This morning, you woke up to the newest day in the third era of your life.

In terms of computing history, three major ‘eras’ have marked the way computers shaped society--and our lives. Each of these eras has had computers playing pivotal, but different roles in our lives. These eras have coincided with the major shifts in the way we use computing devices and softwares. I recently chanced upon this very compelling way to understand the era that we live in, while researching an article recently.  I share it here with you, in the open source spirit of the third era.

According to Allen Wirf-Brocks, the iconic software architect and entrepreneur, the first era was the Corporate Computing Era (peaking between the 1950 and 1980s) in which computers were used to enhance and empower large organizations such as commercial enterprises and governments.  Its applications were largely about collecting and processing large amounts of corporate data. Databases and transaction processing were key technologies. In the 1980s, the primary focus of computing started to rapidly shift away from corporate computing to personal computing. Corporate Computing still continues to be an important sector of computing.

The second era, the Personal Computing Era, was about using computers to enhance and empower individuals. Here, computer applications were largely task centric. They focused on enabling you to create and communicate information. Remember your baby steps in the direction of word processing, spread sheets and presentations—and importantly, Internet access. The years between 1980 and 2010 marked the second era--Personal Computing Era. 

This morning, you woke up to the newest morning of the third era--Ambient Computing. In this era (expected to peak between 2010 and 2020), computers are transforming the environments we live in. It is, according to Allen Wirf-Brock, ‘an era of smart devices, perpetual connectivity, ubiquitous information access, and computer augmented human intelligence’. Here, you live in an information rich environment where computing devices offer you access to a cloud of computer mediated information. In our third era, we use Social Media to conduct our conversations. Now that is not hard to believe, if you realize Social Media brought you here to read this blog entry. I look forward to your thoughts on the third era of computing.

So, welcome to the newest day in the third era of your life.

Just completed a Social Media Presentation at the Outlook 2011 Media Seminar in Trivandrum. Here are key takeaways from the Seminar for You:

- Social Media is a conversation that uses technology platforms like blogs, podcasts, videocasts, wikis and social networks 
- Of the 1.17 billion Internet Users in the world, over 60 percent have a social media presence, making it the most popular web platform
- India's 70 million 'user group' is all set to grow to 325 million, thanks to convergence of mobile, television and automobile technologies
- Over 50,000 Indian media companies will create thousand of jobs, of which social media is an emerging segement
- Use Social Media to engage employees, deliver strategy and drive business results


Click on the link below to download your copy of the Social Media presentation:

Outlook 2011.pdf (6.01 mb)

If you found this blog--and presentation--insight-filled and useful, leave a comment at this post. Thanks!

This next week, I will be speaking at Outlook 2011 Seminar at All Saints College, Trivandrum on January 12, 2011. The Outlook Seminar comes close on the heels of the Inspire Seminar that I spoke at in Chennai in January last year. This Seminar, hosted by MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai and All Saints College, Trivandrum, is all set to be a vibrant platform for interaction with the student community drawn from across South India.

Look ahead to a great interactive session, swirling with great ideas on Social Media, Corporate Brands and India's ever vibrant student community!

As you read these lines, this blog will cruise past its 52nd week in the Social Media space. In March 2009, when I began www.josephfz.com, social media became the most popular platform of interaction on the World Wide Web, crossing e-mail  for the first time since 1993.

For over 1.15 billion users, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn have become a powerful way to communicate.

Social Media is our brave new world. It offers unexplored territory and new frontiers. And it challenges our notions of transparency—and privacy.  It asks for a new understanding and focus as we step into new ways of communicating and responding in this new era.  In turn, we will step into the realms of opportunity offered by LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and their cousins.

For organizations, social media works at three levels: to engage employees, deliver strategy and drive business results. Watch the Pioneers. They already begun to move towards employee and executive blogs, online video, and internal Twitter-style forums. Social media is today delivering key strategic messages, stimulating work place collaboration and knowledge sharing. And all this, while improving productivity.

My one year in this space has been incredible. Thanks for sharing it.

I remember it like yesterday. A moment from a sunny afternoon at Cardiff, Wales in the mid 1990s, when I was listening to Red Dragon FM—this British Capital’s iconic radio station. On a chat show that featured a couple married for 60 years, the host asked the question: ‘So, what is the secret of your union?’

The husband was the first to answer. “Shared Values and Togetherness”, he told thousands of listeners who were tuned into the Show on that Welsh afternoon in the mid 1990s, “The ability to share what you believe in and of course, enjoy being with each other in everything that you do.” I never forgot that afternoon—or its insight.

