The Rise and Popularity of Specialist Social Networks

Take a close look at the picture above and what do you see ? At the outer fringes you will find brands that are now so widely known that they are an intrinsic part of your lives (so I would assume if you are reading this post). Studies indicate that the first thing young women do in the morning is to check their Facebook accounts for updates (as reported by Mashable here). Not till long ago, taking a break from work to explore and travel the world was considered an adventure and an achievement. These days, shutting down your Facebook account and living without it for a month is considered to be a big deal (interesting read Facebook Refugee).

Coming to Twitter, the platform now has more than 75 million users with 50 million tweets being sent per day. People are using twitter as motivational tools to lose weight, run a marathon, quit smoking and what not (read here for more). We even came across an interesting tweet the other day, indicating how tweeting very frequently can be a bad habit:

RT @social_yogirl: Warning – For ur driver’s test. If the guy asks “what do you do at a red light?” ,don’t say… a little tweeting…

And then, foursquare recently reported to signing up 3 million members and LinkedIn too has close to 75 million members and is a highly important tool for job seekers, executive recruiters, MBA students and networking professionals.

But then, most of these are broad social networks which cater to everyone and thus have no specific segmentation amongst its users. Little wonder then, that the success of these networks would lead to other innovations catering to certain specific audiences such as mothers, people who like to travel, MBA students, students starting college and much more.

We like to call these networks “Specialist Social Networks” as they cater to an audience that satisfy a set of characteristics such as age, sex, occupation, future outlook etc. At last count this sheet indicated that their were close to 193 such networks on the Internet comprising of categories such as travel, education, beer, food, business, photography, cars, sports, dating, pets, arts, mothers and many more.

For instance, CafeMom is an online community where millions of moms meet each day to talk, share advice, make new friends and play games. The network employs 65 people in New York, gets millions of unique vistors every month and raised close to 12 million in capital in early 2008. So if you have a brand aimed at pregnant mothers or new mothers such as Babo Botanicals or Nutrabella then CafeMom is where you want your brand to be.

The NYtimes recently carried this article on another Specialist social network called URoomSurf. An excerpt:

Bright Eyes and Regina Spektor share the same bedtime (between 10 p.m. and midnight) and a high tolerance for clutter. They both eat vegetarian food, advocate for animal rights, play guitar and favor the same indie rock acts. They also recently agreed on a polka dot shower curtain.

This is not just great good luck — theirs was a match made on URoomSurf.com, a Web site that does for dormitory life what eHarmony and Match.com have long done for romance.

The article later goes on state that since the site started in February, more than 80,000 students from 700 colleges have signed up, paying $5 or $10 (depending on the level of access to information). Now that’s a pretty good Online Business for what could also be a Facebook group that connects people with similar interests looking to be room mates in college.

Finally, another such network based out of London runs a slightly different model and aims to bridge the gap between schools and students looking to study in those schools. BusinessBecause, is a London based startup that is a news & networking site for the b-school world. It provides interesting content and helps to connect people before, during and after business school. The network has pioneered a new concept of ‘community journalism‘ where its members who are essentially students studying in B-school or B-school alumni are encouraged to share stories of their school experience, favorite lectures, classmates etc.

The website also has its own Editorial team comprising of Journalists from the world’s leading Journalism schools such as Columbia who produces great quality content, conduct interviews with Business schools professors, thought leaders and much more. The website targets international, smart, web-savvy and well-connected individuals between the age of 22-32 interested in Business School education.

Well, these niche networks mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty more out there. So if you’re looking to connect with a group of people who share a similar interest as you, then just do some Internet research and its likely that you’ll find a “Specialist Social Network” catering to your particular interest.

3 Movies to Look Out for this Winter

Its that time of the year when a slew of yearly festivities in the form of Raksha Bandhan (August 24), Dusshera (October 17), Diwali (November 5), Christmas and New Year are gradually creeping up and people across the country are getting ready to enjoy this time.

Festival time also means that a host of new offerings are getting ready to be released to the masses. Unlike the US, where the Holiday season usually sees a host of new products being released, in India, the Holiday Season usually means big budget Bollywood movies and people going to the Cinema Halls hoping to catch a good movie to liven up the holiday spirit.

