What I won't use, I will donate...

We generally have a mindset that we donate what we don't need. One might say - "At least I am donating!". That's good and absolutely right but think about the person whom you are donating your "waste" stuff. Think about how he'll feel if you give him a torn shirt instead of a new one. Donating new stuff is not always possible but we should always strive to do that for that will make the person receiving the donation very happy and make him/her feel that he/she is a worthy person... Think about what wonders it might do to that person's self-esteem...

I want to...

I want to break free..
free from the shackles of this self...
I want to rise higher and higher...
go faster and faster...
delve deeper and deeper into the realms of the unknown.
Explore the unexplored and attain the unattained.
Quench this thirst for knowledge
Realize the absolute truth
Become one with it
Be a part of the bigger energy... unlimited... pure... calm... divine

Pick me - Click me - Educate me!

http://pickme-clickme-educateme.org

With an estimated 10 million children not going to school, the effort required to decrease that number is huge. Here is our small effort. One school at a time.

Pick Me, Click Me, Educate Me! is an endeavor to use digital photography as a social reform tool to create awareness of the existing educational situations in rural Bihar. This project also aims to spread the joy of education and building communities for collaborative learning in rural Bihar. The value of education resulting in giving them the power to dream is an outcome of the project that the project seeks to achieve over the time.

This project serves to provide a platform to people from different backgrounds (photographers, writers, educationists, social workers, donors etc) to collaborate. It allows to utilize the work done by one group (like photographers who go to these locations and shoot), for discussion with the others who are not able to.It therefore allows aims for promoting , discussing, writing about, and finally donating (again not the prime focus) for , the issue of child education.

Pick Me, Click Me, Educate me is to provide with stories from the location, and through photographs to help spread a) value of education b) the existing avenues and facilities and c) a possible word for donation.

The project was initiated in the summer of 2007, by Documentary photographer Kshitiz Anand. This website went live on the 1st of May 2009.

Jodo Gyan - a unique initiative

(source of this article- http://www.minds-india.org/images/Educationworldonline_net.htm)

A small, enterprising Delhi-based group of people banded under the banner of Jodo Gyan is engaged in the task of banishing fear of mathematics from the minds of children by devising, producing and marketing enjoyable, activity-based maths teaching-learning materials. Usha Menon, a scientist with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Delhi-based National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies is the tech brain behind this independent NGO, dedicated to finding workable solutions to common problems in school classrooms.

"Education is a sector where technological innovation can make a huge difference, something all of us want to see," says Menon who together with E.K. Shaji, a social activist and former employee of Scholastic (a global children’s publishing company) floated Jodo Gyan — a charitable trust — in 1999.

In 1995-96 following a World Bank initiated literacy campaign, Menon became directly involved with education. "Literacy per se is not enough to help people who face social deprivation, so we brainstormed about teaching basic hygiene skills and basic maths. Shaji, a man of letters and strong activism thought we should provide children high- quality reading material rooted in local folklore and culture. After he resigned from Scholastic, we registered Jodo Gyan as a trust," she recalls.

A graduate of IIT-Madras who read for a doctorate in technology transfer policy without completing it, Menon is a development researcher helping Jodo Gyan in conducting cutting-edge research. "Our ultimate objective is to make scientific innovations useful at ground level. At Jodo Gyan, we address two main objectives: to develop methods and materials to enhance maths teaching/learning processes and develop appropriate context-specific strategies for education," says Menon.

Activity-based mathematics (addition and subtraction, multiplication, fractions, decimals and geometry) is taught through games, puzzles and educational toys (in the price range Rs.10-500), which are either the NGO’s own creation and adaption or sourced from similar organisations like Navnirmati and Eklavya. Moreover, Menon and her team have moved beyond mathematics and incorporated science teaching as their next objective.

Jodo Gyan volunteers showcase their technological prowess, methods and products at teacher workshops, education fairs and parent-teacher meetings and schools ranging from slum schools to top-end institutions like Doon School, Dehradun; Woodstock; Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, and Delhi Public School which use their material. Currently an estimated 1,000 children are benefiting from Jodo Gyan’s programmes. "We have to establish a linkage between old and new knowledge to make practical and conceptual knowledge valuable to young minds," says Menon.

