The Future of Email

Email, as we know it, has mostly been the same ever since it was invented (back in the ARPANET days). You must be wondering that I have no idea of what I am talking about. May be you are right. But I bet if you read this post completely, you might just get what I am trying to say. Email (or maybe the usenet groups) may also be the earliest form of cloud computing, which is a widely popular term these days. Before I digress into the cloud, I should come back to Email and the surrounding services. I accept that there have been lots of innovations around Email like the user interfaces, in-built chat, security related features, handling spam, email previews, labels, search, etc. There are a few other innovations made by the desktop email clients. But all these are not innovations to the product "Email", they are innovations around email. All these have been trying to make email the one thing that we check every morning (like we go to the loo every morning) and one of the most frequent tasks throughout the day. In fact, it is safe to say that these days "Email" checks us rather than us checking emails. Do not believe me? Just count the number of times you check your email throughout the day. By checking, I do not mean logging in, but peeking at the inbox. I am pretty sure you will give up after some time. It has become one of the most important forms of communication in today's times. The innovations around email have also been trying to make it the one-stop shop for many things that we do. For example, chat inside email, watch videos inside email, submit form inside email, view documents inside email, view ads inside email, etc. Anyways, email has always been email. The sending and receiving of digital messages on a network.

And it will always remain Email since it is a form of communication, one which is as basic as human life. Of course, there have some amazing innovations (read facebook, twitter) as far as other forms of communications are concerned. And a lot of these innovations revolve to some extent around emails. But in today's world of information overflow, Email has lost its market share when it comes to communication forms. Why? Because it is difficult to keep track of so many things happening around the world through emails. That is why Facebook is so successful. It has become so big in terms of the number of users that it can be called the third largest country in the world. In addition, with the rise of spam, automated emails, bulk emails, notifications, alerts, etc. Email has become hard to manage. These problems made me think about the future of email and the surrounding services (The whole email product). It would be difficult for email to regain the "communication forms" market share, but it can always become the platform for future innovation. What I mean is to become an infrastructure of sorts for various other communication forms.

What if our email clients/services were so intelligent that they understood what the email contains and automatically do these things for us. For example, I get an email about an event next Friday at 6:00 pm and my email service understands it and creates a calendar entry for me. Before the event, I may also get a reminder automatically depending on the importance of the event or the sender. After the event, my email client should automatically send thank you to the organizer again depending on the importance of the event or the organizer. Another example would be I get an email about a local deal by a daily deals website (which I usually ignore) and my email client knows that I have been wanting to buy it badly and somehow escapes the filter I created and alerts me. Or may be I get an email about paying my phone bill and the client recognizes that the due date mentioned in it (if at all) is still far and automatically reminds me just before the due date. What if my email client understands that some news alerts are really important for me to see. What if my email client recognizes that an email was not supposed to be sent and gives me an option to recall (This has happened with one of my friends quite a lot of times and it is no less than embarrassing). These may sound ridiculous but these are some of the tasks where most of my time (in some cases my money) goes. I know these are some of the most difficult problems to solve in computer science. In fact, there are some companies who try to do similar things with search and may have created a Filter Bubble. I also know that it will be a long time (in years) before these things become a reality. But, they will be done one day. Even today, many people use Facebook for personal communication and for them, email is just another boring alerts database. May be LinkedIn will become their professional form of communication (which is mostly limited to Profile views right now). I wonder when will everyone stop using email as their personal form of communication. May be never. Or may be in a decade. I do not know. But I do know that the "whole email product" has to change.

Change is inversely proportional to our age

This is my first post I think almost after a year. Somehow, I like writing but then literally did not get time to write for leisure. I was writing a lot of other things (Exams, project reports, essays, etc.) during my first year of the MBA. But all this while I felt I was missing something. Today is one of those times when I realized that writing was among the many things that I was missing. So, I decided to restart writing with a simple yet powerful observation.

Here it goes:

"Change is inversely proportional to our age".

By change, I mean change that we are ready to undergo or accept. When we were small, we all learned "Change is the only constant" or "Variety is the spice of life". But when we grew up, we almost forget these things. Now, I know these phrases are very broad and may mean many things, but they are still applicable to a lot of things that we do in our daily lives. Now, you must be wondering what made me think of it. Or may be I have become too philosophical. Well, let me tell you the truth. I have been through a lot of ups and downs during the last one year. Those who know me close know well enough. But all this while, my inquisitiveness for the events that happened and why they happened led me to at least one thing: the more we grow older the less change we accept. Now, I have not dived into the reasons of this newly discovered useless theory of mine. But it does seem to be very true.

