Trainspotting at Kollam August 10, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in India, Indian Railways, Travel.2 comments
Here’s a video from an afternoon of rail-fanning at my hometown – Kollam, Kerala, India. The train is none other than the 2626 New Delhi-Trivandrum Kerala Express hauled by new WAP4 on the block – 22694. The 2626 is my fav train! This rail-fanning spot is just opposite the SN College, Kollam next to the Kollam Junction Railway Station. You can hear me and my best buddy pass inane comments while ogling at the train. The best thing about this video was the group of travellers singing ‘Laila 0 Laila’. Enjoy!
Minutes later, the Kochuveli-Bangalore Express, hauled by a WDM2 passed by. Couldn’t take more snaps than this as the train passed just a few inches from where were sitting… 🙂 But it was such a scary but exhilarating feeling!
The real power of Social Media August 1, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in Conversations, Digital.add a comment
This has to be one of the most viewed YouTube videos (comes with strong, profane-language) at the moment. Only a day old, it’s already garnered thousands of views and coverage on CNN.
Here’s the backgrounder:
- Roman Catholic priest put on leave after verbally abusing skateboarders
- Skateboarders were using St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne as a skate park
- Reverend Monsignor Geoff Baron’s outburst filmed and placed on YouTube
- Baron apologizes, saying skaters provoked him alleging he was a pedophile
While I refuse to take sides of any party or offer comments on who’s right or wrong, what I would reflect on is:
1. The pervasive influence & power of social media. Whether you like it or not, social media is omnipresent and often used to bring out ‘bad’. People need to be aware that their ‘negative’ actions are very likely to be captured and presented to a public domain.
2. With great power comes greater responsibility. It’s great when social media tools are used to fight ‘evil’ and spread word about ‘good’. But what about creating / supporting ‘evil’ in order to spread word about ‘evil’? For example, how ethical is it to offer a bribe to a higher official with the hope of baiting him, so that it can be captured on camera?
What are your thoughts?
Ready for a mind game? August 1, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in Conversations.3 comments
It’s called ‘Mental Tennis’. Apparently, top tennis coaches from around the world use this game to shape up their wards into world-class pros.
This is how the game works. The coach tells the player to play the game mentally. You anticipate your opponent’s game in your mind. You practice the serve, volley and all the other shots in your head, over and over again. You even refine and improve upon them. Mentally, you picture your hands and legs stretching and reaching out to the line – basically you push your body over the limit. You imagine yourself winning and prevailing yourself over the competitor. You visualize yourself doing improbable things – for example a clay court game is not your virtues. But in this mind game, clay court has suddenly become your bastion. It seems that this approach usually works. Mental games make you stronger. They prepare you for success. Your mind, body and soul have already been bought into achieving the inevitable. Confidence is sky-high and so are energy levels. Your limbs move better, your entire body is primed, your mind functions better… even your vision is enhanced. All you have to do is perform, and that now comes naturally to you. Because your mind is prepared.
Apply this mental game of tennis into your daily life. Put it into practice before your next public speaking assignment or work meeting. Try it before you sell an idea to a group of people. Play this game before you work towards your next ambition or goal in life. Hell, use it to even conquer an illness. Trust me, it works. Every time.
Inviting HP to ‘The Age of Conversation’ July 26, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in Conversations, Digital.11 comments
I woke up this morning and knew I had to talk to this special group of HP bloggers. So I went out on the WWW and got the links to the people who I have to talk to in this post. So here goes:
Dear:
Ash Ashutosh
Claudio Bartolini
John Bennett
Giordano Beretta
Scott Berg
Cannes team
Duncan Campbell
Marco Casassa Mont
Ged Collins
Ozzie Diaz
EMEA CSR Team
Enterprise Printing Team
John Erickson
Vince Ferraro
Richard Fichera
Eileen Fritsch
Stan Garfield
David Gee
Ian Griffin
HP Inkjet Printing Team
John Jantsch
Eric Kintz
Muriel Kopélianskis
Pankaj Kumar
Karen Lawrence Öqvist
Phil McKinney
Nandini Nayak
Anneliese Olson
Krishnan Ramanathan
Archie Reed
HP Russia blog team
Jim Rutherford
Rahul Sood
Rita Sully
Sundance Team
HP Technology Forum Team
Gary Thome
Susan Underhill
UK Corporate and Enterprise team
William Vambenepe
Jim Vanides
Tanya Vaughan
Alex Vorbau
Jason Ward
Susie Wee
Ross West
Ray Wu
Fred Zuill
How are you doing? I’m Arun Rajagopal from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman & I’m glad you have come by my blog. I work as a content strategist for UMSi, a leading web solutions company out here.