Psychological and Physiological Benefits of Argentine Tango

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http://www.tangofantastico.com/Tango-Science/Tango-Science.htm

very interesting... will write later on my own experience....

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Witnessing a robbery

I'm in Boston right now and witnessed a robbery in a mall here yesterday. I'm feeling frustrated with myself that why did I take so long (about 5 sec) to realize what was going on and feelinng guilty that I was not able to stop it. What is it that prompts one person to jump and help and another to stand there and think whether he should help and others to think how he should save himself if he was in that situation?

Man Bites ‘Slumdog’

It was showering oscars for the 'Slumdog Millionaire' crew this week. The movie has got some mixed reviews and from my personal experience of watching the movie, I feel that its decently good enough. However, I am not sure that it's upto mark to receive so many oscars. I think the hype created by the media helped it somewhat. Anyways, everything said and done, I would recommend that it should be watched (one time is enough) as the positive spin to the story infuses hope and optimism which make the audience feel good.

Here is an interesting perspective by a person who used to live in slums but managed to break out of its shackles - http://www.newsweek.com/id/185798/page/1

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Ridiculous viewpoint or a tradition/law ??!!

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/middleeast/23widows.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

The latest plan, proposed by Mazin al-Shihan, director of the Baghdad Displacement Committee, a city agency, is to pay men to marry widows. “There is no serious effort by the national government to fix this problem, so I presented my own program,” he said. When asked why the money should not go directly to the women, Mr. Shihan laughed. “If we give the money to the [war] widows, they will spend it unwisely because they are uneducated and they don’t know about budgeting,” he said. “But if we find her a husband, there will be a person in charge of her and her children for the rest of their lives. This is according to our tradition and our laws.”
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Starbucks Quote of the day #76

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"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."  

--- Anne Morris

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The Girl Effect

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Here is a great website that I came across today - http://www.girleffect.org Here's a paper related to this program:http://www.girleffect.org/downloads/Girl_Effect_Your_Move.pdf

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The Girl Effect is about girls and boys and moms and dads and villages and towns and countries. Here's the thing: Girls living in poverty are uniquely capable of creating a better future. But when a girl reaches adolescence, she comes to a crossroads. Things can go one of the ways for her - and everyone around her.
One: She gets a chance, gets educated, stays healthy and HIV negative, marries when she chooses, raises a healthy family, and has the opportunity to raise the standard of living for herself, her brothers, her family, her community, and her country.
Two: None of these things happen. She is illiterate, married off, isolated, pregnant, and vulnerable to HIV. She and her family are stuck in a cycle of poverty.

Start making a difference. Start the Girl Effect. It's not just a nice idea. It's the most important thing you can do.
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The Way I See It #17 (Starbucks Coffee cup quote)

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"The world bursts at the seams with people ready to tell you you’re not good enough. On occasion, some may be correct. But do not do their work for them. Seek any job, ask anyone out; pursue any goal. Don’t take it personally when they say ‘no’ - they may not be smart enough to say yes." - Keith Olberman

Instead, listen to your inner voice and believe in yourself. Never be afraid of stepping out of the line and doing the not-so-normal thing. There will be nay sayers, you just have to persist and have faith in yourself. Every experience, every failure, every interaction counts and gets you closer to your goal even if you don't realize it.
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Every day counts.... Every day matters..... Nothing goes waste....

I will elaborate on this idea later on.......

Alternative Methods to Design Research for Experience Design

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New methods and approaches for experience design merge the best of traditional user-centered design and genius design. The goal is to obtain insight into the attributes of an experience that would help or delight people based on research evidence. However, the process does not rely on following exactly what users say during research interviews and instead leverages the talent and imagination of designers to look beyond what users are saying to envision creative solutions. The goal is empathetic design, or experiencing a solution as a user would.