When I first went to my undergraduate school in India, I was willing to accept change. I was very adaptable and flexible. May be because I had less things to worry about or I had less money. Whatever it is, the older I grew, I realized that I was not willing to accept the same things that I would have done at least 6 years back. And I have noticed the same phenomenon with other people as well. May be it is our ego, may be we become too comfortable, may be we start taking some things for granted or may be we just become old (literally). Its a good thing to ponder (especially if someone is preparing for MBA interviews). Anyways, the point I am trying to make is to return to the roots, to the self-confident beings we were, to the fighters we once were. I am pretty sure it will enable us to lead better and happier lives.

P.S. I think I may have developed this theory (among several others) during my one-hour commute to work everyday. And I have more that I will write later.

Fabulous First Week in Seattle

It has been a day and a week after I landed in Seattle, the largest city in the pacific northwest and in the state of washington. I had a horrible journey consisting of multiple delays and one miss because of thunderstorms and immigration rush respectively. But apart from that, everything has been the opposite of horrible. September is one of the best times to arrive in Seattle in terms of the weather. People say it rains a lot and I have already seen almost all kinds of weather in my first week, but the weather is fantastic. It is very different from India and sweating is something that you will see only if you hike or cycle or do some physical exercise.

My first week was hosted by 2 Indian students here in the university. They are part of an organization that helps other Indian students with the initial accommodation and other things till the students find something for themselves. The word fabulous in the blog's title was added as a result of their hospitality and their good will. I really appreciate their efforts to pick students from the airport, accomodate the students, help them with apartment hunting, cooking, phone connection and what not.

The University campus is magical. It just grows on you and you feel like going back there again and again. Although my classes have not yet started, there is something or the other lined up almost everyday until the classes start. So, the pre-MBA time has just showed me what lies ahead of me. But the whole class and the atmosphere makes you feel comfortable. I met many of my class mates and they are all wonderful. It is really exciting to go to school again and interact with so many nice people. I will keep posting updates as and when I get the time. I really would like to write regularly but I am not sure if my schedule will permit me.

Bangalore - My dream city

It has been a long long time since I blogged about something. There were numerous things that kept me busy. One of them was saying good bye to Bangalore. As easy it is to write, the harder it was when I realized it. So, some of you must be wondering what made me to write this post. These days I have not been doing anything and still do not feel restless. Home has always been like that. On one such day of nothingness, I was chatting with one of my school friends and she told me that you should write a blog since you must be having lots of free time. That is true as well as false. More on that later. And then I thought about writing on a topic that I have been thinking since the last one month.

Bangalore has been my dream city. It has given me almost everything as far as my career and my friends are concerned. It is a city that I would love to settle down someday. Although the recent power cuts did frustrate me, but there still are a lot of positives about the city. Now I know that the traffic is worst, population is increasing, the city is expensive etc., but there is a unique charm about Bangalore especially when the city has given you so many things.

Some things that I can never forget about Bangalore are listed below. Please note that the list is not sorted according to the best or the worst. The list contains the things that come to my mind when I think of Bangalore.

• First impression of the city: Majestic and the massive Bus Stand there.
• Excellent bus services that continue to this day as well.
• My college
• College days spanning 4 years
• Canopy - although I do not remember much, just the place.
• Attending classes
• My roommate in college
• Department HOD
• Cricket Days
• Numerous Friends from college (some of the best ones)
• My other friends in Bangalore
• Placement Days - all the hulla bulla.
• College fest
• Internship Days
• Job/Office days
• Excellent colleagues at work
• Friends at office
• Cafeteria at office
• Promotions
• Demo at 4 in the morning :)
• Angaan/Earthern Oven/3 quarter chinese/beijing bites in college days
• Samarkand/Sahib Singh Sultan/Angeethi always
• Corner House - Who can forget it.
• McDonalds' day in office :)
• Mocha
• CCDs
• Excellent excellent darshinis
• Breakfast trends - Dosa Idli Vada - one of the most nutritious breakfast options available in India
• Barbeque nation and one friends' commission
• Buffet at Cafe Masala
• Little Italy - awesome
• Purple Haze
• Legends of Rock
• Styx
• Bike rides
• Calm and serene surroundings of Jayanagar
• MTR Lalbagh
• Worst Traffic days
• "Getting wet in the rains when on bike" days
• My first rented house and the flatmates
• My second rented house and the flatmates
• Multiple cooks
• Fly like ride in Volvo Airport Shuttles
• Cruel Autowalas - most of them
• Nandi Hills
• Rock culture in Bangalore
• IPL match
• Aero Show
• Awesome awesome climate
• Tremendous energy in the city and its people.

