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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

What Sibal Doesn't Git: Wisdom of the Crowd

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Posted by: Danish 11:55 PM



So Kapil Sabil finally succeeded in nudging out Kolavari Di from Twitter trending topics ? Once more, one of the three musketeers of the Congress,the telecommunication minister, Kapil Sibal has raised shit-storm by asking Internet companies like Facebook,Google and others to impose censorship on Social Media to “take care of  sensibilities of our people”. It is not just Kolavari Di, other important news item such as Anna Hazare and his team gearing up for fresh protests against the government on the Lokpal Bill, the FDI issue and other such issues of real significance  have been put on back-burner as Sibal started the shit-storm by expressing desire to baby-sit more than 100 million Indian Internet users ! 


True, some content found on web are more than derogatory,they are vile and perverse but these people exist in physical world,amongst up.  It is ironic that in the age of Social Web, on which online anonymity is on a rapid decline,replaced by physical world identity and existing laws viewed more than capable of dealing with these sociopaths, a democratic government should even be thinking of regulating content on web. It is not as if the governments are as helpless or even honest. One just needs to go through Google Transparency Report to get a glimpse of what exactly Kapil Sibal's guidelines for social media really means. 

Posted By Danish 11:55 PM

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Lives And Legacies Of Steve Jobs And Dennis Ritchie

The month of October 2011 has seen demise of two towering figures from the world of computers, tributes for one of them have been pouring down on the web almost infectiously while a very few people are aware of the death of the other person whose contributions has been incalculable . Of  course, the first one is Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc and Pixar Animation Studios while the other is Dennis Ritchie who built Unix and C programming language. Together they represent the two ends of a spectrum- the digital and the physical world.

Posted By Danish 4:27 PM

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Facebook Profound Changes' Profound Implications

Posted by: Danish 5:17 AM


For sometime now social media as well as traditional media sites have been buzzing with information on Facebook undergoing profound change. Lately, creating a media hype before release of a product (Google+) or a major Facebook upgrade (video chatting feature)  has become an indispensible strategy but in this case I would wager that the change may really be profound. Facebook hasn't just changed the layout of the profile page, it has reinvented it too, incorporating various social web behaviour like listening to music or reading a book. The Gesture concept when properly applied may take us a whole level forward towards the Semantic Web. However,the idea of Facebook incorporating so much users data in their profiles is alarming , the privacy issue on Facebook gets more complicated and then there is the chance of Zuckerberg locking the users in.

Posted By Danish 5:17 AM

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The 23-Year Old Visionary :Bhagat Singh

Posted by: Danish 8:48 PM

Despite a recent surge in popularity triggered partly  by Bollywood movies,Shaheed Bhagat Singh continues to be ignored, misunderstood, misrepresented by the vast majority. The very first thing that comes to our mind when we hear the name is that of a young revolutionary who fearlessly and happily faced the gallows for the sake of the nation. But then, he was accompanied by his friends,fellow-revolutionaries, Sukhdev and Rajguru,who were executed along with him for the same offence. In fact, the list of his co-martyrs would include Chandrasekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and many more, why does Bhagat Singh's name stand out from the rest ?

Posted By Danish 8:48 PM

Monday, September 12, 2011

Portrait Of An Internet Troll Or Is It Twroll ?

Lately I have come across the word "troll" being used extensively on the Web and especially on Twitter and to be honest, every time I come across it there is a bit of resentment in me. Internet trolls are almost as ancient creatures as their folk-lore counterparts are supposed to be but the perhaps the former needs to be redefined. But then trolling was once considered an art  (even if a dark art) which required some sort of skill but the latest breed of trolls on Twitter are more like sociopaths with 0 IQ.

Posted By Danish 8:19 PM

Monday, August 1, 2011

Facebook,Google Pwning The Web: Why You Should Care ?

The current phone-hacking controversy is a reminder that in the age we live in information is power. Well, my emphasizing it doesn't make it a breaking news,this has been known throughout history which is why the flow of information has been controlled by the powerful (which also means that they powerful because they controlled information). The Internet brought with it new means of communication,World Wide Web made the flow of information to ordinary people easy but it is its evolution into a communication platform called Social Web that broke all barriers to the free flow of information. The investigation into phone-hacking controversy has revealed how much political power media moguls like Rupert Murdoch possess but Wikileaks and its fallout and social media showed the power of information in motion. From Arab Spring revolution to crisis management to raising quality of life, information systems have been playing key roles in our lives and society.

Impact of Wikileaks
A key characteristic of the Web and most of its services is that they are unplanned, serendipitous which in turn makes them popular as they are designed as per user demand, but Julian Assange probably knew what he was doing when he founded Wikileaks. The impact of Wikileak has been much greater than is visible because it is too subtle. Leaked  embassy cables and other confidential correspondence documents presented to us,a picture of the world much different than we were accustomed to from traditional media. Interestingly, in the Arab world a lot of people already suspected the double-speak, corruption and despotism prevalent in ruling circles but Wikileaks making it public as well as global gave them the impetus to revolt and bring the despots  down.

