Radia tapes controversy is about the tapping of tele-conversations of Nira Radia by the informant agencies, the celebrated lobbyist had with a cross section of powerful people from industry, politics, press and a host of other power brokers. This incident has raised a host of questions.
Is it right to tap private conversations? We can say that when there is serious suspicion about possible legal violations, the law enforcing bodies have the right to eavesdrop to help them in their enforcement or to protect the sovereignty of the country. On the other hand how do we ensure that this right is not misused for political gains and industrial espionage? What kind or processes do we put in place to ensure that this is not a means to suppress dissent and democratic processes?
Then the next question is whether it was right to have leaked this information to public domain? These were not private conversations or business secrets or even some escapades which have no social relevance except for satisfying the voyeuristic inclinations of a perverted few. These were conspiracies by people in power, to defraud the public. Don’t the public have a right to know?
The ‘wiki leaks’ has established a forum for the whistle blowers to bring to light conspiracies, corruption and machinations of very powerful people which otherwise would not have been possible because of possible repercussions. It has got kudos and criticisms.
‘The organization won a number of awards, including The Economist's New Media Award in 2008 and Amnesty International's UK Media Award in 2009. In 2010, the New York City Daily News listed WikiLeaks first among websites "that could totally change the news", and Julian Assange was named the Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year in 2010. Supporters of Wikileaks in the media have commended it for exposing state and corporate secrets, increasing transparency, supporting freedom of the press, and enhancing democratic discourse while challenging powerful institutions. At the same time, several U.S. government officials have criticized WikiLeaks for exposing classified information, harming national security, and compromising international diplomacy.[Human right organizations such as Amnesty International criticized WikiLeaks for not adequately redacting the names of civilians working with the U.S. military. Some journalists have criticized the lack of editorial discretion when releasing thousands of documents at once and without sufficient analysis. Among negative public reactions in the United States, people have characterized the organization as irresponsible, immoral, and illegal.’ [1]
Incidences like this and revelations of this magnitude were once only occasional occurrences. But the progress in technology has gradually been chipping away the concept of privacy and secrecy the way we are familiar.
The ubiquitous availability of electronic communication and electronic recordings are giving a different dimension to private conversations. I am not talking about spying which is still considered illegal (except if it is by the authorities who have the right to do so) I am talking about stronger evidences that can reveal the truth about what transpired in a meeting where you and I were present.
For example, although oral contracts always were recognized by law, it was often difficult to prove the validity of the contract. We addressed this by having more people to participate our discussions who could act as witnesses. But even then it was your word against mine. So in critical meetings we started the practice of signed minutes. But this again had the limitation of doctored minutes, ingenuity of the minute writer and limitation of human memory or event the minutes getting lost. It also could not capture the nuances of the conversations which are discernable only when we listen to the way dialogues were delivered. Now the technology provides us with tools to have voice notes, voice minutes and even video notes. It is perfectly legal and even moral if you are not eves dropping or if you are not sharing it with those who are not meant to have access to it. It is ‘the true minutes of meeting’ that can better represent the truth.
Earlier paper documents could vanish could not be traced and would have been too painful to track. But today the mails and files are stored for eternity at very low cost and computer can help us to trace and track these with ease based on key words, dates and so on.
More and more of our friends are going online and share photos and videos of events where we were a part. More people are going to blog about us, more people are going to study, dissect and publish opinion about what we do. We have limited control over these. The higher we go, the more publically relevant what we do, the more open is going to be our acts of commission and omission.
Wiki leaks and the likes of it are going to make whistle blowing easier. Legal enablement of the right to information reduces our ability to hide and obfuscate under official secrets act. Cheaper storage, stronger searches, powerful algorithm to match and generate profiles will make it easier for anybody to obtain a much better understanding of what we are and what we do. As the Economist observed in an article, Wiki Gaga, “Such freedom may test the limits of democracy, in which rights to speech are balanced by duties to privacy and security” [2]
All these are nudging us to change the way we talk and behave. Be more honest in our dealing and more truthful or at least careful in our uttering and behaviour. Bluffing our way through is not the obvious option any more. When we mess up, remember it may not remain a secret all the time. On the other hand we must also learn to be less judgemental about human follies often revealed out of context in the digital world and learn to forget and forgive
As Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University has pointed ‘Our character, ultimately, can’t be judged by strangers on the basis of our Facebook or Google profiles; it can be judged by only those who know us and have time to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, face to face and in context, with insight and understanding. In the meantime, as all of us stumble over the challenges of living in a world without forgetting, we need to learn new forms of empathy, new ways of defining ourselves without reference to what others say about us and new ways of forgiving one another for the digital trails that will follow us forever.’[3]
I am not making any value judgement of whether this is right or wrong. I am only pointing out that we are moving towards a more open society and whether we like it or not there is a pretty high chance that what we thought to be confidential may not remain so and we have no option. (Read up “Privacy Fantasies” for some futuristic thoughts on this topic)
“You already have zero privacy - get over it” Scott McNealy, Cofounder of SUN Micro System
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks
2. http://www.economist.com/node/16335810
3. The Web Means the End of Forgetting. The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?_r=1)
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
My first love
Once upon a time there was a kid who, like most of us, feared examinations. So he prayed to god to give him a magic pen that could help him answer all the questions correctly in any exam.
