The First Day

The Beginning of the Social Media Stock Bubble?

Osama's Death reminded me of Freedom at Oracle

Let me start with the below line from my earlier post Infosys Loaded with its 3.0 Version - Part II

"I am not a regular television viewer (more due to living out of home since last 12 years) but i do consider myself just lucky enough to catch the historic ones - from IC 814 hijack to 911 to Obama's election to Egypt crisis to almost all the general elections in India post the famous riots at Bhagalpur. "

and extend it further. 

I am not a regular television viewer because i never had one during the last 12 years of my life plus the almost ubiquitous internet accessibility ensured that there was no need of it. But now after landing up in Bangalore in a 'furnished' accommodation with fixed monthly bucks to pay for it and with a television right in front of me, i subconsciously seem to be trying to make up for it. To the extent that its always on. Yes the first thing i tend do in morning is check my mobile and switch on the tv. The same happened on the Monday morning (on 2nd of May, 2011 to be precise). Having a usual incomplete sleep (just check when the angry bird blog was posted, the clueless act of grouping the objects on Prezi was the culprit ), i hurriedly left my place around 8:30 in the morning.

I reached office around 9:45, though the official hours start at 8. Now if you are an MBA graduate that too a fresh one that too from TAPMI (yes , time is still the religion there; you can be late for your date and still make up for it but not to a lecture there) and when your manager inadvertently (read always) arrives before you perhaps to check on your just-got-late excuse, it should be a crime. I will make up staying late, thought me but again if you are part of the Indian IT setup , that should be a norm. Nevertheless, i squeezed though my desk and started pretending to work perhaps like most other folks.With a printer behind and people gushing in there for their share of this facility , it was difficult to open my morning dose of Linkedin (yes that's the only social/professional networking site which the sensors allow here), The Social Canvas Daily (thanks paper.li for making access to the twitter-se-posted links so easy and that too without logging into twitter) and other sites to which i have almost got addicted to. Only around 11:30ish, i was able to browse through Time of India headline and headline it was - President Obama confirms death of Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

That was it. Series of googling and series of write-ups on how it all transpired - let them note if they want to - the rebel inside me declared. You can browse through n number of pages but catching it live on the box has its own element , if only there could be one around. The dear Oracle cafeteria was being missed. That Lehmann Brother collapse, the Mumbai 26/11 attack and the Tendulkar's century with India winning in Chennai a month after, the Satyam scam and the stock market crashing - i had watched them all in those cafeteria's TVs. And it was not me, a whole lot of their employees did - the good part was no one minded those so called loss of productive hours or questioned it in any way. Trust was the key (and still it is i am sure) at Oracle. Loved the freedom being provided. There was no concept of swipe-in and swipe-out for logging your attendance to office. You can come and go to office anytime. There is no dress code attached. No blocking of the social network sites. No one checking your bag while you leave the office.

Yes, when you have whole bunch of talented people , the best of IT land, you should consider them to be matured enough to prove their worth and give back the returns on the salaries they receive. And who don't want to be a liberal soul. The age cohort of Indian workforce says it all:

Generation Bharat (Born between 1960-1975) characterized by

• Collectism and conformity
• Strong family values
• Do not question authority
• Believe that higher education is the only way to success
• Deep-seated economic insecurity
• Lack of optimism
• Cynicism and lack of empowerment

Generation India (Born between 1975-1990)

• Characterized by high confidence
• Capacity to process information very fast
• Urge to develop a career fast
• Tendency to expect to be given high responsibilities immediately
• Individualism
• Impatient
• Bold
• Tendency to overestimate themselves (arrogance of ignorance)
• Tendency to expect employer to adapt to them
• Roaming in cynicism-optimism paradigm
• Living in duality

General Globalized India (Born after 1990)

• Characterized by awareness of the world
• Environment conscious
• High technology literate
• Multitasking ability
• Urge to grow up fast
• Disrespect for elders and authority
• Lack of proper role models and references
• High self-confidence
• Optimist by nature
• Sees plurality as a way of life

A U.S company seems to have understood this Indian cohort better than its Indian counterparts.

Social Network Size : How many can You Handle?

When i walk through the lanes of my hometown , i know everyone around knows me there. The people at smaller places are much more familiar and friendlier with each other than those living in big cities(Who has time?). Why so? Is it the time factor only?

In the earlier post on What is Your Online Social Limit? , a question was raised on the Bounded Rationality while we maintain our Social Relationships. Has our Social Network changed with the emergence of New Media? Has the technology expanded it?

Our 'actual' and 'real' friends still are very few limited by our own human nature and capabilities rather than technology. Social media is allowing us to 'maintain' our friends (who otherwise would move on slowly) in the rapidly changing world. As the old saying goes 'Out of Sight means Out of Mind', these sites ensure that friends are never out of sight and hence mind. They help us integrate our networks and rebuild (virtually) our old and many new communities. But where to stop? As we have seen in the drawbacks of Network Effects , after one point any new addition leads to congestion and slowly the value of the product/network/connections starts diminishing.

