Platforms and Home
Our Home to World !
Most of us have been home bound because of #LockDown for about three months now. Of course, only if we were blessed to be at home during this pandemic. #StayHome and #StaySafe together made so much more sense than ever. We have had ups and downs of staying in a confined space with others and technology may have helped us emerge stronger out of the situation. We have also seen increasing leverage of home-specific technologies by many companies to integrate their products and brands in our every day lives. After an increasing popularity of second place (Work) and Third Place (Social Life), we are back to the First Place (Home) for the rest two parts of our lives as well through #WorkFromHome and #ZoomSocials. This has also blurred the boundaries between work, leisure and self-care. Technology seems to have exacerbated the pressure of this boundary less life but it may also end up offering solutions to other problems at home !
DTW
During the Week, I heard guests on a16z Podcast discuss “opportunity for tech to solve outdated and inefficient processes for both renters and landlords.” Role of tech and specifically Tech-Platforms could be broadly divided into three dimensions- First, an Operating System aka OS for Homes ; Second, enabler to live in home and Third, community level services !
First, OS for our Homes. Welcome to the latest battleground for BigTech ! Your Homes ! There has been an unrelenting battle between Alexa, Siri , Cortana and Google Voice Assistant ! There is a rush towards controlling more of your lives through voice controlled apps and devices. Your calendar , calls, microwave, air conditioners and of course your entertainment devices are driven by one or more of these tech platforms. They are omnipresent and omniscient ! They are continuously recording and learning from mundane conversations at home. There have been many funny incidents and embarrassing disasters resulting from an over-smart smart devices ! And of course, during many of our house parties kids and even kids at heart Adults, have had AI Chatbots tell us jokes but they were not funny all the times !
For many, it seems to be a continuous battle between convenience & privacy and rightly so ! Could our responses to Home OS simply be seen as polar opposites of complacent vs technophobes ? Could we trust these private moments to the marketing machinery of Big-tech ? Of course, there are privacy choices and ways to regulate their intervention in our regular life but in the rush for convenience , many consumers may overlook them.
Second, Enablers for a Better Home ! This pandemic has made use case of using BigTech Platforms for living a better life at home whether it is driven by ubiquitous video-conferencing apps like Teams/Meet/Zoom for work/education/socialising or Home Entertainment Systems for streaming content like Netflix/Prime Video/Voot. We have had the pleasure of shopping from home (Amazon/Flipkart/BigBasket), eating/cooking at home(Zomato/Swiggy/Being Chef), health check ups (1mg/CallHealth) and elderly/Child care (Portia/BookMyBai). We would continue to see more and more tech platforms bring innovations to make our lives convenient and our interactions seamless.
Third, Community level services for integrating with world ! Tech Platforms like Adda and MyGate have become virtually gatekeepers for residents of gated communities. They have enabled transaction between residents and governing bodies, amongst residents and increasingly residents with outside world. We have seen increasing data sharing and back end integration between the tech platforms managing our gated communities and third party platforms delivering services to residents. Some of these cross-platform ‘'collaborations’ at least look creepy and may also lead to breach of privacy !
Emerging player like Jio Platform is making an attempt to capture this market through JioGate and is using the Jio Fibre ecosystem to make its case for residents and their associations. More and more such tech platforms are now relying on building AI based CCTV, visitor entry and surveillance systems by leveraging on the existing network of broadband infrastructure and cloud storage. Of course, older real estate platform for buying, renting and maintaining houses like NoBrokers, 99 acres and others have seen an increased usage even from tier two and three towns.
Ultimately , we have to live together and no amount of technology can make it better if we do not engage in behaviours to create a healthy culture for living and working remotely especially in #LockDown in current pandemic. Here is an important piece of advise from who else but an astronaut Anne McClain who seems to have mastered the art and science of living in close quarters with other humans for long periods of time.
We are in this together !
OTW
Over the Weekend, I watched an old episode of Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai featuring Late Sushant Singh Rajput and marvelled again at the multi-dimensionality of all human beings. I had always known him to be an actor but his home showed his vision and dreams. May his soul rest in peace and I hope at least now he is in a happier place.
Though this episode reaffirmed my belief that your home is true reflection of your being but it also brought out the painful realisation that lot of people are still lonely in their own homes and many more are in pain because of abusive behaviour in their shelters. Alas, homes have become prisons for some because of this pandemic induced lockdown and also because of their own deteriorating personal relationships. It is thus time to reflect on such pathetic living hells and try to find shelter somewhere loving and safe ! Your home should not bind you to negativity but must give you wings for a brighter and better future. Let me leave you with the words of my favourite poet- philosopher Kahlil Gibran on Houses-
“Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.”
Stay Home. Stay Safe.
I Love You
Shailendra
PS- We had the First Episode of Third Season of Mountain Speak on 14th June 2020. Because of prevailing conditions, I conducted the session online with Dr Sharda Nayak.
You can watch S3E1 here and join for the next session here ! We meet Every Second Sunday of the Month from 7 PM to 8 PM.
PPS- MountainSpeak is a Free-Form Conversation Style Platform for exchanging ideas about Multi-sided Networks, Business , Marketing , Endurance Running and Life in general !
Firstly, I would say, Mountain speak was wonderful. I used to see your posts in Fb regarding this, yet had not witnessed it before. Thanks Coach, for arranging it.
The newsletter is enlightening as always.
After the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput, I felt though we are technologically advanced, have platforms to connect one another, have streaming entertainment services, yet people feel lonely. People go into depression nowadays very often.
What actually we are lacking, is difficult to decipher
Sir,one more piece of information from your pen.It's really informative. I completely agree with you that here lots of changes are happening,for an example,where one side domestic violence cases surge by 21%across different states and housing sales in India declined by 26% but on the other side,movie like Gulabo Sitabo got launched by Amazon Prime in 15 different languages to attract more customer base.A lots of thing are changing. May be some are positive,but some are quiet challenging.