Manikarthik.com

With a new social network been developed every other day on the internet, I think we have run out of options to really make use of it. Today, there is a social network for school kids, one for girls, one for the youth as such, one for finding your family pedigree, one for your official networking, one for your pets even. So it’s kind of breaking into all the possible niches. The fun is that everywhere, there is a major chunk of users who are common to all the networks.

With all the frenzy and hulla-bulla around social networks, I guess there is enough scope for a new social network that will integrate all this into one big umbrella. I’m talking about a social network from the Government for the civilians.

I mean seriously, thinking ahead 5-10 years, I’m hoping that this is a possibility, just that the think tanks at the administration is not yet aware of the scope and success of the social networks online.

  A social network by the people for the people. It will have all of profiled already based on our known (publicly) credentials. Like place of birth, date of birth, education, skill levels, work info, social status, social background etc.

This is a very crude form of thinking, but if you dissect it further you’ll see much scope for a helpful social society as such.

Imagine if you could apply for your ration card/credit card online through your social network.

Imagine if others could recommend you for a new job position you applied for?

Or imagine if you received offers from all the local schools to your child’s admission, whose profile is mapped under you?

A little too much imagination eh? Well, the idea is that if the entire social network is under the control of the Government, they could fill in the gaps the social networks right now miss. Like the vital information about a person (which can be opted in by him to be displayed or not on his profile).

Of course, there would be the risks,

- Of privacy and data theft.
- Of terrorism and anti social elements.
- Of developing a information dependant society.

 I’m assuming we can make it all safe and sound as we are dealing with it on a large scale and under the governments surveillance.

Well, for all the developers and IT kids out there, food for thought. Hope it made some sense.

When I moved to Chennai, I hadn’t known that there’s big trouble awaiting me.

The apartment that I chose was on the “other side” of the railway track so AirTel would not give it’s broadband connection to me. If I were to get a BSNL broadband connection, I had to apply for one and then ofer poojas daily to the deity and pray that my wishes come true, for the people at BSNL itself could not guarantee when the connection would be granted.

So the next choice for me was to select between two new kids on the block. The Reliance data card and the Tata Indicom USB modem.

I had tasted the Tata Indicom USB modem already from Trivandrum. It gives you a sluggish speed of below 5kbps !!!! And more over since its a CDMA device that wouldn’t have passed the quality checks if not in India, will literally get heated up. I had nausea and other health problems on using the thing so I cleanly ruled out another possibiity and decided to test the Reliance data card.

Here are the happenings on a timescale.

Day 1 – Applies for a connection at their Kilpauk office. I’m overwhelmed by the warmth of their customercare. Offers me a connection in a day on high priority basis.

Day 2 – Card not activated. Numerous calls to customer care but in vain.

Day 3 – Ditto.

Day 4 – Managed to get the lady who offered me the sun and moon on phone. She admits it’s their fault. Connection not yet.

Day 5 – Speaks in a firm note to the manager who promises the activation.

Day 6 – Reference check failed.

Day 7 – More firm dialogue with the floor manager.

Day 7.5 – Issue solved. Data card activated.

Day 8 – Server not found error.

Day 8.5 – Executive says my laptop has a problem.

Day 9 – Had to uninstall my Zone Alarm antivirus to get the firewall break. Connection made.

Day 10 -Success at last. Not a great connection. Good for basic connectivity.

End result of experiment – Lost clients -two.(Due to delayed/lack of email communication)