Today, a decade and a half later, I realize every day that the secret of lasting personal partnership is also the secret of lasting professional partnerships. As a Team, do you have a unique sense of ‘Togetherness’—that innate ability to stay connected in a multi-tasked world? Does your Team celebrate its Shared Values every day—from its Vision to the little things that matter?

Shared Values and Togetherness are where it all comes together.

When Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University and chairman of RGE Monitor, the economic consultancy firm, looked out of the windows of his world in the mid 2000s, something startled him. Speaking to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2006, he spoke of a scenario in which "The United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence, and, ultimately, a deep recession." His talent and intuitive understanding of economics and mathematics led him to

- W-shaped recession, which was a double-dip recession, with a small temporary upward blip in the middle

A short while ago, an Internet parable made a deep impression on me.  Here is my version:

Once upon a time, in an era not too far removed from ours, there thrived a farm in a green valley on the other side of Utopia’s border. Given that it was the other side of Utopia, things were not  always perfect.  Despite the sylvan settings of the incredibly productive, picture-perfect farm, there swept across the land, monsoonal storms of great ferocity every quarter laying waste to the efforts of the 12 weeks that had passed it.

One morning, a serene, comfortably dressed stranger presented himself at the door of the farm owner’s cottage. He was seeking employment on the farm and had remarkably little to say beyond a few words of introduction. Since resumes were not yet invented, he handed a scroll of recommendation to his potential employer. The curious farm owner opened it to find it sealed with the crest of the largest landowner. The golden parchment had a single line etched in a fine turquoise ink. It read: ‘He sleeps in a Storm.”

Now, the owner recovering the ferocity of the last week’s storm was desperate for help. His farm hands had abandoned swearing, never to return to this particular realty show. So, the serene stranger was hired. Twelve sun-blessed weeks passed on the farm that bordered Utopia. Then in predictable fury, the powerful storm returned to rip and destroy everything in the valley. Awakened by the torrential rain and howling winds, the weary owner leapt out of his bed, calling desperately for his new hand who did not hear the frenzied knocking on his door. The man slept soundly, above the howl of the wind, lashing of the training, and the occasional crash of debris.

So the Owner dashed to the nearby barn and to his amazement, saw that it had been reinforced with logs and stood firm against the raging storm. The animals inside were secure and grazed placidly with plenty of feed. He raced against the pelting rain to his field, where he saw the bales of wheat had been bound securely, wrapped in tarpaulin, preventing even a sheaf from being inundated in the rain that cascaded in torrential streams down the ash-grey valley. In a final dash of adrenalin, he sprinted to the his favourite silo and discovered its doors securely locked and the grain, dry.

He then understood why the scroll read: 'He sleeps in a Storm'.

And so, Friend, if we tend to the things that are most important to our lives, we become like the serene stranger who slept through his storm.  Indeed, I have heard that on the right side of Utopia, ‘Sleeping in a Storm’ is the best way to find out if you are living your Happily-Ever-After.

These last few months have seen me fly several times from Trivandrum into neon-tinted nights at Chennai, where I have been working on projects at animation studios. (So, where’s the recession?!) Long after humvee-like Macs sign off in the early hours of morning, I head off to Mathsya. For a memory of Madras, the city in which I grew up.
 
Mathsya, for me, marks a moment in time. Our rights-of-passage years—and the magical appeal of its filter coffee. Every trip home comes alive for me with a culinary pilgrimage to Mathsya at Egmore. The restaurant that is also a 21st celebration of the 5000 year old Udipi cuisine—a offering of India’s West Coast Mangalore region. Mathysa is an exemplar of Udipi Cuisine at its best. Mathsya has delivered a consistent brand experience since I first sampled its spread in the late 1980s. And, its spirit of hospitality is topped off by Ram ‘Bhatta’ Narayan, my friend, raconteur and restaurateur par excellence.

Udipi cuisine is a 5000 year old celebration of vegetarian cuisine that blends grains, beans, vegetables and spices in a mystic gourmet experience. It’s Aromatic. Earth-respecting. Wholesome. And, served with Ritual Purity.

The coffee set in front of you is not any coffee; it is a delectable decoction of two exotic coffee beans from the Coorg region. The ‘dosa’ is not just any dosa; it is a flavorsome ‘methi dosa’ that blends the magic of fenugreek with the traditional dosa. The sambhar is simply divine—it eludes description. And the chutneys, you see, are divinely ordained infusions of coconut, chillies and mint.

No wonder, they call it Food of the Gods!