One day in his dream a fairy came to him. She promised to grant him one wish. Promptly he asked the fairy for a magic pen. The fairy took him to a big palace and told him that there is a magic pen in a chamber deep inside that palace.
“I cannot take you all the way in. You have to pass through seven gates and each one is guarded by a scary ogre.” The fairy told him
He walked to the first gate and as predicted the ogre was there.
“If you want to pass through this gate, you need to answer three questions” The ogre told him in a booming voice.
The ogre asked him the questions and he had no idea about any of them. (The ogre did not allow life lines or dial a friend option).
“If you want to try again, look behind you, there is an almirah full of books, read them and you will get all the answers” the ogre told him
He sat there for days and read all the books and when the ogre asked him questions he was ready with all the answers. This was repeated at all the seven gates and finally after many many days he reached the inner room.
He was excited. He looked around for the treasure ‘the magic pen’. The room looked empty. He was sad and felt cheated. He wanted to hit the fairy who took him for a ride. He started crying. Suddenly the old fairy was with him.
“Why did you let me down?” he screamed
“I have not let you down my boy. You don’t need a magic pen any more. You can take any pen to write the exams. The magic is in your head” The fairy replied softly. She had a little twinkle in her eyes
This story that I read as a little boy left an indelible image in my mind. I believe it is this story that set me up with my first love “BOOKS”. All through the years my love for books has only grown and each one of them has added one more ‘magic’ into my mind.
When I observed the rapid growth of internet and the power of Google, initially I felt that it was time to say good bye to my first love. If I have any questions, the answers are a ‘Google search’ away.
Then I realised that Google has not yet reached the level where it can ask the right questions for me, though it can help me to find the right answer. Not only that, it makes this answer available to anybody, from anywhere in the world at really no cost. The information and knowledge is no more restricted to the privileged few who can afford. But now I need to be even more knowledgeable to know what questions to ask and I need new ideas to make a difference. The ‘written word’ is still one of the few triggers that can help me in this.
Technology has now added more options, I can read e-books and articles from the net, from the kindle, I can review from the net what I want to read, I can get summaries of big fat books that would distil the wisdom for me, my friends and the virtual communities could share their opinion with me on what I intend to read and the audio books help me to fall asleep imbibing the ‘spoken word’ without disturbing my kid or my wife with the reading light.
With all these I have only got closer to my first love these days and not drift away...
“The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.” Theodore Parker
Note. There are still millions around the world who do not have access to this magic of written words or the access to the net. This is one area in which a small contribution can serve many generations. I have been very impressed by work done by ‘Room to Read’ and I believe this truly is one of the most admirable charities in today’s world.
One day in his dream a fairy came to him. She promised to grant him one wish. Promptly he asked the fairy for a magic pen. The fairy took him to a big palace and told him that there is a magic pen in a chamber deep inside that palace.
“I cannot take you all the way in. You have to pass through seven gates and each one is guarded by a scary ogre.” The fairy told him
He walked to the first gate and as predicted the ogre was there.
“If you want to pass through this gate, you need to answer three questions” The ogre told him in a booming voice.
The ogre asked him the questions and he had no idea about any of them. (The ogre did not allow life lines or dial a friend option).
“If you want to try again, look behind you, there is an almirah full of books, read them and you will get all the answers” the ogre told him
He sat there for days and read all the books and when the ogre asked him questions he was ready with all the answers. This was repeated at all the seven gates and finally after many many days he reached the inner room.
He was excited. He looked around for the treasure ‘the magic pen’. The room looked empty. He was sad and felt cheated. He wanted to hit the fairy who took him for a ride. He started crying. Suddenly the old fairy was with him.
“Why did you let me down?” he screamed
“I have not let you down my boy. You don’t need a magic pen any more. You can take any pen to write the exams. The magic is in your head” The fairy replied softly. She had a little twinkle in her eyes
This story that I read as a little boy left an indelible image in my mind. I believe it is this story that set me up with my first love “BOOKS”. All through the years my love for books has only grown and each one of them has added one more ‘magic’ into my mind.
