Looking for an Illiterate Maid in India on Facebook Lite

The New York Times today has a very interesting article on how technology innovation is being used to help the poor. This time, its social networking. Here is an excerpt:

Mr. Krishna found that many poor Indians in dead-end jobs remain in poverty not because there are no better jobs, but because they lack the connections to find them. Any Bangalorean could confirm the observation: the city teems with laborers desperate for work, and yet wealthy software tycoons complain endlessly about a shortage of maids and cooks.

Mr. Blagsvedt’s epiphany? “We need village LinkedIn!” he recalled saying, alluding to the professional networking site.

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The last big innovation (or technology) that helped the poor in India is cellular phones. My parents (who live in New Delhi, India) could now call up an electrician or plumber directly on his cell without going through middlemen shop owners who earlier took most of the money simply for connecting us to the nomadic, ill connected electricians and plumbers. Not only did they get to keep all the income but the incomes went up as they could now be fully utilized as opposed to waiting for someone to call them in the shop where they sat idle earlier.

Babajob.com (with Google Maps)

The last paragraph in the New York Times article is perhaps the most telling about why India (and many emerging countries) have a very bright future indeed:

Mr. Manhohar earns $100 a month. Jobs come irregularly, so he often spends up to three months of the year idle. Between jobs, he borrows from loan sharks to feed his wife and children. The usurers levy 10 percent monthly interest, enough to make a $100 loan a $314 debt in one year.

Mr. Manohar does not want his children to know his worries, or his life. He wants them to work in a nice office, so he spends nearly half his income on private schools for them. That is why he was at Babajob in a swiveling chair, staring at a computer and dreaming of more work.

Beginner's 5 Step Guide to Using LinkedIn and Facebook

The topic of Facebook vs. LinkedIn is like humidity in Miami - always present. And perhaps as hot too. Zoli brings up the topic again with his post titled Facebook Just Ain’t For Business, Get Over It (Business Needs Social Networking in Context) and points to this article in New York Times. Scoble has a nice piece on The you-don’t-need-more-friends lobby.

These are interesting discussions but if you are a beginner looking to understand how to deal manage your accounts on LinkedIn and/or Facebook, here are some questions to ask that can help you:

• Would you take a phone call from this person? If you receive an invite on LinkedIn or Facebook, ask yourself if you would take a call from this person on a busy Monday morning. If not, you may want to not have him be part of LinkedIn. Now, would you take a call on Friday evening from this person? If not, you should reject them on Facebook.
• Would you invite this business contact to a BBQ at your home? Ask this question when you get a Facebook from one of your Linkedn contacts (or any business contacts). If the answer is no, don't add them to your Facebook account - its way too personal. Even if you don't say or do much on Facebook, this person can now see who you affiliate with - it can be embarrassing if your cousin from Vietnam posts his massage pictures, or worse - the ending - happy or otherwise.
  
• Do you really need to know her direct? A lot of contacts are made by people through one level of indirection. A friend of my friend finds my profile and sends me a request to connect. Unless I really want to get to know this person first hand, I gain little by accepting her request except to not look rude. In fact, when I add her to my contact list, I loose valuable information about how I know her - through my friend. The social graph captures useful information on who knows who through whom - let's not loose that. Its like going to a party and being asked about the host "How do you know Larry?" - through Charles, of course.
  
• How do you balance the Links Budget? After a certain number of links, you may need to balance your "Links Budget". This means you must try to delete a contact for every new contact you add. And remember, LinkedIn does not notify the deleted contact so its unlikely they will notice. Before you delete, you may want to download the contact information to your address book. (There is a download vCard button on each LinkedIn profile that you are connected to .)
• Can you really be friends with 437 people? For most of us, its hard to maintain 3-5 close friendships and 20-40 business contacts on a regular basis. Technology can bump that number up 5 to 10x but the law of diminishing returns kicks in. Also, when you have 437 contacts, none of your contacts feel special. The great Groucho Marx once quipped, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member."
  

I will leave you with some quotes to ponder on when making these decisions.

"Those truly linked don't need correspondence. When they meet again after many years apart, Their friendship is as true as ever." - Deng Ming-Dao

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." - Mark Twain

"Good friends, good blogs and millions in first round funding: this is the ideal life. " - I would have said.

"The bird a nest
the spider a web
the man friendship." - William Blake

Now, don't be a stranger. Good friends leave comments!

Joining the Enterprise Irregulars- a study in Ecosystems

I am excited to report that I have been invited to join Enterprise Irregulars, and have accepted. As the Enterprise Irregular says- "We are a diverse group of practitioners, consultants, investors, journalists, analysts and full time bloggers who share a common passion - enterprise technology and its application to business in the 21st century." Over the last year, since I started blogging I have read and opined on articles by fellow Irregulars Jeff Nolan, Rod Boothby, Vinnie Mirchandani and exchanged comments and emails with others.


What does this mean for my blog visitors? You will see a new Enterprise Irregular badge displayed on my blog. This blog will be featured on the Enterprise Irregular site so some of you can read my articles and all others in one single place, or subscribe to our feed. I will also be incented to write more regularly (and be funnier?) as my blog will reach a broader audience.

Ecosystem
The Enterprise Irregulars illustrates many benefits of an ecosystem and these principles apply to many other endeavors in life including a startup or a mature business.

• Marketing: It is hard for one of us to create a brand since many of us blog part time. The EI (Enterprise Irregulars) allows us to pool our marketing resources and benefit from it.
• Influence: Not too many people care about what an individual reader with a relatively small readership may have to say. But when we speak as a group of Enterprise Software experts, our combined influence is far greater.
• Community: As I mentioned, having a sense of community of fellow readers (or fellow enterpreneurs or fellow researchers) encourages everyone to try harder.

What are your thoughts? How have you used the power of the ecosystem in your life? What about LinkedIn as an ecosystem enabler?

My Blog awarded Time award

I am honored to receive this year's Time Person of the Year. Okay, so I have to share it with 300 million other internet users, but that's just details!

I was quite suprised to see the extent of my contributions to the Web2.0. My contributions, mentioned on page 1,304,507 of the award declaration include:
- Blogger Blog
- LinkedIn profile
- FlickR pictures
- Amazon reviews
- eBay listings
- Prosper loans
- Comments on blogs, YouTube, CNET Reviews
- Zoho shared spreadsheets and projects
- Corportate Wiki at work

This may be a good time for you to inventory your contributions.