Role of Social Media
Social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook played very important role in the protests as most people active on Web are acutely aware of. Facebook provided an excellent platform for the protestors to organize against  the brutal regimes more fearlessly. Twitter had already proved itself as a potent politcial tool during the "Twitter Revolution" in Moldova, for the Arab protestors it was the holy grail of communication and coordination. Videos of police brutality on civilians circulating through Youtube and the uncensored reports and opinions through blogs brought the reality to the fore. The fact that the protestors knew that the global community was aware as well as in solidairity with them, is what turned a spark to blazing fire,two powerful dictators were brought down within days.

The Battle For Social Web
If you are not living under a rock you might be aware of Google's new Social Web service Google+ which is doing pretty well in comparison to its previous two attempts. For little less than a decade, Google has been the most dominant player on Web but the threat it now faces from Facebook  is a serious one, especially since it seeks to make Google's mostly-algorithmic base, redundant in comparison to its own people powered base.Google has hit back at Facebook with Google+, a service that resembles most Facebook core features and given the wide range of services it owns,it's cosiness with Twitter, and the fact that it already has a vast user-base in its search engine users and those using Gmail as primary mail account,  Google has a fairly good chance of pwning Facebook.        

The Ungoogly Alliance
However, Facebook is not alone, Microsoft seems to have thrown its lot behind Facebook by not only investing in Facebook but also collaborating with it through the newly acquired Skype to bring in-browser video chatting. Besides, Microsoft is also upbeat about the yet to be released features of its search engine, Bing which is already indexing Facebook 'likes'. Further, Microsoft's 2009 alliance Yahoo and its latest alliance with leading Chinese search engine Baidu reflects the animosity with which it is trying to eat into Google's user-base even if it means losing millions of dollars. An alliance as formidable as Facebook-Skype-Microsoft-Yahoo-Baidu may be capable of defeating Google even pwning it if Google wavers a little in maintaining lead in search industry. Corporate rivalries are not new,but they are now taking an ugly shape, Google is already sitting over loads of user data gathered through tracking visitors and websites, Facebook on the other hand has a treasure trove of social data, either of them getting pwned would mean the winner taking over the entire web. The battle between the companies has become so fierce that I am sorely tempted tempted to quote  the tagline of the last Harry Potter flick - neither can live while the other survives. (Prof Trelawny's prophecy).

Why Should We Care ?
What should concern us more is not the economic fallout of such an event, the socio-political fallout could be unimaginable. Now while we gloat over the power of social media and the Internet's role in democratizing the world, we tend to overlook the fact that social web services are created and owned by companies and much open to abuse at various levels.We have discussed above on the power of information and the effect Web has over our social and political lives,any corporation that can control the flow of information would become a superpower in itself, perhaps the first non-territorial entity that could change governments, regulate market prices, dictate government policies and pretty much do everything it wants to. It is a bit hard to believe but we have too many evidences to ignore beginning with the fact the none of the companies have been politically neutral.

In the ongoing Arab Spring Revolution the social media companies are just not only passively assisting protesters through there web-based  services,they have gone ahead and provided innovative means to help the protesters communicate after the government started blocking the conventional means of communication and later even the Internet. Of course, we applaud them for taking proactive steps to help liberate oppressed people break free from tyranny and transition towards a  democratic society. However noble their intentions might be and more importantly, in complete harmony with our own ideology, the fact remains that the companies do take sides which also means that they can be willingly or unwilling be used as tools by the dominant powers as is likely to have happened during mass protests in Iran, against alleged electoral fraud (remember GW Bush's controversial  electoral victory in 2000 ? ) Considering the support the regime still possessed,it could well have been a crowdsourced  black operation.

It doesn't really matter if Google triumphs or Facebook,Microsoft and allies do,its the web users and common people who lose. May be not. If wisdom of crowd and democratization of information has enabled the masses to topple dictators without taking up arms, Murdoch's News of the World had to be shut down completely as the information proliferated through each and every nook and corner of developed world, a corporate superpower too can brought down using the same platform. If everything fails, there is still an  option,the reset switch ;)


Reference:
    Pwn : A Leetspeak slang used especially in online gaming environment to mean something more than defeating. It originated from a typographical error by a writer who intended to use the word "Own". Ironically, the word "Own" or "Owning" wasn't adequate enough to describe the act, which meant thoroughly destroying the opponent and take over everything. ( remember Carthage ? Tyre or recent Palestine?) as to make it seem that they didn't exist in the first place. 
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pwning

Originally composed on 6/15/11   

Posted By Danish 7:47 PM

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Redemption For Your Digital Soul

Posted by: Danish 2:51 AM

[Source: http://www.emailintervention.com/]
 If you think lately Google has been straying from its motto " Don't be evil",you may be in a rude shock the next time you login to  your Gmail account. Well, if you don't have Gmail account, do not despair, redemption is at hand. For the blessed few (roughly 200 million) of us, a brand new link sits next to our respective inboxes to let us participate in the campaign Email Intervention and go unto the heathen that their digital souls may be saved. Were it not July I would have been sure of it being a Fools Day joke but April is far,the web is changing rapidly.

