A new Sea Link, new flyovers, metro railway, mono rail… you name it, Mumbai is getting everything short of a 7:13 Zeppelin service (fast) from Borivali to Nariman Point. And the city is so dug-up during this monsoon that soon the time taken for the daily commute will be in double digits – at least for some days. But wait a minute – do we need all these bridges, flyovers, metro service, additional trains? Do all the people travelling from the suburbs to town need to travel? Is there anyone out there thinking of the beautiful possibility of 20-30 per cent of commuters staying at home and working – at least for three days a week?
Imagine firms that encourage  part of their workforce to log-on from home  (call them e-force if you want) and be supervised by seniors who are similarly working from home? Fast Net connectivity, cheap cellphones and video conferencing possibilities can be exercised to the fullest, right? Once or twice a week teams can meet up, play their social roles and even do real meetings where coffee and biscuits are served.
BMC can then reward those organisations with, say, 30 per cent employees working from home at any given point of time, with lower taxes. This move will certainly reduce traffic, number of deaths on railway tracks, wastage of fuel, electricity use and the need for never-ending digging for better ‘infrastructure’.
Sure, if you moot this idea at your office there will be strong resistance by those people who can be called ‘traditional’. The physical presence of boss and employees under one roof is not required any more – alright it cannot be abolished overnight, but a beginning can certainly be made. In a maximum city like Mumbai, there is no better reward to give employees than a few commute-free days.
I can talk about newspaper organisations because I have been working in one for 14-odd years. Honestly, there is no real need that I can see for reporters travelling to an office, holding meeting with seniors, scurrying out to meet contacts and attend press conferences and returning to office to file copies. Instead they can wake up in the morning, have an e-conference with the respective editors, talk to contacts over the phone, or if necessary, travel directly to meet people or attend conferences and file copy from wherever they are. Yes, a desk that can lay out pages needs to travel to an office every day – but that constitutes less than 20 per cent of a newspaper edition.
Today if you commute everyday for two hours to stare into a computer screen and then another two hours to reach home, it can be termed a criminal wastage of resources, time, energy and terrible under-utilisation of available technology.
Oh…its 6 PM? I got to leave…two hour commute in the rain, you see!

Well, for all of you who’re wondering… the ride over the Bandra-Worli sea link is wonderful! As wonderful as it’s looked these past few nights all lit up! It may have been a bit of a slow drive this morning what with there being as many OB vans as cars, but driving down a good road and watching the sea on both sides on a cloudy morning was a pleasant change from the claustrophobic lanes of Mahim. One was actually hoping it would take a little longer — I couldn’t  even finish reading one newspaper and I barely listened to three songs on the radio. But I enjoyed the drive feeling somewhat guilty about having packed off my daughter to school in an auto.

For all those who predicted a traffic snarl at the Worli end in the morning… well, sorry to disappoint you but I took less than five minutes to get from the sea face to Annie Besant Road. I may have been in early — I was off the bridge by 8.25 — and it could  get worse at Worli in the coming days but today I just zipped through. My colleagues tell me there was absolutely no traffic on the Bandra-Mahim-Prabhadevi route which means the sea link has made a difference. Like all Bombayites I too am thrilled that the city now has a sea link. Perhaps, a little more thrilled than many others because I happen to live in Bandra and work in Worli — it doesn’t get much better that that.

For the last eight years I have watched the sea link coming up  living, as I do, a stone’s throw away from the point where one gets on to the bridge. With every visit to the promenade, we would try and gauge how much further the bridge had inched over the water. Well it’s finally made it to Worli and it’s a pity the local administration isn’t more efficient — this could have happened four years back and by now the second stretch between Worli and Haji Ali should have been complete. I came to Bombay exactly 20 years back — the city was less congested, the streets less crowded, the air fresher. Now the city stinks, you can’t think of driving anywhere because of the horrible traffic. Except on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

The other day I went to one of my relative’s place for dinner and we sat down to watch an old DVD of a Simon and Garfunkel concert. Listening to their music made me wonder, when was the last time a modern day rock/pop band came up and had a cult following. And when I say modern day, I mean in the last 15 years or so. I scratched my head, thought over and over and couldn’t come up with  — forget many — even one band which created a mass hysteria amongst music lovers.

