Social Dilemma

 Recently I watched the Netflix docudrama Social drama. It raised important issues regarding technology taking over human lives. There is no doubt that technology has transformed the world and the benefits are immense however there is a flip side as well. These platforms can have a life of their own. And after a stage, the dependence is neural in nature. For example, take your car or food. You only think of a car or food when you wish to travel or eat. However, with social media platforms, humans have turned eternally hungry. This has in a way paralyzed human thinking. For instance, Snapchat dysmorphia,  Surveillance capitalism, Internet lynch mob is some common examples of its side effects.

The dependence on gadgets and technology has pushed us into an age of disinformation. According to Tristan Harris, we need a new agenda for Technology where we should also be able to account for the negative side of technology. The way mobiles and social media have taken over our me time, family time, dinner conversations, or even playtime, it feels like we as a society have fallen under some kind of spell. It would be pertinent to ask if there is anyone who is working to make these products like Gmail, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc less addictive. 

People think that these services are free however little do they understand that when you are not paying for the product, then you are the product. Our attention is the product that is being sold out and without conscious realization, our behavior, perception, and attitude undergo a change. The data collected at large scale results in data prediction models which can nudge humans in a certain direction. Every click, every action of humans is monitored and hence the machines know when we are isolated or when we are depressed. Machines have more information about us than probably we know about ourselves. It is like trading in human futures at a mass scale. and effectively, Internet companies have become the richest companies in the world in no time.

It is said that any sufficiently advanced technology is no less than magic. The same stands true for next-generation AI and predictive analytics. Online life has overtaken real-life and AI-modeled positive intermittent reinforcement has resulted in programing our unconscious mind at a deeper level. The machine notices everything and induces curiosity in people to remain hooked to the screen. For instance, autofill, emoji, notification, status updates, etc are ways to keep people glued to social media.

Today we have the first generation in the history who got on social media in mid-school. As a result, people suffer from self-esteem problems. The whole generation faces issues of anxiety and fragility. The success of social media platforms is optimized to a commercial notion of success. Hence the time has come, we should rethink about social media and come back to real life.

 

Learning management system

 Recently I had the opportunity to lead and steer a model for online classes for UPSC. I took a demo of many Learning Management Systems and here I am listing the key features which organization might be looking for:

1. Ability to upload assignments/tests/MCQ/in-platform PDF evaluation/Manage classes-lectures/Manage notes-issue notification-alerts/User account management/Grievance redressal issues/Ask a question facility/Discussion group facility/User registration and payment page/Integrate the system with a streaming video application

2. Streaming video application should have features like good Video-Audio-Chat-Q&A-Attendance-Whiteboard-Screen Sharing-Participant's management-Bandwidth management-Group/User management-Denoise functions-Notes facility-Ability to view/record/replay the videos infinite times-Unlimited subscription of classes-Authentication of attendees-Report generation

3. A smart classroom with a large screen, green background area, Q&A screen, Computer and Hardware like laptop and desktop, a video camera for recording

4. Softwares like Adobe premiere pro, photoshop, Vmix, Handbrake, etc for video editing, publishing, and other operations.

5. Last but not least, a good team, teacher, and teaching assistant for tossing student's Q&A.

 

New opportunities

 COVID crisis has changed our lifestyle, manners and consumption patterns in unprecedented manner. However, every crisis also offers an opportunity. An opportunity to rethink, redesign, reinvent and reposition yourselves. This article explores some of those opportunities by reimagining how the work culture and lifestyle would change in near future.

Education: “Online education is new norm of education”. The trend had started long before Covid Crisis but now it has picked serious pace. People have greater acceptance of online means of education now. For universities and private tutors, this means greater reach to masses. For students, it means better access to world class content. For a new business seeker, online education counselling to help students in selecting the right content and help in designing their course content as per their caliber could be a good business proposition. Similarly, people often lose steam in following online courses hence a business can offer Motivational Assistant Services under which a personal coach could keep track of your progress and guide you appropriately. Similarly, preparation of Interactive Multi-lingual Content Creation could be a new arena for people in the field of education. The vacated space in the universities can be utilized to convert them into research institution and industry workshops.

