you are interested in the startup ecosystem in Pune, you should be there.

The Pune OpenCoffee Club meets on the third Saturday of every month from 4 to 7 pm at SICSR. Often, there are also other ad hoc meetings organized by members of POCC. See the PuneTech calendar for a comprehensive list of all upcoming tech events in Pune.

Tech User Groups / Communities / Mailing lists in Pune

Miscellaneous, , ,

This is information about various technology-oriented groups and organizations in Pune. As Gireendra Kasmalkar advises getting involved in communities like this is an important factor in your success. So, pick one (or more) and get involved!

If you are aware of an active tech group in Pune that is not on this list, let us know and we’ll add it.

And of course, in this list, don’t forget PuneTech, your one stop shop for all information about interesting technology in Pune: events, news, companies, technologies, and people. Subscribe now for updates by email or via RSS. If the information isn’t already there in the PuneTech wiki, then ask us and well try to find it for you.

Basic course on Linux by PLUG – Oct 6

Events, , , ,

What: A basic course on Linux conducted by Pune Linux Users Group (PLUG)

When: Monday, 6th October. 4pm to 6pm. 

Where: Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR), 7th floor, Atur Center, Model Colony, Pune, India (Map)

Registration and Fees: The event is free for all. No registration required.

Details
This is a very basic GNU/Linux course. The aim is to provide some hands on experience to the user so as to make him aware of all the different features and flavors of a GNU/Linux OS. At the end of the course, a user should be able to connect to and browse the internet, send receive mails, create rich text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, administer personal system etc. all using a GNU/Linux system and various free software available on the net.

Check out the detailed syllabus for this course.

Pune Linux Users Group Meeting – Oct 4

Events, , ,

What: Pune Linux Users Group (PLUG) monthly meeting

When: Saturday, 4th October. 4pm to 6pm. 

Where: Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR), 7th floor, Atur Center, Model Colony, Pune, India (Map)

Registration and Fees: The event is free for all. No registration required.

Details
The PLUG meeting is open to all, there are no charges or pre-requisites to attend the meeting. If you are intrested in FOSS (Free/Open Source Software) you are welcome to the meeting. If you want to give a talk or a demo, you are welcome.

This meeting happens on the first Saturday of every month, at the same place and time. Usually, a PuneJava talk organized by IndicThreads also happens immediately after the PLUG meeting, but apparently not happening this month. 

Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management (SITM) is organizing a two day seminar on Telecom Management at their beautiful campus at Lavale village. Details of this meeting, and all other interesting tech events in Pune can be found at the PuneTech calendar.

Pune SharePoint Day – 2nd October

Events, , , , ,

Rizmos Solutions in conjunction with the Pune User Group (which really, really needs to rename itself as the Pune Microsoft Technologies User Group) is hosting a half-day seminar about Microsoft Sharepoint. Both speakers are from Rizmos (technically, eTek which is Rizmos’ parent company), which provides consulting and services in this space. Hopefully, they will talk more about SharePoint and less about their services. 

If you don’t know what SharePoint is, now is a good time to find out:
In computing, the Microsoft SharePoint product sold by Microsoft includes browser-based collaboration and document-management platform. It can be used to host web sites that access shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications like wikis and blogs from a browser. 
It is an important “enterprise 2.0” technology that you should know about.
Details:
Thursday October 2, 2008 from 9:30am – 2:00pm
MCCIA Hall in ICC Convention Center  

ICC Convention Center, Senapati Bapat Marg
Pune, Maharashtra
Category: Education
Website: http://www.puneusergroup.org/websites/puneusergroup/events/s…
09:30 am Reporting
10:00 am Welcome
10.15 am Key note (Mr. Robert Bye)
10.45 am Tea Break
11.00 am Opportunities in sharepoint (Mr.Ameet Phadnis)
01.00 pm Lunch  

For more info about the speakers, see here.

This event is free for all. Register here.

As usual, see the PuneTech calendar for the latest and greatest tech events in Pune. And if you like PuneTech, please email your friends about it.

Help plan a JoomlaCamp or OpenSocialCamp in Pune

Events, , , , , , ,

After the amazing success of PHPCamp in Pune last week, and also noticing the amount of attention received by OpenSocial on the one hand, and PHP based CMSs (like Drupal, Joomla) on the other, some of the organizers of PHPCamp, and others, are thinking of having more specific barcamps in Pune on those two topics. The kickoff meeting to plan and organize those events is happening this Saturday, at the Level 9 Cafe, at ICC towers on S.B. Road. 

If you want motivation on why you should get involved in organizing events like this, check out Amit’s post on the 10 things he got out of organizing PHPCamp. Even if you miss the meeting, you can join late and follow the discussion over at the PHPCamp mailing list the OpenSocial Developer Garage mailing list.