In fact, the only few names which I could come up were Green Day, Coldplay, and to stretch the list, I had to include Linkin Park in it as well. At this point, I must tell you that when it comes to music, I am very snobbish. In fact, music is the only form of entertainment, where snob value is the highest amongst people. You will rarely hear someone say “Oh, I can’t watch a SRK movie” or “All Yash Raj Movies are trash”. But when it comes to music, people have erected these mental barriers around themselves, which doesn’t allow them to go beyond the genres which they like. Like a friend of mine the other day said, “I just can’t listen to the likes of Rihanna”. Of course, it’s music, so personal tastes do vary from genre to genre among people.

In my case, I genuinely hate the Hip Hop genre and to a certain extent rap (Eminem is the only exception). Most of the artists sound the same, they have some of the most ridiculous names (what sort of a name is Three 6 Mafia for a band?!) and the words of their songs are inexplicable to say the least.

My wife is the exact opposite of me when it comes to music. Though she rarely allows me to use her iPod, when I do manage to lay my hands on it, I find all genres of music on it. From Bob Dylan to Black Eyed Peas. From Frank Sinatra to Freddie Mercury. From Pink Floyd to Pussycat Dolls. She knows what’s the “in-thing” and knows the songs of artists whose names even I can’t even pronounce. For instance, Soulja Boy, who is apparently a rap artist!. It’s something I really admire, she is always open to listening to new music and gives it an honest chance and then forms an opinion.

This other friend of mine, who like me is still stuck up on the music of 70’s and 80’s, says that its not because the new artists haven’t been that great. It’s just that when we were in college the likes of Pink Floyd, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Nirvana left an inedible mark on our minds. Even in college, there used to be these two groups. One who were always high on music and other “stuff” who preferred the likes of Cobain and Gilmour and the other who’s dose of music had the then contemporary music of Ricky Martin and Michael Learns to Rock.

But even then, Pink Floyd was never the “in-thing”. At least when I was growing up, the likes Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and the million other boy bands were a rage. Girls loved them, guys didn’t like them but listened to them as they weren’t all that bad, while some — as is the case with any genre — trashed them like anything. The point being even they had a fan following. These days, I guess it’s too much about one-song wonders band/artists. People like their songs but soon are forgotten.

So when last week Michael Jackson died, me and wife were having this conversation about how no artist/band in the last few years have managed to dominate the charts over a period of time. She said don’t crib as it’s your fault only. “Who’s asked you to listen to the same songs and artists over and over again?”. But I love them, was my immediate reposte. She agreed that there have been no new rock bands in the last decade or so to have a cult following. But added “Just because your snob value is so high, doesn’t mean good music hasn’t been created post the 80’s”. True, I guess, we can’t sob, sob…when we are so snob, snob!

That’s the question most are asking of new Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal. Getting rid of the 10th class board exams has gone down very well with the kids (my 12-year old says he loves ‘Kapil-uncle’ even though he’s never seen him, even on TV!), but it’s not necessarily a good thing. The 10th Board may have added to pressure, but it also gave kids a fairly good idea of just where their skills lay (or didn’t lie, more accurately)… with the Boards abolished, I bet schools will be pressured by parents to allow their children to study ‘science’ till the 12th, even though it’s obvious they don’t have the aptitude for it. And I don’t see how it helps if, as Kapil Sibal wants eventually, even the 12th Board is abolished and, instead, kids just give an entrance examination for university, much the same way those wanting to do an MBA sit for the CAT. One exam is being replaced by another, that’s all. And what happened to the vocational studies after the 10th which was the original reason for the 10 + 2 system … basically those who wanted to study beyond the 10th would do so, the rest would do vocational stuff … secretarial courses, windows, carpentry and so on. Since the vocational training never happened, why not just go back to the old 11 years in school?

