As Twitter is to consumer, oGoing is to business

"I am excited to launch a new social media communications platform for business users who want to connect, communicate & collaborate with their co-workers, peers, teams, customers, partners & prospects now!" Sanjay Dalal, founder, oGoing. "oGoing provides a robust social networking platform for the Enterprise. As Twitter is to consumer, oGoing is to business"

oGoing connects You with Your co-workers through the exchange of frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" (What's going on at your work, projects, product launches, deals, partnerships, customer service, group brainstorming, & much more)

oGoing is the most innovative social + business networking service in the marketplace today for sending and sharing real-time updates with your co-workers anywhere in the world!

If you are a business, you want to setup your own oGoing Enterprise Microblogging, Communications & Social Network now. When you setup your business profile on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks:

• Your business has only one public profile accessible by everyone,
• You need to setup separate profiles for each employee (outside your control),
• You cannot have your employees & partners interact privately,
• You cannot control all your followers and followings,
• You cannot control and manage your own branding,
• You cannot send updates to specific people (select employees, partners or customers),
• You cannot create messages away from your competitor's eyes,
• You cannot monitor and manage access to all your employees,
• You cannot create one-to-one critical updates for your key customers or partners,
• You cannot restrict access for your own employees with a valid company email address,
• You cannot avoid spammers.

Would you want your business to operate under this public environment?

On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business or enterprise with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com" which is secured, private & outside the public eyes. At your oGoing Enterprise network, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates & messages with each other, and even communicate with your customers or partners - privately!! It's your own oGoing microblogging, communications & social network where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it...

Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights with all employees (or a select few), your customer service team hand-holding their own customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing Enterprise platform to make all this happen...

Request your oGoing Enterprise Microblogging & Communications Social Network for a free trial for 60 days. Request your oGoing Enterprise.

oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.

oGoing Features

oGoing provides a social media communications & delivery platform for sharing information in real-time.

If you already have a Twitter account, that's Great! On oGoing, you can share all your Twitter updates with your oGoing friends. oGoing has also launched Facebook integration, and APIs to allow for integrating oGoing with your business applications.

On oGoing, every user can setup their own unique profile beginning with user name, location, email, brief bio, website, photograph, and key information about your profession. Once you have setup your profile, you can then begin sharing updates with your followers - your co-workers, partners, customers & more. You can invite new co-workers to join oGoing as well.

But wait, there's more... On oGoing, you can setup multiple accounts with various user names, and link them together! Imagine a Sales executive setting up multiple accounts based on geography or vertical markets. Each account relates to specific sales teams working in their territories. This way, you can send updates to all your followers on all accounts at once, or choose which specific accounts to send updates to...

When you have that really long URL to share, and it takes up all the space in the update area... no more!! On oGoing, you can attach your URL separately (long or short), and it will appear on your update... and you still have all the space you need to write your update!!

oGoing even allows you to share the updates you love the most from your co-workers (or your own), and even share updates you like the most with your co-workers. You can easily track the most shared updates, most liked updates, and the most talked about updates...

On oGoing, you can immediately follow your followers automatically, and even send an automatic personalized message to your followers as they begin to follow you... besides, you can send direct messages to all your followers. Built-in messaging is a key feature of oGoing.

But what if I want to send my updates to my specific peers only, and don't want the rest of my followers to see them... no problem! On oGoing, you can include your special peers in your own Group... so the next time you have something important to share, only let your special co-worker friends on your Group know about this!

oGoing For Business

On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com". At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing portal where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it... Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights, your customer service team hand-holding their customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing For Business portal to make all this happen...

Request your oGoing Enterprise Microblogging & Communications Social Network for a free trial for 60 days. Request your oGoing Enterprise.

oGoing Team

oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are working round the clock to bring you oGoing)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.

Business Social Networking Upside-Downside

Social media tools are entering the workplace, either by thoughtful intent or purely by accident. To date, for those organizations that actually have a plan of action, most tend to focus more on "damage containment" policies for their employees.

Is a protection-centric strategy the prudent approach for concerned -- but otherwise uninformed -- business leaders, or is it shortsighted thinking that undervalues the upside opportunity?

Cisco released the results of a third-party global market study designed to assess how organizations use consumer social networking tools to collaborate externally.

The use of these tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, are connecting organizations with their external stakeholders. On the upside, the tools connect people and information, establish potential new routes to market, and enhance customer intimacy and brand awareness.

According to the third-party researcher, the study findings indicate that we're at the early stages of adoption and in the process of identifying key challenges -- such as the need for increased governance and IT involvement.

Market Study Highlights
Of the organizations interviewed, 75 percent identified social networks as the consumer-based social media tools they primarily use, while roughly 50 percent of the group also identified extensive use of microblogging.

Social networking tools are spreading into core business areas, including marketing, human relations, and customer service. Within marketing and communications, these tools have already become an integral part of early-adopter initiatives.

Small and medium-sized businesses are actively using social networking channels to generate sales leads, but this remains a growth opportunity for larger companies.

Only one in seven of the companies that participated in the research noted a formal process associated with adopting consumer-based social networking tools for business purposes.

Only one in five participants identified any policies in place concerning the use of consumer-based social networking in the enterprise. Within the respondent base, social networking governance typically involves more stakeholders than standard corporate initiatives.

Due to the unstructured nature of social networking, companies continue to struggle with policy creation and adoption, as copying an established governance process from other more structured areas often doesn't work for social networking.