When I observed the rapid growth of internet and the power of Google, initially I felt that it was time to say good bye to my first love. If I have any questions, the answers are a ‘Google search’ away.
Then I realised that Google has not yet reached the level where it can ask the right questions for me, though it can help me to find the right answer. Not only that, it makes this answer available to anybody, from anywhere in the world at really no cost. The information and knowledge is no more restricted to the privileged few who can afford. But now I need to be even more knowledgeable to know what questions to ask and I need new ideas to make a difference. The ‘written word’ is still one of the few triggers that can help me in this.
Technology has now added more options, I can read e-books and articles from the net, from the kindle, I can review from the net what I want to read, I can get summaries of big fat books that would distil the wisdom for me, my friends and the virtual communities could share their opinion with me on what I intend to read and the audio books help me to fall asleep imbibing the ‘spoken word’ without disturbing my kid or my wife with the reading light.
With all these I have only got closer to my first love these days and not drift away...
“The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.” Theodore Parker
Note. There are still millions around the world who do not have access to this magic of written words or the access to the net. This is one area in which a small contribution can serve many generations. I have been very impressed by work done by ‘Room to Read’ and I believe this truly is one of the most admirable charities in today’s world.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Fire in the belly
Over the weekend I was at IIT Kanpur. I was there to talk to students who had come from the best engineering schools across India to participate in the Asian leg of the annual Intercollegiate Programming Competition. The top team from India will be selected to participate in the world finals which will have about 80 teams selected from about 60 centers across the world.
I spent some time talking to the judges who have been associated with this event a number of times. One of them was a young lecturer from Bangladesh who had reached the finals twice.
The profs told me that in the world competition the top ten places are always bagged by the teams from Russia and China. The best performance from the teams from India ever was a rank of 29.
“How come India which is supposed to be a powerhouse of software development does not fare well?” I asked
“The Chinese kids do a lot of preparation. The colleges give them enormous support. In fact I understand that they even give really good team members relaxed schedule to complete their other curriculum schedules” one of the faculty explained.
I found it quite familiar. We hear similar stories about the focused development support institutions and government provide for development of international competitiveness in different fields including sports in countries like China and Russia. We also need to build such national priorities and support systems to see our competitiveness boosting.
“But then how do you explain the kids from Bangladesh doing better than Indian kids”
“That is a different dimension of performance. These kids are full of passion and are desperate to prove to the world that they are good” The Professor explained.
“With the IT Industry booming, our kids are sure of the job opening irrespective of their academic performance. So they don’t want to put in the hard work needed to be even to participate in the world finals; forget being the world champions.”
“In the Asian leg, practically no teams from IITs ever reach the top positions in the recent past. It is the students from the institute from the next rung that end up in the top 10. In fact the team from Indonesia & IIIT Hyderabad topped this year.” the Prof continued.
“I agree. The inner passion to demonstrate our software credentials helped leaders like Moorthy, Nandan, Bagchi, Soota and their team to slog it out and build large software powerhouses from India. Our kids have it easy these days!”
I remembered what my good friend Ajay had explained to me as a possible contributing reason why Jewish race has managed to win more than 175 Nobel prices though they form a very small proportion of global population. They had been exposed to multiple occasions of severe persecution and they were pushed to their limits for survival. This trial by fire could be one of the reason for their outstanding performance in various fields.
It is a well understood fact that whether it is in sports, computer programming or business one of the key essentials for success is ‘fire in the belly’, a ‘burning desire’ to make a mark. It is of equal importance at the top, at the bottom and in between. If the top dog has no ambition to build, his team will also settle down and relax. If the top dog has ambition but he fails to build a team that share his dream then too the results will be limited. When any organisation get to be dominated by people who have retired in their hearts, it will be the beginning of the end.
And that is the challenge that any leadership faces..
“If you ask people to reach, to think creatively, and produce extraordinary results, they usually will. Too often in our modern world they are simply not asked” John Wood, Founder, Room to Read
I spent some time talking to the judges who have been associated with this event a number of times. One of them was a young lecturer from Bangladesh who had reached the finals twice.
The profs told me that in the world competition the top ten places are always bagged by the teams from Russia and China. The best performance from the teams from India ever was a rank of 29.
“How come India which is supposed to be a powerhouse of software development does not fare well?” I asked
“The Chinese kids do a lot of preparation. The colleges give them enormous support. In fact I understand that they even give really good team members relaxed schedule to complete their other curriculum schedules” one of the faculty explained.