There are a million other such questions being asked of Kapil Sibal and his enthusiasm to implement the Professor Yashpal report – if someone like Kaushik Basu should dissent from the other members of the committee, it has to be for a good reason (Disclosure: Kaushik was one of the best teachers we had in DSchool back in the mid-80s). Plus, it’s still not clear, even after having gone through all Sibal’s interviews and press conferences, how he plans to deal with the issue of getting better quality teachers, higher salaries for them, genuine autonomy for colleges/schools. Is he saying the government, and his ministry in particular, will not appoint the next chief of the IIM Ahmedabad, or that the next vice chancellor of Delhi University will be decided by the university itself?

Maybe Kapil Sibal doesn’t get it in quite the same manner that educationists like Kaushik Basu or people like Pratap Bhanu Mehta (he’s the head of the Centre for Policy Research and resigned from the National Knowledge Commission) who’ve spent a lifetime looking at such issues. But no one person agrees with everyone else (think Kaushik and Prof Yashpal), so why hold this against Kapil Sibal? The minister’s understood a few basic things, and he’s got them absolutely right.

One, since you can’t resolve everything, focus on just a few things. Two, most of the problems we’re seeing today are related to poor quality of supply. So, Sibal’s solution is to create more supply! Once you do away with the UGC granting clearances for universities and come up with some basic criterion which people who want to set up universities must meet, the supply response will be great – by way of example, most of the big software companies, like TCS or Wipro, run mini-universities anyway even today for their staffers, so if one of them wants to set up a full-fledged university, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

In an ideal world, Sibal should give Delhi University autonomy and concentrate on getting it back to shape. But that’s like attempting for the moon. Why not create another university, or a group of classy colleges, that will give Delhi University a run for its money? To understand this, let’s use the telecom example, since that’s an area I understand.

In the mid-1990s, BSNL was your only choice if you lived outside of Delhi and Mumbai. So, if you wanted top quality phones, you’d ask the same questions you’re asking about Delhi University. Will the government ever free up BSNL, allow it to hire top-class professionals at market-salaries and so on? The government didn’t do it then, and it won’t do it now, or if the UPA has its way (as you can see, I’m an NDA fan!), ever. But what happened? Bharti came up and took up that space! And now it is really irrelevant whether BSNL survives or not. Of course it’s a tragedy that BSNL is being suffocated the way it is, but we can either spend the rest of our lives trying to fix it and run up against all manner of obstacles or simply circumvent the problem – it’s a bit like a bypass surgery. By the way, that’s precisely what Dr Manmohan Singh tried to do in the early 1990s – to create more supply. Of course there will be problems, but just the presence/threat of new supply will also fix a lot of things.

Will the new accreditation system Sibal has in mind for universities help? Basically, much like in the US, you’ll be able to choose your universities on the basis of scores some independent evaluating agencies give. You have to be naïve to think it’ll work flawlessly – arre, the financial mess we’re in is largely the result of ‘independent’ credit rating agencies colluding with financial institutions. But it’s not as if the current evaluation system is flawless and doesn’t throw up charlatans. So, we’ll have to come up with ways to ensure the raters don’t get captured by those they’re rating.

Short point is that there is no final solution to anything, at least if you’re not like Hitler, or Sanjay Gandhi. So, give Sibal’s plan a chance. He’ll get a lot of things wrong, and won’t be allowed to go ahead with a lot considering education is a concurrent subject, and he hasn’t thought through a lot of things… how do you square the demand for reservation with institutions of excellence, for instance? And, as we’ve learnt to our horror, if you don’t get the detail right, the whole plan goes for a toss… the best-laid plans of men and mice, and all that. But anyone whose plans centre around creating more schools/colleges has clearly grasped the main point.

Disclaimer: Yes, I agree that Sania Mirza has done wonders for Indian Women’s Tennis.
But the comparison ends there.