Well, there were more things, but I thought of writing a more detailed post some other time.

Cafeteria Musings

Almost 5 years is the time I have been working in the software industry and there are no better ways to describe the lives and stories of people working in the software sector than the Cafeteria. Cafeteria brings out the best of expressions, reactions and emotions out of a person. At least in my workplace. Regular floor pantries are very small and they only allow for a very official 2 min conversation. So, Cafeteria is where you get to meet people (both known and unknown), to see others expressions and faces and what not, to relieve work pressure, to get a bird's eye view of the city and obviously to eat and drink. Cafeteria is also the knowledge center. From the minute details on the prices of sun mica/plywood to be used in a new house to the ideal financial investments one should make to cricket matters to school admissions, you get the whole perspective.

There are many types of people that you encounter in the cafeteria. Well, in a workplace like mine, you would know at most 30-40% of the people sitting at any point in the cafeteria. What about the rest ? For the rest, facial expressions and behavior are sometimes enough to know them. And sometimes not. Sometimes, you meet the unknown. Sometimes, there is definite eye contact. Sometimes, there is fear and other times, there is cheer when the Indian Team plays cricket. Cafeteria allows the person to vent his/her anger on the higher management, very seldom peers and very very seldom loved ones.

Apart from the usual bitching or backbiting people do in the cafeteria, there are an equal number of positives present. You get to gain a better understanding of this world by listening to the stories of so many different people. It is similar to a very well defined training program, where you grab what you want to use at almost the right time. You also get to seek other people's opinion on something and then judge them. Another positive from the cafeteria is the fantastic view that it offers of the city. Sometimes, you discuss the new buildings coming up and sometimes you predict the time it will take for the rains to reach this part of the city from another part where it is blurry and dark. For the office masses, it is perhaps the only hangout.

Watching facial expressions and observing people is another high point. You see a beautiful girl (which is quite rare in our building) and you completely lose track of the discussion on your table. Sometimes, you look at someone and you get a good amount of eye contact. These are the best times. You think that you are on top of the world even though you know the return eye contact was unintentional or was a mistake. Sometimes, you get the eye contact every few days. And sometimes you get back the "I-will-slaughter-you-and-eat-you" look. Sometimes, you observe someone for a good time and suddenly you see that someone wearing red-and-white colored wedding bangles or wearing the vermilion on the forehead. This is the time when you feel like a loser who missed an excellent opportunity. Sometimes, you do not see a person for a long time and suddenly you get to know that that person has left the company.
Best are the times when a female dresses in the "look-at-me-I-demand-your-attention" style and the males all cannot get their eyes off that female. I know it is completely normal and gratifying for the males to leer and the females to know that they are the talk-of-the-cafeteria, but sometimes watching the reaction of the males is more fun than the "out-of-place" dressed female.

So, these are some of the Cafeteria musings I have written. There is actually a lot to write about what happens on our cafeteria table but I will refrain from writing about anything too personal now. I know the above musings are a little bland and generic, but writing about the spicy and the specific is too risky given my social networking habits.

Search for the Apple

I know most of the people would by now have read or heard about the rumors of Apple developing a Search Engine in competition to Google. I did not put much thought into it before. Now, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I would give my justification very soon.

Jumping into selling mobile phones was something everyone was betting big a few 4 or 5 years ago. But at that time, there was no company to whom we could stand up and say "Hey. Look what those guys are doing. Didn't I predict that ?". Apple gave a big bolt to the Mobile industry by coming up with its iPhone. The reason why it shook the industry was the fact that someone, at last someone thought of the Mobile Phone as a computer albeit with limited capabilities. The whole "Mobile Phones are going to be the next wave of Information Technology Revolution" thing was born. People were predicting this for a long time (at least since 2003 I guess), but there was no clear direction before. As I write this, Mobile Phones are going to become the number one device for accessing the Internet. This is what drew Google into the mobile handset software/OS industry. And as they say, rest is history although not old at all. Google's Android Mobile OS based devices have outsold most other devices in US for the last quarter. The entry of first Apple and then Google into the mobile handset industry (hardware & software) is what is giving sleepless nights to Nokia, a company which relies on Symbian OS for most of its devices. Palm was almost dead before HP bought it. Motorola, Sony, LG and Samsung are adopting Android at a frantic pace.

Consider the enterprise software industry. Oracle has been gobbling companies by the dozens. What is that they want to achieve ? Obviously, they want to become the number 1 Application Software Company in the world. Apart from that, the biggest reason is the integrated offering that they would be able to offer customers. IBM has also been buying more companies in the last 2 or 3 years. Same with HP. SAP just joined the bandwagon by buying Sybase. Every company wants to offer integrated systems. They realize that the marriage of hardware and software is very essential for the survival of the Computer World.

