Certainties & Serendipities

I’m always on the lookout for a tip on improving productivity. So when it comes from someone who is a a serial entrepreneur, a regular HBR contributor, and author among many other things, I’m all ears.

Goals should be good journeys, not just good destination

Stever Robbins has released a new book called “Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More”. His team has put together a website from which you can download the first two chapters of the book for free and tons of other podcasts on the same theme.

I read the free chapters and I’m impressed.

When I’m faced with a huge task, I ask myself, “How do you eat an elephant?” And then I answer, “Bit by bit”. But in the second chapter titled, ‘Stop Procrastinating’, Stever says,

Taking baby chunks isn’t about breaking your project into pieces, it’s about breaking time into pieces….

With baby chunks, you’ll speed date the task you’ve been procrastinating. Set a time limit (preferably with an actual physical timer) and work 100 percent for that much time. Then get up and do something  else. From the moment you sit down, you’ll know that in just a few minutes, you’ll be free once again.

Since I read this, I’ve been practicing ‘breaking time into pieces’ and it has given me amazing results. Suddenly there is progress in ‘bitter’ projects. Hippie!

With that enlightenment, I sent out three questions to Stever. Walking his talk, he replied immediately. Here they are:

Q) There are plethora of self-help books in the market already. How is ‘The Get-it-Done Guy Book’ different from ’7 habits’, ‘Get it done’ or ’80/20′, which you also refer in your book?

Seven Habits and 80/20 both present specific principles you can use to improve parts of your work life. In the case of Seven Habits, there are seven broad principles, which you’re left to figure out how to apply. In the case of 80/20, you get a single principle and dozens of ways to apply it.

My book introduces the Nine Steps as big picture principles, and then applies those steps in several ways that you can instantly take and use as individual tips. If you’re reading for big picture ideas, you’ll find those in the book. But if you want a very hands-on, specific set of tools for making yourself more productive today, you’ll find that too. I’m much more actionable  than the other two books. It’s a reflection of my personality—I’m a big picture thinker with the ability to move from the big picture vision all the way down to the number of paperclips needed to implement the vision. The book is written that way, too.

The Get-it-Done Guy Book is much funnier than any other business book I’m aware of. Plus, it tells you how to use your file folders to organize a zombie army to take over the world. I’m pretty sure that Covey neglected that topic entirely in Seven Habits.

Q) You head many successful start-ups, write a weekly column on HBR, produce a podcast and now authored a book. These are more than what most of us do. But you mention in the book that ‘If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up working more than when you started’. So how does this line fit into your life?¨

You didn’t mention the Get-it-Done Guy Musical, which I’m co-writing with an Off-Broadway composer, producing, and will be performing.

Sometimes we teach best what we need to learn most. At the moment, I’ve consciously overloaded myself to produce the exposure to gain momentum with the book. It isn’t sustainable, and I know that. Step One in the book is Live on Purpose, know the purpose behind everything you do and know how it fits into the map of your life. I know where the book fits in my life map, and while it’s fun, it’s one small part of several larger areas of my life. Much of what I’m doing now supports the book, but aren’t related to other areas of my life. A few months from now, I’ll be ramping down many of my current activities that are motivated by the book, but don’t fit under my larger dreams.

And just for the record, my ultimate professional dreams are launching a paid media career and creating an information products business that lets me make a major impact in how people create the life they want.

Q) Most of the people in the west side of the globe believe, ‘Destiny is a choice’. So it is easy to say to those who live there, ‘have a goal, and work towards that goal’. But on the east side of the globe, we generally believe ‘Destiny is a chance’. How can we use the 9 steps you propose?

I am good at reaching goals. I’ve spent my entire life setting and working towards goals. Three years ago I stopped and asked whether setting and reaching goals was giving me a high-quality life. Upon reflection, the best things in my life were almost never explicit goal nor steps designed to reach a goal.

Now, I live more in the moment. The 9 Steps are still extremely useful, since they help you do things easily and freely whether you’re working towards a goal or just doing what you enjoy doing in the moment. For example, today I am writing several guest columns about my book using my grid techniques from Step 5: Stay Organized. Whether these guest columns are part of a master plan to make my book a best-seller, or whether they’re a spur-of-the-moment decision is irrelevant. I’m still able to work less and get more done, whether or not there’s a bigger goal I’m trying to reach.