I found it quite familiar. We hear similar stories about the focused development support institutions and government provide for development of international competitiveness in different fields including sports in countries like China and Russia. We also need to build such national priorities and support systems to see our competitiveness boosting.
“But then how do you explain the kids from Bangladesh doing better than Indian kids”
“That is a different dimension of performance. These kids are full of passion and are desperate to prove to the world that they are good” The Professor explained.
“With the IT Industry booming, our kids are sure of the job opening irrespective of their academic performance. So they don’t want to put in the hard work needed to be even to participate in the world finals; forget being the world champions.”
“In the Asian leg, practically no teams from IITs ever reach the top positions in the recent past. It is the students from the institute from the next rung that end up in the top 10. In fact the team from Indonesia & IIIT Hyderabad topped this year.” the Prof continued.
“I agree. The inner passion to demonstrate our software credentials helped leaders like Moorthy, Nandan, Bagchi, Soota and their team to slog it out and build large software powerhouses from India. Our kids have it easy these days!”
I remembered what my good friend Ajay had explained to me as a possible contributing reason why Jewish race has managed to win more than 175 Nobel prices though they form a very small proportion of global population. They had been exposed to multiple occasions of severe persecution and they were pushed to their limits for survival. This trial by fire could be one of the reason for their outstanding performance in various fields.
It is a well understood fact that whether it is in sports, computer programming or business one of the key essentials for success is ‘fire in the belly’, a ‘burning desire’ to make a mark. It is of equal importance at the top, at the bottom and in between. If the top dog has no ambition to build, his team will also settle down and relax. If the top dog has ambition but he fails to build a team that share his dream then too the results will be limited. When any organisation get to be dominated by people who have retired in their hearts, it will be the beginning of the end.
And that is the challenge that any leadership faces..
“If you ask people to reach, to think creatively, and produce extraordinary results, they usually will. Too often in our modern world they are simply not asked” John Wood, Founder, Room to Read
Monday, December 6, 2010
To be or Not to be: Part 6 - The Larger Good ?
I was about 18 years old and I used to be a very active member of a youth group in our area. We had a great bunch of talented guys and girls in this group and we used to have lots of fun cooking up interesting stuff together.
Once we decided to organise a cultural evening; an evening of drama, songs and dance for us to perform and show-off. I was the secretary of the group and played an active role in organising the program. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to get wider participation from the youngsters in the area. So I invited them to participate in the event. Among them there was a girl who was very talented, good looking and a bit arrogant who had never actively participated in our earlier programs except for occasional guest appearances. (Let us call her Monica) I asked her to participate in our cultural evening and she agreed. (May be she could not resist my charm!) She volunteered to be the Master of Ceremonies (MC). She sat through the rehearsals to get a good idea of the various programs, helped us to organise them in a creative sequence and worked out nice introductions for each item which was developed with quite a lot or research to include nice quotes and humorous quips. I was really impressed by the work she did.
On the day of the program, we practiced the whole day and late in the afternoon I went home, had a bath, put on nice clothes and returned to the venue. Then a delegation of few guys from our group who were part of many of the main items for the day, like drama, skit and group songs, approached me.
“We don’t want Monica to be the MC today” Their leader told me.
“Why? She has put in a lot of efforts for this and has done a fabulous job” I replied.
“We don’t care. If she is the MC we will not participate in any programs today”, retorted their leader.
“But you should have expressed your concern earlier. Not at the last moment”
“Nothing doing, it is our decision now”.
I tried my level best to persuade them; begged, pleaded, appealed to their sense of right and wrong and tried to call their bluff. No luck.
If I didn’t heed to their demand many of the items of the day would be cancelled. Many youngsters (in addition to the few who led the anti Monica rebellion) who were part of these programs would be devastated. Also, with the star items cancelled the program would be turn out to be a flop.
On the flip side, if I did heed to their demand, it would be unfair to Monica who had put in so much of effort to knit up a wonderful story line for introductions. Not just that, without the MC, the punch of the program would also be lost; unless I convince her to sacrifice for the greater good, share the story line and get somebody else to do the MC Job.
We can argue the merit of each of these options. Sacrifice many for one? Or Sacrifice one for many? It was double bind, a Morton’s fork; I was stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
We face these kinds of dilemmas in our day to day work. Take a few examples; (i) A client comes to us with a complaint. The mistake is ours; but it will be difficult for him to fix it on us. If we accept his demand, there is a cost to the company and one of our colleagues could be in trouble. (Recently Toyota had to go through a similar kind of situation) (ii) We made a goof up in our work. It is easy to bury the mistake and our role in it; but the company will have to pay the price. (iii) We want to push some of our agenda; but one colleague could stand in our way. Should we try to get him out of the company?
