Online Gaming : Welcome to "Civilization"

An interesting article on Online Gaming. Thoroughly readable and yet well researched - a delight for the figure seeker. The following memes are covered/arise

• Gaming media : Mobile versus PC
• Gaming audiences : Son versus Family (interestingly, the article does not talk of Daughter)
• Gaming localization : Bollywood, Mythology, Tradition
• Social impact of gaming
  

Ideally, Telco's should reach out to the students through computer courses - a full scale tie up with IIHT or NIIT or any of the gazamenobutillion computer courses out there thru Gaming. Cybercafes conducting gaming contests to attract audiences could be another route, as are Intercybercafe contests. Check out Sify's approach of roadshows, they are probably truly investing in Gaming.

And this article tends to throw light on some sort of consumer psyche - is the real mass market of online gaming in this segment - women above 40 playing casual games?! So much for the typical male-youth-gamer segment!

From BPL to POE - A different convergence!

This is so cool! Even as companies speak of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL), the stage is getting set for Power Over Ethernet (POE)! I cannot claim to fully understand the nuances & limitations, but clearly, power delivery over ethernet cables is a form of hardware convergence that opens up options with the imminence of Metro Ethernet Networks. It would also herald changing industry structures as large telcos would see massive opportunities in power supply. It would create industries in billing integrators!

Having said all this, I do believe that of all industries, the next really really really big industry in my own squalid lifetime will be that of Energy. Maybe within the next 10 to 20 years, we will definitely see alternate sources of energy gaining complete acceptance. Even now one regularly reads articles of superheated server rooms, and power requirements. Our president is an incredible person with a mind blowing vision indeed, if only the nation listened to him even more!

Kannadda web

As the local language internet takes stronger hold, maybe the key to a breakthrough in our content services offering is to be less english and more local centric. Our offerings currently, be it music@ease or gaming are largely english driven. In fact, the emergence of NetXpert on Kannadda will indeed be our first strong swing into the direction of regional content creation. It would be imperative to continue this trend and ensure that the real masses get onto the internet, which is probably (along with price) one of the key roadblocks to explosive growth of the internet.

The same trend in the emergence of localized content, right at the application level to start with, is seen in Rediff's attempt to provide the Outlook kind of feel to their mail client (to address the home and office user simultaneously), and is further seen in the emerging battle to hit the market with local languages as Msft plays a catching-up game with Google and Rediff

Dell Connect versus NetXpert

Clearly the conceptual bearing of NetXpert is appropriate as we see Dell too launching Dell Connect. Can companies look at integrating various contact center chats into a single chat client?

The most ideal provider of such an integrated chat-client should indeed be the broadband provider. In doing so, the value it provides and its concommittent stickiness and differentiation would indeed be a strategic advantage a company could use to dominate the market. The ultimate battle for the consumer has not even begun!