In Step 1: Live on Purpose, I introduce life maps, which are hierarchies of goals that show how you organize your life. Your question has made me realize that in my life map, my top goals aren’t goals in the traditional sense. They’re things I believe will be fulfilling in the moment, and everything flows from that. I didn’t choose them because they seemed like good destinations, I chose them because they seemed like good journeys. And that, my friend, makes all the difference.

When we hear the word ‘startup’, we think of Facebooks and LinkedIns of the west. But in our own cities youngsters are establishing startups. InterviewStreet is one such startup based in Chennai. Vivek founded InterviewStreet along with his friend Hari (both were classmates at NIT, Trichy). In this interview, Vivek talks of the reason behind the startup and his experience in running the startup.

Q) Let us begin with your venture. What was the eureka moment that gave the concept of  interview-street?

Actually, Interviewstreet was started as a platform for mock interviews where students could attend mock interviews from industry professionals. This idea occurred to me during my final year when a lot of them didn’t exactly know what each company expected out of them. We developed a bare minimum prototype and presented it in a few B-plan competitions – won a couple of them too!

Q) Before you started this venture you worked at Amazon. You also mention that Jeff Bozz is one of your role-model. But you decide to leave to start a venture on your own. What was the trigger point? How difficult it was to leave Amazon?

Vivek - Inspired by Jeff Bezos

I think Amazon follows a very startup-ish culture – in terms of ownership, innovation & sometimes the amount of work More than the work, I loved the people and the atmosphere which makes it almost irresistible to move away. But, starting a startup is like an itch which can’t be controlled for long and hence had to take a call

Jeff Bezos is really an inspiring personality and I consider myself lucky to have talked to him for a couple of minutes . Everyone knows about the Apple, Google story, it’s surprising that not many actually know the fantastic journey of Amazon which survived the dot-com burst and the business-analysts predictions on it’s failure.

When you start working on something, you have someone whom you derive inspiration from and start marching to achieve that – if not become like JeffB someday, I would like to achieve atleast 10% of what he has done!

Q) Did you discuss your start-up idea with anyone? What was their response?

I think a lot of people liked the idea! It was something novel. Everyone encouraged me to try it out – atleast part-time. The positive vibes gave me a lot of confidence to move ahead – thanks to a wonderful set of peers and my parents.

Q) Converting an idea into a revenue generating model is a tough one. How did you go about doing it? Who are the people who supported you in realizing your dream?

Yes, it’s a tough thing. Having an idea is no big-deal , executing it correctly is the tougher part. There were a lot of people in the process of helping me come from the ideation stage to executing it – parents, Hari (who was working at IBM at that time), mentors, and genuine friends.

Q) Who was your first paying customer? What was the feeling to have someone validate your idea by paying for your product?

Great feeling! Its only a sign to work more on the product and satisfy many more customers! But it doesn’t stop there – now you have got to ensure they come back to buy more products/renew subscriptions from you – buck up the customer service.

Q) How is life as an startup entrepreneur? You mention that you travel by bus. Was it difficult to adjust to this life after a comfortable life as an employee of an MNC. What keeps you going?

It’s a roller-coaster ride. There are alternating highs and lows, it’s a hard journey, emotionally tough – for every rupee that goes out of your pocket, the immediate thought is – How do I earn it back? No hi-fi lunches, no cab travel – yes, it’s very hard, but the fact that you are doing something you like and sleep satisfied at the end of the day masks the pain behind it.

Q) Do you think our Indian Eco-system (academic, society, government) is conducive and encouraging enough for startup ventures? What could be done to encourage startups as well as their success?

No, I don’t think so. Not many people actually understand the term “startup“. I think money and good mentors are the essential things while starting out. If we could get a good sync between the two, we should see good amount of rise in startups.

Q) Would you agree that support networks are essential to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive? What kind of support you continue to tap and what networks are available for Indian entrepreneurs?

Absolutely! Having a few people around you who are experiencing the same thing as you are going through helps a lot – communities like that should come up. There are ofcourse open-coffee-clubs in various cities – but those are very informal. At chennai, a few people are building something called as Startup Centre which looks promising!