Only one in 10 respondents noted direct IT involvement in externally facing social networking initiatives. Although IT typically isn't involved as a primary decision maker, respondents did recognize the need for these tools to scale and properly integrate with existing business processes to reap maximum benefits.

The new study is based on extensive interviews with 105 participants representing 97 organizations in 20 countries around the globe. Conducted between April and September 2009, the research was carried out by leading business schools in the United States and Europe.

oGoing is Live! Introducing oGoing : "Twitter for Enterprise"

"oGoing is Live! I am excited to launch a brand new social + business networking service for business users who want to connect, communicate & collaborate with their co-workers, peers, teams, customers, partners & prospects now!" Sanjay Dalal, founder, oGoing. "oGoing provides a robust social networking platform for the Enterprise."

oGoing connects You with Your co-workers through the exchange of frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" In real-time!

oGoing is the most innovative social + business networking service in the marketplace today for sending and sharing real-time updates with your co-workers worldwide now!

Using oGoing, you can update, reply and share with co-workers frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" oGoing provides a social + business media platform wherein you and your co-workers talk about what's going on in their work, projects, deals and more...in real-time.

oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.

oGoing Features

Go to: http://www.ogoing.com to sign up and get started today, and join oGoing colleagues from all over the world, and begin sharing your updates now! oGoing provides a delivery platform for sharing information in real-time.

If you already have a Twitter account, that's Great! On oGoing, you can share all your Twitter updates with your oGoing friends.

But wait, there's more... On oGoing, you can setup multiple accounts with various user names, and link them together! This way, you can send updates to all your followers on all accounts at once, or choose which specific accounts to send updates to...Cool!!

When you have that really long URL to share, and it takes up all the space in the update area... no more!! On oGoing, you can attach your URL separately (long or short), and it will appear on your update... and you still have all the space you need to write your update!! Very cool!!

oGoing even allows you to share the updates you love the most from your co-workers (or your own), and even share updates you like the most with your co-workers. You can easily track the most shared updates, most liked updates, and the most talked about updates... Is that cool or what?

On oGoing, you can immediately follow your followers automatically, and send an automatic personalized message to your followers as they begin to follow you... how cool is that!!

But what if I want to send my updates to my specific peers only, and don't want the rest of my followers to see them... no problem! On oGoing, you can include your peers in your own Group... so the next time you have something important to share, only let your special friends on your Group know about this! Ultra cool!!

oGoing For Business

oGoing is innovative and ready for your business!!

If you are a business, you want to setup your own oGoing Business Portal now. When you setup your business profile on Twitter or other social networks: You cannot control your followers, you cannot control your branding, you cannot keep some of your updates private, you cannot create programs away from your competitor's eyes, you cannot give access to all your employees, you cannot create one-to-one updates for your key customers or partners, you cannot avoid spammers. Would you want your business to operate under this environment?

On oGoing, we setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business, for example,"mybiz.ogoing.com". At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing portal where you can brand it, customize it, monitor it, and manage it... Imagine your sales leaders sharing updates with their team members, your marketing team sharing the latest news about your product launch, your CEO sharing the company vision & highlights, your customer service team hand-holding their customers, your business development team working hand-in-hand with your partners, and more. oGoing provides your own oGoing For Business portal to make all this happen...

Just go here to request your oGoing For Business Portal for a free trial for 60 days - no strings attached.

Request Business Portal

oGoing Team

oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are still working as you read this)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.

Launching oGoing - What's going on?

"If you like Twitter, you will love oGoing," Sanjay Dalal, founder, oGoing.

oGoing connects You with Your friends, family and co-workers through the exchange of frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" In real-time!

oGoing is the most innovative social networking service in the marketplace today for sending updates to all your friends worldwide now!

You can find all your friends on Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook and Myspace when you join oGoing, and invite them to get started.

Using oGoing, you can keep in touch with your friends, family and co-workers with frequent answers to one question: "What's going on?" oGoing is a social media platform wherein you and your friends, family and co-workers talk about what's going on in their lives, work, family, fun things, anything at all...in real-time. oGoing - What's going on? Stay in touch. Join the conversation.

oGoing For Me

Go to: http://www.ogoing.com to sign up and get started today, and join oGoing friends from all over the world, and begin sharing your updates now!

If you already have a Twitter account, that's Great! On oGoing, you can share all your Twitter updates with your oGoing friends.

But wait, there's more... On oGoing, you can setup multiple accounts with various user names, and link them together! This way, you can send updates to all your followers on all accounts at once, or choose which specific accounts to send updates to...Cool!!

When you have that really long URL to share, and it takes up all the space in the update area... no more!! On oGoing, you can attach your URL separately (long or short), and it will appear on your update... and you still have all the space you need to write your update!! Very cool!!

oGoing even allows you to share the updates you love the most from your friends (or your own), and even share updates you like the most with your friends. You can easily track the most shared updates, most liked updates, and the most talked about updates... Is that cool or what?

On oGoing, you can immediately follow your followers automatically, and send an automatic personalized message to your followers as they begin to follow you... how cool is that!!