So after what has been a pretty damp year in terms of good quality Entertainment, what can the Indian Audiences expect closer to Diwali. We take a closer look at 3 Movies that we think will get the Audiences excited:

Golmaal – 3

Rohit Shetty is back with the third installment of the Golmaal series with Golmaal – 3 starring Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, and also a couple of new actors who weren’t part of the original series. With a strong cast and a movie franchise that has performed well in the past, Golmaal – 3 shall surely attract fans of previous versions of the movie as well as fans of the Star Cast. The light hearted nature of the movie is also bound to be a major draw for Audiences looking to enjoy the festive spirit.

The movie is currently slated to be released on November 5 or a few weeks after that date.

Guzaarish

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is back with a Star Studded cast of Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai for yet another Romantic Movie with a difference. Reportedly, the movie will revolve around the story of a married nurse (Aishwarya Rai) and a quadriplegic, wheelchair-using patient Ethan (Hrithik Roshan), suffering from impairments of the motor and sensory functions of his limbs, with whom she develops an intimate bond.

The movie is currently slated for a November 17 release and will make for a good family entertainer. It will certainly draw the millions of Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai fans win the country.

Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey

Following on the heels of wifey Mrs.Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan will be seen in this period starer directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar of Lagaan fame alongside Deepika Padukone. The movie is said to be a period thriller and is based on the book ‘Do And Die‘ by Manini Chatterjee, based on the Chittagong Uprising of 1930. The film is being shot in Goa and is scheduled for a worldwide release on 3rd Dec 2010.

Unlike some of the other movies releasing this year, KHJJS as it is popularly known has taken to Social Media big time and it already has a Facebook Page and a Twitter Account.

Official Trailers for these films are not yet out, but remember to keep checking our “Catch this Flick” section which will be updated as soon as we see the first trailers.

Do you Believe that India will be a Super Power someday ?

Every year close to August 15^th,(India’s Independence day) and January 26^th, (India’s republic day) there is a sudden surge in patriotism around the country largely due the influence of popular media which uses the day as an occasion to cash in on the feel-good factor. Surprisingly, every year on this day everyone seems upbeat and optimistic that India is a great country and will one day emerge as an Economic Super Power.

Unfortunately things go back to normal after a few days and bad news is what you again normally get to see in most of the National Dailies. While there has been improvement in infrastructure and standard of living over the past few decades, it has been much too slow and has normally come at a great cost amidst huge corruption scandals (the most recent example being the Commonwealth Games 2010). The state of the Nation continues to be plagued by the same problems year after year despite the Economic growth which only makes the rich richer.

In such a scenario, it seems doubtful that India will ever be a Super Power and some experts suggest that it shouldn’t even try to be one.

BusinessBecause, the world’s only News+Networking site for Business School students talks about what noted Academic Ramachandra Guha spoke about when he recently visited Nyenrode Business University, here’s an excerpt:

“ Controversial Indian academic Ramachandra Guha was at Nyenrode Business Universiteit recently to discuss his book “India After Gandhi”.

Guha claimed that there are ten reasons why India will not become an economic superpower, despite its tremendous economic growth.

The theme across all of Guha’s ten reasons is that India’s challenges as a democratic state are unique. The Indian state has a huge diversity of languages, religions and cultures. It isn’t built according to the classic European recipe of “one language, one religion and a common enemy”.

Gandhi built the modern democratic Indian state, but he did it by overlooking deep-rooted divisions among Indians.

So, here are the ten reasons why India will not become a superpower

Extremism, both 1. Leftwing and 2. Rightwing

The political elite, which has transformed India’s political parties into family organizations. Because of this, 3. Public institutions such as universities, the police and the judiciary have deteriorated and 4. Democratic openness is victim to corruption “.

To read the rest of the above post click here.

Mr. Guha, does make some very strong points and a lot of us will agree with him. But many of you reading this would have different views, so do share them with us.

3 Idiots – All Izz Well And Aamir’s Swell

The Inside Life: Behind The Scenes With A Fitness Instructor – Part 2

A DelhiPlanet Exclusive – Checkout the introduction to the Inside Life Series here

We’re back with the last and final part of our series on the Inside life of a Fitness Instructor. Checkout the first part of this series here. We continue our conversation with former gymnast and fitness expert Lia McInnis and delve in deeper into what her daily life is like:

DelhiPlanet (DP) : What kind of challenges would you say are involved in this profession. Do you have to ensure that you regularly practice your routines and stay at the top level of fitness at all times ?