Q)  Why startups are essential for a growing economy like ours? Do startups contribute only financially to the country? What other contributions do startups make to a country’s fabric?

I might not be the right person to answer this, since I haven’t thought about these things. I started interviewstreet because I badly wanted to! However, more number of startups give rise to a lot of innovation simplifying millions of lives!

Q) We constantly hearing new startup ventures now-a-days. Is India moving into product innovation space from just services?

A: A lot of startups are coming up – the awareness is definitely increasing, but I am not sure about the numbers and hence might not be able to comment.

Q) What product innovation have you brought into the market with your startup?

I think hiring/recruitment has been a perennial problem in companies of all sizes (startups/SME’s/MNC’s). Our product helps us to match the right candidates for the company – increasing the productivity of employees.

Q) Have you ever regretted your decision? Was there a moment you wanted to throw up everything and join a MNC again?

Hmmm…regretted wouldn’t be the right word – but yes, when you are cash strapped and you see people around you “moving forward” (according to the world) – you do feel you have been left behind in the race. But I am sure, this would pay off later!

Q) Finally, what advice or suggestions you would give to those who start in this path?

I am too young to comment on this. But as I said earlier, starting a startup is more like an itch – you know there would be problems, you know you are going to undergo a lot of pain, you know every problem associated with it, but still you give it a shot. It’s natural and the learning curve is exponential, take a calculated decision – it’s only a matter of time before you jump in – no entrepreneur can sit with ideas on his head not going live.

If you are a student or a company check out Interview-Street. You will surely benefit out of their innovative product. But much more than that let us wish that Vivek and Hari will be next Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak or Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. India needs its own startup-success stories in product engineering.

Thank you Vivek and Best Wishes to you and Hari.

The Internet has provided all of us a common platform for communication without any discrimination for age, gender and skills. Each netizen can utilize its potential according their own needs. Ranjan Varma, working in an Indian PSU, is tapping the Internet to spread Financial Literacy among Indians. These days every one is blogging. But Ranjan is creating online financial products by taking advantage of the applications on the cloud – Zoho and Google Docs to name two.

I’m delighted to interview him for this blog post.

Q: What is Personal Finance Literacy and why should anyone care?

Tapping Technology For Financial Literacy - Ranjan Varma

Personal Finance Literacy is highly overrated. It’s actually just common sense. But there are reasons why people avoid personal finance. One, financial services providers use a lot of jargon to obfuscate and confuse. Two, the sellers know more than the buyers (especially the commission involved). Three, because of our own emotions like fear and greed that leads to irrational behaviors and bad financial decisions.

But why should we care? I have been working with a PSU for 20 long years and had I been saving regularly right from 1990 when I joined work and investing them properly, I would be having a networth of approximately Rs 23-24 lacs The assumptions are very simple. I invest 25% of my income every year and get a return of 10% annually. The investments are made every year and not every month. Every month investment will lead to a much higher figure!

But, the actual networth (excluding my House/Ancestral Property) is not even half of that. That means that my less than ideal money management has resulted in a loss of over Rs 10 lacs. Yes, that’s a million rupee mistake!

Q: Lot of us, the IT folks, don’t understand numbers. Are we at a disadvantage in understanding the basic concepts of personal financial literacy?

Infact IT folks would be more comfortable with numbers. But they are put off by the jargons, the information asymmetry and maybe their own fear/greed. So I guess, the problem is not about understanding the concepts, but it’s about applying those concepts to your own unique situation.

We often mistake personal finance literacy as doling out knowledge. But as long as you don’t include the skills and the attitude towards managing your money, the education will not be complete. At this point, it may be worthwhile to point that knowledge, skills and attitude are three important components of any competency.

So, IT folks aren’t at any disadvantage among others. Infact, my target audience would be the IT folks once I get started full time!

Q: Please tell us about the financial products you’ve created.

I built RupeeManager for my own use. I was uncomfortable using an online tracker who can mine my data as they are free to use. Another tracker I tried had too many features and I was phased out by the features!

Once we start measuring our money, we automatically start improving our money management. And that’s what RupeeManager software helps me to get started with.

My RupeeManager primarily helps organize one’s finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money comes and goes.

Other than tracking your earnings and your expenses, it is important to see if your money is working for your future. We have a feature where you can allocate your income among fixed expenses, discretionary expenses, short term savings and long term investments. It’s like assigning goals for your money.