Have you read this interesting book called ‘The Age of Conversation’? If yes, great! Nope??? Then you are missing on something darn exciting.
But wait; do you know what the buzz on ‘The Age of Conversation’ is all about? Let me explain the big deal in a nutshell. Let’s get on with this conversation!
‘The Age of Conversation’ is a book about engaging consumers through conversations in a world being shaped by citizen marketers. Now for the exciting part. It is authored by 103 marketing bloggers from 24 states of the USA and 10 nations, making it a first-of-its-kind collaboration via the Internet!
So what’s so special about this book?
It really explores the art of conversation and how that is changing the face of marketing from virtually every angle possible. You get over 100 voices. 100 different perspectives.
And a single purpose – how to have more exciting, meaningful, interactive and memorable conversations.
The book was written for you. It is all about you. It is your book! Read a review by Advertising Age.
Let me give you a small example. My example. I’m one of the 103 co-authors of the ‘The Age of Conversation’. My chapter is titled: The Rules of the Garage. For Digital Media Conversationalists.
As a HP blogger, you know ‘The Rules of the Garage’ better than me. In my chapter, I talk about creating exciting digital media conversations by taking inspiration from HP’s ‘Rules of the Garage’ management philosophy. Cool, huh?
I think these rules are so wonderfully expansive that you can apply them to almost any aspect of life. I plugged them to digital conversations because that is my line of work and then interpreted them for digital pros who are interested in creating exciting online conversations.
I recommend that you not only read my chapter, but 102 other chapters written by marketing pros who value communities and conversations.
‘The Age of Conversation’ is all about ‘win-win’ conversations that are transforming the entire marketing landscape.
• About how various marketing disciplines such as advertising, digital, PR and journalism have to change the way they talk to their consumers to be heard.
• We remind you through our different voices that the most important part in a conversation is LISTENING.
• Plus, we share powerful insights on how to use social media and networking tools to transform the ways we converse.
Simply put, the book is a must-read for any modern marketer and communications professional.
‘The Age of Conversation’ has gold nuggets for everybody. And I mean EVERYBODY. And that according to me is one of the greatest strengths of this book.
Not just marketing people – parents, kids, service industry professionals, community leaders, anybody who is for conversations will come out richer after reading this book.
Dear blogger pal, it will be great if you read ‘The Age of Conversation’ and generously spread the word on the book.
It would be even better if you order copies and give away a few to your friends & colleagues.
After all, it’s not entirely talk about conversations and social media transforming your life.
It’s about helping kids around the world smile more.
In a true spirit of community sharing, we are donating proceeds of book sales to Variety, an international charity committed to serve children across the globe. Our commitment is to raise at least $10,000 for Variety through book sales.
You can buy ‘The Age of Conversation’ as an e-book ($9.99), paperback ($16.90) or hardback ($29.99) from this online store. For more information, please click on www.ageofconversation.com
Trust me; we need EVERYBODY on board The Age of Conversation.
Remember: It’s no longer ‘I TALK, YOU LISTEN’. It’s ‘I ENGAGE, YOU TALK’.
P.S: Oh yeah, the pic you see there on top of this post is my workstation, and that’s the first snap I took with my new mob. Now you know how attached I’m to my PC, it’s got magnets, calendars & even a Harrods London Bus parked on it 🙂
Thank you for your time. And attention.
Arun Rajagopal
Joined by ace conversationalists:
Gavin Heaton (Editor, The Age of Conversation)
Drew McLellan (Editor, The Age of Conversation)
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
CB Whittemore
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G. Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg
Trainspotting videos make me happy! July 25, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in India, Indian Railways, Travel.4 comments
I never knew what an ‘anorak’ meant till an enlightening conversation I had a few days ago with a journalist from Khaleej Times, Dubai, UAE. The conversation triggered me to start a new blog – one exclusively for the train love, snaps and the usual weepie tears of longing on days such as today when I terribly miss the clackety-clack of trains (a phrase coined by good friend Lewis Green) . The blog is currently under development, and it will be a while before I unveil it to the world… but now, here’s a collection of trainspotting videos from the back in the days, just to cheer me up. Hope you like them too 🙂
This is one is shot just outside Varanasi Railway Station. A group of straggler kids who live next to the railway lines join me in my rail-fanning pursuit. One of them was pretty high on dope. Note the smoker WDM2 from Gonda with the classic shrill steam engine whistle, a piece of paper getting buffetted in the wind by the sheer movement of the train, travellers hanging onto the door of the coach, the lady drying dung cakes (source of fuel) next to the tracks, even my ‘poor’ Hindi – trying to catch the attention of the smiling assistant loco driver by calling him ‘Bhaisaab’ (brother), banter with the kids surrounding me… Shooting this was exciting!
