About this blog

I believe that it is only a matter of time before enterprise software consists of only four types of application: publishing, search, fulfilment and conversation. I believe that weaknesses and corruptions in our own thinking about digital rights and intellectual property rights will have the effect of slowing down or sometimes even blocking this from happening.

I believe we keep building layers of lock-in that prevent information from flowing freely, and that we have a lot to learn about the right thing to do in this respect. I believe identity and presence and authentication and permissioning are in some ways the new battlegrounds, where the freedom of information flow will be fought for, and bitterly at that.

I believe that we do live in an age of information overload, and that we have to find ways of simplifying our access to the information; of assessing the quality of the information; of having better tools to visualise the information, to enrich and improve it, of passing the information on.

I believe that Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law and Gilder’s Law have created an environment where it is finally possible to demonstrate the value of information technology in simple terms rather than by complex inferences and abstract arguments.

I believe that simplicity and convenience are important, and that we have to learn to respect human time.

I believe we need to discuss these things and find ways of getting them right. And I have a fervent hope that through this blog, I can keep the conversations going and learn from them.

67 thoughts on “About this blog”

  2. Mr. Rangaswami:

    This is the first time I have used a blog but hope that does not deter you from reading my request for information. I am an MBA student at Wright State University in Ohio. As part of MBA 770: Information Technology and Business Transformation this quarter I am teamed up with two other individuals who are working on analyzing the case study “Blogs at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.” We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions for the purpose of adding to the case analysis. From research it appears DrKW has an external blog, and we would also appreciate any comments you have concerning external blogs.

    If you have time and are willing to answer a few questions please e-mail me at the given e-mail address. If need be, I can offer information that confirms I am a student of WSU and am currently enrolled in the course mentioned above.

    Thank you for your consideration,

    Cynthia Rutherford

  3. JP,

    reading your blog, I thought you might be interested in the link below;

    http://laptop.org/

    I don’t know if you are familiar with the project, $100 laptop. I came across it quite by accident and it transpires that some of my collegues are involved with the project.

    The educational benefits of this in developing countries are, to my mind, phenominal. I would be interested to read your thoughts on this project.

    Best Wishes,

    Justin

  6. Wanted to send you this by email:
    I have written
    The Power of the Network = The Power of We
    Why Media is the new business ecology

    I am sharing/opening it up for conversation here:
    http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com/2007/08/white-paper-wiki-power-of-network.html
    You’ll find links to a wiki version there, too.

    If you prefer to simply print off and read, there is a word document attached.

    Please join in the discussion and share with anyone else you think will be interested/want to contribute.

    Best regards

    David Cushman

  7. Mr Rangaswamy,

    Just wanted to introduce myself and check if I can get a response from you.I am from Kolkata and have studied at St Xaviers College,Kolkata with Maths(major) afterwards went for a MCA degree as well.I read your comment about ‘blogs’ and I agree that it has very much started at Kolkata.On the road side bench ‘addas’ with a bunch of cards and puff to be specific and also ‘Cofee House’ plays a key role in bringing people together from different walks of life and hop around for distilled ‘adda’ sessions comprising of intetectual thoughts, criticism of anything on earth or in space :-)
    Hope to hear from you soon.Thanks.

    Sumanta

  8. I find your blog and take very refreshing – and pretty bang on. Have you spent much time in corporate setting? I worked for 10 years for a fortune-500 in Europe and US and share your “beliefs” in information flow and where we are going.

    Great blog.

  10. JP,

    I came to know of blogging when I heard a colleague of mine referring to your blog a few months back. It took me a couple of months after that to locate your blog and start reading it. A few months after that I have started a blog of my own recently. The breadth and depth of the information you present in your blog in a simple langauge (given the confused person that you are) is really amazing. I always leave your blog with something new which kindles a hope in me that the new age of information is really flattening the world and the world is becoming a better place to live in. Keep writing and continue being confused of things :-)

  11. Do you speak french?
    I’m a journalist (ex Editor in Chief of 01 Informatique, France), now consultant for Accenture in France and looking for people like you! But speaking french, to discuss with french CIO, in TV talk-shows, in a webtv project; topics like innovation, entreprise 2.0, SOA, web services and so on…
    (PS: I did’nt find your email, tha’ts why I use this form, sorry!)

  12. Hi JP Rangaswami,

    My names is Jason Bomberger and I am currently a Senior MIS major at the University of Connecticut. For my senior thesis I am developing a research project tracking the correct implementation of “enterprise 2.0” applications within the corporate sphere.

    I was curious if I could ask you a few short questions on your implementation of the wiki within Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

    If you could provide me with an address to contact you at or send me an email at [email protected] it would be much appreciated. Thanks

  13. Wrt “I believe that it is only a matter of time before enterprise software consists of only four types of application: publishing, search, fulfilment and conversation.”