Also, we have built in a financial health check in the software which gives you an idea about your risk profile and how your asset allocation should look like.
To me it’s a simple to use money manager. We will do market testing shortly.

Q: You are a non-IT person. However you have a very active blog, you have built a desktop financial tool, you built another tool on top of Zoho. Do you outsource the technology part of your business or do you do it yourself?

I am a non techie but absolutely love techies who have helped me with my questions (often very dumb questions). So though I have not outsourced the Zoho tool, the Joomla site and my own blog, I am indebted to the techies who have patiently understood my questions and pointed me to the right direction.

I have got the desktop financial tool outsourced because it was beyond me to learn (and use) Java.

Q: What products of Zoho do you use? What is your opinion of their product suite?

I use Zoho Mail, Zoho Creator and Zoho Sheets very often. I use most of their products once in a while.

I love Zoho. Zoho has a much broader product suite compared to Google. Other than their mail, spreadsheet, presentation and document products, they have Zoho Creator (Online database management system), Zoho CRM, Zoho Reports, Zoho Invoice, Zoho People, Zoho Recruit, etc. I think they are a complete Web-IT solutions provider to a business.

Q: How are you marketing your products and services? What percentage of your marketing is online?

Right now it’s through my blog. You asked me for this interview because of my blog, no!

But as I start full time, I will start an online marketing campaign. I will also market through free seminars and workshops.

Q: Until recently, you had a presence in social media. Why did you delete your social media profiles? Do you think time on social media is a waste of time?

I have met awesome people on the social media. I have made many twitter/Facebook friends and they are on my phone book now. Moreover, I am still on the social media through my blog.

Deleting my Twitter account was part of a decluttering exercise. I did try to delete Facebook but it got reactivated as Facebook does not delete your data it seems.

I would not say that my time on social media was a total waste. I made friends, had interesting conversations. But they are a distraction too as I was not able to focus on the priorities. Like even when I was writing a blog post, I would check twitter/Facebook updates in between. I thought it prudent to put a stop to that.

Q: How are you utilizing technology in other parts of your business?

I believe that my future business will be built on a synergy of technology and learning. Technology is a powerful tool but not the panacea.

I am using technological advances made by Google and Zoho to create a better learning environment. Take a look at these examples: India’s first personal finance search engine and India’s first personal finance ask engine

Q: From a consumer point of view, is technology explosion enabling us to have a better financial life or complacent one?

It depends on how we understand technology. Technology is a tool and not the answer to everything, IMO. We can search for information using the technology, but how we apply it to our situation is more important.

Q: Are you planning to branch to You Tube & e-learning to expand your financial services?

Hey, thanks for this idea. I was thinking of getting some videos done. Now I know what to do! Thanks.

Q: What are you currently working on? What are the other services & products we can expect in the future?

I have started working on a book. As I go full time, I will be able to announce the services and products that I will offer.

Q: With the world being flat, are you reaching global audience? Or personal financial services are region centric?

I have been writing to an Indian audience. Generally, the products available in India are not available worldwide and vice versa. But there are many issues other than knowledge of products that have a universal appeal. I follow blogs like “IWillTeachYouToBeRich”, GetRichSlowly and TheSimpleDollar which are US blogs.

I do have visitors across the globe. But I am not sure whether I have been able to provide any value. Maybe I’ll consider this as a good idea.

Q: Mobile technology has a wider reach within India. How can this be tapped for personal financial services?

I just got in touch with EnableM, a pioneer in mobile learning. EnableM creates frameworks for skill development and mobile training courses.
It’s too early to say, but a personal finance service on mobile is totally possible now.

In addition to blogging and creating products, Ranjan conducts Financial Awareness Workshops as well. You can contact him through his website.

I wish him all the best in tapping the technology to spread Financial Literacy.

I got to know Shankar Ganesh via Twitter. Through subsequent twitter interactions I came to know he had established a successful online business utilizing his knowledge of Windows OS. He has written for other popular technology sites too.

