Information explosion: Can someone save the mobile users?

There is an explosion of digital content today. With mobile phones turning into the primary mode of consumption for a majority, there is an ever-great reach and availability of users to consume all this content. One has a continuous stream of messages on Whatsapp, Facebook newsfeeds, Twitter updates, RSS reader feeds and the periodic pushes from each of the apps installed. 

This reach and availability of people creates a feedback loop and converts this into a vicious cycle, to end up in creation of even more content and updates. The content creation has also been democratized, with almost no entry barrier for anyone to create and broadcast stuff. 

While there are some good aspects around this, content overload is an undesirable effect. Its a nightmare to stay on top of the updates, let along manage all of this. There are enough parallels of this with the Web 1.0 days, when there was a similar explosion of content online for the first time, albeit as a one-way channel from broadcasting sources - websites, media agencies & other content creation companies. It took several years and a Google to really organize the information to a manageable (and searchable) extent. 

In my opinion, the need of the hour is a similar aggregation and sorting interface, this time only at a personalized level, embedded in each of our mobile phones. How nice would it be if there were a service that automatically plugged into all the other apps and feeds to aggregate all inputs, organize them by category, sort out the spam (or irrelevant content), prioritize the feeds (a la Google Priority Inbox) and let one consume them in a sane and civilized manner! With the level of authorization that most apps already demand (access to contacts, messages, calls, location etc), privacy would be least of concerns and none would bat an eyelid before giving full access to such an app or service (yet again!). 

At such a deep level of embedding and engagement with consumers, and the universal access that they can have to all worthy sources of content, the revenue opportunity for a company that cracks this problem could be immense. This could become the launch pad for one's activities on the mobile, though much smarter and integrated than today's dumb mobile notification panel. Are the mobile OS players (Android / iOS?) already on it, or is this opportunity eyed by some of the large search, content distribution or mobile app companies (Google / Facebook)? This, sure will be an interesting space to watch!

15 countries in 4 minutes: a time-lapse video

I recently came across this travel video on Tripoto. Though I setup Tripoto app on my mobile around the time I decided to go backpacking, I have hardly used it after that. However, the app has been regularly pushing interesting content once every few days, with breathtaking pictures and interesting, short travel diaries.

This was one such nice post, and this was the first time-lapse video I have seen in a while. The concept and execution is cool, while the condensing of almost a year's travel into a 4-minute video of 15 countries serves as a nice trailer for any aspiring traveler. With the first video going viral, the author has made a second one with 17 more countries, and that's the second video below. Take a look.

Celebrating our Independence

Wishing everyone a Happy 69th Independence Day!

Its always a nice feeling to participate in the multiple Independence day themed celebrations - with family at home, with neighbours in the community, with colleagues in office and also virtually in the digital world. In Gramener's fifth year of celebrating the Independence day, we had a fun time in the office and here is a group picture of the Hyderabad team amidst the festivities.

Hike to the Habsburg Castle

On the Swiss National Day, August 1st, I had planned to go on the famous 4-lake trek in the Alps region of Mt. Titlis. Considering the morning's heavy rains and unfavorable forecast for the rest of the day, I had to change plans and randomly picked a hike that was within an hour's travel from Basel. The first option that came up was the scenic hike along the Aare river in the Aargau canton area. 

This is a nice, enjoyable 25 km hike with a well planned trail right by the river-side, letting one enjoy the deep-green waters and the beautiful swans and ducks that lounge about in them. The waters are so clear that one can see the river bed, colored pebbles and a variety of fish life. Along the hiking trail, one encounters a variety of plants and trees - wild black berries, blue berries, red berries and a variety of apples and pears. There are hundreds of acres of corn fields along the way, apart from industrial corridors that have sprung up. From the signposts in the trail, the painstaking efforts by the Swiss government to maintain course of the river and preserve its flora and fauna is evident.

The hike from the Schinzach-bad station to the castle takes a detour from the river, and moves deeper inland through the dense woods up a hill. Coming onto the clearing from the woods, one gets the clear imposing view of the Habsburg castle, or what remains of the original castle built in the 12th Century. This was once the seat of the powerful Habsburg dynasty that ruled over most of Europe, in its heyday. The fortress is now converted into a restaurant, and not much of medieval artefacts are maintained now. However, the story of the castle is illustrated through audio-narratives and pictures at various points in the castle.

Here is the Picture story (please click below) created from the hike, thanks to Google, and with minimal edits and comments added.

Swiss National Day celebrations

Yesterday, 1st August was the Swiss National Day, a day to commemorate the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy. Unlike the Independence day celebrated in various countries which were colonies of the British or other European powers, this National day signifies unification of the country. August 1st was the date when three key cantons came together by swearing allegiance to each other, and over the next 500 years all other cantons of Switzerland were eventually unified. This alliance, at the time was formed as a strategy to counter the powerful Habsburgs, who ruled the Aargau canton of Switzerland. Interestingly, yesterday, on the occasion of the Swiss National Day, I hiked in Aargau, along the Aare river with a culmination in the Habsburg castle! I'll put up a picture story on that shortly.

The Swiss National Day is marked by fireworks across the country, with the chief attraction being the fireworks in Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen. Basel is also a highlight in the celebrations, with fireworks along the Rhine river. In scale and celebration, this is like a mini-Diwali, with people bursting firecrackers for 2 days! Quite similar to India, a lot of fireworks shops/tents had also sprung up in the past week, selling rockets, flower pots and the like.

Fireworks in Basel (source)	..and one of the many make-shift crackers shops!