To enable this approach, designers can consider some alternative approaches to traditional research interviews and conceptual modeling. These techniques represent extensions to both the traditional user-centered design approach and the genius approach. The list of techniques I'll describe here is not exhaustive, and these techniques may not apply to all design situations—rather they offer options for those looking to expand their approaches to user research.

• storytelling and personalization
• triading
• games

http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/01/design-research-methods-for-experience-design.php

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Warning: Habits May Be Good for You

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If you look hard enough, you’ll find that many of the products we use every day — chewing gums, skin moisturizers, disinfecting wipes, air fresheners, water purifiers, health snacks, antiperspirants, colognes, teeth whiteners, fabric softeners, vitamins — are results of manufactured habits. A century ago, few people regularly brushed their teeth multiple times a day. Today, because of canny advertising and public health campaigns, many Americans habitually give their pearly whites a cavity-preventing scrub twice a day, often with Colgate, Crest or one of the other brands advertising that no morning is complete without a minty-fresh mouth.

“For a long time, the public health community was distrustful of industry, because many felt these companies were trying to sell products that made people’s lives less healthy, by encouraging them to smoke, or to eat unhealthy foods, or by selling expensive products people didn’t really need,” Dr. Curtis said. “But those tactics also allow us to save lives. If we want to really help the world, we need every tool we can get.”

FOR Dr. Curtis and the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing With Soap, such tactics offered enormous promise in a country like Ghana. That nation offered a conundrum: Almost half of its people were accustomed to washing their hands with water after using the restroom or before eating. And local markets were filled with cheap, colorful soap bars. But only about 4 percent of Ghanaians used soap as part of their post-restroom hand-washing regime, studies showed. “We could talk about germs until we were blue in the face, and it didn’t change behaviors,” Dr. Curtis said. So she and her colleagues asked Unilever for advice in designing survey techniques that ultimately studied hundreds of mothers and their children. They discovered that previous health campaigns had failed because mothers often didn’t see symptoms like diarrhea as abnormal, but instead viewed them as a normal aspect of childhood. However, the studies also revealed an interesting paradox: Ghanaians used soap when they felt that their hands were dirty — after cooking with grease, for example, or after traveling into the city. This hand-washing habit, studies showed, was prompted by feelings of disgust. And surveys also showed that parents felt deep concerns about exposing their children to anything disgusting.

SO the trick, Dr. Curtis and her colleagues realized, was to create a habit wherein people felt a sense of disgust that was cued by the toilet. That queasiness, in turn, could become a cue for soap.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/business/13habit.html?pagewanted=all

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Back to the future

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The military industrial complex is getting ever more complex, lately pursuing one of the lessons of the Iraq war: the Pentagon’s announced need for a robotic pack mule with the moving legs — not wheels — and stamina to haul a squad’s equipment up and down the worst battle terrain. Mules and donkeys were military beasts of burden for centuries, and they still are in some armies working the rougher parts of the world. But the Pentagon is seeking a robot version to go with all the night goggles, pilotless drone aircraft and other gadgetry of high-tech warfare.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/opinion/17sat4.html?th&emc=th

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Some Best Practices in Teaching

I recently read a paper (Comparing Classroom Enactments of an Inquiry Curriculum: Lessons Learned From two Teachers; The Journal of Learning Sciences, 16(1), 81-130) by Sadhana Puntambekar (Associate Professor, Learning Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison). The study reported in this paper made so much sense to me, specially in the context of teaching the kids in Noida (India), that I want to put down some of the interesting points here for future reference.
(...the topic of discussion here are pulleys and physics associated with them)

1. Connecting prior learning to the current topic:
This basically refers to the practice of bridging the gap between the existing knowledge and the current knowledge by encouraging students to share what they knew about pulleys and relating this knowledge to other machines that they had already learned about. Sharing of knowledge also helps establish a "common ground" / shared knowledge base.

