Great at less than 100%

Ziva is a very "dynamic" company, to put it nicely. There's always a dozen ideas, and another 10 underway, and plenty of possibility. Each idea has a bright blue sky story to it, and in its ideal avatar would yield phenomenal improvements/data/users/glory/whatever.

The big questions I've learned to ask is : What happens if the idea doesn't mature to its 100% ? Is it useful/worth doing/helpful to the product and direction at 50% ? 20%? Whats the first version and will it be something we can make use of in itself ? Is the "prototype" a product in itself ?

This isn't an execution issue. Its just practical. From what I've observed in the software world, rarely is an idea executed to its fullest ideal. There are engineering issues, time-to-market issues, other priorities, reactions to real need that create directional changes, etc, that all lead to a smaller subset or version of the idea being the end-product for the longest time possible. This is also a good thing - because it leads to practical, usable R&D rather than early, limited "lab prototypes" that don't really fit anywhere yet, but "we're working on ver 2". It also gives a feature/product a shot at collecting market feedback early, and helps optimize resources on it. Most importantly, it reduces wasted effort on half-bakery stuff that never got released. Sure, we still have a lot of those, but thats where the learning happened ;)

All Kinds of Alerts!

I've been using Zook Alerts myself in the true tradition of eating your own dog food :) Just happened to visit the "My Alerts" page and here's what I got!

Headlines News Alert - 09:00 Everyday
Cricket Alert - When Occurs
Event Alert - Rock Bangalore - 18:00 Everyday
Weather Alert - Bangalore, India - 09:00 Everyday
Stock Alert - Satyamcomp - 11:00 Mon-fri
Stock Alert - Tatamotors - 11:00 Mon-fri
Deal Alert - Stationery Books Koramangala Bangalore - 19:00 Every FRI
Deal Alert - Sarjapur Road Bangalore - 19:00 Every FRI
Movie Alert - PVR Hindi Bangalore - 20:00 Every FRI
Deal Alert - Hsr Layout Bangalore - 19:00 Every FRI
Movie Alert - Pvr English Bangalore - 20:00 Every FRI
Stock Alert - Bsesn - 11:00 Mon-fri
Event Alert - Classical Music Concerts Bangalore - 18:00 Everyday
Event Alert - Drama Bangalore - 18:00 Everyday
Event Alert - Film Festival Bangalore - 18:00 Everyday

Of these, the News alerts, tho pretty generic, are a useful update of the world. The Movie updates are *sometimes* useful - totally depends on whether we're thinking in terms of going to catch a movie that weekend. The deal alerts have managed to get me to search a little more on occasion, and the stock alerts are what I probably read most religiously :)

Just signed up for HSR/Sarjapura Road deals alerts this morning - curious what it'll feel like to follow ALL deals in our area.

Happy Valentines Day-ulu

Pink Unmentionables or not, we at Zook wish you a Happy Valentines Day.

Here’s some gifts you can share : some lovely Telugu Songs absolutely free!

You can also find some beautiful messages to sent to your Valentines.

Have a rocking day and may there be zero moral interference in your Valentine transmission :)

Software -> Auto industry!

Had mentioned earlier that the software industry needs to emulate the auto industry a little more to become way more efficient, and a little less of a black hole to the lay person, than it is today. I've held this view for some time, and have believed that as more Indian businesses become enterprise software users, they'll drive the efficiency merely by their habit of questioning the reasons for the pricing of everything to determine VFM as best as they can!

Here goes!

This is a good sign, and a good time to drive this harder. The software industry has lived in its own warp for the longest time - productivity, salaries, lack of open standards (at least in comparison to other industries), different production and marketing styles. I think a v2.0 will start to happen as things start moving east.