I have a rather bad habit. Before going to sleep, I watch news. Sometimes, it’s a business channel (yuck to many), but mostly normal tamasha on news channels.
Yesterday, there was real tamasha. Some channels went quite gaga over Saina Nehwal’s super series win and Sania Mirza’s first round win in Wimbledon.
And while I am quite fine with the hoopla around Mirza, I am quite surprised with the lack of bandwidth for Nehwal.
In the last few years, Nehwal has consistently done well. Yet, for one tournament she was hassled for a visa (she rightly said that a cricketer wouldn’t have faced any hassles).
In fact, in this T-20 nonsense, I wonder if anyone even knew that Nehwal was quietly winning match-after-match.
In comparison, Mirza has to win one single match to be in the headlines. While I believe that Mirza has done wonders for Indian Women’s Tennis, but it’s simply as an ambassador. As a player, she has a long way to go.
At the age of 18-19, she had promise. At 22-23, she is still someone with promise. In singles, she hasn’t been in the quarter-finals of any of the Grand Slams.
But I guess tennis has more glamour than badminton. Everyone remembers Anna Kournikova…some, perhaps, even more than Chris Evert or Bille Jean King.
And someone may even argue that tennis is a more inclusive sport. Badminton is, after all, mostly an Asian sport. And the top ten have a lot of Chinese players and sometimes, a few Danish players.
For an Indian to break into the league is mighty impressive. If Nehwal’s coach is to be believed, she will be ranked sixth in the world after the recent win – in tennis, only
Ramanathan Krishnan was seeded fourth in the 1961 Wimbledon…
Sadly, talent and performance seldom gets reflected in television or newspaper coverage. Glamour, it would seem, works wonders.

I often end up tearing my hair in frustration when I am reading something or find something to read online and I am ‘told’ to pay up to continue reading. While it makes perfect economic and business sense for the content provider, I am left wondering if the world is flat only for some people, and not all.

I may be stretching things too far when I try to extend the concept of the flat world to accessing the content on the world wide web. But, the affordability factor cannot be ignored. This must have been because many an article I wanted to read had to be paid in dollars or pounds when I earned in the humble rupees.

Five dollars may not be too much for an American or a Canadian, or many a European to read an article. But, for me, $5 is nearly Rs 250. It’s not a price I can afford to pay for a single article. It is what I may pay for a novel.
I had thought the future would be brighter for those who love to surf the Net for information and knowledge, when more and more content from magazines and newspapers were being made available for free.

But, costing pressures of the content providers i.e. magazines and journals is catching up it seems with free-riders like me. Despite all those cost-benefit analyses of free content online, I seemed to throw logic out of the window when surfing the world wide web looking for information or to read. This, when I am always trying to spread the ‘gyan’ on why we pay how much we pay for whay we use.

In social sense and commercial sense the world is indeed flat. A schoolmate, on his way to work in Toronto pings me to ask how I am doing while I am at work or am winding up my work for the day. Now I can ping him when he is on his way to work to enquire how a common friend was doing in Naples, while an ex-colleague pings me from Hong Kong to ask if my job is safe.

Wish the world would become flat in the sense of affordability too.

I found myself grappling with the age-old debate about university education versus work experience when a friend, who could not complete a political science degree with an Australian university (no relation to the recent race attacks there), met me over dinner. The issue was financial, with a hoped-for grant not coming through and his finances having stretched real thin. Since this was a post-graduate program and not PhD, he had no option but to discontinue. He is now looking for work, and I found myself ill-informed to advise him on where he should try.

His dilemma reminded me of what the former book editor of an American newspaper once said to me. He had been to university but harboured very poor views on it. Most of his real eduction had come from the work he did — and not just learning the details of the job. He found that just to keep up with the demands of his job, he became an auto-didact, educating himself all that he needed to succeed as an arts journalist. That, and not college, was the most glorious phase of his life, as the security of a job and the absence of  hierarchical pedagogy were a blooming push for freedom.