Shankar Ganesh

With all of this background, I assumed that he should be at least a college grad. But he surprised me when he sent me a LinkedIn invite. He was just 17 years old. I couldn’t have been more surprised, impressed and proud (he hails from the same town as mine). Since then I’ve been following him with a curious interest. He continues to amaze me. He has served as a marketing intern at Zoho; he is pursuing his public speaking practice and so on. All this while still at college. It is encouraging to know Indian youths possess such entrepreneurial spirits and are already creating waves. Its a pleasure to interview Shankar Ganesh for this blog.

1) Give us a background of how you came about launching your online business?

Honestly, my blog is far from an online business. At least, till I deliver an actual product. It’s an outlet for my creative passion – wrting and for teaching others about what I’ve learnt.

My first blog was launched on Blogger.com after I found the blogging buzzword in online forums. Initially, I wrote reviews of web applications but later I found myself writing how to guides, and tech tips based on my own experience. Throughout, it’s been a learning process – my writing has constantly improved. The money that comes out of it is good – enough to pay my college fee and manage my expenses by myself. I’m thinking of building new sites and communities based around my interests in the future.

2) You are not from one of the popular metros. What challenges you had to face in establishing your business?

Internet connectivity was a challenge, till BSNL (the national telecom network) came out with extensive broadband coverage. It was not that cheap then. Prior to that, I had only dialup as an option which was patheic nonetheless.

I wanted to blog on my own domain, and getting one was another challenge I faced. I didn’t know where the money would come from. Somehow my AdSense pennies added up and finally I invested some of that into getting my own domain and hosting. This may not seem like a location issue, but I think if I had been in a city, I’d had people to meet in person and consult.

3) What are some of the memorable milestones?

There have been many happy moments. Getting featured on the Digg front page, being recognized by some big A list bloggers and many more. But there’s nothing that matches the happiness that I get when someone genuinely thanks me for what I’ve written. Sometimes, it’s students. They’ve found my tips on improving English helpful. Sometimes, it’s others who’ve found a solution to a tech related issue on my site.

4) How Technology has empowered today’s youths of India?

If anyone’s got a doubt, they’ve got Wikipedia to refer today. My Dad didn’t have something like that. If I want to connect with my friends, I’ve got Facebook. My Dad is not in touch with many of his school friends.

Computers are cheaper. Five years ago, let’s say, one kid in a class of 40 had a computer. Now, it’s at least ten. Technology has become affordable. Five years from now, I’m sure that internet connectivity on mobiles will become even more ubiquitous – leading to a lot of opportunities that could be leveraged.

These are probably universal – but I think the mobile explosion in India really happened very quickly.

5) Let’s talk about your stay at Zoho. How did you get into Zoho? What motivated you to spend time as an intern?

I had gone somewhat bored of blogging (I’m waiting for some good ideas to strike) so I was thinking of a good way to spend my summer vacation. Over the last couple of years, I’ve learnt a lot about online marketing, writing and search engine optimization and I thought Zoho would be the right place to do something with those skills.

Zoho is one of the very few IT based “product companies” from India that I admire and respect. I’ve heard about their pretty cool work culture.  I couldn’t think of another IT company in India where I’d fit in.

I approached guys from Zoho on Twitter, showed them my website for some credibility. They liked what I’ve been doing, and approved me. I went there to see in person how things actually work in a web product company, how they execute things, and to meet and talk to new people.

I can safely say that this wouldn’t have happened if not for my web presence.

6) What are the lessons learnt while at Zoho?

Quite a number of things:

Things take a while in companies. It’s not a blog, it’s not a small business, so it takes a while to get things approved. But that’s okay and it’s for good.

You’ve got people with a wide array of skill sets – if you want a comic strip on your new landing page, there’ll be a talented guy out there to help you out. There are people to meet and always learn from. There are people from whom you can seek feedback on what you’re working on very quickly. One’s skill complements another’s.

It’s easy to get excited and say “Hey, I want to make a million dollar business!” but the amount of effort and chaos that goes into getting sales is enormous and it requires a lot of effort to create a sustainable business.

7) Now about your college life. Are you the tech geek or a guru in the campus?

People do ask me suggestions and questions on tech related stuff once in a while, but it’s a University – and there are plenty of others who are equally geeky. I can and I am trying to learn a lot from other tech geeks in campus as well.

8) Do any of your class mates have an online business?