Rohan Dighe, one of the primary organizers of this meeting, left the following comment, which gives much more detail on what this meeting is about. I am reproducing the comment here:

 

After PHPCamp, a few of us have been planning on an event specifically focused on Content Management Systems (CMS Camp) and also an event focused on Opensocial (building apps for orkut/myspace/hi5, etc).

Below are the details of ODG:-

The Opensocial Event is named “Opensocial Developer Garage”

We at Social Web Factory have been planning long to host an event like this specifically focused on social web apps and current web2.0 trends and looks like our dreams are coming true.

So, Opensocial Developer Garage’08 – Pune has a tentative date of (20th December’08, it’s a saturday!)

Now, the idea of the event is to unite all the social web apps developers from all over the country and just share/code/have fun and maybe inspire a few wannabee..

The idea is not to duplicate PHPCamp (get 750+ people) but to focus on the genuine/interested crowd, opensocial enthusiasts or app developers. I really have no estimate now of how many people would come or how everything would fall in place but i just have a feeling that this can be done.

The event is a free event but is an invitation only event, we will call for speakers as well as delegates as soon as our website is up.

My plan is to invite people from Google/MySpace/BigAdda/20 other social networking website owners and their developers. We really need people to have the “WoW!!” feeling when they are at the event.

Venue/Sponsors are yet to be decided. I am preparing an email which we will send to multiple groups including expert opensocial developers across the country and big SNS groups.

I guess that all i have for now:
The kickoff meeting to plan and organize those events is happening this
Saturday (tomorow) , at the Level 9 Cafe, at ICC towers on S.B. Road.

Agenda for the meet would be
1) To finalize goals for both the camps
2) un-conference/ conference
3) Budgets
4) Organizers/ Volunteers
5) Strategy/Game Plan
6) Resource Allocations
7) Venue.

I am setting up the website DeveloperGarage.in and should be up soon.

Google Groups have been setup.

All the discussions regarding Opensocial Developer Garage will happen here.

Join Up.

Homepage:
http://groups.google.com/group/developergarage

Group email: developergarage@googlegroups.com

OpenSocial Developer Garage now has a profile on the PuneTech wiki.

Liveblogging CSI Pune’s Entrepreneurship Seminar

Events, Live Blogging, , , ,

I’m at CSI Pune‘s Entrepreneurship Seminar. Please forgive the haphazardness and lack of flow/organization. I’m liveblogging. Hopefully, better structured articles will emerge after a few days.

Arrived late and missed Anand Deshpande’s Keynote address.

What do VCs look for

Manik Arora, Founder and Managing Director of IDG Ventures India is talking about how to approach a VC. How they decide who to fund.

How to contact a VC.
Don’t call or send email without any introduction. VCs like to hear about you from someone they trust. A customer, ideally. Or a known successful entrepreneur, seed investor, etc. Otherwise they have no idea how seriously to take you.

Also, ideally, a VC who is going to invest a huge amount of money in you, likes to feel that he knows you. So, he would be much more comfortable investing if he’s known you for an year or two. Which means that you should meet and interact with VCs even if you are not looking for funding. You don’t want funding right now, but an year from now, when you are looking, and if you’ve been “hanging out” with that VC for a while, he will feel much more comfortable.

The Business Plan
Is important. It’s main purpose is to ensure that VC wants to meet you. Should contain the:

  • Elevator pitch
  • Vision and Mission statement
  • Market and Industry Environment – Size, Segment, Growth, Issues/Trends
  • Value Proposition, Key Products/Services and Sustainable Differentiation
  • Competition strengths and weaknesses and Entry Barriers
    • Most Indian Business Plans don’t have this.
    • If this section is done really well, VC gets quickly interested.
    • Shows that you are a sophisticated business person, as opposed to a techie.
  • Business Model and Sales/Marketing Strategy
    • What is the revenue driver, and what is the cost drivers
  • Market Traction Achieved so far
    • This is hard for early stage investors
    • So you probably don’t have much, but important to show speed with which you got there
  • Management Team Bios/Details
  • Organization Structure
  • Financials – Historical Actuals, Forecasts; Cash Flow + P&L
  • Exit Options – Names, Comparables, Price Paid, Multiples
  • Capital Required – How much, for what, over what timeframe
  • Risks and Gaps – What could go wrong, what don’t you have

Details available at http://idgvcindia.com

Do you need experience? Yes.
Start in a large company, so you know what business is about, what process is about, and also what are weaknesses of a big business, that you can exploit.