While university can and does give you the centre around which to draw your life, many people find that their work is at great odds to what they have learnt in school, and by the end of the first decade of passing out, they have forgotten most of what seemed terribly important back then. In my case, for instance, I can probably help you with the construction of a very basic electrical circuit, which is not bad, considering I have no need for such knowledge in my current job as editor/writer. Even my friends who continued with engineering jobs have moved to writing code, which was learnt on the job and not at engineering school. And no, we did not learn Java at school. It was handed down during those six furious months of training at TCS, IBM, Infosys etc.

To succeed on the job requires us to so completely remap our college-addled brain that we are hard-pressed to recognise our former selves one year into the job. The backslapping has given way to a quiet self-awareness. Financial concerns have replaced more mundane ones. And conflicts suddenly seem more grave than the past taught us.

So why go to university then? Well, networking, for one. Being a Stephanian is a badge for life and will open doors for you long after you have forgotten the college and what it taught you. That’s true also for the IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and others. Plus the financial benefits. You are suddenly in another terrain.

But there are thousands of smart young men and women, like my Australia-returned friend, who have not gone to one of these five-star institutes, yet are devoted to improving their lot by some self-learning on the job. The question is, does the system give them a chance to make a decent living?

When I first began life as a travel writer six years ago, things were a bit different. I don’t mean this in the sense that the actual travelling part was any different – no, the sense of excitement and, indeed, uncertainty, is still the same. What I’m referring to are the nitty-grittys and the logistics involved, chiefly to do with my budget and my means of transport. When I did trips out of Bombay, of course, I would normally jump straight into the nearest available car and point it towards my destination. Travelling in other parts of the country, however, usually meant getting to a major hub, such as Delhi or Madras or Calcutta, picking up a car there and then driving off. All of this still holds true, of course, but in the days of smaller budgets, getting to these hubs meant a fairly long journey by train.
Preparing for one of these journeys was an event in itself. The Indian Railways website wasn’t especially reliable, so trying to book a ticket on it was an effort fraught with the danger of credit card double-charging and so forth. Also, since trains almost always ran full, there was no guarantee of actually getting a ticket, even if I tried to book one well in advance; last minute tickets were laughably out of the question. Given these circumstances, I relied on the mysterious ‘Ashok bhai’, travel agent non-pareil, to work his magic. I never met the man (all contact was over the phone) but his reach obviously extended deep into the bowels of the railway mechanism – only he could conjure tickets out of thin air, albeit for an additional consideration.
Ticket finally in hand, I’d prepare myself for the journey ahead. A Bombay-Calcutta leg, for example, meant at least 30 hours in a train, so that meant fortifying myself with enough snacks, music and reading material to last the trip, not to mention basic bedding (I can’t deal with the stuff handed out by the railways) and toilet paper –  although one glance at the average loo in a train usually guaranteed instant constipation. Arriving at the station, there’d be a definite sense of anticipation – would the train be on time? Would my travelling companions be amiable or borderline-nutters? The only way to find out was to actually get on.
I normally specified an upper berth, so that I could climb up there and be undisturbed if I so wished, and also because I could put my bag right next to me instead of under the bottom seat (I’m paranoid like that). Thus would begin a journey full of sights, sounds, tastes and smells – kids waving cheerfully at the train, bullocks in passing fields, ascetics meditating by the riverside, fellow passengers singing and playing boisterous card games, the train’s horn piercing the air, spicy samosas and dal-vadas, wood-smoke from villages and, if I was unlucky enough to be thus situated, the powerful aromas from the toilets. Arriving at my destination, I’d be dead tired and covered with a fine layer of dirt, usually necessitating a very long shower and a day’s rest – but there was a sense of satisfaction at having survived in one piece.
These days, it’s all become much more flexible. I have a somewhat larger budget, cut-price airlines have grown in number and tickets can be had literally a few hours before my desired time of departure. Flying also means I can spend that much more time on the road, rather than on a train, which in turn gives me greater leeway when I come up with an itinerary. It must be said that I’ve also become lazier; if I can get somewhere in two hours rather than 24, I’ll go with two hours any day, all things being equal. Still, I can’t help feeling sometimes that flying is rather impersonal, sterile even. Sitting in a metal tube for a couple of hours doesn’t give you the sort of sensory experience that a train does, and I miss that experience every now and again.