But what if I want to send my updates to my special friends only, and don't want the rest of my followers to see them... no problem! On oGoing, you can include your special friends in your own Group... so the next time you are at your favorite restaurant, or doing something spontaneously good, only let your special friends on your Group know about this! Ultra cool!!

oGoing For Business

oGoing is innovative and ready for your business!! Setup oGoing for your own business with a unique website created just for your business... At your oGoing For Business website, only your business, your employees, your team members can all share updates with each other, or share updates with your customers or partners - privately, or publicly!! It's your own oGoing where you can brand it, customize it, and manage it... Just go here to request your oGoing For Business portal for a free trial for 60 days - no strings attached. Request Business Portal

oGoing For Business has all the cool features of oGoing For Me, and then some!!

oGoing Team

oGoing is founded by Sanjay Dalal, serial entrepreneur & innovator, and a silicon valley veteran. oGoing Engineers have been working hard to bring oGoing to you (and are still working as you read this)... Contact Us if you are interested in joining oGoing Team.

From Nit Wit to Net Wit: 4 Social Networking Rules for Schools

On the heels of yesterday's post about mistakes schools make entering into social networking, I submit the following ideas and suggestions to schools who want to get the most out of the opportunities social networking offers.


1. Don't use it just because it's there.

Having a Facebook page does not demonstrate that you understand a darned thing about 21st century networking. There are over 400 million users on Facebook; welcome to the club.

I hear so often how excited some institutions are because they've set up a "Facebook presence". And I want to tell these people: "Don't you get it? It's not about you being excited about being on Facebook, it's about folks on Facebook being excited about you being there."

The same folks tend to use Facebook (and social media in general) as an analogue to the sorts of communications they made in the pre-digital days. And I want to tell them: "No, no, no! The comments wall of a Facebook Group is not a place to post your press releases. It's a place to make an offer of community and to join in the already happening conversation."

Likewise, I see schools creating Facebook pages because they think that's what 'being hip to social networking' is all about. Fact of the matter is, in many cases a user-defined Ning would work so much better to help the institution achieve its goals.

The key to getting the most out of social networking is in understanding one simple maxim: Don't use it just because it's there. If you find yourself creating a need, then you are doing the wrong thing.

Step back, figure out what it is that you want to do (and be specific, don't just say 'reach more people'), and find the tool that best helps you achieve that goal.

Personal example: For years, I maintained a class blog where I'd post homework assignments and links to further reading. Over the last two years, I've found that I can use Twitter along with Delicious and a wiki more effectively than I was using the blog. I post assignments and maintain conversations about classwork on the former and I archive, brainstorm, and create reference libraries on the latter two. So, I stopped using one totally legitimate technology in favour of using another.

The trick isn't 'using technology'.

The trick is finding the technology that's right for you, whether you are a classroom teacher or a large institution.



2. Don't centralize your Facebook communications.

I'm an alumnus; I'm not really interested in whether or not school's closed next week. I was also a bit of a geek back in high school (go figure), so whether or not the varsity football team is having a winning season really isn't all that interesting to me. I was, however, in the Drama Club; I'd love to know what's happening with the Spring Musical. And I was a member of the Jazz Band; I'd love to know what songs are in the current set list.

Now, if you send information forth from a centralized point, you might get my attention once or twice. Soon, however, I get too bored by the football headlines to bother even reading through whatever other information you may have sent out. You lost me.

I still count as a number in your 'friends' list, but you've effectively lost me.

It didn't have to be this way.

This is social media, after all. So be social. Don't style yourself after the PR that worked back in the days of print. Instead, let the individual departments and programs establish networks with their own alumni and constituents; and let me be a part of whatever network I so choose.

If you are using Facebook for networking, this is an essential understanding.

The football team should have it's own network run by the football team and football alums. The Drama Club should have it's own network -- and not limited to current students, but engaging alumni and local professionals.

Now, it's fine to have a 'school' presence. But by-and-large, that central hub serves mostly as a glorified calendar and business card. It's the micro-networks that do the real job of engaging like-minded folks. To use a popular term: your school is comprised of tribes. The job of a communications director or alumni office, therefore, should not be to 'tell constituents the news', but rather to show them where to find the tribe of their choice.



3. Think outside the Tweet.

Twitter is essentially whatever you want it to be.

As a quick and effective way to send a message or link to your public, it's unparalleled. Just don't let the "What are you doing? / What's happening?" prompts squelch your message; they're just red herrings. What you need to do is make your Tweets work for you. For a main office, I suggest a daily morning Tweet with a highlight and a link to morning announcements. For Athletic Depts, go ahead and Tweet your game schedules, rankings, and links to news coverage of your student athletes. Guidance Depts: Tweet college links, links to sites useful for stress relief, and links to sites where students can get further tutoring or mentoring. Academic Depts: there's no reason why the English Dept isn't Tweeting its reading list or why the Math Dept doesn't Tweet classic problems in Analytic Geometry or Calculus.

Now, the first instinct of many an educator is: But, why?

Well, the short answer is: because Tweeting is one of the most positive things you can do to foster motivation.

Students and Parents will appreciate the daily Tweeted schedule; the Athletic Dept may see a surge in its fan-base as videos of players go viral and schools compete against one another virtually for fans -- particularly in the case of High Schools looking to recruit, a sound Twitter community will bode well towards getting great information and a variety of perspectives out to parents and students. For the Guidance Office, you may well find that students start picking up the ball to create their own tutoring programs and clubs based around academic and social issues discussed via Twitter; and certainly the Departmental Tweets have the potential of fostering communities based around common love for a subject.

The trick here is to allow it to grow naturally. Don't force all of the kids to follow your English department feed; that's a disaster in the making. Rather, let the kids discover their own tribes and use Twitter to let those tribes flourish. Go ahead: create content and send it out there; before long, your constituents will be the ones creating the majority of the content and you'll be the one learning what makes a community a community.



