Geeky Times: The best of Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem news on your mobile
I love reading Indian startup news. everything about them — what’s the latest startup getting launched, who’s got funded, who’s trolling who, who’s sharing their learning’s & story etc. However, I had to wade through more than half a dozen websites & apps to read all these. On top of that, the experience on mobile was not what I would have wanted.
My love for android programming & the need to read startup news in a convenient manner on my mobile got me to create Geeky Times. The app is a feed reader that fetches Indian start-up content on mobile and get’s me to read news at one place without having to go to different sites or open different apps.
Sharing it here so that people can try it out in case they have similar needs. The app is a weekend project/side project of mine and hence could have a few rough edges. There is no rocket-science-big-data-backend or high-funda-technology used in the app. It’s just a plain & simple app that does one and only one thing — help me in my reading of startup news 🙂
The download link is: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.startup.news.magazine
OffRoad Thrills: India’s first mobile app for the 4×4 & off-road enthusiast, available on android playstore
4×4 off-road is one of the fastest growing adventure motor-sports in the country and there is need for people to learn different aspects of off-road; such as safety, vehicle modifications, and off-road driving styles in a concise and easy to understand manner at one place on a mobile device.
As an avid off-road enthusiast, always wanted to create something for the off-road community in India and created OffRoad Thrills mobile app as part of the Bangalore OffRoad Drivers Association (B.O.D.A) initiative to bring 4×4 off-road closer to everyone.
OffRoad Thrills provides users with quick tips on off-road basics, 4×4 technology, off-road driving, modifications & recovery. There is a section with hand-picked off-road videos to learn about various off-road aspects. Users can view listing of prominent 4×4 clubs across India and join them. A calendar of popular off-road events is provided and the app also features listings of prominent off-road modifiers/garages, accessories & equipment suppliers for off-roaders to modify and prepare their 4×4 vehicles for off-road.
OffRoad Thrills is now available for free download worldwide on the android play store and an iPhone version is planned later.
To download the app: http://bit.ly/offroadthrills
Mobile app to find toll plaza/toll booth list & toll rates on Indian Roads & Highways
Finally an app, TollPlaza, that gives you ability to:
- View detailed list of toll plaza/toll booth on Indian National Highways
- View information about 350+ tolls on Indian roads & highways
- Find toll charges for single, return & monthly pass on tolls
- View distance between your current location & the tolls across India
- Search for tolls by toll name, operator, name of state (for example, all tolls in Karnataka, tolls operated by L&T)
- Find out number of tolls & the total toll charges between any 2 cities of India
Kharcha – The No Frills, Simple Expense Tracker Android App
I am fas
cinated by mobile apps & the way they have become an integral part of our lives. Not many things in technology has touched our lives like mobile (& mobile apps) — much more than internet or anything before in technology.
As part of my mobile apps usage I wanted to use a simple expense tracker to keep track of where I am spending money. Needless to say, I found 1000’s of expense trackers in playstore and I used quite a few expense trackers but somehow found them to be overly complex. I wanted a no frills expense tracker — something which is plain & simple. No complex goal settings, money sources etc. Just plain simple add expense, expense done on what & paid through. No complex reporting. Just simple reports that you can use. Few of the expense trackers I tried were good but they wanted too many permissions on phone. I don’t understand why an expense tracker should have access to my contact list, dial numbers, read SMS, or ask me to register with email etc.
Keeping that in mind, I thought of creating one for myself — a simple expense tracker for daily expenses. Bare minimum features & usable in place of writing expenses in a book. My reference was my mother who used to just write the expense, date & amount in a notebook at end of everyday.
Thus Kharcha (Kharcha in hindi means Expenses) was written over few days with the focus on simplicity over complex features. No permissions on your phone, no sending data anywhere or access to any information on your phone. Kharcha expense tracker will be very good for people who prefer simplicity over complex features. Especially markets like India where for example say housewives & people from tier-II/III cities are starting to use smartphones & mobile apps
Usage — as easy as saying 1 – 2:
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Step #1: Setup your own categories for expense types. (For example: Utilities & Bills, Monthly Provisions, Shopping & Eating Out…)
Step #2: Start adding expenses. That’s it.
You can use the various easy to use simple reports to see your expense history & at any time add more categories.
In case you need to delete an expense, you can do so from the summary view by long pressing expense detail
You can download the app from google play store here: Kharcha
Making Enterprise Gamification Work – Part 2: Get the definition of enterprise gamification correct
In the previous post, I mentioned the consequences of using the standard definition of gamification within the enterprise. So, this raises the question: If not this definition of gamification then what to use within the enterprise?
Lets understand, at an abstract level, how organizations work and what they want to achieve?
- Organizations usually have structured business processes that are core to the day-to-day operations. Each function/department defines it’s own set of business processes and employees are expected to follow these processes as part of their day-to-day work
- For example: Sales process on how to capture leads, customer conversation records, customer support queries, software development process, project management process, recruitment, procurement etc.
- These business processes are usually implemented on top of systems which employees use as part of their work
- For example: project tracking platform. Learning management system, CRM & HR systems etc
- In an organization, either something (process/system) would be broken & the organization would want to fix it or the organization wants to embark on a new path. This usually takes form of ‘Change Management’ initiatives or initiatives that amplify a given behavior.
- For example: Sales people not updating the Sales system after they meet prospects. People not taking part in community activities. Organization wanting that all employees get trained in a particular area. etc
- Organization usually rewards people who demonstrate the behavior that is being promoted in hope of setting the right examples/motivating people.
In light of above, a definition of gamificaton that would work best in organizations is:
Gamification is about driving desired user behavior / change management, in your systems & business processes, through a combination of rewards & recognition with social constructs
Am sure that if you use this definition to explain gamification, most people would not only get it but realize the need for it and get to to the next question of “how do we do it”
The Tipping Point 