Damn, I haven’t kept up with the media coverage November 25, 2008

When you have a small company, you should celebrate every little victory with aplomb. I just realised that we haven’t spent enough time compiling mentions of iTasveer in mainstream media. While digital media is a Google search away – conventional media is more difficult to collate after a point in time – and to be honest – still holds more charm than being covered by a blog – there, I said it. An attempt to collect some stuff that I remember.

 

NDTV [Sometime in 2007]

An amusing interview done at IIT Delhi which required at least 3 retakes of us looking at a flying plane (a cheesy shot supposed to indicate ambition).

 

PC World [May 2007]

The Best Website for Photo Printing ! :D

 

IBN Live [August 2007]

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/47739/sites-for-printing-pics-online–hottest-search-engine-goes-desi.html

itasveer.com – ‘The Champion’!

There was another story, which I had found on a competitor’s blog – also to be tracked down.

 

HT Business [Around June 2008]

Have to track down the article.

 

Indian Express [October 2008]

‘Photo shop’

 

Post to be updated – as and when I locate a story.

A Bollywood Stock Exchange November 18, 2008

Sometime back I read a fascinating book called the Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. The book talks about how and under what conditions crowds can be wiser than the individual. It makes for an engaging read and is packed with interesting anecdotes (though some arguments are not entirely well supported – the author relies a lot on stating thoughts which may intuitively appeal to the reader rather than defending them with evidence or logic – can’t help it – Freakonomics spoilt me).

Anyway, a very interesting concept in the book is that of decision markets. You can learn more about them here on Wikipedia.

Apparently the likes of HP, Microsoft, Google use it internally, and there are several other projects which rely on the same.

One such example mentioned by Surowiecki was the Hollywood Stock Exchange – who actually sell their data to Movie Studios.

Which got me thinking – how about a Bollywood Stock Exchange – in our stocks-crazy movie-crazy nation wouldn’t this do exceedingly well? As usual, that called for a logo:

 

Turns out some guys have already come up with a similar service for India – and they are not just covering bollywood, but sports and current affairs. Haven’t gotten a chance to slice-and-dice their business model – but at any rate a promising site. All the best guys!

  

For a counterpoint, read the ever eclectic Taleb who says decision markets are for suckers!