4. Don't be afraid of the 'unofficial'.

Despite the best intentions of a school to 'own' its brand, no institution ever really 'owns' its memory. Schools are comprised of people, and the people themselves are the reality of the school.

Now, those folks in charge of creating a web presence soon will have realized that there exist 'unofficial' versions of your brand all over the place -- in the form of blogs, Tweets, Facebook Groups, and more.

What does an effective communications director do?

Well, he or she points to the best of the 'unofficial' and says: "Check this out."

For those of you choking on that last sentence, consider the example of the band Radiohead. For years, the band has listed (under alt/radiohead sites) 'unofficial' sites created by folks all over the world with one thing in common: a love for Radiohead.

The result?

More love for Radiohead.

People love to be in a community with like-minded people. People love to debate the minutiae of their passions. People long for means to connect.

Translate this into your situation.

Now, I realize most of you aren't rock stars. But you are the people who produce the environment in which most human beings undergo the fundamental changes that make them into young adults.

That's powerful stuff.

Now there will be students who have not liked their school experience. And they may use the Net to express this to the world. And that's fine. Because there are also students who will have loved their experience. And some of them too will use the Net to try to express this to the world. You can think of these constituencies as the Yin and Yang of Net identity.

The trick is to mute neither while pointing folks towards what you think is most valuable.

And hagiography and glowing hyperbole is not always deemed 'most valuable', so make your decisions wisely. The goal here is not to use your links to create the impression of what your school is like, but rather to use your links as a means of being a partner in the creation of a broader digital alumni and school community.

'Unofficial' sites and 'Unofficial' networks are good. It means that there are folks whose experience connects in some way to your place. You then have to decide whether given site or given network provides value to your community.

Something for Alumni Affairs and School Communications Directors to Think About Regarding Social Networks

My high school alma mater announced that it's started a Facebook page.

Well, thing is... they didn't exactly start it. Turns out an '03 alum had launched an 'unofficial' page years back that had gained about 700 followers and was steadily turning out information for alumni about what was happening at the school.

The alumni relations dude at the school stumbled upon the page and was amazed. So he and the director of communications staked out a deal with the alum who'd started the whole thing to take over as admins of the site and bring it all into line with the 'official' brand of the school.

I can only imagine how quickly those original 700 fans moved on to join a new unofficial page.

Nothing destroys a social network quicker than an institution trying to co-opt the resources developed by 'unofficial' means. As an alum, I find it much more interesting to occasionally see updates sent out by fellow alums -- real human-being fellow alums who aren't an institution trying to sell me alumni Beef-n-Beer nights and raffle tickets.

Fellow alums who can share the 'unofficial' history as well as state their own opinions on the current trajectory of the school. Not some nitwit admins and communications directors trying to re-brand the school into my brain.

I went there. I'm an alum. Remember?

If schools themselves are going to get into the social networking game, they have to realize that there are just certain aspects of a network that they'll never be able to replicate as an institution yoked by a necessarily limited voice.

Alumni Affairs folks, head's up: those original alums didn't link together in that network because of the existence of your school and your institution's varied publiciz-able successes. They linked together in that network because of their shared experience in attending your school.

They didn't link there because of you. They linked there because of each other.

And the shared experience of a student body has very little to do with what communications directors like to share with the public.

There are myriad ways institutions can use the Net -- and I hope my alma mater finds a way to make it work. But, taking over an alum's friend page probably ain't one of the most effective routes to building a grassroots community. You may see initial returns in terms of the number of friends you rank, but before all too long, your network will bore of soccer scores and mission-themed posts; and the heart of the communication that existed originally will find somewhere else on the Net to flourish.

India Business Network - Over 2,000 Professionals Joined

India Business Network is growing strong since the launch on June 15, 2009. Over two thousand business executives, entrepreneurs, managers, consultants, professionals and non-profits from over 100 countries in the world have joined India Business Network, and are interacting, collaborating, networking and doing business online.

"Our mission is clear: Grow India Business Network to over 1 million members strong worldwide. The fact that over 2,000 members joined during our rolling launch underscores the need for a dedicated business network where professionals connect, collaborate and do business with Indian professionals worldwide. India Business Network is well positioned to provide a dedicated business networking platform for these professionals," said Sanjay Dalal, Founder, India Business Network. "Our immediate mission is to grow India Business Network to over 10,000 members by early 2010!"

Go to: India Business Network to join, interact, network and do business with professionals worldwide. Advance your career, Grow your business! Membership is FREE. All professionals invited to join.





The mission of India Business Network is to provide an engaging and dynamic online place for business and social networking with Indian Professionals worldwide. India Business Network is a premier network of professionals, leaders, executives & entrepreneurs who connect, collaborate and do business with Indian professionals worldwide.

India Business Network Website:

http://www.indiabiznet.com/

Business Networking Website:

http://indiabusinessnetwork.ning.com/

India Business Network provides exciting social media features such as collaboration through Groups and Discussion Forums, networking through Events, communication through Blogs, Videos and News stories, and even some fun through Photos, Music, RSS and more.

Members create a business profile, invite their friends and business contacts, search and connect with new friends, list their businesses & trade, and build their professional presence at India Business Network. Further, members comment on each other's wall, write notes about their business and proposals, express their opinion, and make their point across through the lively discussion forums.