Posted By Danish 2:51 AM

Monday, June 13, 2011

Save Lokpal Bill: Petition T hrough Avaaz

Posted by: Danish 3:06 AM


 As most of you would be aware, the ensuing media circus has taken the focus off the developments in the Lokpal drafting committee, the government representatives are now unwilling to bring certain important posts under the purview of the Lokpal. At the same time it has also invited public input though it hasn't been advertised much. Avaaz.Org has started a  campaign asking its mehembers to flood inbox of the members with petitions with strong messages to save the Lokpal bill. All you need to do is visit this site and send the petition, it also allows you to add your opinion and send it to government representatives of of Lokpal bill drafting committee and UPA chief  Sonia Gandhi. 

Following the petition I sent adding a few words of my own (italicized).  If you share a similar sentiment please visit this URL and send the petition.

Posted By Danish 3:06 AM

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Digressive Rhetoric Dominating Public Discourse In India

Public discourse is essential for the functioning of a progressive democratic society but sometimes too much of it can be counter-productive especially in a society such as ours where politics dominates every sphere of our lives. For a long time public discussion was compered by print media journalists, radio hosts and electronic media,which took and transformed  most  somber debates to desi tamashas. Social media revolution has had a very different impact,while it has thrown numerous thought-leaders who would otherwise have passed away in obscurity or limited success,social media has also brought in partisans,radicals and mischief-makers. I refuse to call them "trolls" which was originally used for Usenet users with single-point agenda,but even they were far more knowledgeable than some of the current twitter celebs :p (note to self: post a short entry to elucidate the point).Anyway, blaming a horde of hare-brained web users can hardly be blamed for hijacking public discussions on national television shows. The fault must lie with the greater part of the debating public.

Posted By Danish 6:09 PM

Monday, April 18, 2011

From Rights of Man To Right Wing Sham

Posted by: Danish 5:34 AM

French police have arrested two veiled women for violating the law banning wearing of burkha in public.

France is the latest to join the club of countries like Saudi Arabia,which believe that the state has the right to decide what its citizens should or should not wear. In recent years the whole of Europe is increasingly becoming an intolerant society,much like it was just few centuries back. However, this time its not the traditional Church that calls the shots, far-right intellectuals have taken over the role of medievel clergy. Ironically, it was the French Revolution that sent shock waves across the West, abolishing monarchies and autocracies and bringing in liberal democracies and rule of the people. It also liberated the State from the control of the Church and led to the adoption of secularism as a concept derived from the principle of individual liberty.  The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen drafted during the period was the precursor of the International Human Rights Law.  This form of secularism has been followed so religiously in the later half of the century that it has become a religion by itself with its own set of presumptions and dogmas.Things now seems to have come to a full circle, like the mythical Ourobus that I so often allude to.

Posted By Danish 5:34 AM

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Anna Wins The Battle,The War Begins

So the government finally gives in to Anna Hazare & team's demand that the civil society representatives be included in drafting committee of the Lok Pal Bill. The battle of Jantar Mantar is won but the war of the Indian people against the menace of corruption is far from over.  In fact,even this victory may not mean much if the guards are lowered prematurely. Not two days have passed and we can see questions raised on the representation of the civil society. There are clearly attempts at creating differences within the motley group of crusaders rallying around the Gandhian social activists.The biggest irony is that even though the timing may be conspicuous and reek of dubious intent,the questions raised are legitimate and are as a matter of fact, crucial to the future of the movement.

Posted By Danish 1:38 AM

Thursday, April 7, 2011

In Jantar Mantar Sits The Fourth Estate

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
And 72-year old Gandhian Anna Hazare is the night watchman of India,having completed 3rd day of fast-unto-death demanding a new legislation to curb corruption which is assuming monsterous form. The support he has received from the people is tremendous, though I have come across skeptics speculating a hidden agenda of furthering any of the national political parties' interests. Since the BJP was leading a full-fledged attack on the UPA government for a string of corruption cases, Anna Hazare's people-powered movement can be seen by some cynical Congress supporters as adervtantly or inadvertently strengthening the BJP's campaign. Rightist hardliners on their part have been hinting if this is a Congress ploy to tone down the rage of the people by taking a hugely publicized corrective action.

