Saurabh Gupta » upside down

Why Digital doesn’t mean FREE

Saurabh Gupta — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:08:49 +0000

Spotted this on Paidcontent. Amidst all the hullabaloo about Chri Anderson’s new book ‘Free’ it remains to be seen if media in India or for that any kind of proprietary material is ever going to be distributed free ‘officially’. In fact it remains to be seen if the free-mongers will survive the end of their VC funded runs. I’d written about why Free Digital Media was not just a bad idea but probably also an impractical one. (Rupert Murdoch has famously said the obvious that ‘free is not a business model’)

The irony of course is that we’re a piracy ridden economy so the argument (for paid media) gets diluted every time a pirate hawks the latest book or movie at the traffic light. If they’re doing it, shouldn’t we? Won’t it get us MORE readers/viewers/lovers/anything? Won’t these default users shower us with riches someday? surely more users are better than less in today’s globalised hyper informed world? NO

While nothing makes it less illegal, unorganised piracy is still only a minor dent and doesnt have either the access or the many comforts that professional packaging and curation provides. It’s when the content creator promotes the notion that it costs nothing to create digital content simply because it is ‘Digital’, or even worse, throws open it’s doors to a third party (i’m thinking large benevolent colourful yuppie search company) that steals (yes, it’s theft) and serves proprietary material monetising it for piles of gold, that the entire business model needs to be reassessed.

Ask any content creator in India who’s dealt with aggregators and telcos in India. Till last year noone ever saw a dime from revenue shares, in the same time VAS (Value Added Services) revenues shot through the roof. The race to be ‘mobile’ without an indigenous business model filled third party coffers and trivilaised the very product being hawked by the digital baniyas. The race for users will do the same to proponents of ‘free’.

Next – So, if we agree it’s not going to be free, What is the model? How about a digital news-stand?

Simple City

Saurabh Gupta — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:18:03 +0000

Design and function are ever so often confused for each other. In designing a web based application this becomes even more critical since most calls are taken by one or two people teams that have no prior experience of either building User Interface or creating an interactive layout. Get this folks, it is NOT similar to a print ad, so you cannot request multiple ‘options’.

The purpose of ‘design’ is to provide a quick and simple interface that allows users to access the ‘function’. If it stands in the way of that or hides your best features behind 6 clicks, your app is dead in the water.

‘Function’ is NOT i-click-here-and-go-there. It is the central premise, the business ‘reason to exist’, of your site. If you’re creating something with a high function factor, make sure it works fast, loads quick and runs smooth. The form factor should aid this and not add layers to it. In a country where internet speeds are from the Stone Age, this can make all the difference between a successful site and a dead site.

Why so sad?

Saurabh Gupta — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:06:00 +0000

just came across this wonderful resource www.academicearth.org
This is an online reservoir of academic lectures in top notch univs in the US. A particular post caught my attention http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/what-motivates-us-sex
It seems that respondents in a survey (in the US but i would imagine it’s true for many people across the world!) admitted to SEX being one of the MOST important things in their lives. The list of things connected with sex stretches to ‘cleaning up after sex, reading fashion mags’ and so on.. But when it comes to actually having sex or making out or doing it, people spent a paltry 4 minutes and 8 seconds per week!!
We sideline things that we ‘think’ are important to us all the time. This is particularly true of our workplace, how difficult it is to take out the time for the project you definitely know you’ll enjoy doing, where we constantly push away the ‘attractive’ stuff in favour of things that have to be done! and then we crib, complain about what we do, our jobs, bosses, clients which affects the quality of our work which..well..takes us a little further away from our dream projects.

What if you spent some time everyday, without fail, chasing something YOU like! What if you doubled the time to 8minutes and 16 seconds! i know it’s not much but it’s twice the sex and they say the more you have, the more you want and the more you get!

sanguinity, viral marketing and poverty

Saurabh Gupta — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:31:20 +0000

All hell’s breaking loose, the ‘markets’ are crashing, or rather have crashed. job insecurity, dipping toplines, threatened bottomlines, extended credit lines.. OMG!! how will we survive, the foldd bils are clutched tighter in fists that behave like sieves, leaking money, always. Whither consumer!! Suddenly a streak of sunlight peeping through the dark odious clouds, the saviour, DIGITAL, Viral!! Create, engage, interact, network, WEB 100.0, advertising lives, hallelujah we are saved, bottomlines restored, fractured projections present a sanguine rainbow after the storm, truly, the ‘network’ delivers, all ye brand managers – better be ‘connected’ or perish in the storm! a new way appears, the waters part – lo, the NEW way of seducing currency notes hidden in saree folds and worn pant pockets is here!!
Ufff, my creative sojourn is disturbed again, this worn out, torn apart soot covered family that lives outside my office doesn’t know how to shut their 8th kid up. it seems hungry. feed him a viral.