2. Generating goal-oriented questions:
The final goal of the class/session is kept in mind and a discussion initiated that encourages the students to generate questions. The most relevant questions generated by the students should then be used to structure the session. This is helpful because (a) it makes learning more meaningful for the students since they are now solving problems/questions raised by themselves and (b) helps the classs focus on the big picture and work towards solving that.

3. Connecting concrete experiences with abstract science knowledge:
Children learn best when taught in the context of concrete examples. Yet majority of the science teachers like to teach abstract concepts and leave the onus of forming connections between the abstract and concrete concepts on the students. A classroom discussion can help form this connection -
- Keep the big picture in mind
- Ask the students specific questions that encourage them to think in the right direction towards the final goal (big picture)
- Repeating/ Re-iterating the connections between abstract and concrete so that the connections are internalized by the students.

4. Integration of activities within the unit:
All the activities (atleast within the unit) should be connected coherently and weaved into a story that relates to the final goal.

5. Connecting concepts:
It is important to relate all the concepts/principles to one another in order to form a coherent picture of the goal. "Knowledge Centered " environments help develop an integrated understanding of the concepts.

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The price of beauty...

This is a real study done by Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html) -


A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin;it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over,no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.

The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour:
Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL @ M.I.T)

Came across this really nice piece of article in The New York Times (Jan 12, 2009) about a new way of teaching at MIT. Here are some interesting excerpts from the article:

Dr. Wieman noted that the human brain “can hold a maximum of about seven different items in its short-term working memory and can process no more than about four ideas at once.” “But the number of new items that students are expected to remember and process in the typical hourlong science lecture is vastly greater,” he continued. “So we should not be surprised to find that students are able to take away only a small fraction of what is presented to them in that format.”

Lecturing in 26-100, she said, she [Professor Sciolla] could only look out at the sea of faces and hope the students were getting it. “They might be looking intently at you, understanding everything,” Professor Sciolla said. “Or they might be thinking, ‘What am I going to do when I get out of this bloody class?’ ”

Old school:
“There was a long tradition that what it meant to teach was to give a really well-prepared lecture,” said Peter Dourmashkin, a senior lecturer in physics at M.I.T. and a strong proponent of the new method. “It was the students’ job to figure it out.”

The problem, say Dr. Dourmashkin and others in the department, is that a lot of students had trouble doing that. The failure rate for those lecture courses, even those taught by the most mesmerizing teachers, was typically 10 percent to 12 percent.

New way of teaching:
At M.I.T., two introductory courses are still required — classical mechanics and electromagnetism — but today they meet in high-tech classrooms, where about 80 students sit at 13 round tables equipped with networked computers.

Instead of blackboards, the walls are covered with white boards and huge display screens. Circulating with a team of teaching assistants, the professor makes brief presentations of general principles and engages the students as they work out related concepts in small groups.

Teachers and students conduct experiments together. The room buzzes. Conferring with tablemates, calling out questions and jumping up to write formulas on the white boards are all encouraged.


The question is if this is really the way to go in terms of how classrooms of the future should be structured. The two state-of-the-art TEAL classrooms at MIT cost $2.5 million!! At this cost, how many schools/colleges can adopt this model? Can there be a low-cost model/implementation of this concept? The concept of hands-on learning is definitely fool-proof and is the way to go, but we need to come up with more viable means of implementing it. The technology involved in setting up an environment that facilitates such a hands-on interaction needs to become more affordable. Till that happens, do we have any alternatives or should we simply sit and wait for that day when technology can be bought cheap? If we fail the students of today, then we can only dream of cheaper technology because they are the ones who will be developing the technology of tomorrow.


Read the full article:-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/us/13physics.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=all

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3 words for 2009

I received this mail today from the Uttishthata group. I think it makes a lot of sense.


Three-Word Phrases, can be tools to help develop every relationship.

There are many things that you can do to strengthen your relationships. Often the most effective thing you can do involves saying just three words.

When spoken sincerely, these statements often have the power to develop new friendships, deepen old ones and even bring healing to relationships that have soured.

The following three-word phrases can be tools to help develop every relationship.

Let Me Help:

Good friends see a need and then try to fill it. When they see a hurt they do what they can to heal it. Without being asked, they jump in and help out.