India Business Network enables members to upload business videos, introduce new presentations, experience music, share ideas, and explore new career & business opportunities with fellow members and businesses.

Invite your friends, colleagues and business contacts to join the India Business Network.

Already over 2,000 executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, professionals and members from various professions and corporations have joined the India Business Network since our launch a few weeks back. Join the India Business Network today, and communicate with these professionals, network, and do business.

India Business Network - Your online social network for doing business with Indian Professionals worldwide. All professionals invited to join. Membership is FREE. Advance your career, Grow your business!

Quick Facts about India Business Network:

1. 2,000+ members joined
2. Members from 100+ countries
3. 100+ groups formed
4. 300+ discussions started
5. 200+ events listed
6. 100+ business listings
7. 500+ videos, photos & music
8. Adding new professionals every day

Go to: India Business Network to join, interact, network and do business with professionals worldwide. Advance your career, Expand your business! Membership is FREE. All professionals invited to join.

About India Business Network

India Business Network is founded by Sanjay Dalal, a serial entrepreneur and innovator, with a vision to grow the network to over 1,000,000 active members worldwide. Read Sanjay's profile below.

India Business Network is launched on Ning, an innovative and easy-to-use technology platform for people to join and create new networks for their interests and passions and meet new people around the things they care about most in their life.

Follow India Business Network on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/indiabiznet
Find and Join India Business Network on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95213884630

About Sanjay Dalal
Sanjay Dalal is an innovator and entrepreneur. Sanjay is the author/editor of the Definitive Guide and Faculty eBook on Creativity And Innovation In Business, used by over 500 corporations and organizations around the world including HP, Pepsi, Hallmark, Cleveland Clinic, EDS, Ericsson, Best Buy, University of California, Irvine, Indian Institute of Sciences, LG Electronics, Nokia, and many more. Sanjay is the chief innovator of InnovationMain.com , chief marketer of Semdia and founder of India Business Network. Sanjay is the author of over 200 articles in the last two years on the real-time state of innovation in business at his blog on Creativity And Innovation Driving Business. Sanjay is an active member of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. Sanjay's affiliations include Dean's Leadership Circle of The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Web 2.0 adviser for Cal State Fullerton, Secretary of School Site Council at Turtle Rock Elementary School, Treasurer of Turtle Rock PTA, and Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine. Sanjay is an engineering scholar graduate from The University of Texas at Austin, attended graduate school at Arizona State University, and completed executive certification from Cornell University.

Follow Sanjay Dalal's updates on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/chiefinnovator

What about TWO?

A reader writes:

I am seeing a surge in teenagers, as they get older toward mid-late college, using two Facebook pages. One is their "professional" page - for family or job prospects. Yes, family is included, they often consider a family broadcast a hindrance to their privacy! The other is their regular page complete with beer pong and weekend parties.

Though beer pong rarely makes it into my broadcasts, I have no less than four social networks (education PLN, classroom use, music and arts, and personal).

What about you all? How many Twitter feeds are you handling?

India Business Network Growing Strong

India Business Network is growing strong since the launch on June 15, 2009. Over one thousand business executives, entrepreneurs, managers, professionals and non-profits from all over the world have joined the India Business Network, and are interacting, collaborating, networking and doing business online.

"Our mission is clear: Grow India Business Network to over 1 million members strong worldwide. The fact that over 1,000 members already signed up during our soft launch underscores the need for a dedicated business network where professionals connect, collaborate and do business with Indian professionals worldwide. India Business Network is well positioned to provide a dedicated business networking platform for these professionals," said Sanjay Dalal, Founder, India Business Network.

Go to: India Business Network to join, interact, network and do business with professionals worldwide.





The mission of India Business Network is to provide an engaging and dynamic online place for business and social networking with Indian Professionals worldwide. India Business Network is a premier network of professionals who connect, collaborate and do business with Indian professionals worldwide.

India Business Network Website:

http://www.indiabiznet.com/

Business Networking Website:

http://indiabusinessnetwork.ning.com/

India Business Network provides exciting social media features such as collaboration through Groups and Discussion Forums, networking through Events, communication through Blogs, Videos and Notes, and even some fun through Photos, Music, RSS and more.

Members create a business profile, invite their friends and business contacts, search and connect with new friends, and build their professional presence at India Business Network. Further, members comment on each other's wall, write notes about their business and proposals, express their opinion, and make their point across through the lively discussion forums.

India Business Network enables members to upload business videos, introduce new presentations, experience music, share ideas and explore new opportunities with fellow members and businesses.

Invite your friends, colleagues and business contacts to join the India Business Network.

Already over 1,000 executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, professionals and members from various professions and corporations have joined the India Business Network since our launch a few weeks back. Join the India Business Network today, and communicate with these professionals, network, and do business.

India Business Network - Your online social network for doing business with Indian Professionals worldwide. Everyone invited to join.

About India Business Network

India Business Network is founded by Sanjay Dalal, a serial entrepreneur and innovator, with a vision to grow the network to over 1,000,000 active members worldwide.

India Business Network is launched on Ning, an innovative and easy-to-use technology platform for people to join and create new networks for their interests and passions and meet new people around the things they care about most in their life.

Follow India Business Network on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/indiabiznet
Find and Join India Business Network on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/indiabusiness
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95213884630

LearnCentral

Led a session yesterday within the virtual rooms at NECC. Using Elluminate technology, the presentation incorporated a shared desktop, live audio, chat/backchannel, and sort of a live shared browser.