Ok. Enough politics!

Posted By Danish 10:47 PM

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Bleeding Blue Billions, Ain't Just Cricket

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Posted by: Danish 5:13 PM

Dhoni's sixer in the 49th over taking India to victory against the Sri Lankan team in the ICC World Cup 2011 was nothing short of a fairy tale ending to a grand epic. Lately, it seemed Providence did not intend to give India both the World Cup as well as Sachin Tendulkar at the same time. But then again, it wouldn't have been fair that the team for which the greatest cricketer ever played,never won a World Cup. So it was only fair that Sachin's captain and teammates win it for him, as they had promised to before the tournament began. And this is exactly how it happened. Sachin Tendulkar deserve a separate post, which lies in my drafts and which I will be posting soon,GOD-willing.

Team India's magnificent victory in the final demonstrate why cricket is a religion in India. Though moments of individual brilliance were strewn along the entire match, the final outcome  was undoubtedly a well coordinated team effort. Team India truly reflects the multicultural triumph of the Indian State,most likely it is the only team, with players who come from so many linguistic and ethnic groups. Of course language is not at all a barrier now as it used be in the past (according to veteran experts) it still maintains the symbolic value.

Posted By Danish 5:13 PM

Friday, April 1, 2011

Mango Man elated from multiple scams.

Posted by: Danish 1:17 AM


A new superhero is in town called the Mango Man but there is absolutely no threat to other comic superheroes and their franchises because Mango Man is neither attractive nor glamorous. More importantly, Mango Man is not always 'man' nor is it one physical entity. It is a class of people whom the ruling elite as well as the ruled elite call the common man or common people ( to avoid charge of gender discrimination).  Of course it is a popular play on the Hindi words,'aam aadmi' but the usage here slightly of a different context. Almost every year, there is at least one reported incidence of poor tribal in Orissa dying after consuming mango kernel as a last attempt to ward of death from starvation. Now,starvation wouldn't be stalking just a few people and not their other family members which implies that they must have survived the poisonous meal. Therein lies the earliest signs of the superpower these people possess but this is not the only one. Often Mango Man can be found living in the midst of hazardous industrial wastes having been driven out of his natural habitat by the administration-corporate-
militant nexus lured by its rich mineral resources. Emmigrating to the nearest city,he settles in a derelicted site (called slum)  which is subsequently  demolished by municipal commissions,at the behest of powerful builders, to build a shopping malls,multiplexes at the site. Now he resides in the midst of toxic,industrial waste,generally dumped away in the suburbs.  Of course, in comic books and Hollywood movies the neuro-chemical reaction might have given him one or more extraordinary abilities but in this case there is a greater probability of him developing a fatal disease and his children being born with physical or mental deformities.


The superpower of the Mango Man lies in his resilience and imperviousness to exploitation and tormentation at the hands of the priveleged few. Highly placed sources say Mango Man is elated over the strings of scams,investigations and leaks. It is not the detection,investigation of the scams that lift his spirit but the fact that the Indian state has had that amount of wealth in the first place. Corruption,misappropriation of public fund have become an accepted norm but the amounts of money embezzled is what catches Mango Man's attention. According to him, the knowledge that the fund necessary to fight starvation and malnutrition  as well as access to basic amenities,did exist even if stashed away in foreign banks is a comforting thought. "As of now,the popular opinion was that the Indian state lacked the resources to uplift the under-privileged within reasonable time-frame. However,these revelations have proved that wrong and it gives us immense pride to know that the money embezzled in a single scam were sufficient for eliminating poverty in a group of villages.

The fact the these huge amounts of money stashed away in overseas tax-havens instead of being circulated in the market is just unfortunate. But the Mango Man undestands that the irrational gluttony of the leaders is a natural trait of some individuals and is willing to go the extra mile to help the next generations of gluttons. After all, he may not get a square meal a day,healthcare,education, electricity or any other basic ammenities but as an Indian his chest does puff in pride to see names Indian businessmen in Forbes list of the richest people in the world.

Posted By Danish 1:17 AM

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Remembering Bhagat Singh

Posted by: Danish 4:24 AM

80 years back on this very day, a 23 year old Indian along with two of his closest comrades was executed in Lahore Jail but the echo of his war cry "Inquilab Zindabad" ( Long Live Revolution) was being heard all over India. His name was Bhagat Singh and his companions, Sukhdev and Rajguru, none of whom need introductions, their martyrdom has immortalized them  in the collective memory of the Indian nation. It wouldn't be very wrong to say  that they have been deified, every year, on their martyrdom anniversary  we remember them,garland their photos, sing paeans of praise and then forget them until the next year. Now, there are people who revere Shaheed Bhagat Singh and remember him almost every day but how many of us have the courage to even voice his opinions, leave alone adopting his ideology.

Posted By Danish 4:24 AM