I Understand You:

People become closer and enjoy each other more when the other person accepts and understands them. Letting your spouse know - in so many little ways - that you understand them, is one of the most powerful tools for healing your relationship. And this can apply to any relationship.

I Respect You:

Respect is another way of showing love. Respect demonstrates that another person is a true equal. If you talk to your children as if they were adults you will strengthen the bonds and become closer friends. This applies to all interpersonal relationships.

I Miss You:

Perhaps more marriages could be saved and strengthened if couples simply and sincerely said to each other "I miss you." This powerful affirmation tells partners they are wanted, needed, desired and loved. Consider how important you would feel, if you received an unexpected phone call from your spouse in the middle of your workday, just to say "I miss you."

Maybe You're Right:

This phrase is very effective in diffusing an argument. The implication when you say "maybe you're right" is the humility of admitting, "maybe I'm wrong". Let's face it. When you have an argument with someone, all you normally do is solidify the other person's point of view. They, or you, will not likely change their position and you run the risk of seriously damaging the relationship between you. Saying "maybe you're right" can open the door to explore the subject more. You may then have the opportunity to express your view in a way that is understandable to the other person.

Please Forgive Me:

Many broken relationships could be restored and healed if people would admit their mistakes and ask for forgiveness. All of us are vulnerable to faults, foibles and failures. A man should never be ashamed to own up that he has been in the wrong, which is saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

I Thank You:

Gratitude is an exquisite form of courtesy. People who enjoy the companionship of good, close friends are those who don't take daily courtesies for granted. They are quick to thank their friends for their many ex-pressions of kindness. On the other hand, people whose circle of friends is severely constricted often do not have the attitude of gratitude.

Count On Me:

A friend is one who walks in when others walk out. Loyalty is an essential ingredient for true friendship. It is the emotional glue that bonds people. Those that are rich in their relationships tend to be steady and true friends. When troubles come, a good friend is there indicating "you can count on me."

I'll Be There:

If you have ever had to call a friend in the middle of the night, to take a sick child to hospital, or when your car has broken down some miles from home, you will know how good it feels to hear the phrase "I'll be there." Being there for another person is the greatest gift we can give. When we are truly present for other people, important things happen to them and us. We are renewed in love and friendship. We are restored emotionally and spiritually. Being there is at the very core of civility.

Go For It:

We are all unique individuals. Don't try to get your friends to conform to your ideals. Support them in pursuing their interests, no matter how far out they seem to you. God has given everyone dreams, dreams that are unique to that person only. Support and encourage your friends to follow their dreams. Tell them to "go for it."

I Love You:

Perhaps the most important three words that you can say. Telling someone that you truly love them satisfies a person's deepest emotional needs. The need to belong, to feel appreciated and to be wanted. Your spouse, your children, your friends and you, all need to hear those three little words: "I love you." Love is a choice. You can love even when the feeling is gone.

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Live your dream

Came across this interesting article a while ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7821979.stm

"...flying car from London to Timbukt.... a British adventurer will set off from London on an incredible journey through Europe and Africa in a souped-up sand buggy, travelling by road - and air."

Designing for the emerging market

Interactions recently published an interesting article on designing for the emerging market. "An emerging market is generally defined as one that has not yet fully developed but that has a middle class vital enough to attract goods and services from developed-and increasingly globalized-economies."

Some interesting snippets:
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The most serious mistakes designers make in preparing products for emerging markets usually occur before they even set pen to paper. Failure to understand the target market covers a multitude of sins, but sometimes unfamiliarity with the target market results in a stunningly fundamental oversight.

Case in point: Kellogg’s bid for a place at the Indian breakfast table.

“Kellogg’s set up a branch in India and started producing cornflakes…What they didn’t realize was that Indians, rather like the Chinese, think that to start the day with something cold-like cold milk on your cereal-is a shock to the system,” says Indian cultural critic Homi Bhabha. “And if you pour warm milk on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, they instantly turn into wet paper [4].”