Corporates: “Work from home is new norm of white-collar corporate life”. Just look at the benefits like reduced rent rates in cities, decongestion of big cities, reduced expenditure on fuel, saving of travel time are big plus.  Companies can save the huge rental cost and employees can end up saving more. This is a great opportunity for furniture and interior designers. Setting up a cost-effective custom office in the house itself could help companies in saving huge money and can also allow people to work from the comfort of his house. Internet provider companies can also make huge money in such set up. In sync with the vision of our PM, I-ways will become new high ways of economy. For those who miss the office gossip, companies can use the money to host small events, get together and help people meet once in a while in person by planning tour trips. Rental income as a business may suffer but it will also bring down the cost of real estate and allow middle class to afford a house. Thus, in long term, it is expected to balance out.

Manufacturing: “Made in India is the new norm in manufacturing”. The crisis has made us realize that self-reliance is the best growth strategy. The crisis has created a shortage of Chinese goods in the market hence there is an opportunity for manufacturing and assembling in India. For example, in a large country like ours there is not a single prominent Indian brand in TV, Fridge, AC, Microwave, Security surveillance cameras, hydraulic chairs. This would drive our businesses to take plunge in these unchartered territories and grow big.

Services industry: “Restart and reorientation around technology is the new norm in service-based industry”. Services industry is among the hardest hit from the disruption in economic activities. The need of hour for a service provider is to find a new job-market fit. For example, if tourism and marriage economy stand busted, the security camera installation services, healthcare services, corona care services like fumigation, food packaging services, data center services, home shopping services, resale of goods, Indoor sports training services etc. are likely to get a boost.

Restaurants/Retail stores/Street vendors: “Home delivery is the new norm of the restaurant business”. Restaurants should retrain their waiters to become delivery boys. Slowly the food economy around health conscious and hygienic diets would gain traction among people and even when things will normalize, the home delivery would be a preferred option among people. People can operate restaurants from their home. The crisis has opened a huge economic opportunity around food hygiene. All the street food vendors could be mandated to follow hygiene norms and they could sale their food through branding, packaging, online/telephonic sale and delivery. Same is the case of e-commerce of retail shops.   

Administration: “Faceless is the new norm”. Corona has provided a huge motivation for offices to adopt technology. For example, Income Tax Department is at the forefront of the process and adopted a faceless system. Under this a majority of department can operate from their home. Similarly, adoption of e-office, installation of firewall, VPN setups can allow many government officers to work in invisible manner. Just imagine, if police department and district administration also become faceless. People won’t have to go to headquarter office to get a signature. Entrepreneurs can provide an Administration Connect Service, just like we had PCOs and Cybercafé. Private vendors can open the last mile end points and these points should help people to connect with district administration to file complaint, get digital signature on a document etc.

There is no doubt that income corrections would happen due to Covid crisis but possibly it will make our country more equal. There are endless possibilities lying unexplored in our nation. Whatever was considered hitherto impossible has now become possible.  A change which was happening very slowly earlier, has now picked pace be it education, e-commerce, manufacturing etc. The first step to recover from Covid shock is to innovate and reimagine our lives in covid and post-covid economic system at all levels be it government, business, employee, student or a general citizen.

Project Management

 Abraham Lincoln once remarked, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” The key idea was to “Get the tools right”. The analogy extends to nearly all walks of life. For a comfortable ride in a luxury car, the first thing we need is a road. For cooking a delicious cuisine in the kitchen, the first thing we need is the right set of utensils. Similarly, for quality software development, we need to create the right software ecosystem.

The term ecosystem here refers to key tools for effective management, monitoring, communication, and collaboration among team members. These are the tools that are needed even before beginning with the first step of the software development life cycle i.e. Requirement analysis. Whenever we start a mega Software Development Project, it is necessary to put following five tools for effective functioning among team members.

1.       Communication system: The communication channels and communication hierarchy should be clearly well established. Generally, large companies use their in-house tools. Smaller companies prefer readymade solutions like Slack, Asana, or Trello for this purpose. Tools like Slack and Asana allows the project manager to assign tasks to team members, take regular updates and follow-ups and enable instant messaging and file exchange through the system.

