But earlier this year I met 9 other entrepreneurs, communications and media business – people from all over the world and I was delighted to meet someone who did exactly ‘that’. Crisscrossing The UK, on an insightful tour of the Creative businesses across the country, we chatted about the opportunities and business scenarios back home and compared notes. Inspite of the general doom and gloom (this was Mar 09, the nadir of the financial meltdown) all of us were extremely positive about the business we were in. Each one of us had great conviction in what we did. Some of us used digital tools to deliver unique products that were commercial and some used digital media as a tool for social change. The magic lies somewhere in the combination of the two.

If you think of digital delivery as a lens that can scale the reach of critical information the problem (of finding sustainable business models) suddenly becomes an opportunity. In the context of a large and diverse emerging economy glamorous digital businesses like news and music pale compared to the demand  for educational and health based content. The Creative Economy program by the British Council creates the type of mini network and more importantly awareness which is needed for entrepreneurs to re-focus on ‘digital needs’ as opposed to ‘digital desires’ of their consumers.

Traditional news and music businesses have (much) bigger demons to fight, than the internet, to survive in the new world-media order. All that the rest of us have to do, is meet up! See you at C&binet

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?

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.

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!

Creative folks being attached to commercial creative output is like a dentist being attached to the rotten tooth. its your job to get it out (the idea) if someone likes it good, else go back to work