As far as I know, none of my friends has an online business but a few seniors in my college do freelance coding or work on their own pet projects. There’s this guy called Shrihari whose pet project is Kontactr.com. There’s another guy by the name Sanjeev Gopinath who’s made BunkBazaar, a cool mobile app. They’re cool people, and I’m happy they’re working on stuff they love.

9) Do they know about your online ventures and how do they respond?

Yes, some of my friends do know about my blog and they’re happy for it. They do ask me about blogging and how to go about starting a blog. I try my best to help them. I tell them not to blog for money, but to write about what they really love and what their passions are. The money will follow.

10) Given your background, what would you change in our educational system?

It pains me that kids aren’t respected for their talents. We keep saying every kid is unique, but the curriculum treats them as if they’re all the same. I think that should change.

The school system currently seems like it’s preparing children for jobs. It should instead teach them how to find a living based on their passions. If not help them find a living, at least help them find where they’re good at.

A kid who’s good in math should be encouraged to excel in it. At the same time, a kid who’s good at making funny cartoons should also be encouraged to excel in it. That is also a talent.

Today’s schools tell kids to set goals when they don’t even know what their passion is. Only when they find a calling, they can set a confident goal. I wrote about this recently in my blog.

And most importantly: failing is important. Come out to the real world and you’re bound to fail, once or twice or even an umpteen number of times. Schools are teaching that failing is a taboo. Schools should instead tell kids to embrace failure and learn from them, not scare them away.

If I had a magic wand, I’d try to make learning organic, customized to individual kids, where emphasis is put on creativity and not earning potential.

My school’s former principal told us: “Today, children walk to school and run home; They should instead run to school excitedly and walk home”. Schools should be fun.

It could be tough bringing up this change, because it could be logistically challenging, but people are doing it already: SchoolofOne and that’s inspiring.

11) Do you plan to drop out for a garage startup? If an opportunity comes up would you do it?

I might drop out if I think I’m on an idea of a lifetime. Getting my family’s support is going to be toughest part. Also, keeping naysayers away.

12) What do you want to do after college? Would you join infosys or a startup or start one yourself?

That’s three years from now so I can’t be sure. Everyday is a new day and every day I learn something new. It’s better to follow my purpose and collide with destiny later, as Bertice Berry says.

I want to be an entrepreneur or work online full time. I might take up a job with a company – but whatever I do, I want to wake up in the morning excited about what I’ll be doing on that day.

We wish Shankar Ganesh all the very best to wake up excited every morning. Only such kids can take India to the very top.

Soon after I posted a blog entry about the first co-creation of online music, I sent an email to both Josiah and Jasinthan to know if they would be interested in an email interview. They both have a day job and they are busy artists. Yet both sent an affirmative reply. Since this is the first time I’m doing an email interview (any type of interview for that matter) it took me sometime to research about them to frame questions. After few email exchanges, the interview took its final shape. Here I’m delighted to bring the guys who co-created online music:

1) Did you know each other before this project? How did you come together for this project?

Josiah: No I had not known Jasinthan till he contacted me via email/ internet

Jasinthan: In 2002 Josiah did music for Fr. Berchmans’ English album “Praise forever Vol.2″, and  I was awfully impressed with the music and quickly became a fan of him. The  first song I ever sang in stage was from that album, but I never thought that we will work together. In the beginning of 2009 I was planning to make a Tamil Christian album and I found him on Facebook. On May 5, 2009 I sent e-mails to several music directors about my thirst to make an album, but when I saw something different about Josiah’s response..it felt like he really wanted to help me.

2) How did you respond to request from a stranger? What made you to respond positively?

Josiah: I had been missing the music scene in Chennai since I had moved to Italy so it was a pleasant surprise that Jasinthan had approached me for music.  Jasinthan is a nice guy you could see it from his emails so I knew it would be a pleasant experience.

Jasinthan: People around me kept telling me to be careful when I work with a stranger especially with money and effot, but whenever I got an e-mail from Josaih, I felt I got the right person to work with. So it was Josiah who gets the credit, I never felt any pressure while working with him.

3) How was the planning process leading to the final recording? Who were involved and how the technology and internet helped in this process?