Lia Mcinnis(LM) : The biggest challenge with this profession is that you cannot be sick or injured. It is very reliant on your own fitness and falling sick means a loss of income for that period unlike any other job where there is sick leave. You also need to be updated about all the latest trends and changes in fitness. I have to stay at the top level of my fitness and at this point I cannot live without Exercise. I was actually too involved in exercising before but have changed that now (from 3 hrs to 45 minutes) per day.

DP: What kind of preparation do you do before every class ? Do you feel nervous at any time ?

LM: Music is a very important part of my classes so I arrange my music before the classes. Most of my preparation is mental as I just need to choose the drill to do and I have 100′s of them in my mind.

Teaching a fitness class is actually about pleasing people and is all about customer orientation. People have to like you otherwise they will not return to your class and eventually that class would be closed which would impact me and the gym. When I join a new gym , I feel nervous in the beginning just like when one joins a new job. Because the people are new I have to prove myself again and have to make sure people like the classes. I feel nervous when the people in the classes are new(first timers) as they have to be won over so that they come back next time.

DP: That’s very interesting, I guess Fitness Instructors inherently get to know a lot about Customer Service through their occupation. Describe your average and most hectic day, what motivates you to work hard and teach up to 5 – 6 classes a day.

LM: I’m normally up at 5:15 am and teach my first class called Bootcamp from 6 – 7 a.m . Then I teach another class for Older people from 8 – 10 a.m. Thereafter I go to the university for my classes till 12:30 p.m. Then I teach another class from 1 – 2 pm and then I teach private classes from 4:30 – 5:30 pm. Sometimes I also teach Boxing from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

DP: That is truly mind-blowing. Coming back to the joys of the profession, your occupation involves interacting and meeting a lot of people. Have you made any really close friendships from people you have met in your classes ?

LM: Every regular student at any of my classes is a friend and someone I would stop and say hello to. If I work at a Gym for a long time I end up making good friends with some of my students.

DP: What would you say is the one best and one worst thing about being a fitness instructor ?

LM: Best Thing: I can be loud, crazy and strict and still get paid for it and people love me for that.
Worst Thing: The sound of the alarm in the morning.

DP: Women across the world spend a lot of time and money in trying to look fit and sexy and at times get involved in unhealthy habits like severe dieting, excessive smoking etc. What is your advice to people in this regard ?

LM: One should do everything in moderation including exercise. Diet is key to looking good and staying fit. One should strive to eat clean with diets containing less sugar, oil and fat. Lots of salad, protein, Pasta and Healthy Sandwiches are good for the body. One should always stay well hydrated but drink more water.

DP: Thank you Lia for your time and for sharing your thoughts with us. What is your goal in Life and what countries would you like to visit in the future ?

LM: My goal in life is to make a difference in people’s lives by teaching fitness to young people, and as I get older to old people. I suppose I will always be involved in fitness.

I would like to goto San Francisco and New York in Summers. Also Cambodia and South America. I have never been to India would love to come someday.

Note: The Inside Life and all content published as a part of Inside Life is owned by and exclusive to DelhiPlanet. Any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The Inside Life: Behind The Scenes With A Fitness Instructor – Part 1

A DelhiPlanet Exclusive – Checkout the introduction to the Inside Life Series here

Tall, Slender, Slim, highly attractive and very fit. Five characteristics that can make a woman extremely desirable. However, for a fitness instructor these characteristics are not only important but highly essential.

Stop for a moment and think about the lives of fitness instructors. Their job is to make you us feel good and to keep us healthy. They work their minds and bodies at the same time and if you’ve ever been to a fitness class you will have noticed as to how they speak out the instructions, demonstrate the poses and also observe that people are doing them right, all at the same time. A good fitness instructor not only needs to know the skills of what she teaches but also needs to look stunningly fit, so that she can develop an aspirational effect (The desire to look as good as your instructor by regularly attending their classes and adhering to their advice) around her. While we have the luxury to fall sick or chuck a sickie a fitness instructor doesn’t have this luxury. Falling sick is equal to leave without pay and very rarely do the instructors get paid leave.

Down Under, in Australia fitness is a big deal as is evident from the superlative performances of Australia in various different sports. Thus, we decided to take you behind the scenes into the life of a gorgeous, stunning and extremely flexible Aussie fitness instructor. We talked to Lia Mcinnis, who is a boxacise instructor at the University Gym in UNSW to get an idea of what her life is and what she feels about her occupation.