    People (in companies) emit signals of various kinds: the most common/important being 1) questions to be answered, 2) tips to share (answers for questions to be asked) and 3) ideas

    I believe that an enterprise needs 1 solution for managing these signals i.e., 1 system for non-audio/non-video communication and am working on it @ http://www.nextbestaction.com

    We need a solution to let the community (of experts) amplify the signals and execute them ASAP

    No signal should be ignored as “Interesting, but of no commercial value”

    I would greatly appreciate your feedback on http://www.nextbestaction.com

    btw: In the side bar section “Colleagues Past and Present” – “Jeremy Ruston – http://jermolene.wordpress.com/” is duplicated

    ps: Thanks for the must-read book mention @ https://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/08/24/facebook-and-the-enterprise-part-7-communities/ – What are you top book/blog/movie recommendations in various categories ? NBA can support this too :-)

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  18. “Today, if you are not confused, you are just not thinking clearly”
    resonates with the name of your blog!

  19. Hi!

    Interesting to note that Calcutta does feature prominently in the blogging community. I’m an Explorer of the city much in love with it and in my way I’m trying my best to help Calcuttans learn more about their own city. In line with that, Calcutta Walks is offering free walks to all Calcuttans, which is guided walking tours through the historical parts of the city.
    Its a fascinating world out there for city residents as well as visitors.
    Join us, those of you who can.
    Cheers to Kolkata.

  20. Yes, it is interesting. I think it has something to do with the culture of the “adda”, I have been researching this for a while. Will blog about it sometime soon. Thanks for visiting.

  21. JP,

    I am trying to reach you because of your interest about collaboration and social software. Since I do not have an email address for you I am hoping that this is an appropriate method to contact you.

    I would like to introduce you to HyLighter which a software program that solves the problem for allowing large numbers of people to collaborate and capture their input when needing to discuss or modify a documents and images to the most granular level. HyLighter solves this problem better than any other application on the market today. I wanted to discuss the value of HyLighter as an additional application offering for internal use at British Telecom.

    HyLighter is a document collaboration tool that will significantly increase the productivity workers when they need to collaborate on a document that may also include images to solicit opinions from a large group, capture the consensus of the group to make a decision, negotiate agreement, identify expert contributors, organize, synthesize and generate new knowledge. For documents such as press releases, contracts, business plans, research papers, grant proposals, product requirement documents, training materials and any other type that requires the collaboration and review by three or more people, HyLighter solves the problem of how to efficiently and easily to participate in this activity.

    Most people involved with collaborating with documents use Track Changes in Microsoft Word and similar applications that overwrite the document during review. As the number of users increases, the number of changes obscures the document in markup. Wikis and online editors make it easy for groups to collaboratively write and revise documents but hard for participants to share their thoughts before changes occur. HyLighter scales to any number of participants because it never overwrites the document.

    HyLighter augments these tools by allowing contributors to suggest and discuss changes without overwriting or revising the document. Hylighter maps the collective input of the group, via its unique color-coding capability, to specific areas of a document. Then by extracting and organizing the various sub-threads, HyLighter increases productivity of this document-centered collaborative work.

    HyLighter has a unique position in the emerging social software market. It complements rather than competes with other social software and related collaboration and conferencing technology. This is largely accomplished through designed features which embody insights from the learning science.

    Users carry on conversations within a document or resource (e.g., a text or image) or set of related documents (e.g., a report or case study linked to supporting texts and images) by adding comments to a selected document as a whole, specific sections of the same document, and specific sections of related documents, and to the comments of others.

    Users see connections between what other people think and various ideas in the document (or document set) by viewing color-coded highlighting. HyLighter’s patented color-coding feature “maps” what participants see as relevant to a common task and makes the thinking of participants which is ordinarily hidden, become transparent and available for analysis, sharing, and actionable feedback.

    The “owner” of a document may guide the social networking process by setting active features through the document permissions grid. Permissions enable the owner to control when participants may add to the conversation and when they may view the contributions of others.
    Users may display the output of the group in a unique customizable table, which functions as a spreadsheet for words and pictures. The table helps organize and synthesize ideas from multiple sources and facilitate the accurate analysis and valuing of contributions ( e.g., reveal areas of agreement and disagreement, build group consensus, collaboratively write and revise a text, and assess performance and competency).

    You can also find Flash demo files that show a demonstration of the HyLighter. These can be found at the following link, http://www.hylighter.com.

    The demos show HyLighter from both the “Originator” and “Invitee” perspective. If you have a chance to review these and actually try the application I think you will have a much better grasp of the value. Here is also a link to a just published story on HyLighter, http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1068048086;fp;32768;fpid;4875587;pf;1.

    I look forward to speaking with you soon.