Why do problems of Dalits get such little exposure in mainstream media? How should this be addressed? Do modern newsrooms need Dalit representation - maybe in the form of reservations - to make them voice Dalit concerns?

This was the issue debated in a day-long seminar on Dalits and the Media. There were no highfalutin names present here, just ordinary reporters who are known to have an interest in Dalit issues.

Ravish Kumar from NDTV was cogent, blunt and interesting. “I have a problem with the Dalit middle class. Why do they constantly want to be someone else?” he asked. “They change their names, never take anyone home, never talk about themselves…” But must a Dalit always feel a Dalit to be noticed? He answered his own question: he was invited to a Dalit home and when the teenaged girls showed him their room, the walls were decorated not with pictures of Babasaheb Ambedkar but Shahrukh Khan.

A Dalit government servant, who invited him to have dinner at the Marriott, told him that his other colleagues would not break bread with him even in a hotel. The government servant told Kumar, “To such Dalits I say: use humour. Ask these people, OK, you won’t come to my house, but at least come to a hotel. How much will you run from us? How long?”

Kumar said it was impossible to divorce Dalits from the violence that seemed to follow them. But occasionally there were good news stories that were a joy to do: He recalled the Dalit settlement in Ahmedabad where, the only thing dividing a Dalit seth and a rich upper caste Patel was caste. They were happy to do business with each other, they handled volumes worth crores of rupee every day but the Dalit was never allowed to visit Patel’s home. The Dalit seth lived in an opulent house in the Dalit quarter of Ahmedabad - which is wealthy from all accounts - but never went to his partner’s resident. “I told Patel I will give you untold riches. You live in the dalit locality, next to your partner for a year. He spat at the camera,” Kumar said.

So how will Dalits and svarna society come to be at peace with each other? There were many questions about the public perception of Dalits. “Hindu festivals like teej get so much publicity in the newspapers. But Babasaheb’s birthday doesn’t get a single line,” said one dalit from the audience. “Why?”

A suggestion was that possibly until the Dalits were physically accommodated in newsrooms, newspapers would continue to ignore issues they considered important. Ramkumar, a journalist working in Saharanpur, UP, explained how in that city, every newspaper had a Muslim reporter to translate and understand the implications of the fatwas that neighbouring Deoband issued. Like that, maybe to understand Dalit issues, it was important to have representation from the community.

But is that really right - that only a Dalit reporter is capable of understanding the pain of being a Dalit? Hard to say. Recasting a newsroom along caste lines could have a profound implication for newsgathering and bringing out newspapers.

But underlying this, there is another question: of the relationship between Dalits and power. There are many, who consider that despite being a Dalit leader, Mayawati is not really a Dalit because she has changed her mindset, is mimicking the oppressors. So is being a Dalit a mindset?

Why should we charge Sonia Gandhi with perpetrating a regency but excuse Mayawati from the charge of being undemocratic? There is a significant Dalit vanguard that is critical of the way Mayawati functions. Why is it so shy of coming out and saying so in the open?

Erring on the side of political correctness is the worst thing a reporter can do - because this means he wants to be seen as good but stops telling the truth which is what reporters are supposed to do. What do you think?

LESLIE D’MONTE

By now most people acknowledge that a majority of the patents filed by companies border on the ludicrous. Take, for instance, the latest from the stable of software giant Microsoft that is one of the largest patent holders in the world.

Microsoft has now filed a patent for an architecture which provides feedback to a user on fashion and other personal appearance decisions that the user may desire. The user can upload self images for viewing and rating (or voting) by viewers who choose to provide an opinion on a set of images that depict the user in different fashion and/or cosmetic looks. For example, the user (or contributor) takes photo snapshots that show the user presented with a number (e.g., two) of different fashion choices. The snapshots can then be processed for upload to a website or other accessible location for viewing by one or more viewers.