One School of thought says irrespective of the limits provided by these sites , most of human beings can maintain , nurture and sustain around 150 meaningful relationships at a time , online or offline it doesn't matter. This 150 is what we call as Dunbar's Number. It is considered the basic building block for human organizations (from many traditional corporates to Roman Army - are organized around this one Dunbar Number). Groups less than 150 members can function without any formal hierarchy and structure and hence minimal level of bureaucracy. Everyone knows everyone else and how they are related to each other in such groups.But with increase in level of social complexity in our relationships, this number seems to be getting reduced to a lower level. The average number of friends a Facebook account is currently 120 and (try/check yourself) the number of such friends whom we frequently interact is quite small and STABLE.

Here is this Social Networking Site which is trying to leverage on this phenomenon and restrict the number of friends we can have to 50.

They position themselves as 'The Personal Network' allowing anyone to share the moment (Photo Sharing) with his/her close friends (maximum 50). Hence , while you form your high quality network and share with only those who matter the most , the upper limit ensure that your network is not cluttered with just anyone and everyone.

Beyond 150?

Do we really socialize in big networks? Do we really so called 'network' at all then? We are merely broadcasting (advertising?) our lives to a layer built of acquaintances. Our real intimate friends are still the same - consistent and stable. One way to make meaningful networks is to divide your online friend-list into smaller units (functional , regional , etc) - That is the whole purpose of Tags and Labels for our contacts which we ignore most of the time. Such filters aligns the network's relevance towards the particular need at hand.

So is Big the new Small?

I have been living away from my home since more than 10 years now. From high school to undergrad to work to post graduation , one thing i have noticed that most of the time it is not advisable to have your best friend around as your roomie or as your flat mate or as your working group partner. The magic just wanes away slowly. The strong ties are an expensive bet.

Social Networking sites has given us the ability to build big networks comprising of weak ties which requires less time , dedication , inhibitions and commitment from both end and most of the time very valuable (getting new job or new projects or new client or a recommendation , idea or advise) in harnessing the true value of our network. And the bigger your social network is , the more are the chances that you wont be 'out of sight' of many of your connections. There will always be stream of updates , status changes of yours reaching out to your connections and vice versa and All Live. This is where Allen curve comes - which says that there is an exponential drop in the frequency of communication as the distance between engineers increases which implies the more closer we are , there are more chances that we will communicate. Online Social Networks bridge the gap and the distance and increases our chances of having a future communication with our connections.

What is Your Online Social Limit?

Okay , so i came across one Facebook profile and got stumped by the number of Facebook pages (see below) he has liked. Yes yes the count is in excess of hundred. Got  interested to know how he actually keeps up-to-date with his facebook news feeds. Won't the updates from these numerous pages cannibalize those pouring from his FB friends? And what about the Bounded Rationality concept being taught in our MBA classes? Will he be actually able to 'consume' the contents thrown by this pages? Perhaps he should have chosen Twitter (yes , thats how the twitter is being used now , more like feed/reader).

And can he keep on liking the pages the way he is doing? Can we keep on following on twitter and making linked connections endlessly? No flat no , it would convert the social space into spammers paradise, infact we do see many so called 'tools' which 'connects' to the unknowns basically in pursuit of their own marketing motives. So lets see the limits imposed by the social networking sites to ensure they remain relevant and avoid the spammers' dominance in their network :

Linkedin

• The status updates has a limit of 700 characters but keep it to 140 incase your linkedin account is linked to your twitter account.
• Total number of Invitations any one can send : 3000
• Number of Linked Groups any one can join at any time: 50
• Maximum number of connections one can have : 30, 000
• Also , the number of additional invitations one can receive is a direct function of the acceptance ratio of the invites sent earlier by the account.

There are basically 2 types of Linked Accounts:

1. LION: Linkedin Open Networker - They just go and connect with anyone and everyone sending and accepting invitations with no selectivity and inhibitions. Majority of them are regular recruiters who wants to broaden their network to find the best suitable candidates for their job openings.
2. Non-LION : They connect with only those they know and have some sort of personal or professional relationship. They believe more on the quality of their connections for any potential opportunity in case they require.

Facebook

• Maximum number of Facebook Groups you can join at one time : 300
• Number of friends one can have in his/her friend list : 1000
• Maximum Number of friends one can have is 5000 after which no friend can be sent an invite. But still one can follow any additional person through his/her fan page. What we lose out is having a sense of personal touch with such friends
• There is no limit on number of fans a facebook page can have.
• The status updates has a limit of 420 characters.
• The maximum number of pending friend requests one can have : 120

Twitter

• Maximum number of twitter account you can follow = Max(2000,110% of your follower count)
• There is no limit on the number of people following you.

Twitter in due course of time seems to be converging towards becoming a jungle of affiliate marketers. These accounts follows you indiscriminately so that you follow them back and if you don't in next 2-3 days they unfollow you. They just  want maximum followers for them who can click on the links they tweet and eventually help them get those pay per click advertising revenue. If you have a public (or not protected) twitter account , just ignore them once they follow you. They will go , come back again and again but don't you follow them back as they don't add any value to your network. Hold on.