The next two videos are shot on Konkan Railway… where my train had stopped for crossing. One of them is the Konkan Jan Shatabdi, probably the fastest train running on Konkan Railways & the other is the Okha-Ernakulam Express. Enjoy the ALCO beasts! And drop me a comment to cheer me up!
Big Brother vs. Small Brother July 22, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in India, Indian Railways, Travel.6 comments
Check out these two videos of a unique sight on Indian Railways – A metregauge train overtaking a broadgauge train and the latter exacting sweet revenge, in a few minutes. The action is set at Kollam Railway Station in Kerala which has a broadgauge line and a metregauge line that has now been decommissioned.
The trains in action are the 7229 Trivandrum-Hyderabad-Narsapur Sabari Express and the Kollam-Tirunelveli-Shencottah passenger. There was all-round excitement as the trains raced each other. While the MG train made early headway by leaving its platform first, the BG Sabari Express took some time to catch up and show what it was made up of. The passengers of both trains loved the action. I was travelling in the broadgauge train. My apologies for the rather not- up-to-the mark quality of the videos – it’s compression plus the direct sunlight on the camera. Neways, enjoy!
Guess who’s rocking today? July 21, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in Conversations, Digital.4 comments
Once upon a time, I was an avid quizzer with a particular penchant for the rapid-fire round. You know that heart-crunching round, where they shoot you a volley of questions at a speed that outruns the pace of your answers. You are not just hunting for the right answers, but you are pitched against time!
Today, if somebody asked me this question in a rapid-fire round of a quiz on social media & marketing, I wouldn’t need more than half-a-second to come up with the answer.
The question: Who’s the smartest marketing blogger out there with the biggest heart to care & share?
My answer: CK.
What else can I say about this amazingly thoughtful & smart marketer who perfectly understands that fellow-marketers need to get on board ‘The Age of Conversation’ to be a part of the conversation that is redefining the conversation between them and their customers.
And what does CK come up with? A neat idea – to buy and gift 5 copies of ‘The Age of Conversation’ on behalf its 103 authors to 5 CMOs of 5 Fortune 500 companies. In true community spirit, CK requested the AOC community to recommend these benefactors and has promised to give away yummy cookies to volunteers who help her get information on the CMOs. The fab 5 companies are: Wal-Mart, Sears, Saturn, NBC and United Airlines.
The buzz gets hotter and two smart marketers have joined the fray to emulate CK’s example – Marketing Diva Toby Bloomberg and bloggernaut Mario Vellandi. So that means that more CMOs are going to be a part of ‘The Age of Conversation’ and that’s better news for their customers, right???
Here’s a toss of my hat to this wonderful lady of thought & action. And a commitment from my end to give away 3 copies of ‘The Age of Conversation’ to 3 CMOs of most active digital brands in the Middle East. I’ll wait for the copies to arrive and then announce the ‘lucky 3’. Thank you, CK – you rock, as always! And before I go, let me let you in on a small way I’m spreading the word on ‘The Age of Conversation’. Private reading sessions with my friends! I’ve had 2 so far. While Mary Paulose and I read Sacrum’s Warmness together, Shweta Asher has a particular fondness for both Roger von Oech’s How to Think Like A Fool and Steve Bannister’s How to be Happy.
If you have a bought a copy of ‘The Age of Conversation’, may I recommend that you read the book together with people who mean the most to you. Trust me; you will come out feeling blessed and enriched. Like me.
Trainspotting videos from Igatpuri July 20, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in India, Indian Railways, Travel.5 comments
Here are a few videos of my recent trainspotting adventures at Thull Ghat, Igatpuri.
Freight Train on bridge at Igatpuri
This one is probably the most interesting video as:
• I tripped on a rock as I was moving backwards to get out of the way of the incoming freight train.
• You can hear the whistles and shout-outs of the workers in the tunnel warning of the approaching train.
• I shot this video from a hutment at the edge of the bridge.
