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An essentially Indian venture is using SMS to push the limits of social networking

FaceBook and Twitter are growing steadily in India, adding thousands of new users everyday. Some called it a social networking revolution that will change the way we make friends, sustain old friendships and expand our social spheres. But, as these essentially American phenomena capture the imagination and time of Internet users, micro-blogging is making giant strides in the Indian mobile space with a unique concept called SMS GupShup. In fact, the idea has become so successful since its launch a couple of years ago that it already has around 22 million registered users in India—compare that to the six million Twitter accounts worldwide.
Beerud Sheth, the IIT -MIT graduate who co-founded SMS GupShup with Rakesh Mathur, thinks India is so obsessed with the Internet that it often tends to overlook the realities. “Our ecosystem is different from the US or Europe. Internet penetration here is still limited. On the other hand, mobile phones are everywhere and reach even our rural areas. Everybody has access to SMS,” explains Sheth, CEO of SMS GupShup, the world largest and fastest growing mobile communication platform.
Sheth says social networking tends to lose their relevance in India where most users log in to check status messages once or twice a day. “Social content has a five-minute shelf life. In developed countries, people get real time updates on the mobile phones. It doesn’t work like that in India,” he explains.
But that is exactly how his SMS GupShup works. Every time you post a message to a group, it pops up on the mobile phones of everyone listed. You can also send similar messages to a friend list, all at the cost of a single SMS.
In fact, the group messaging service generates so much content that it now accounts for nearly five per cent of India’s SMS traffic, around 400 million text messages a month.
“While the most popular bloggers in India won’t claim to have more than a few thousand followers, a handful of micro-bloggers who use the SMS GupShup platform have over one lakh followers. So every time they send a message, it goes out to all these users, making them very powerful people,” laughs Sheth.
It is this power of connectivity that Sheth think puts his concept above the others. And people are taking notice. While some national parties used the platform to gauge the mood of the electorate before the general elections earlier this year, many corporates use the service to engage customers.
Users have been discovering some social applications too. The Mumbaikar group, for instance, keep its 2,000-odd members posted about what’s happening on the ground in Maximum City. “People even post messages about a new pothole or uncleared garbage,” says Sheth, adding that civic authorities in the city have started screening the content to see where they can be of help.
Hundreds of new groups, covering anything from cooking to gay rights, are created every hour either through mobile phones or directly on the SMS GupShup website. Many use it to stay in constant touch with their peer groups, while others use it to target a specific audience.
“Since you have to voluntarily become a member of a specific group to start getting updates, there is no spam or unsolicited content,” explains Sheth, adding that while the platform is free for individual users, companies pay for advertising. “The ads appear as a footnote at the bottom of messages and are most often related to the content in the group,” he says.
And it is not just text messages. A lot of users are hooked to the SMS games on offers; some others use it to check words in the dictionary and read RSS feeds, while others are regular with the contests. “Third party applications can be hosted through the website, though not many have used it so far,” says Sheth, who recently tied up with Facebook to use the service for updates.
Sheth now plans to take the service beyond India “to similar ecosystems” where mobile phones still have more reach and power compared to the Internet. With nearly 3.5 billion mobile phones around the globe, maybe we are on the verge of the real social networking revolution.


HOW IT WORKS?
To join a community, users have to SMS: JOIN To create a community, SMS: CREATE To invite friends to the community, SMS: INVITE Users can also use the web or WAP (mobile web) to create or join communities.
All SMSes have to be send on 567678, the GupShup short code

Bhuvan redux

A Ikonosos image of the Trombay Nuclear Plant from year 2000.












On Wednesday, ISRO launched Bhuvan, its version of Google Earth. Couldn't help remembering a story I did in 2001, presumably the first Indian report on satellite imagery. Published in Hindustan Times front page January 2001.

Here it goes

No hiding from the eye in the sky

Nandagopal Rajan
Chandigarh, January 20

It's like having a God's-eye-view of the world. From images of Indian and Pakistan Army tanks deployed on the western front to pictures of the new variety of orchids that your neighbour planted on her roof, you can view them on your home PC.
With today's advanced remote sensing satellites you can order images of any spot on earth -- for a price. For instance, Space Imaging Corporation's spaceimaging.com offers images of the Taj Mahal and of the National Capital Region for as low as $10 per picture, depending on quality and resolution.

A simple search of "Calcutta remote sensing images" on the Net will give you high-resolution images that show anything from the Eden Gardens to the airport. Or if you want something more adventuresome, there's an image available of the Trombay atomic power plant from an IKONOS satellite.

The main players in the satellite imagery market are the US-based Space Imaging and SPOT, a French company. Though they are regulated to a certain extent by their governments, most of the dozen-odd other players are free to sell the "high-resolution, all-seeing and all-weather imagery" and will train their satellites on the area of your choice.

With companies now selling one-metre and half-metre resolution images capable of showing what you have on your picnic table, we are venturing out of the "mutually assured observation era" where governments controlled all remote sensing imagery.

That's a major cause for worry. Unrestricted access means that terrorists and your enemy can get hold of them too. Pakistan, for instance, doesn't have to send up a satellite to obtain images of Indian Army manoeuvres. The Pakistani generals just have to ring up Spot or one of the smaller firms.

The smaller companies are likely to sell to the non-institutional buyer. While they claim that mapping, agriculture, forestry, geology, urban and rural management etc are their areas of specialisation, it cannot be overlooked that the lure of the lucre won't stop at least some of them from zeroing in on vital installations around the world. "Technology and the market are in tandem. We should frame our defence strategy keeping this reality in mind," says defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar. "Instead of trying to stop it with draconian measures, we should use it to our advantage. If our vital installations are on online, so are China's and Pakistan's," he says.

Acoustics on the go

Bluetooth is one feature on our phones that we tend to underuse, and a regular hands-free unit cannot do full justice to its potential. So, I was awestruck by the clarity of sound the Logitech

Pure-Fi Mobile could spew out from its four tiny speakers, feeding on my Walkman phone a few feet away, all via Bluetooth.

It would be insulting to call the Pure-Fi Mobile a set of speakers for you mobile phone, laptop or iPod, it is far more than that. My Goliath like music system was put to shame by this little David—it will easily fit into your laptop bag—who packs a punch much more than acoustic music.

Being a blue tooth-enabled device, once synced with your mobile phone, it can turn into a full-size speaker phone with dedicated buttons for accepting, ending and muting calls. The built-in mic ensures there is no voice drop even when you are a few feet away from it, and moving. Logitech claims the speakers can play music from your with a 10-meter radius, but I did encounter some disturbance after about three feet—could have been interference from electronic/electric fields. But when it is in full sync it is impossible to realise that the music is being transmitted wirelessly. It can also connect to your laptop through Bluetooth or USB and to you iPod using a 3.5 mm jack provided in the box.

However, Logitech has not yet mastered the art of pricing for India and the Pure-Fi Mobile is priced at a steep Rs 10,995, making it almost as costly as a decent mobile. Still a great buy if you are hooked on to music, even on the go.