Customer satisfaction in a networked world

A batchmate of mine saw a movie recently. I had come to know that she was going to watch the movie and so I asked her how the movie was after she came back. She said that it was boring, only the songs were worth watching, and these too could be downloaded from the Internet. Hence there was no point in wasting my money.

This got me thinking. Both of us were in our respective rooms. Our conversation was via Gtalk. If I decide to take her advice and download the songs I can do that via YouTube or some mp3 download sites. The rate at which word-of-mouth reviews can travel now (and the ease with which I can pirate the songs) seem to put some kind of pressure on companies (film producers and directors in this case) to make products of better quality. Now whether or not this will actually happen is a different matter altogether. There are websites like mouthshut.com where prospective buyers can get feedback about products they wish to buy.

Companies also are trying to tap the benefits of social networking. There was one article I read some time back where an example was mentioned. A technology company can put up a forum where its customers can interact with one another to solve their issues. This actually reduces the costs incurred by the company in maintaining a customer service department. This is a double-edged sword though. If there is some problem the negative reviews can also spread quite easily.

To quote Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, "Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws." (http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33023.html)

If I come back to a simple issue, will Bollywood (or the Hindi film industry if I don't want to anger the purists) ever produce a consistent series of 'good' flicks or is there too wide a range of audience's tastes for films to be of uniform quality?

Synergy between Wikipedia and Google?

I was sitting in class today when this thought suddenly occurred to me. Google is the phenomenon it is as it has been able to satisfy the need of people to search for information that they need. Probably very few people had anticipated the importance of search to the end users. Wikipedia allowed people to become part of the process. There are occasional goof-ups like this. But on the whole I can probably assert that Wikipedia has proved to be immensely popular.

Now I come to my actual point. Previously when I was required to do a project Google was probably invariably the first place I would go to. I still do that but now Wikipedia has reduced the amount of search required. Information from a number of sources (if occasionally the authenticity is suspect) is now present at a single location thus reducing the amount of work (sic) required. In a sense Wikipedia is complementing (even supplementing?) Google today. Now does Google look at Wikipedia as a threat? Wikipedia does not make the user pay anything. Take a look at the mission statements of Wikimedia Foundation (who runs Wikipedia) and Google.

WF - to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally

Google - to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful

Notice the similarity? If I can take some liberties in saying so, both primarily aim to make information that is useful to users available to them without charging them. Thus there seems to be a convergence of philosophies here. So is Google interested in Wikipedia? Are Larry and Sergey listening?

An Obsession with English?

Students in Andhra Pradesh were punished in a bizarre manner for speaking Telugu in class. Read this.

A large English-speaking workforce is said to be a big reason for India to be an excellent outsourcing destination. There is also what is called Indian English. But one has to wonder if we have taken our obsession with the language to weird heights.

I have to confess that a person who speaks English better makes a much better impression than a person who can't. I myself seem to be an example for India's English obsession. This is a country which has 22 official languages and thousands of dialects. It seems unjustified that one language and that too what is essentially a foreign one should be given so much importance.

There are people on the other extreme also. I think there was a plan in Tamil Nadu a little time back to stop teaching English in school or something on those lines. That is plain stupid. You can maintain your self respect and identity without resorting to such extreme measures. The solution as always lies in finding a middle path, one of moderation.

India funds the Taliban!

This really takes the cake. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has accused India of funding the Taliban. Read this.

These are the very people who have been helping the Taliban. I believe there was an Afghanistan minister who said that there was an ISI hand in the recent Indian embassy bombing there. Pakistan is a state where the intelligence agencies and armed forces which are supposed to function under the executive have been exerting undue influence historically. The situation now is no different. Our first PM died in office in his seventeenth year in office. The first Pakistani PM was removed in a military coup. These are the people who are accusing us of funding the Taliban.

Funding the Taliban to destabilize Pakistan is something that could actually be done. Of course the source of the funding would probably have to be disguised from the Taliban (note the italicization of probably, one has to wonder if trigger-happy bigots differentiate between sources). However we might be creating a situation like the US did. It is a strange twist of fate that the terrorists that US had to "fight" have actually been created by the US itself, directly or indirectly.

They had created and armed the Taliban to fight against the Soviets during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They were the people who created Osama bin Laden! The US supported Saddam Hussain against Iran before they decided he had to go in their quest against "weapons of mass destruction". The US is not exactly pro-Iran to put it mildly. The Islamic Revolution was directed against the Shah of Iran. He was put in place after a democratically elected Prime Minister was ousted with the help of the CIA. So one hopes that India will not repeat such mistakes. Some mistakes have habit of coming back to haunt you. In ancient India there is the tale of man feeding and taking care of a snake to only end up being bitten by it.

karpoora dhooli rachitaalavaalah kastoorikaapanka nimagnanaalah
gangaajalaih sikta samoola bhaalah sweeyam gunam munchati kim palanduh

Unless I am mistaken the meaning goes something like this - Even if it is coated with camphor, even if it is immersed in musk, even if it is washed with the waters of the Ganga will an onion give up its natural quality? I rest my case.

Gender Empowerment

We had a class today on the Indian economy. It was a pretty good lecture and the teacher, Dr Amir Ullah Khan seems to be a good one. There was one point where he mentioned that there has been seen to be some correlation between economic growth and gender empowerment, or something along those lines. He did not clarify.

I was reminded of a Sanksrit poem from school. So I am putting it down here.

yatra naaryastu poojyante ramante tatra devataah
yatraitaasu na poojyante sarvaah tatraaphalaah kriyaah

The basic meaning - Where women are worshipped (or honoured) there can be found the various gods. Where they are not worshipped, all works there are fruitless.

Probably an example of the regard in which women were held in India in the past, not a bad thing to emulate.

The Issue of Naxalism

The Home Minister has been calling for some tough action towards the Naxals and one does feel it is warranted. The Lalgarh case is taken as an example for the kind of action needed - flush out the extremists by force and hold the area for some time. However some basic things also need to be looked at.

First of all, the Naxalite movement started out against the unjust land holding situation in the country and had its origins in a sound reason. Now the government needs to see if this issue has been addressed. The actions of the Naxalites can't be justified per se, but if the basic reason for their agitation is addressed one can hope that some kind of sense will prevail. A second issue is the question of funding. Where exactly are the Naxalites getting the money to do whatever they are doing? Some of the avenues could be kidnapping ransom and protection money. Thus this is another area that can be addressed. You can surround an enemy fort, but a very important action that is needed is to cut off the enemy's food supply. The weakened enemy HAS to surrender to avoid death from starvation.

What the government wants to address right now seem to be the symptoms not the cause of the disease. The local population is already fed up with Naxal violence. In Gadhchiroli where Naxals had surrounded a police station and killed a number of policemen a number of casualties were members of the weaker sections of the society, the very people the Naxals claim to represent. Public disenchantment is also evident from organizations like the Salwa Judum. Now the government needs to address the basic reasons for Naxalism to have arisen and the sources of financing to curb this menace.

Update to a previous post

In my post Remixes and Ripoffs, Anyone I had wondered if the song dhan te nan from Kaminey was a ripoff. I have since learnt that the song was from a serial that was directed by Vishal Bharadwaj himself. Hence I don't think it is :)