Josiah: I had actually tried out some other online songwriting collaborations and also some recordings online so had some(although limited) idea as to how I could go about it, but this was the first time I had done a whole album online with so many instruments and involving so many people. Jasinthan composed the songs and recorded the vocals on a basic track (and sent the vocals using yousendit) he also gave me an indication as to what feel he wanted on each song.

I had my friend Sam in India in ‘Seventh Sound Studio’. We had webcam communication so I can see and hear recording while it goes on; so I could ensure I got what I wanted from the musicians. My sister Helen and nephew Ben helped me in contacting musicians  and co-ordinating the recordings because of the different time zones. I hired session musicians Nathan, Bharathi and Kutty in India.  I sent the music notes and tracks by FTP. I have an online space which I shared with Sam. This FTP uploading was later replaced by a file syncing and sharing software. I maintained a constant email contact with Jasinthan, Helen and Sam. It was the most important component which glued the whole project together.

In Italy I worked in Pota Rock Studios. I got Alessio  to play guitars on 1 or 2  songs. Davide my friend helped me by lending his keyboards.

4)Who composed and conducted the music? How was it conducted online?

Josiah: Jasinthan composed the songs while I arranged them. I connected to the studio using a webcam during the recording and conducted the music recording.

5) What were the instruments used?

Josiah: Flute, Dilruba, Tablas and other percussion, Guitars, Keyboards and recording equipment for recordings. For communication headphone mixers, headphones & webcams.

6) What were the challenges faced in organizing co-creation of online music? What were the lessons learnt?

Josiah: It is hard because of time zones when you need to phone musicians so sometimes you depend on local friends/relatives to help you out. And also the recordings were held in odd hours either in India or here in Italy because of the time zones.

Cross cultural aspect didn’t apply much this time though I did record a little with Italians (who thought all Indians spoke one language). Most people involved were Indians or of Indian origin.

Technically there were some obstacles like exchanging the big high quality wave files, but we tried various methods of sending using yousendit, etc and then settled on ftp.

There are lessons learnt with every first venture and there were a lot of them this time. To name one “Patience” ….online recording is slower because of the delays involved in communication, timezones etc.

Jasinthan: I recorded my vocal with a help of a friend here. He was really curious about this project because I was working with someone I never met and he had no confidence that this would work out. He thought that this might be a scam and advised me that I should be careful. When he listened to the final product he was really amazed and said that, ‘unity that we had is the beauty of the album’. He mentioned that he thought there is no way this would work out but now he feels that the faith I have with my God helped me get a good person to work with.

7) How are you marketing and distributing the Album? How are you tapping the power of internet for these activities (marketing & distribution)?

Josiah: I  do believe internet is the future for all forms of marketing and distribution. My own album “New Land” sells more mp3s than physical copies.

Jasinthan: I uploaded sample of all songs and some full songs at my YouTube channels and also web radio such as “AMEN FM” and “Waves of Power” have interviewed both of us and gave us many listeners from all over the world.

8) What are the other projects in the pipeline in this model?

Josiah: Well I have already done a Tamil Christian worship album for Bro.Solomon who is also a singer songwriter from Sivakasi.

I am doing Psalms 1 -10 in English (which was actually brought to me by Jasinthan). It is almost finished. This is a cross cultural album it was exciting since I get to work with musicians from many countries. Jasinthan might soon have a 2nd coming there are also some others who seem interested a music for video project in UK is almost finalized.

9) What are your views on the impact of such co-creation of online music in the music business?

Josiah: From a musician/producer point of view I think it is wonderful as it cuts boundaries; you can sit in your home and work with musicians all around the world. I’m working with musicians from India, UK, US, Lithuania and Brazil sitting in my room in Italy. I hope to be able to get myself a studio so I can work even better.

From an artist point of view I think it is wonderful too as it can enable people living in different lands to have access different instruments/musicians in this case Indian instruments. Jasinthan had pointed this out to me when I had asked for his comments/experiences after the CD was over.

Jasinthan:My Views are that it created a new ways to make music, especially in countries that lack Indian instruments. With internet they could easily connect with India. Many Canadian singers I know travel to India and stay there for months. Now the internet production would help them avoid these expenses.

Technology is making the world flat and a true global village. As Jasinthan says, internet technologies opens up new avenues for online collaboration. I wish both Jasinthan and Josiah best wishes.

How are you tapping technology for your business?