After my long trip to New Delhi, I’ve been many things. Changed would certainly summarize how I feel. Having never really gone to India, it was an eye-opening experience. One reason, of course, is the striking difference between our lives here and the lives of people there. I won’t begin to describe that.

On the other hand, there’s also the awakening of development in India. I’ve worked with a variety of teams over the last 10 years – everywhere in the world, from India to Brazil. Managing a team of developers thousands of miles away is always a challenge. It wasn’t until stepping into the shoes of my team did I realize the difference in perception. Ironically enough, one of our team members sent a link today to a site that I’ve frequented many times in years past:

Of late, there are uprisings everywhere, emotionally among Programmers in many software companies. They are yearning to do something on their own, something out of the ordinary due to the increasing feeling of dejection. Many programmers want to get out of their routine monotonous coding which no longer excite them. Programmers are toying with ideas of moving out of some of th reputed companies, where they are like caterpillars climbing a wall without knowing how high the wall is.

Brajeshwar | Are you a Programmer or a Coder?

Looking back, and forward, this is definitely a distinction worth remembering – and understanding. As I consider the difference between the proverbial “programmer” and “coder”, I’m reminded that the difference, in my mind, resolves around one’s willingness to see and address problems. True problem solvers are not saatisfied solely with the answer but with the process of uncovering it. This quote seems quite apt:

Unrest of spirit is a mark of life; one problem after another presentsitself and in the solving of them we can find our greatest pleasure.

KARL MENNINGER, “Take Your Choice,” This Week Magazine, October 16, 1949, p. 2.

Do you solve problems or wait for the answer. If you do, we just might have a job for you.

technorati tags:programmers, coders, software, people, problem+solving, brajeshwar

I’ve been hard pressed to find time to report back on all the exciting things happening here at Blue Whale Labs – New Delhi. Once I return I’ll do some reflection on just how I feel about being in India, but for the time being, I’ve posted a quick update on how our first Developer Pod (ya know whales travel in pods, right?) is doing:

Today, the first Developer Pod (each class of recruits) entered the Aquarium (our New Delhi office). There’s something very exciting about a new group of energetic, excited, and undoubtedly nervous developers preparing to try something new. And new it is, indeed. As might be expected, Blue Whale has its own way of thinking about application design and development. In many ways, we’re quite outside the norm for traditional software development in India and there’s a mild learning curve to get inside the process.

Blue Whale Labs

technorati tags:bluewhalelabs, new+delhi, developer+pod

In what seems like a bad virus, the Pay Per Post meme has kicked up again and is causing for much bellyaching in the blogosphere. I’ve covered this many times before and, fortunately, someone has finally also addressed some of the true underlying issues.

Apparently, the fracas was kicked off by Jeff Jarvis with his post “Pray Per Post“. As Jeff notes at one point:

He [Ted Murphy] also said that he saw no difference in Amanda Congdon making commercials on her old or new vlog and a Pay Per Post person making a commercial on her blog. Fair point. But one of the panelists said that Rocketboom is clearly a show and a commercial makes sense in that context; the relationship is clearer. David Weinberger said that marketers and the public have been at war for a century and the internet and blogs were to be his refuge from that: a place to have conversations with friends. I asked whether Weinberger, who takes no ads, hates me for doing so. He said, no, because the relationship is, again, clear: It’s about someone buying space on my page, not about buying my endorsement. He called Pay Per Post “corrosive” to the conversation. Pressed again on the demarcation, I brought up the rules I was taught as a journalist (emphasizing strongly that I was not trying to call all blog talk journalism or to hold it all to the same structure and rules): Simply put, the rule is that no one can buy my voice and with it my credibility.

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Pray per post

Quite the dilemma, it seems. This of course relies on the base premise that journalism is an uncorruptable force perpetuated by not just the moral sensibilities of the reporter but also the “Chinese Wall” dynamics inherent to the news business itself. Interestingly enough, both Jeff and David seem to complain citing the nature of the relationship between the reader and the publication. Granted, each medium provides its own unique constraints on that relationship – doesn’t the bi-directional nature of blogging actually provides for a deeper relationship than previously afforded us.

Scott Karp, increasingly the voice of reason in my book, chimes in with some interesting dissection:

Bloggers, almost by definition, create their own niche communities — they create content, readers comment, other bloggers link — it’s a deeply symbiotic relationship where participants get to know each other. There’s a direct connection between bloggers and their communities — so who better than the blogger to create marketing messages that are relevant and interesting for their communities?

[...]

So just to play out this scenario — let’s say a blogger who writes about life and family, and has a number of readers outside of friends and family, occasionally writes a post through PayPerPost and properly uses the equivalent of “Special Advertising Section” to disclose that the post is paid. In the context of the entire blog, what’s wrong with that relative to how it has worked in other media?

Should Bloggers Create Commercial Content? at The Blog Herald

This is my point exactly – as I’ve made it many times before.  It is ultimately the responsibility of the publisher to understand their community and to continue to deliver to them a consistent, accountable experience to them.  While it is certainly possible for the wrong thing to happen – and it WILL indeed happen – I think that the best, most successful personal publishers will actually have the common sense to stay true to this mandate.

technorati tags:blogging, pay-per-post, jeff+jarvis, ted+murphy, scott+karp, monetization

Ranvir and I have been waiting at the airport in Amsterdam for the last 4 hours. We’re on our way to New Delhi to meet with the team and give our India operations a kickstart.

It’s difficult, to say the least, making this trip out here.  Somehow, you end up having an entire day evaporating out from under you.  We left Newark yesterday at 4:40pm and we’ll be landing in New Delhi at 11:30pm local time – the next day.

We’re here for a couple of weeks and it looks like an exciting time, to say the least.  Right now we’re plotting a number of work and social related activities for the team – including a mini Super Bowl party.  Of course, in New Delhi, that means getting up at 7am on Monday morning to catch the kickoff.

technorati tags:bluewhalelabs, ranvir+gujral, greg+narain, new+delhi