• This is a never-ending freight train and I got bored after a while shooting this video. You can see that I’m moving around the camera in weird angles out of sheer boredom.
• Right after shooting this video, I was chased off the bridge by a railway official.
• Did you notice the lovely, daredevil lady perched on the back of the last banker electric loco? I’m sure I can’t ride like that on a loco.
• If you got some spare time on your hands, why don’t you try counting the wagons in this train? First person to get the right answer gets a ‘special mention’ on this blog!
• Please note that there is no caboose in this freight train.
• That’s Suneel walking on the bridge at the end.
• OK, I will stop bugging your brains. On with the video.
Superfast train on Thull Ghat bridge at Igatpuri
Note the loud noise made by the LTT-Manmad Godavari Express as it gets on the bridge. And the ‘hitchhikers’ on the banker locos in the end.
Hike to get to Thull Ghat
A video of the idyllic surrounds of the village leading to Thull Ghat. The village is inhabited by a fishing community. Note the confluence of railway lines. You can see Suneel, the auto rickshaw driver who made my trainspotting adventures a reality.
Bankers rushing to Kasara
WAG Bankers on their way to fetch a train from Kasara. They are running on the down lines. Again note the presence of ‘hitchhikers’ on the banker locos. This video was shot behind the Bharat Petroleum Filling Station next to Ganaka Motel, Igatpuri.
Dedicated to all members of the IRFCA group and authors of ‘The Age of Conversation’ for bringing out an exciting book on conversation that is going to help a lot of kids smile.
The Age of Conversation – Live from Muscat, Oman July 16, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in Conversations, Digital.3 comments
This is me. On top of the world. (Well, it’s late evening in Muscat now & I may look drawn out after a long day at work, but so what – I’ve turned author!)
That’s ‘The Age of Conversation’ e-book right on my desktop. The cover just looks awesome, doesn’t it?
But trust me, the content in it is even FABULOUS. I have just skimmed through as of now – serious reading begins tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow and let you know whose chapter I read first.
But, hey just to be on the same page, do you know what the buzz is about? Have you got your copy of the ‘hottest collaboratively authored social marketing tome of the year’?
Congrats to all the AOC authors – YOU ROCK! And so do our fabulous editors, Drew McLellan & Gavin Heaton. Here’s three cheers and more to AOC.
P.S: Wouldn’t it be cool to see all AOC authors pose with the book on their blogs… and then lets do a collage on it. What say?
Update: Love the AOC community’s passion to connect using a plethora of social media tools. Looks like Matt Dickman heard my wish for an image gallery of AOC authors posing with their book covers – he’s already got it up & running at Flickr. Atta boy Matt!
The death of the page view July 14, 2007
Posted by Arun Rajagopal in Conversations, Digital.1 comment so far
Guess who died last week. The venerable page view. Last Tuesday, Nielsen/NetRatings, the world’s leading Internet stats measurement behemoth “scrapped rankings” based on the industry yardstick of page views and replaced it with how long visitors stay at websites. This move comes as online video and new technologies such as Ajax increasingly make page views less meaningful.
However, the new metric adopted by Nielsen/NetRatings to rank top websites is equally problematic. Time spent on each website is not an effective yardstick to measure online popularity. Take the example of Google Search vs. YouTube. The reason d’etre of the former is to serve users with the best search results at the MINIMUM possible time while the latter wants users to stick around for ever checking out user-generated content. Which is a qualitatively effective & popular online property?
Even measuring unique visitors is not considered an effective metric to measure online popularity because smart-ass users are doing all sorts of things (clearing cookies, using different computers) to defeat the technology.
The new ranking has hit a body blow to websites such as Google & Yahoo who rely on Web 2.0 technologies. AOL benefits immensely on account of its IM software. Viral media benefits, while search websites will feel the pinch.
However, web stats providers are missing out on the most impactful website statistic ever: Action. With the impending oblivion of the page view metric, digital brands and web solutions providers need to think of creating online properties and define their success in terms of smarter measurable actions (clicks, conversion or customer leads).
This news has interesting implications for my blog & my career. I’m gonna stop bothering about page loads on this blog & focus more on blogging relationships & the content that has made it possible.
And at work, I’ll do more to help clients see that there’s more to online effectiveness than page views & hits. That quality matters more than quantity.
As for now, it looks like web properties with the most engaging user experience are going to rule the roost with the Nielsen move!
Arun Rajagopal 