I've been taking part in these types of sessions for some time now, but only as an audience participant. I like the format. It's rather utilitarian, (my wide teases me about being addicted to all of the ham-radio things the Internet has to offer), but it works great and I especially like the ability to just pop into a session and see what's happening.

So after yesterday's session, the moderator Kim Caise told me to check out LearnCentral.org which is another project of Classroom 2.0 founder Steve Hargadon. I go there this morning to discover over 4,600 educators using the profile-based sm and free Elluminate rooms.

Where have I been?

That's the thrill of the Internet and social media. Just when you think you've got a handle on things, something flies out in front of you and demonstrates just how much you still have to learn.

Some people are turned off by this.

I live for this.

Launching India Business Network

Welcome to the Launch of India Business Network : Business + Networking with Indian Professionals worldwide.

The mission of India Business Network is to provide an engaging and dynamic online place for business and social networking with Indian Professionals worldwide.

India Business Network Website:

http://www.indiabiznet.com/

Social Networking Website:

http://indiabusinessnetwork.ning.com/

Try out the exciting social media features such as collaboration through Groups and Forums, networking through Events, communication through Blogs, Video and Notes, and even some fun through Photos, Music, RSS and more.

Create your business profile, invite your friends and business contacts, and build your own professional presence at India Business Network. Comment on each other's wall, write notes and express your opinion, and make your point across through the discussion forums.

Upload your business video, introduce your presentation, experience music, share ideas and explore new opportunities with fellow members and businesses.

Invite your friends, colleagues and business contacts to join the India Business Network.

Already about 50 executives and members from various professions and corporations have joined the India Business Network since our launch a few days back. Join the India Business Network today, and communicate with these professionals, network, and do business.

India Business Network - Your online social network for doing business with Indian Professionals worldwide. Everyone invited to join.

Dell Must Hate Us

Ok, so what does the Computer World think of us Ed Techies? Well, here's a clue as to what Dell thinks:

r u kidding? I am freaking out - I totally hav a problem! NYC is my fave!

Maybe that's not representative as to the corporate line... how about this:

either way not as tummy w/o the tequila:)

No, no, that's not it... how about:

showing my hubby how Twitter works, can anyone say hi? TY! :)

I'm sorry, I have to step away for a minute to throw up.

You see, these are not the rambling Tweets of a totally-freaking-out sorority girl wannabe. These are the 'official' public Tweets of the lead representative of Dell Computer's Edu4U program.

Now, I'm all for playful Tweets. There is a time and place for everything. And I'm sure that I've got more than my fair share of comments on the Web that can easily be taken out of context. I'm not a newb. I know how these things work. But, in looking over "Bri's" Tweets today, we're talking about the world's second largest computer-seller portraying Ed Tech teachers and thinkers as the Gossip Girls.

Now, why is this freaky and not just in bad taste?

Because Mark Horan, Vice President and General Manager for Dell’s Public Accounts group in the United States, is on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

It is absolutely unlikely that the folks involved in Mr. Horan's work on that board would not be aware of the tenor of Dell's Ed Tech flagship site.

This is unacceptable.

If nothing else, it undermines the professionalism of the thousands of educators and ed tech thinkers who actually rely on Twitter and various Web 2.0 sites on a daily basis both for information and as platforms for creative expression and learning in their classes.

We're catching enough hell for trying to use these resources to teach kids. The last thing we need is a fake Ed Techie obscuring what we're trying to do with Valley Girl talk.

As a teacher who has been actively experimenting with Twitter as a learning tool and who has seen Twitter infuse the engagement of students with a fresh spirit, as well as better assessment scores, I find Dell's foray into social networking to be insulting and completely out-of-touch.

Social Media and Cheating

Reader MagistraM writes:

I love how you have placed the responsibility for learning so clearly on your students. A common concern about using digital tools for classwork and assessments is that the students will be "cheating". This lesson demonstrates how the social tools facilitate every student's learning - and demands each student to contribute.

I would say that social media actually may present us with a new post-cheating paradigm. I liken it to students in an oil painting class: barring having someone else do it for you, you just "can't" cheat on an oil painting.

Because of the transparency of Web 2.0, cheating in the traditional forms -- plagiarism, copying, cribnotes -- is severely limited in a practical sense. Because of the individuality and personalization of assessment and creation via Web 2.0, cheating itself becomes a rather uninteresting option.

Students tend to cheat out of a mix of boredom and procrastination; cheating is a manifestation of a lack of motivation to be authentic -- whether we're talking about the total slacker who cut-and-pastes from Encarta, or the 'sophisticated' cheater who tries to juke the SAT.

Unauthentic assessment will produce cheaters.

And what is unauthentic assessment? I'd define it as assessment that fails in its structural makeup to address the realities of society -- both at a local and global level.

Now, I'm no spring chicken. I know there are kids who will try to cheat their way around anything. I've caught a few in my own classes. But, if the teacher is using the tools available to engage the students rather than just to talk 'at' them, the teacher has got a much better shot of fostering the type of community in the classroom where cheating will not be tolerated among the students themselves. Web 2.0, by its very nature is a medium that requires you to give of yourself to get anything in return. And that's the sort of thing that a good teacher can tap into both to encourage authentic engagement as well as to foster a spirit of classroom-wide local goodwill. Combined, cheating becomes a much less cool option.

