In the coming weeks, I need to decide the approach we are going to take. My target is that by Decmeber-end we should decide what path(s) we will follow. We are too small to run after every possible opportunity at this stage. A few general thoughts which I want to keep in mind:

From a Gartner report: "Human-computer interfaces will rapidly improve during the next decade. The wide availability of cheaper display technologies will be one of the most transformational events in the IT industry."

Some predictions:

- Computer screens will become ubiquitous in the everyday environment
- Input interfaces will enable computers to sense their environment and the identity of their users, and personalize interactions appropriately
- Advanced interface metaphors will improve the information supply

The last one is especially interesting (in view of the work we are doing on the Digital Dashboard). Elaborates Gartner: "As enterprises improve their understanding of the different information needs of their users and customers at various touchpoints, a shift will occur--from the current "push" mode to a "pull" mode. Users will be able to select what they need from fewer and fewer options. This improvement will occur because the computer will increasingly become better in pre-selecting options based on its "knowledge" of what users actually need in specific situations."

An additional comment by Roland Piquepaille, who blogs on tech trends. Also see Slashdot thread.

Writes Rafe Needleman (Business 2.0):

Find.com, a new company that makes a utility that does just what I and, I suspect, millions of other people are looking for. Find.com keeps a running index of your e-mail and returns your search results as you type in each letter of the search query -- you see the results list get shorter and shorter in real time. The product searches your text files the same way.

Find.com also accelerates Web search results. It uses your favorite search engine (such as Google), and once it fires off a query, it loads the results into its preview window so you can quickly page through them. Very slick.

Sims Online goes live this week. Writes News.com:

"The Sims Online" will expand potential social interactions to thousands of other characters, all controlled by real people. Add a complex, free-market economic system, tools for creating in-game items and multiple chat vehicles, and you've got a game that emphasizes creativity and socializing over the swords-and-sorcery dynamics of the fantasy role-playing games that currently dominate online gaming.

Also see a Forbes story, and a more detailed one from Gamespot. An excerpt:

Players would be rewarded for creating as opposed to destroying. In most massively multiplayer games, you gain notoriety by killing. But in The Sims Online, Wright wanted to leverage the creativity of players. "People should be successful because they are making the game interesting to each other," explains Wright. So if a player created an interesting house that attracted hundreds of visitors a day, they would earn money for this popularity, which in turn would allow them to be even more creative.

In addition, Wright was intrigued by the social angle of online games: He wanted to encourage players to interact with each other. This led to the concept of players being able to co-own a home with up to seven roommates. "In many ways, I wanted to make parts of the game boring so you'd be encouraged to talk with others," says Wright.

John Hiler writes about the reasons for his launching CityBlogs.com. It is an interestign premise. Often, we find out about interesting things only after they've happened. Perhaps, cityblogs can become the friend who can recommend good and useful events before they happen!

Joh Hiler differentiates the blogs over local listings:
- Personality versus Dry Descriptions
- Useful Recommendations versus Overwhelming Comprehensiveness
- Readable by Anyone versus Accessible Only to Experts
- Niche Coverage versus Mainstream Coverage
- Local Stringers versus No Followups

Hiler's New York Cityblog covers Cinema, Book Readings and Talks.

In talking about “My First Computer”, we are also (yet) thinking of connecting the employees to existing applications or databases. Our competition is paper and manual processes. What we are offering is a system which can automate some of the basic, repetitive tasks that people do – and more.

A telephone operator, for example, can use it as a phone and address book. Instead of storing details of missed calls on scraps of paper, the operator can now send an email or an instant message to the concerned person. Is one call that may have otherwise been missed worth Rs 500? A librarian can use it to record books and magazines that have been borrowed, enabling employees to electronically browse what the library offers. Is their time saved worth Rs 500 each month?

One could think of many such scenarios depending on the people involved. Giving a computer with a basic set of applications (email, calendar, tasks manager, contact manager, browser, word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application, instant messenger) and more importantly, instructions and guidance to use these applications in day-to-day activities can definitely play a role in making their users more productive.

In addition, I feel that the empowerment and confidence that today’s non-users will get with “My First Computer” will result in a more pro-active workforce. The computer can have that magical effect on people. All we have to do is to look back to the exhilaration we felt when we used our first PC. That feeling needs to be permeated across every employee in the enterprise.

The interface that is seen on “My First Computer” cannot be the one we currently see. Files-Folders-Icons along with the Start-Menu may be fine for today’s power users. Is there something simpler we can offer to the novice users? It should be something which does not make feel that they’ve been given a cheaper, poorer version of today’s MS-Windows interface. In fact, they should feel delighted with what they have, not disappointed. There is a wonderful opportunity to rethink the first screen that users see and use for this next set of users. What we do them to feel is that they have a superior version of a new product, rather than an inferior version of an old one.

What is needed is the equivalent of a “Digital Dashboard” on the PC, which becomes the gateway for performing tasks, the aggregator of information, and the launchpad for applications. It is the one screen which users can think of as their “electronic home”.

“My First Computer” along with a set of ideas that simplify computing for today’s non-consumers in enterprises can create the first step in opening up a whole new world of opportunities for the workforce. It is the key component in creating a new technology ecosystem in the world’s developing countries. It is the first step in creating nations whose populace is computer-literate. The biggest challenge and question which we have to answer is how can we make this possible (profitably for the entire value chain) at the price point we had talked of: Rs 500 per person per month.

Tomorrow: Economics