Notes: August 2004

Tuesday, 31 August 2004

CREATING A “BUZZ”

Abhi

Ref: My yesterday's note re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Some more points:

May be (loud thinking) we ought to have a provision where the SENDER can enter his/ her own birthdates in "My Detail" block as follows.

The moment he clicks submit, the names of celebrities (for his own birthdates) will pop - up in a window.

This is the "proof" that the software works! Only if the sender gets convicted that software works, would he feel like entering names of his friends.

Provision for ADD additional celebrity details we would need to provide.

This is Two (2) parts,

· A "PRIVATE" list "Box"

This is where "sender" or the "Recipient" could add names/ data, which belong to friends/ relatives/ sweethearts etc., which they do NOT wish to share with general public. They want these to be their own personal/ private "SECRET”! This is a very common "Cliques / Sub - groups" amongst collegiaus.

Hence, we need to assure the sender (and / or recipient) that any names/ details added into this PRIVATE BOX will NOT be shared with anyone else and that we will NOT add these names to COMMON/ PUBLIC database.

· A "COMMON/ PUBLIC" List Box

This is a box in which, sender/ Recipient could add data/ names sports champs/ Model etc), which entire world knows. WWJ would be free to add these into our COMMON/ PUBLIC database (Birth - date wise), so that this database keeps growing thru contributions of all people using this feature. Everybody benefits by everybody's contributions.

Recognition

Why would / should any sender/ Recipient take the trouble to "Contribute" new names/ data to the "PUBLIC" box? The "Free - riders" would what to enjoy the benefit (of this service) without having to contribute anything!

And we can neither have any RELE which says

"You can use this service - only if you add 5 new names/ data to the PUBLIC box".

To bypass such a rule, people may enter "JUNK" data! - And we have no one to monitor / validate any data entered by anyone in the PUBLIC box.

So obviously, such a negative incentive will not work.

But what might work is a positive incentive. We may be able to motivate people (to add new data to PUBLIC box), if we give them credit for their contribution.

eg.

PUBLIC DATABASE

Incidentally, as far as PUBLIC box is concerned, we cannot have a field for "E - mail ID!

(Shown in my Yesterday's note).

It would be virtually impossible for anyone to get hold of "private" email IDs of

. Shah Rukh Khan

. Ratan Tata

. Sachin Tendulkar etc.!

And, in any case, they are unlikely to be looking for jobs, so we have no use for their email ID!

. "FREE" Service

Somewhere, we must mention that this (Happy Birthday) Service is FREE.

h.c.parekh

Monday, 30 August 2004

CREATING A BUZZ- CREATING "SMART - MOBS" – CREATING ONLINE "COMMUNITIES"

Abhi

If WWJ/ JAM has to succeed, - really take - off in a big way - we must succeed in generating a "buzz (around WWJ), especially amongst young generation (Age 16 - 25)

We must get them to,

. Visit WWJ

. Use WWJ

. Talk to friends about WWJ (on mobile)

. To give us email IDs of friends

. To use PULL SMS / PUSH SMS Service from WWJ

They won't do any of the above, unless they feel, it is FUN - and then wait to share this FUN with their friends.

Most of them are not looking for a job and are not interested in job alerts.

But someday the will. We don't have to tell them that!

In the meantime, how do we make then visit WWJ? - And get some FUN?

As follows:

Dear Young Friend:

Amaze your friends with your knowledge.

Tell them the names of celebrities who share their birthdates - beside wishing your friends a

VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

All you do is to fill - up the form below. We will do the rest (i.e. automatically sending out birthday greetings to those friends whose email IDs you enter below - along with the names of celebreties born on some day as your friends)

- SAMPLE

Of course, we will mark to you, a copy of each HAPPY BIRTHDAY email that we send out on your behalf - so you can also call - up your friend. What is more, you can ADD to the list prepared by us, details of any other celebrity - or even common friend Have fun.

Love life

(-and keep away from DRUGS!)

SAMPLE

Dear Anju

A very happy birthday.

Do you remember that you were born on TUESDAY of course, not !

I forgot, you could not read the calendar - then or now !

Anyway, you had good company on your birthday. Apart from you, the other great people who were also born on

JANUARY 1

If I missed out any lesser mortals, who are currently masquerading as film starts / sports champs/ fashion models etc. enter their names below and bounce back this email to me.

Hey, WHERE/ WHEN is the party ?

Love .

Priya.

Abhi

The following have to be important features of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"

. It has to be FUN/ MOD

. Sender should be able to

. Edit the "message" (Every relationship between any 2 persons, is UNIQUE and therefore sender wants his/ her own unique message in own unique style/ language to go to other person.

. Again a person certainly does not want the SAME message to FUN, it will become BORNING !

. Sender would also like to "VARY" the message from person - to - person.

. Add names/ details of other celebrities would want to "Show - off" their knowledge (of film starts/ models/ other celebrities etc) to their friends, in order to "Impress" them.

We have to turn this "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" feature into some kind of an "EGO TRIP”!

. Similarly, even the "Recipient" should also be able to ADD details of Celebrities (or even common friends) born on some day - and then bounce back the email to the "SENDER",

Of course, "Recipient" also wants to show off his/ her CURRENT/ UP - TO - DATE Knowledge!

In this process (back & forth bouncing), we want to capture as many NEW names & email IDs as we can! That, really, is our goal! For this reason, we MUST automatically receive a copy of each GREETING that gets bounced back with addition of new names! And we should automatically UPDATE our database, so that the list of DATE - WISE celebrities, keeps growing forever, without any effort on our part!

So, users create their database and they also consume/ use their database! Everybody contributes his/ her own knowledge, whereby, everybody benefits/ gains.

This feature will build powerful community.

h.c.parekh