DelhiPlanet (DP) : Hi Lia, Welcome to DelhiPlanet. A very warm welcome to you from the entire team at DelhiPlanet. Let’s start by getting to know you better, please tell us something about yourself.

Lia Mcinnis(LM) : Hi, my name is Lia Mcinnis and I was born and raised in Canberra, Australia. I was a competitive gymnast from the age of five, a sport which took me all around Australia for various competitions. I competed in gymnastics till the age of 18 after which I focused more on my education.

At the age of 18, I wanted to be either a psychologist, a nutriontist or a physiotherapist. Since I couldn’t make up my mind I decided to do a double degree in psychology and sports science. My life as a gymnast along with my academic interests drew me to fitness and so I started working as a fitness instructor at the age of 18 and have now been doing it for eight years (and with that I just gave you my age).

DP: That’s a really interesting story. What is it like to grow up in a country like Australia where there is great importance placed on fitness and sports ? Was it something that was a part of your family legacy ?

LM: Although I have been born and brought up in Australia, I have grown up with some exposure to American culture. My father is American and is a big fan of Baseball. When he came to Australia he became a part of the local Baseball league and eventually played for the Australian Base League. Thus from a very young age I was exposed to sports and fitness. I also think that I had special talents and a gifted body as I could do my first cartwheel at the age of four years.

DP: A cartwheel at the age of four, no wonder you became a Gymnast !!! How challenging is it to become a gymnast. Please share some of your favorite memories with us.

LM: I started training as a gymnast at the AIS at the age of five and was selected to be in the Olympics 2000 squad for Artistic Gymnastics, so the training actually started 12 years before the Olympics. I continued to be a part of the squad for the next three years but then made the choice to pull out as the squad members attended gym school and not normal school.

The preparation was also too hard and demanding for a seven year old. However I continued training at a local club and was a part of the National squad that traveled to Hawaii for the Aloha Fest. Our team won the Bronze medal. In Australia, gymnasts are not put under that much pressure as compared to countries like Russia and China. However we did train for 30 hours a week. I learned a lot of good lessons and inculcated qualities of team spirit and hard work through this experience.

DP: You are very experienced fitness instructor having taught in various health clubs across Australia. What kind of training programs does one need to take to become a fitness trainer in Australia?

LM: To be a fitness trainer in Australia one needs to have a level -3 certification in order to teach on the Gym floor and level – 4 certification to teach Personal clients. To teach fitness classes one needs to do an Aerobics Modules, while to teach Boxing you need to do Boxing workshops. The skills in these areas keep changing and you need to get re-certified every two years. I finished the first two courses by the age of 18 and started working thereafter. I started working at Hyatt, Canberra followed by Alive Health and Fitness, Southern Cross and then Anytime Fitness in Canberra. Currently I work at UNSW in Sydney. I also have my own Business where I run Bootcamps for women.

DP: Now let’s talk a little bit about the profession of a Fitness Instructor. How long does it take to become comfortable in the role after having gained the necessary certifications ?

LM: Initially I started teaching one on one classes as I didn’t think I could do group classes. I actually started teaching group classes by accident or you could call it “fate“. One day while working at the Southern cross gymnasium in Canberra one of the instructors pulled out of a class at the last minute and no one else was available. At that point I had to jump in and fill in for her. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience and decided to take advance certifications that allowed me to do different kinds of group classes.

We’ll continue the rest of the conversation with Lia and give you an idea of what life as a fitness instructor is in the next part of this episode. Stay tuned.

Note: The Inside Life and all content published as a part of Inside Life is owned by and exclusive to DelhiPlanet. Any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Angels And Demons: Two Hours Of Constant Action And Suspense

Tags: brown, church, conspiracy, dan, hanks, langdon, robert, tom, vatican

Whatever Happens, Happens For The Best

April 26, 2009 by krisdhingra  
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business

1 Comment

There is famous saying in Hindi which when translated reads as “Whatever Happens, happens for the best”. It is basically a statement meant for the optimists and indicates that there is always something positive that comes out of any event that takes place.

Take the current economic climate for instance. There is a lot of concern and apprehension in the minds of the students, employed and un-employed professionals about how long the global financial crisis will last and what the future would be like. However not all industries are being adversely affected by the current crisis. Business Schools around the world are witnessing a surge in applications as people realize that this is probably the best time to invest in oneself and go back to being a student.