    Regards,
    Ben

    Benjamin Minsk
    HyLighter Software, Inc.
    Vice President of Sales Development
    56 Summer St.
    Shrewsbury, MA 01545
    Phone: (508) 845-9610
    Cell: (508) 735-5054

    Email: [email protected]
    http://www.hylighter.com

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  24. Hello JP,
    I have heard about you during my consultant work at BT. I have planned, designed and implemented a knowledge management platform combining MyBT, Confluence and LiveLink together with a taxonomy for BT Telconsult. That project is called GTM Knowledge Centre.
    I have some questions regarding the goals of KM initiatives within BT and would be very happy if you could give me a response @ my mail adress.
    I love your blog – and want to recommend this site to you (www.neo.org) – in case you don’t already know it. The best and most useful community I have ever seen.
    Best regards
    Christian Meyer

  25. Idon’t know whether we can be familiar with software enterprise because the beliveness from ourself is gone for ever.So if we can stop this corruption,the weakness from every individual this days of commiting a error of judgement will be processed.

  26. A small point, JP.

    If you believe that there are four types of application: publishing, search, fulfilment and conversation – then I would ask where billing and payments fits. Surely the glue for e-commerce is the ability to charge for services and not give everything away for free!?

  27. @Lorne when I say “fulfilment” I include the entire “lead-to-cash” journey, from the time a customer wants something to her paying for it

  31. Thank you for your insights. This statement -I believe that it is only a matter of time before enterprise software consists of only four types of application: publishing, search, fulfillment and conversation. – is true.

    Legal Translation Solutions

  32. Your first belief requires the ability of people to let go, and allow openness into their lives. This is a long path you’ve taken. I would hope that at some point, you reach the destination of your journey.

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  37. “I believe that it is only a matter of time before enterprise software consists of only four types of application: publishing, search, fulfilment and conversation”.

    A very thought provoking introduction. To help someone who works in the SME space more than enterprise, would you write a bit about what you mean by each of those in an enterprise setting sometime? And what is currently outside of those groups?

    By the way, your focus on simplifying, quality and continuous learning (what I take to be your themes in my words) agree well with the concepts of Lean and the emerging field of Lean IT, I don’t know if you’ve come across that.

    Regards
    Oliver Kohll

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  40. From Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law and Gilder’s Law I devised my own. I basically came up with the fact that we will pass through a barrier where technology will be better than free, we will pay consumers to adopt it. Technology will be better than instantaneous in it’s speed to respond, it will learn and predict. And technology will become so small that we won’t have it as hardware, instead it will be an airborne intelligent activity.

  41. Hi JP – our friend Buzz pointed me to you given that I am speaking with your employer about something interesting. I’d like to speak with you if you can spare a minute. You can use the email address I am including or ask our mutual friend for an introduction. I look forward to speaking with you.

  43. Amazing blog, JP! Discovered it by accident and recognized a name from the past. You were “JP” even then. Many an evening were spent at your home in Calcutta as our fathers were close friends. I now live in Toronto but visit Calcutta every year.

  44. Wow what a small world. Am I right in thinking your dad was a close friend of the Shahs, and that’s how we met? I met Anil, Aandhi and their mother Jyotsna while I was in Calcutta last month….

  45. That is correct. I have not met them for a few years now. I met Aandhi a couple of years ago during one of my short visits. Glad to know you are doing well and this blog is superb. Takes me way back.

  46. Now I am doing my PHP course after completion my BCA from IGNOU. Now working in a Php development company. So you can also join them

  47. Pingback: Social objects in the enterprise: Part 3 – confused of calcutta

  48. RE: RSS feed request to Before It’s News

    Hi,

    I’m the Business editor at Before It’s News. Our site is a People Powered news platform with over 2.5 million visits a month and growing fast.

    We would be honored if we could republish your blog RSS feed in our Business category. Our readers need to read what Confused of Calcutta has to say.

    Syndicating to Before It’s News is a terrific way spread the word and grow your audience. Many other organizations are using Before It’s News to do just that. We can have your feed up and running in 24 hours. I just need you to reply with your permission to do so. Please include the full name and email of the person who will be attached to the account, and let me know the name you want on the account (most people have their name or their blog name). Please also send a JPG of a picture or logo you would like to have on your profile.

    You can also have any text and/or links you wish appended to the end or prepended to the beginning of each of your posts on Before It’s News. Just email me the text and links that you want at the beginning and/or ending of each post. If you know html you can send me that. If not, just send me the text and a link to your site. It should be around 200 characters or less (not including links).

    You can, if you like, create a custom feed for Before It’s News that includes multiple links back to your blog or web site. We only require that RSS feeds include full stories, not partial stories. We don’t censor or edit work.

    Thank you,
    Chris Holehouse
    Editor, Before It’s News
    http://www.beforeitsnews.com

  49. Hi JP

    I am working with a large ITES company in the web2.0 innovation lab. I am working on a paper about application of MMORPG concepts to IT and Enterprises.

    I would like to collaborate with you on this topic

    Thanks and Regards

  50. @satts if only I had time. happy to share thoughts, to learn from each other, but “collaboration” will not be that easy

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