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Wider populations in emerging markets need simple solutions with the right price point. When Procter & Gamble introduced disposable diapers into the Brazilian market, it went in with its top-end model, which failed to sell. Only after offering a less-sophisticated diaper, half the price of the top-end version, was the company able to grow the market [9].

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Nokia, the leading manufacturer of mobile phones in developing economies, puts years of research into the markets in which it sells. It keeps a full-time design staff dedicated to studying the practices of users at work and at play. Recent Nokia models have featured a multiple phonebook to support phone sharing-common among emerging-market families-as well as dust resistance and a user interface in up to 80 languages. The phone is also equipped with a prepaid tracker to cater to the vast majority of emerging-market users who use prepaid service plans.

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Conventional design methods are fine for conventional markets. Founded on familiar use patterns, cultural values, and market expectations, the processes and techniques keep designers well within their comfort zone. Successful design for emerging markets, on the other hand, requires radical innovation. It demands culturally sensitive and sometimes unorthodox approaches that can throw a designer off balance. But it’s only when designers transcend conventional thinking about product design that they come to really understand their target market and users and create more lasting and valuable products.

Read the full article:

http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=1205

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I, Me, Myself....

We all have a very natural tendency of worrying too much about ourselves. Chicago Sun-times had an interesting article a while back where the author highlighted how "[w]e spend an enormous amount of time worrying about ourselves, but not an awful lot of time caring for ourselves. Caring for ourselves means thinking very seriously and carefully about the conditions under which we're living our lives, and how others are living theirs, and taking instruction from the way that others have lived their lives." (http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1347078,CST-EDT-open24a.article)

We become so self-obsessed with ourselves that we forget that there is a whole world to care about and we are just a part of it. Thinking about self is a natural instinct because without that thought it would be hard to survive and protect our interests but when it becomes an obsession, things become a bit different. You start feeling as if the whole world revolves around you and everything should happen as you want it to be. We forget to look outside and care about the people around us. Our own problems and issues become (or more appropriately - appear) so big and important that we fail to acknowledge the fact that these problems are experienced by everyone and you are not the only one going through them. At that time, you wonder how everybody around you can neglect your problems and carry on with their lives. You keep on worrying about the problems again and again and again.... with no solution in sight. Somehow our mind gets a sadistic kick out of trapping us in this endless/solutionless loop of thinking about your personal issues. We feel that we can find a solution by thinking about these problems while I feel that it is best to pause the thinking tape for some time and focus on the outside world.

It's time like these that I feel that we should shift our attention and start thinking about how we can help the poor beggar around the corner, the haggard looking man down the road, emaciated and quivering child two blocks away, or the cold and hungry woman who must be somebody's grandmother. Look outside, people have suffering and problems which are of a much larger magnitude than our own personal issues. We should never pity these people because these people have learned to endure their pain and live with it. Call it acceptance of destiny, fate, or god's will, these people have made truce with their life and know that they will have to endure through it. Such a submission is not what I recommend but what can you do with an empty stomach? Have you ever tried to face an uncertain future with an empty stomach out in the chilling winds with no warm clothes on? On what basis can you hope that things will be alright soon? How do you define "alright" here? How can you think about long term future when you do not know if you will live through the next ten minutes? Experiencing these is difficult and I cannot even imagine how these people live through it. Pity will not help. What will help instead is if you act on your emotions. I love a quote by Dalai Lama - "It's not enough to be compassionate, you must act". This encouragement to act forces us to get out of our nice and cozy life, stop the useless circular self-obsessed thoughts, and helps us appreciate how small our problems are as compared to the ones these people face.

I have often felt that in helping others, you help yourself. In other words, while you are engrossed in the task of helping a person, you suddenly discover a direction in life which holds possible solutions to some personal problems which you had been thinking about for a long time. Swami Vivekananda said that “The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.”

Reach out, touch someone's life today and let them touch yours. Do this for sometime and then see the magic that happens. You will feel that you are a part of a bigger plan that encompasses the universe and experience a warmth in your life.

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