First Impressions may not be the last………

Time to act fast........

1st February, 2007

You know you are not of to a good start. But that doesn’t mean you runaway and give up on what you have been assigned to do. Situations and issues may baffle you. If I may beg to exaggerate, you may also, even if just for a split second, question your approach to life and your commitment to your work and tasks.

You may be wondering what all this has to do with BM362. A strange way to start my blog, I know but what I refer to is my experience with the course where, lets after joining late and missing my first two sessions, I knew I was in a tight spot and when I walked up with a grim determined expression to my third session, well owing to certain mysterious forces or my lack of acquaintance with the south spine, I couldn’t locate the designated venue. So, there goes the grim face and in comes the irritation and frustration. I need to get to my class not just because I am a dedicated student but because its essential after having missed two sessions already.

An hour and a half pass, you try to locate your destination in vain and finally return to your room half crestfallen half angry. But alls not lost. There is hope still.

This is when I wrote to Professor Lee and I must admit I was some hat apprehensive of his reply. He called for a meeting on the following Thursday.3:45 PM on Thursday, finds me knowing at S3-B1-51, not knowing what to expect when the door opens. This meeting may decide the future of my knowledge of mobile and electronics commerce. A “come in”, an offer to be seated and a cup of tea and 10 minutes into the conversation I know its not as bad as I thought. Hard work hurts no one and that’s all that this situation calls for.

A few thoughts are discussed. My perception of collective intelligence and the Web 2.0 paradigm. I start with bookish knowledge, based n what I’ve read up and within a short span of 5 minutes, I am aware that my perception, my thoughts and views and a creative outlook is the need of the hour. What is collective intelligence? How is it useful? How is it useful to a corporate? I think collective intelligence is “thinking together”. Its really about how different people have different ideas and perceptions and when hey communicate these and brainstorm together, new innovative ideas are born. A magician may pick a bird out of thin air, but this magical as it may seem, is not really magical. Its about coherence and effective communication, about giving an order to a genius. Then we discuss an interesting case which introduces me more o the idea. Being a computer engineer, chip design and programs is the language I speak. So we discuss the design the computer chips. A chip of low power consumption may may designed but that may not be cost effective. A cost effective design may be energy intensive. So, a chip designed with a specific aim in mind may not suit another purpose. Being innovative is to be able to integrate all these into aims and enhance more than one attribute. To do so, it is essential that there is a free flow of ideas and that you are aware of what is going on and this is where the Web 2 paradigm comes. It may not always be possible for people to be present at the same place to discuss ideas and sometimes we may get ideas from the thoughts of those who may not be in close proximity to us and to achieve this, we must have a discussion board and a communicative platform for the free exchange of perceptions. It is very much like Amazon.com where one may post a book review on what one has read.

A wise decision can only be made when you are aware of what is going on around you and when your knowledge is not limited. It is necessary for us to broaden our mental horizons and the very base of our analytical skills. Even a simple fisherman must decide which market to sell his fish to and in order to get the best deal he should be aware of his competitors, his standing with regard to other fisherman, he running price of the fish and the price that he must state to sell all his fish.

Besides this adaptation and change is essential. Technology is advancing at a fast rate today and sometimes we just can’t keep pace. But it is up to each individual to take an initiative and be more technologically savvy. All these thoughts integrate ino the key concepts of the web 2.0 paradigm.

Having discussed all this, the minutes hand is pointing towards a six, signaling that it is time for me to take my leave and allow my kind host to proceed to his discussion. Not having a group I decide to work on the next day’s assignment on my own. The class the next day is to be my formal introduction to the class. Why not take the initiative and do some work so that I can understand what is going on and integrate myself into the class? I leave with almost a half smile on my face with the anticipation of what I am to face in the class tomorrow. I daresay I was looking forward to it and to his course.I am like a free word. I love o express my ideas and to have intellectual discussions and this course was promising to give me platform to do so.