Thoughts on Last Night's Paperless Classroom Presentation at JHU

Some really interesting responses from the audience last night. One question was about fear.

I say: Fear is as Fear does.

Years ago, when we first started the process of becoming a 1:1 computing school, there was a lot of fear about MySpace. We heard about the threats of online predators, credit-card thieves, and harassment. Years on down the road we look at MySpace and what is it? A glorified mall. It's got record shops, a video arcade, and places for teenagers to hang out. And the whole thing is run by an enormous corporation.

It's a mall.

I remember as a kid watching TV and seeing those news reports of the occasional mall kidnapping. Scary stuff. But did that really make anyone stop going to the mall? Maybe what it did was make some people become more aware of what their kids were doing at the mall. Just like those rare cases of perverts on MySpace made people aware.

Funny way to become aware of your kids. But, fear is as fear does.

The admins here have always been supportive of relatively open Internet access here at school, yet they remain wary of social networking. Maybe it has to do with the word 'social'. That word has certain connotations in a high school. Maybe we should change it from 'social networking' to 'networked society'. Because that's what's really going on from Facebook to Twitter and beyond.

This isn't kids' stuff.

The Obama campaign waged the most unlikely successful political battle in American history using Facebook as a virtual headquarters. If the man who is elected president trusts his staff to use social networking for professional purposes, why in the heck can't principals and supers across this country -- in schools both public and private -- trust their staffs to use social networking for professional purposes?

This isn't kids' stuff.

But fear is as fear does.

Last night, no less than a dozen people came up to me after the presentation and told me that they previously had opened Twitter accounts, but then didn't know what to do with them and so they just sort of ignored them; now, however, they were going to hop right back on and see what it could do. I stopped by Twitter last night before going to bed, and eight of them had already logged in to follow my feed. One was already using her feed to broadcast Autism info into the Tweet-o-sphere.

Reader Knaus stopped by during our presentation last night via Twitter. His Tweet said it all: Twitter is the best Professional Development you will ever have. By the end of a very short session on blogs, Tweets, RSS, and Web 2.0, many of those in the audience were in agreement with him.

I spend all my time in front of high school kids. So, when I get up in front of a room of adults, I often feel weird -- my attempts at humor are usually the first thing to bomb! But I saw a lot of faces come to life last night. It's that same glow of sudden understanding I see in kids when they finally understand the importance of the fourth principle part of a verb or when they realize the connection between 16th century sculpture and its ancient antecedents. It's the reason we are educators.

For the record...

A reader writes:

So I don't get it, are you pro-Google / anti-Google; pro-Twitter / anti-Twitter? I must say that some of your positions on this are confusing to follow.

Being a teacher and not a corporate board member or stakeholder, I could give a darned less about the competition between Google, FB, and Twitter.

Except in how it effects the growth of a free Internet and global access to information.

I've cringed at many of Google's decisions, but think that Google Apps is a great platform. I've cringed at many of FB's decisions, but I think social networking is producing a watershed event in the way societies work and I think perhaps more than anywhere else on the Web, FB may be the source of that watershed (the watershed not being FB itself, but rather the concept of social networking of such a grand scale). I find Twitter to be tricky and cliquey, but I think it's the beginning of a new type of intelligent human network (and talk about potential for 'grand scale').

Most importantly, so long as they exist, and so long as they are useful, and so long as they continue to evolve, I will continue to use, experiment with, and mash up any and all of the resources the Web offers for classroom use and fresh new ways of learning.

Be the disruption. Use technology however you want. The students are the real stakeholders. Change your classroom. Change the world.

Dip Those Toes!

Weblogg-ed is thinking about Facebook.

I read that as a whole lot of parents and teachers are dipping their toes in the pool and at least beginning to come to terms with social networks. Whether they can see the potentials for learning is another discussion. But I can’t help but think this conversation for reform which includes teaching kids how to learn in networked publics and online communities will be given a boost by their participation.

Years ago, back when schools found out that kids were on MySpace, there was a great deal of trepidation in the ranks of educators. Fears of perverts lurking in the digital shadows and all that.

But then we all started using social networking sites. MySpace turned out to be a cross between an old-school shopping mall and a really big record shop. Facebook has turned into an interactive address book and organizing calendar. Much of the fear is gone. People are starting to feel comfortable in the digital world. They see that it's not going away. In fact, it's becoming more and more necessary.

I'll give you an example from my alternate life in music. I help run a venue in Baltimore. Twice a month or so, me and the other organizers get together and listen to a bunch of submissions. Almost every single one of those submissions comes through MySpace. Back when I was a kid, we had to spend our hard-earned money and product schlepping records to local clubs in exchange for gigs. Tours took forever to plan on your own, and we all had stacks of out-dated phone-numbers and addresses of promoters and venues across the country. Now, booking a tour is as simple as planning a time-frame for going on the road and emailing your MySpace link to promoters and venues; usually just takes two quick emails to secure dates anywhere in this country or most others.

Which gives you a whole lot more time to actually kick back and hone your chops.

Social Networking Innovation - Download FACulty eBook and Definitive Guide

Social Networking and Innovation
Creativity And Innovation in Business is a 212-page collection of 55 best practices, case studies, and insights on the current state of Innovation in Business at Top Innovators including Apple, Google, Netflix, 3M, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Toyota, GE, BMW, Deloitte, Frito Lay, IBM, Nike, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Dell, Intel and more. With pertinent articles from the award-winning Creativity And Innovation Driving Business Blog, this eBook provides real-world examples on how the Top Innovators innovate and grow their business successfully time and again, especially during economic cycles. Creativity And Innovation in Business is a Faculty eBook and definitive guide that will help you unblock creativity, uncover and create game-changing innovations, and make exponential business growth a reality.