Some of us have a simple rule. Choose the option that serves our purpose the most. Some of us want to do what is right. Even this distinction is often blurred and contextual. There are two important factors that will determine whether and when we will compromise doing the right thing. It is the balance between the stakes involved and the strength of our moral conviction in the particular case.
Then what is that could leverage our moral conviction? May be the habit that we develop (Our parents, teachers and Society helped us to develop) would encourage us to choose the right thing most of the times. As Aristotle observed “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts”. If we develop this habit, we will at the least try to reflect for a moment what is right instead of just what we want. When more people think in this manner most of the time, we will have a civilized society.
Sometimes it is difficult to identify what is right. The reasons tell us one and the conviction the other. From time immemorial the thinking man has tried to find a method to figure this out. Mythologies address this question extensively. Yet do we have the answer? When we get “the answer” to this question, I think we will become one with the god; attain the “true nirvana”
Till then it is a search, and that is what we call life ...
About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. Ernest Hemingway
Once we decided to organise a cultural evening; an evening of drama, songs and dance for us to perform and show-off. I was the secretary of the group and played an active role in organising the program. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to get wider participation from the youngsters in the area. So I invited them to participate in the event. Among them there was a girl who was very talented, good looking and a bit arrogant who had never actively participated in our earlier programs except for occasional guest appearances. (Let us call her Monica) I asked her to participate in our cultural evening and she agreed. (May be she could not resist my charm!) She volunteered to be the Master of Ceremonies (MC). She sat through the rehearsals to get a good idea of the various programs, helped us to organise them in a creative sequence and worked out nice introductions for each item which was developed with quite a lot or research to include nice quotes and humorous quips. I was really impressed by the work she did.
On the day of the program, we practiced the whole day and late in the afternoon I went home, had a bath, put on nice clothes and returned to the venue. Then a delegation of few guys from our group who were part of many of the main items for the day, like drama, skit and group songs, approached me.
“We don’t want Monica to be the MC today” Their leader told me.
“Why? She has put in a lot of efforts for this and has done a fabulous job” I replied.
“We don’t care. If she is the MC we will not participate in any programs today”, retorted their leader.
“But you should have expressed your concern earlier. Not at the last moment”
“Nothing doing, it is our decision now”.
I tried my level best to persuade them; begged, pleaded, appealed to their sense of right and wrong and tried to call their bluff. No luck.
If I didn’t heed to their demand many of the items of the day would be cancelled. Many youngsters (in addition to the few who led the anti Monica rebellion) who were part of these programs would be devastated. Also, with the star items cancelled the program would be turn out to be a flop.
On the flip side, if I did heed to their demand, it would be unfair to Monica who had put in so much of effort to knit up a wonderful story line for introductions. Not just that, without the MC, the punch of the program would also be lost; unless I convince her to sacrifice for the greater good, share the story line and get somebody else to do the MC Job.
We can argue the merit of each of these options. Sacrifice many for one? Or Sacrifice one for many? It was double bind, a Morton’s fork; I was stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.
We face these kinds of dilemmas in our day to day work. Take a few examples; (i) A client comes to us with a complaint. The mistake is ours; but it will be difficult for him to fix it on us. If we accept his demand, there is a cost to the company and one of our colleagues could be in trouble. (Recently Toyota had to go through a similar kind of situation) (ii) We made a goof up in our work. It is easy to bury the mistake and our role in it; but the company will have to pay the price. (iii) We want to push some of our agenda; but one colleague could stand in our way. Should we try to get him out of the company?
Some of us have a simple rule. Choose the option that serves our purpose the most. Some of us want to do what is right. Even this distinction is often blurred and contextual. There are two important factors that will determine whether and when we will compromise doing the right thing. It is the balance between the stakes involved and the strength of our moral conviction in the particular case.
Then what is that could leverage our moral conviction? May be the habit that we develop (Our parents, teachers and Society helped us to develop) would encourage us to choose the right thing most of the times. As Aristotle observed “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts”. If we develop this habit, we will at the least try to reflect for a moment what is right instead of just what we want. When more people think in this manner most of the time, we will have a civilized society.
Sometimes it is difficult to identify what is right. The reasons tell us one and the conviction the other. From time immemorial the thinking man has tried to find a method to figure this out. Mythologies address this question extensively. Yet do we have the answer? When we get “the answer” to this question, I think we will become one with the god; attain the “true nirvana”
Till then it is a search, and that is what we call life ...
About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. Ernest Hemingway
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