The Pitch/First Meeting: “Credibility”

Preparation before the meeting

  • Show up a little early. (You’ll be surprised at how many people come late.)
  • Dress appropriately. 
  • Have practiced your pitch a couple of times. 
  • Have a presentation ready / bring a couple of print-outs

During the meeting

  • Don’t try to only make your points – listen to them too
  • Answer questions directly
  • Ask the VC questions – gauge the VCs knowledge and style. It is fine to decide that you don’t like the VC and would not want to work with him
  • Discuss the deal briefly, don’t worry about valuation/dilution just yet
  • Towards the end, ask the VC the process going forward 
  • Towards the end, ask the VC how he can add value
  • Leave with next-steps clear and follow-up if you think this is a VC you want to take money from

Panel Discussion

Moderator is Madhukar Bhatia of nFactorial Software. Panelists are Manik Arora of IDG Ventures (whose talk forms the top half of this article), Yoshima Somvanshi of NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network), Sandeep Kumar, MD of Product Dossier, Vishwas Mahajan, CEO of CompuLink, Ajay Phatak, MD of Jopasana, Rajeevlochan Phadke (CEO of Image Point Technologies, a very interesting company that I hope to write about in a separate post). 

What environment is needed for successful startups?

Manik: A risk-taking society is a must. A person must be willing to take a risk. His in-laws must be OK with this decision. People must be willing to fund him – angel, seed, VC. Another problem with startups in India is that biggest market, US is too far away. Having a large domestic market is key – and that is slowly growing. CIOs in India are now willing to buy locally. Must have large feeder companies, where people can be part of growth and experience it, and learn from it, and find co-founders at. 

Ajay: In the “risk taking society” an important ingredient is also risk taking customers.

Sandeep: Customers are not willing to trust Indian startups. Can’t be sure the company will be around after 10 years. And this isn’t just the customer’s problem, because success stories are not there.

Vishwas: Early advice he got: He had an idea, and went to someone for funding. Was told: don’t come to me until you have 5 customers. That will teach you a whole bunch of things. And you will be taken more seriously. You don’t know all the real requirements and complexities until you have real customers.

What are the trends?

Manik: I don’t look at trends anymore. Look at the team. For example, everybody thinks web is hot in India now. But the last time the web was hot, about 25 to 30 companies got funded, and only 4 or 5 are still around. And now if you see, most of the top 15 websites in the world are actually platform companies. What can you do that would really be new and interesting?

Students in Startups (How to attract people to startups, and retain them)

Yoshima: NEN just had a startup jobs program. In some college in Delhi they had a placement day just for startups. 25 jobs where offered and 18 were accepted. One of the things that worked well is the fact that students did internships with startups, and got an idea that the work is interesting.

(Very cool, I think we should try something like this in Pune -navin)

Manik: I see lots of people in Wipro who work 14-15 hour days. And salary is less than what the market pays. So why do they all stick around? Apparently, the answer lies in Premji’s philosophy – whenever a guy is 60 to 70% ready for the next level in the job, he is pushed into that responsibility. They are too busy with their responsibilities to worry about leaving.

NASSCOM Product Forum, Pune (Thu, Sept 25)

Events, , ,

What: NASSCOM Product Forum

When: Thursday, 25th September, 10am to 1pm

Where: MCCIA (Hall No.4), A Wing, MCCIA Trade Tower,5th Floor, ICC Complex, Senapati Bapat Road

Fees and Registration: This event is free for all. Please RSVP Paresh Degaonkar at paresh@nasscom.in  or call at 91 9850049251

Details:

The NASSCOM Event at Pune slated on Sept 25, 2008 will unveil “NASSCOM Software Product Study” and the announcement of “NASSCOM INTEL  Product Connect Initiative”.

The NASSCOM Software Product Business Study presents the findings of our latest research effort focused on the Indian software product business environment. It provides a comprehensive review of the Product Business History, market landscape; highlights the key opportunity areas; identifies enablers for growth and suggests some targeted actions that key stakeholders should undertake to enable the next phase of growth for Indian software product businesses.

The “NASSCOM – INTEL Product Connect Initiative” is a collaboration to contribute to the overall software ecosystem by empowering NASSCOM’s member companies (software vendors) to innovate and develop a commercially viable application for businesses or Consumers. Beginning with strategic planning and insights into Intel’s technology roadmaps, the support continues through product development and application enablement, and the cycle is completed by augmenting your marketing campaigns with downloadable marketing resources and access to the Intel® Business Exchange portal – to enable you to reach new customers worldwide, and gain access, on a selective basis, to the investment wing of Intel.

Who should attend:

  • CXOs of Product Companies
  • Incubation Centers
  • Product Managers
  • Product Architects
  • Investing Community
  • Entrepreneurs

To keep in touch with all interesting tech events happening in Pune, check out the PuneTech calendar.