Business schools however are not taking it easy. The fact that most of the decision-makers who led the world to the current economic crisis were MBA’s has put a lot of pressure on b-schools to change their curriculum so that it addresses real life problems(read here). At the full time MBA program at AGSM for instance the lectures and course contents are being changed so as to include some detail about the crisis and how such scenarios can be avoided in future.

The picture above is what the AGSM MBA is like, except that you can’t afford to keep those binders on the shelves for too long. Most of the subjects that you see above have introduced some component that talks about what caused the current crisis and what we as future managers should do to to avoid it. So while the Organizational behavior lectures talk about tackling and preventing “groupthink”, the accounting classes talk about how difficult it is to recognize and value assets correctly and how in today’s times it’s better to be conservative in preparing financial results.

Our economics classes have taught us that the media definition of a recession(2 consecutive quarters of negative growth) is absolutely incorrect. As we move ahead into the program more changes are being made to make the learning more relevant and practical. A major step in this direction is AGSM MBA Integrative experience, a rigorous 2 week period where the entire Full Time MBA class would work on real life cases where they would have to bring together their knowledge from all the subjects that they’ve studied. Catch the Academic Director of AGSM MBA Programs, Professor Murali Chandrashekaran talk about this in the video below.

So while the global financial crisis of today can be partly attributed to MBA’s, I suppose the good thing is that it is leading to a re-structuring of the curriculum and should lead to smarter future MBA’s who would be able to ensure that a similar crisis does not occur again. Thus we probably can agree that whatever happens, happens for the best

Tags: agsm, asb, australia, B-School Experiences, Business, employment, gfc, mba, unsw

Nokia N97 – Has The Ultimate iPhone Killer Arrived

February 3, 2009 by krisdhingra  
Filed under Tech

7 Comments

On December 2, 2008 Nokia announced the release of its flagship device in the N9X range – the N97 mobile computer. Its feature list is nothing short of impressive. QWERTY keyboard, a 3.5” touch screen interface, A-GPS with an electronic compass, TV Out, 5 MP Camera and (32+16) GB of storage ensure that there is not even a single feature that you could possibly want that is not provided. Just looking at the spec sheet fuzzes out the competition.

This device should change the way people connect to the internet and to each other. Tagged as the ‘Facebook phone’, this device is the weapon of choice for social networking freaks. It offers status updates from social networking sites right on their home page in an always on mode. This makes keeping tab of your friends kids play. Choc a bloc with sensors and interfaces this device is any gadget lover’s dream come true. It’s a mobile computer on steroids.

From the point of view of a N-series loyalist and the prospective buyers of this phone, which are basically smart phone users, there are a number of features that make the phone an experience in itself. As a customer of this phone, you get to ride on a blazing fast processor with 128 MB RAM and an extended battery life that makes you wonder whether you really need a PC anymore! Symbian 5th Edition ensures user enjoyment, smart simplicity and expandable experiences at the center of your mobile computing experience. Add to this a TV out port and you are all set to show off your escapades to friends and family.

Tired of typing on the keypad? Losing the human ‘touch’? The large 3,5″, bright nHD (640 x 360 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratio) TFT color display with resistive touch screen and tactile feedback changes the way you interact with your phone. Also, the increased spread of your screen brings in a new world of applications that allows you to do more in a smarter way. Web browsing on this screen coupled with a fully functional QWERTY keyboard is a breeze. The on board web browser works like a charm and for the very first time, users would find the experience of mobile browsing similar to a full sized desktop. Couple this with high speed 3G network capabilities and you remain connected.

With the Carl Zeiss ® 5 Megapixel camera the world is yours to capture. Immortalize life in DVD quality 16:9 video with dual LED flash. Another extremely interesting feature of the phone is the ability to Geo-tag all images through the on-board GPS. Coupled with this is a powerhouse of multimedia capability starting with a 32GB internal storage memory to archive all the latest music and videos in your collection. A 3.5 mm audio jack and a next generation interface supporting album art, its your very own DJ console station. See your So-Lo (Social Location) change as friends keep track of you. Update social networks with your status and real time info.

The N97 probably is going to be one of the biggest contenders to replace the iPhone. The past year saw the release of a bunch a of phones that were touted as iPhone killers(Samsung Omnia, HTC Diamond etc) but none of them managed to create the desired impact on the consumers.

Checkout the video below to get an insight into this cool device.

For more information on the power and features of the N97, click here.

Tags: 3G, camera, GPS, iphone, killer, n97, nokia, symbian

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