The viewers can cast a vote for one of the images by selecting the desired image (e.g., clicking on an image). In response, the viewer(s) and/or contributor will be presented with overall statistics for that set of images as to how other viewers voted, as well as a next set (e.g., pair) of photos depicting the user in different fashion and/or cosmetic choice. Alternatively, or in combination therewith, the viewer(s) will be presented a set of images of other users desiring to be voted on. This process can continue until terminated, based on the viewer not voting, the contributor no longer providing images for voting, scheduling information, and so on.

The viewer is enticed to continue with the voting process by streamlining the way in which contributor images are formatted and allowed to be uploaded and processed for presentation. Additionally, the viewer is enticed to continue participating by receiving statistics that indicate how the viewer compares to other viewer opinions. For example, the statistics can be obtained via users and/or groups of users of a social network that may have similar interests. The statistics and new set of images are quickly presented to the viewer to optimise viewer participation by reducing delay in providing the feedback to the viewer. Other enticements can be provided such as rewards, points, content, discounts, etc., that serve to maintain viewer participation.

The contributor can also select a specific set of viewers rather than allowing public access to the viewer feedback process. For example, if the contributor values one viewer opinion over another, the viewer with the valued opinion can be selected and notified for a voting opinion.

In a broader implementation, the contributor can upload images or other types of media (e.g., video files, audio files, etc.) related to non-fashion content for viewing and voting by other viewers. For example, the contributor can upload images of automobiles for viewing and voting by the viewers.

REASON: Microsoft argues that the advent of global networks such as the internet has made available enormous amounts of information not only in the form of static data but also for dynamic interaction with other systems and users. Users can now access information and other users to discuss and exchange views on virtually any topic and in realtime. Moreover, the fact that this exchange is interactive (reality-based) rather than a receive-only scenario provides immediate feedback. This is evidenced in an emerging trend in TV shows that provide technology for allowing viewers to vote on contestants in a variety of different competitions (e.g., singing, dancing, etc.).

Commercial enterprises, it adds, have realised the potential in reaching millions of potential customers to conduct anonymous surveys to obtain demographics and other desired information in order to determine the type of advertising to present on websites, and so on. A website may present information (e.g., audio data, video data, image date, text, etc.) or questions to which users can take a few minutes to rate or answer in anonymity.

A variation on this model is also applied to rating websites where users can rate other on physical appearance, pets, personality and other user traits and attributes. In voting sites, typically, it is a general purpose question posed to viewers, and once the viewers have answered the question they tend to leave the website to do something else. In other rating websites, when viewers have rated an image, the viewers are presented with a seemingly endless series of other images to be rated or voted on, the purpose of which is to generate a flow experience so the viewers will stay at the website to continue participating. This process can generate revenue for advertisers by presenting advertisements while the viewers are voting. Moreover, there is a fascination with anonymously critiquing the appearance of another person.

In SUM One thought that the software giant would be more busy warding off threats from Google. But then, Microsoft employees reportedly get a $2500 bonus for every patent. They don’t have to write it either, The patent lawyer does. All you do is describe the idea and give any relevant documentation and someone else converts it to a patent. Maybe that’s one of the reasons there are so many patents to be filed. Incidentally, the Patent Office now gets some 500 million applications a year, leading to litigation costs of over $10 billion a year to define who has what rights.

And if the goal of patent law is “to promote the progress of science and useful arts”, one wonders where this “hot or not” type of patent fits in.

Incidentally, Microsoft, this May, was also granted a patent for a way of limiting access to certain features of an operating system depending on whether a user has paid for those features. The patent, titled “Restricted software and hardware usage on a computer”, covers a means by which it can offer software that has features either enabled or not enabled depending on which edition a user has purchased. It’s a concept already in use at the company.

Microsoft has already said it will offer all versions of Windows 7 on a single disc, with a particular product key unlocking the features that come with that edition. Users will be able to upgrade to a higher-end version of Windows 7 just by purchasing a new product key.