2.       Document versioning system: Whenever a large team works on a project, a huge number of documents are bound to be generated on a day to day basis. Oftentimes, there are multiple versions of the same document which float around among the employees and management. Hence it is very important to keep a document versioning system or repository like Confluence or JIRA in your project. Confluence is considered effective in managing project plans and effective collaborative document management.

3.       Code repository: Multiple team members would be editing the same file at the same time and a slight mistake can result in production downtime. Hence, it is important to keep a collaborative code repositories like SVN, GitHub, or Perforce which could be very helpful in maintaining code files.

4.       WFH tools: Now with COVID issues, every IT company needs a foolproof work from home solution. This includes a robust VPN server and clients like Cisco or Citrix or Fortigate, Web meeting platform like WebEx or Teams, and Firewall to protect the servers and data from cyber-attacks.

5.       Software services installation suite: Whenever a new member joins the team, he needs his machine ready with required software installation and access rights in 24 hours of time. All these activities are facilitated by a one-stop desk of support team which enables software as a service for the workforce.

Not to mention, these are the five tools that are necessary for bootstrapping a project. During the project lifecycle, there are numerous other tools, platforms, small and big software solutions that are quintessential for the effective performance of the team. For example, Smart Draw for prototyping, Development IDE for development, Bug trackers like JIRA for bug tracking, Deployment engines, Database suites for data management etc. 

Missing these basic tools often costs more to the company at a later stage than the cost of the tool itself. Hence any tactic of saving the money in these tools often results in being “penny wise pound foolish”.

 

Managing Large IT projects

No man can play a whole orchestra. For executing large software projects, the organization needs a team of multiple people with a variety of skill sets. However, managing a group of highly educated, individualistic, and talented people in the meeting room can be a very tricky and complex process. Hence following 5 principles should be followed:

1.       No Discrimination/Favoritism: A leader or manager should ensure that there is no discrimination or favoritism among team members. Without mutual trust, the team will never be able to realize the synergy in delivering on a high-voltage project.

2.       Need map of employee: People are driven to work by various needs. Maslow described it as a hierarchical structure of need-based motivation. The five levels of the need motivation are the following.

Needs	Explanation	Software industry	Manager’s tool
Physiological needs	Food, clothes, salary, etc.	Not a concern	Incentive, Accessories
Security needs	Safety of life, Occupational hazard	Not a concern	Health insurance
Social needs	Connecting and Interacting with other people	Concern	Talk to him
Esteem needs	Recognition and Respect	Concern	Give a trophy, Polite conversations
Self-actualization need	Living up to one’s best potential	Concern	Provide training, give freedom

Type of people	Need
Task-Oriented	Wish to accomplish perfection on the task
Self-oriented	Wish to become boss
Interaction-oriented	Wish to interact with others

3. 

       Work extraction map of employee: The task of the manager is to identify the key motivator for each person. Generally, there are three kinds of employees.

Basically, profile all your team members, talk to them regularly, identify their needs, and address their concerns. For example, a penalty for a sincere person would be to induce guilt. The penalty for an indifferent employee would be close monitoring. The penalty for a corrupt employee would be to take away his opportunities. The punishment for a dominating employee would be to take away his power of punishing others. If we treat every employee with the same stick, we often end up damaging his commitment to the organizational cause. “I am the Boss” is not an answer to 99% of the problems.

4.       Respect among team members: Not every member of a team will have some level of competence. Not everyone would be IITian. Some people will be more competent and bossier than others. However, each of them has an important role to play in team dynamics. For example, a task-oriented person will focus on getting the task done but an interaction-oriented person is also important as he breaks the monotony in the team. Hence each of them must be appreciated and should find a place in the team.  Respect the skills of each person. Respect breeds respect.

5.       Mentorship: When an employee enters in the project, he is a clean slate. He needs to be mentored and helped with the knowledge of the project in a structured manner.  However, any step-motherly treatment often results in fragmenting the psyche of the employees. It will definitely demotivate the employees from giving their best to the organization.

A large IT project, bringing people on board is just a beginning, keeping people together is progress. However, the real success comes when people work together with a mutual sense of trust and respect, in a non-discriminatory manner.