1) Innovation and growth is not (just) a fuzzy process of screwing around vigorously (SAV) but can be a systematic process,
2) Innovation and growth is not (just) something that happens in a department like R & D or product development,
3) Innovation and growth is not just about products or solutions - it is about creating a transformational change in the way people live, work and play.
- Chapter 20

Learn More...

Creativity And Innovation in Business asks questions and obtains answers on generating, managing and growing business creativity and innovation through proven processes. It details case studies, insights and stories on top innovators of the Innovation Index creating disruptive innovations and growing market leadership.

Who should buy?
If you are a product manager, marketer, product marketer, sales operations manager, sales director, sales consultant, business consultant, product designer, brand manager, marketing manager, VP of products, VP of marketing, VP of technology, research & development director, product director, product marketing manager, marketing consultant, brand consultant, business school professor, business school student, innovation consultant, chief innovation officer, engineer, engineering student, technology student, technology consultant, design engineer, consultant, management consultant - this definitive guide is for you! If you are one of the key executives of the company or the CEO, buy this guide for your company!

Learn More...

Who has bought the guide?
The FACulty EBOOK and Definitive Guide is downloaded and used by over 550 leading organizations including EDS, Ericsson, Center for Sales Strategy, Ideachampions, Acara Global, Byrne Dairy, Cleveland Clinic, Magpie, Department of Justice, FBI, HP, Hewlett Packard, Intervista Institute, Fryett Consulting Group, Satellite Shelters, ProductVentures, Speakeasy - a Best Buy company, Jarden Consumer Solutions, Hallmark, Infinium, Nokia, Pepsi, LG, major universities, business professionals and more.

Table of Contents of Creativity And Innovation in Business FACulty eBook

Table of Contents - Creativity And Innovation In Business
Chapter 1 - The Top 50 Innovative Companies In The World
Chapter 2 - The Innovation Index
Chapter 3 - Failures And Stumbles Driving Innovation
Chapter 4 - Blocking Creativity And Innovation
Chapter 5 - Six Ways To Find Innovation
Chapter 6 - Five Principles For Successful Innovation
Chapter 7 - Is Innovation Cyclical?
Chapter 8 - Can Leadership Create Innovation?
Chapter 9 - Top Ten Creative Leadership Traits
Chapter 10 - Creating Team Innovation - Seven Characteristics
Chapter 11 - Creating Team Innovation - Effective Teams
Chapter 12 - Creating Team Innovation - Ten Principles
Chapter 13 - The Future Of Management, Creativity And Innovation
Chapter 14 - How Much Creativity Is Enough?
Chapter 15 - Co-Creation Driving Innovation
Chapter 16 - Marketing Innovation Creating Market Leadership
Chapter 17 - Consumer Innovation Best Practices
Chapter 18 - The Innovation Gap
Chapter 19 - Ten Answers For Driving Innovation And Growth
Chapter 20 - Strategic Innovation At Deloitte - The "Apple" Of Services Innovation
Chapter 21 - Toyota's Innovation Factory
Chapter 22 - Ipod - Apple's Best Innovation
Apple Iphone Rising - Top Ten Innovations
Chapter 23 - Google Versus Yahoo - A Tale Of Two Cities
Youtube - $1.65 Billion Innovation And Counting
Chapter 24 - Blockbuster Versus Netflix - Winner Takes All?
Chapter 25 - GE And P&G ? Innovations Driving Growth ? Six Growth Principles
Chapter 26 - Can Dell Turnaround Dell? Seven Answers
Chapter 27 - Innovations Brewing At Starbucks ? Five Takeaways
Chapter 28 - Southwest Airlines Flying High With Ten Innovations
Chapter 29 - Innovations At Microsoft ? Four Business Pillars
Chapter 30 - Direct Marketing And Direct Mail Innovation At USPS
Chapter 31 - Disruptor Zune Versus Innovator Ipod
Chapter 32 - 100% Electric Ultra Fast Innovation
Chapter 33 - Nike Versus Adidas - The Innovation Game Is On
Chapter 34 - People Innovation - We Think
Chapter 35 - Intel - Exponential Innovations
Chapter 36 - Five Innovations In Software Industry
Chapter 37 - Google Versus Microsoft - The Enterprise Battle Heats Up!
Chapter 38 - Doubleclick A Smart Buy For Google
Chapter 39 - Microsoft Walk-Off Home Run With Aquantive
Chapter 40 - IBM's $5 Billion Cognos Acquisition
Chapter 41 - Top Acquisitions By The Top Innovators
Chapter 42 - Will Yahoo merge with Microsoft?
Chapter 43 - Innovation And Stock Performance Correlation
Chapter 44 - The Innovation Index Annual Report
Chapter 45 - $1 Billion Or The Future
11 new chapters added including Benchmarking Innovation

Learn More...

I am forever grateful to Creativity and Innovation Leaders, Innovators and Bloggers for helping me drive the readership on my blog, and I am looking forward to my blog readers and fellow blog writers downloading and referring this relevant resource on Creativity And Innovation in Business.

Good Luck Innovating!

Sincere regards,
Sanjay Dalal
Chief Innovator
http://www.innovationmain.com

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