What do we get from the above 2 examples ? Consolidation, Integration and sometimes Area Overlap. This is what is happening in the Cloud world or Web Apps world. Google with its enormous amount of cash from advertising is increasingly entering into other companies' territories. Although, they are doing everything differently. They believe in the concept of the Web becoming the soul of a computer. And they seem to be right. They are offering everything on the cloud. Using their ubiquitous brand name and their innovation prowess, they are blasting their way into every aspect of our life that can be improved through technology. How and why are they doing it ? They are doing it using the billions of dollars they earn through advertising. The reason is they can do it. Its because they have so much information in this world that if they sell it (which is not possible off course), I think they can afford to buy another Planet. They are going to integrate every such thing with their Search engine, their cloud based apps, their highly optimized data centers and most importantly the WEB. They are developing the infrastructure for the next Information Technology revolution. Although, more than 80 % of their revenues come from advertising, I am sure this will change in the next 10 years.

Integrating with the WEB is one thing that most companies are already thinking about. And some like Microsoft are investing huge sums of money to get some head start in the next technology revolution. I admire them for sticking onto their beliefs. And what better example than Bing. Bing is still very small, but it is something that has the potential especially with a company like Microsoft behind it. In this next information technology revolution, where is Apple? Apple, just 2 days ago, became the biggest technology company by market share. But, the WEB is the place where they are a little behind. That is the reason why they have to enter the Search Engine business. I hope they enter it one day and will do it by "thinking different". Someone has to stop Google from making humans overly reliant on it. Its not only about the money, but also about the infrastructure, the devices and the applications for the next wave. Although, entering the Search business just for money is also justifiable given the huge market. Apple has to take some steps. Although it will take a good 6 to 8 years for Google to achieve its long term goals, companies have time. And I am not saying companies are not doing anything. Its just that we do not know. I am hopeful of Apple innovating endlessly. Its going to be an interesting battle.

Stick a fork in me, I am done.

My B school application journey 2009-2010 has come to an end. Finally. It is not like I got an admit into my dream school. But it is more of an achievement to stick for so long facing numerous hurdles and learning a lot. I am the old-fashioned type who believes that you always learn out of what you do sincerely and honestly. It was tough to manage work life, social life and to apply to B-Schools. One thing it has surely taught me is to become restless. Not that I was laid-back, but I now have learnt to make good utilization of my free time. Time Management is the cliche here. Another thing that I learnt is to handle failures. I got rejects from 3 major schools after coming so close. I would not call them failures but disappointments. There were a few other things that I learnt but I do not want to bore you all with that.

Coming to the point, here is the list of all the schools that I applied to during my journey and their results:

1. ISB (First round) - Interviewed, Dinged.
2. Duke (First round) - No Interview, Dinged.
3. Haas (First round) - No Interview, Dinged.
4. Foster (First round) - Interviewed, Admitted.
5. McCombs (Second round) - Interviewed, Dinged.
6. Kenan-Flagler (Last round) - Interviewed, Dinged.

So, that is my story in short.
To be honest, I really did not have high hopes from Duke and Haas. McCombs was the most disappointing after a fantastic interview. Kenan-Flagler was dicey since I applied very late but it still gave me hopes after a decent interview. ISB was not that disappointing since, to be honest, I never found ISB that attractive. May be it is their one-year course (which is actually good in a lot of ways) or their large engineer student base (I am an engineer myself). I will write more about that later.

I really missed out on Kelley and Goizueta this time. I would have loved to apply to both of them as well as McCombs and Kenan-Flagler a little earlier. But, I simply could not. In fact, I was so beaten and bruised after my initial 4 (before Foster came out with its results), that I did not have the courage to get up. Some amount of motivation from friends and mentor prepped me up and I finally applied to McCombs and Kenan-Flagler.

Foster is a relatively low profile school (at least in India) that is particularly good at entrepreneurship. Its Accounting and Marketing are also very well known. So, I am excited about Foster and about entering the business world.

Interesting analogy

I just came across an interesting piece of analogy between pleasing a B-School and pleasing a girl. One of the many bloggers in the MBA Blogosphere (whom I follow in my Google Reader) has written a hilarious account of how wooing a B-School is similar to wooing a girl.

You can read it here.

Well, to some extent, the writeup explains why I have not been that successful in wooing a (cough-cough-uhu-uhu) girl till now. Strange glances. I know. I know. Not that I have been successful in wooing a top B-School, but that is a different story.