Better Web Application development frameworks

I've always been a Java guy. Having started my career with C and C++, I quickly graduated into the Java language and the J2EE platform. But with the increased popularity of web application development and the growth of social networking sites, I started to open my eyes and ears to see and hear new web application development frameworks out in the market.

With the increased popularity of Google and its various products, I realized they use Zope as their development framework. Recently I heard of this new Python based framework called Django (I just evaluated this). With the increased popularity of Python in this space I thought of evaluating each of these frameworks. But I guess Sean Kelly made my job much easier now. I recently bumped into his study on the various web application development frameworks, and it is really good one with a good amount of detail covered.

As a guy of the J2EE generation, this report was a NEWS to me.



The details behind the above findings can be seen at this screencast by Sean Kelly.

Human Capital & Talent Pool - A Glimpse into the future

Some key happenings in the recent past -

• US H1-B visa restrictions
• Growth of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries
• Kingfisher on the F1 track
• Fall of the US Dollar [1 USD = 38 INR (previously 48+ INR)]
• India's SENSEX crosses the 20,000 mark
• Mukesh Ambani becomes the world's richest man

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more under each of the above happenings - reasons and results.

We saw brain drain happening in the past many years (from the 1980's till date - except for the period when the dot com bubble burst). The primary reason we saw this happening was because of the US Dollar's high value and the resulting economy in the United States.

The big companies attracted talent from countries like India and Brazil into the United States to compensate for the shortage of talent. This later got diluted to a time when body shopping became a common scenario in the IT industry with smaller companies (or consultancies) hiring human capital from the developing countries and deploying them in the United States. This resulted in the movement of lower skilled staff into the US, and hence making it tougher for the citizens of the United States to compete.

Today, with the scenario totally changed, we see a different trend - People have now started to think of getting back to their home countries (esp. Indians). The reason is very obvious. With the H1B visa restrictions now, the United States is all set to witness a big time reverse brain drain - First time in the history of USA.

As we see in many walks of life, history repeats! India was once called as The Land of Milk and Honey. It was only after the series of conquests made by the British, Afghans, Dutch, Portuguese, and French, that India saw the state of poverty.

Today, India is rich in talented human capital and the economy is doing well. Its like a sinusoidal waveform - positives and negatives come in alternate cycles.

From a economy standpoint, my personal feeling is that we will witness the BRIC nations growing in the days to come and the United States will not be looked upon as THE place to do business. Its going to be a Global Market where the customers and the suppliers will be competing in a global space, and will not be demarcated by national boundaries.

Some key challenges that I foresee in this kind of a market are -

• Companies revamping their business model(s) to address the global market space
• Bigger companies have realized this long back, but smaller companies need to consciously plan
• Visa regulations of countries need to be given a serious look
• Need to be able to issue business visas at a short notice - Waiting period needs to be reduced a lot
• Product and Service Management needs a global perspective
• International market exposure will help leaders and managers manage their products and service offerings better - making them more relevant to the global marketplace
• United States H1B visa restrictions need to be made more meaningful - something in the lines of a point system will make more sense (like how Canada follows)

Some countries that I think are going to be the czars of this century -

• Canada - Will replace the Middle East with its huge oil resources
• China + India - Pivotal countries in the IT space - Deal Hub that will be equivalent to how USA is today
• Countries like Philippines, etc will be the next destinations for outsourcing from countries like India and China
• Singapore - continue to grow as the hub of business in Asia Pacific
• Japan - Will be the Automotive leader with companies like Toyota and Honda leading the space with highly efficient vehicles

Tips for the younger generation of aspiring professionals -

• Keep your eyes and ears open to technology and business advancements across the world (not just your country)
• Ride on the social networking boom by utilizing its services to get networked with people globally - for the right purpose and a good cause
• Specialization is a key space. However, being knowledgeable/adept in more than three different areas is good to compete in a global marketplace
• Force your brains to think 360 degrees and bring in different perspectives to every walk of life
  

Generation Y - What is that?

There's been a lot of talk recently about Generation Y. Its members, born between 1982 and 2005, are known for their sense of entitlement, outspokenness, inability to take criticism, and technological sophistication. Fortune deemed Generation Y in its May 28, 2007, issue the most high-maintenance, yet potentially most high-performing generation in history because its members are entering the workplace with more information, greater technological skill and higher expectations of themselves and others than prior generations. In addition, Time described members of Generation Y in its July 16, 2007, issue as wanting the kind of life balance where every minute has meaning. They don't want to be slaves to their jobs the way their Baby Boomer parents are.

Like it or not, Generation Y is your fickle new talent pool. To attract the workers from this generation that your organization needs, you need to understand what makes them tick and how to work with its members to bring out their high potential. They may require a lot of management, but they're worth the effort. Statistically, Millennials are the most pluralistic, integrated, high-tech generation in American history—traits that make them ideally suited to our increasingly demanding, diverse and dispersed global workplace. They are well positioned to address the global issues of our time, inclined as they are to seeing the world as a vast resource of connection, knowledge and community. In addition, these kids are smart and driven to make a difference. They demand fast-track career positioning, greater work-life balance, positive feedback, training and cutting-edge technology. By challenging workforce conventions, Generation Y offers us a long-overdue reality check on the shortcomings and hypocrisies of the American workplace that may ultimately change it for the better.

While this has been talked about more specifically with respect to Americans, I do see most of it applicable to people in other developing countries too.

Here is a good article on CIO.com about How to Manage Generation Y people at work. Check it out here.

Open Social Launched!

Watch the launch of Open Social here -



Google has launched its series of "Google Campfire One" to interact with its developer network. Its indeed going to be very interesting to watch the space of social networking on the web in the next few years.http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/11/report-from-the.html

Marc Andresseen, in his blog mentions "Freedom wins, and openness wins". While I agree with this comment of his, given the situation of the social networks war, I think the key is the creation of blue oceans (Blue Ocean Strategy, by Prof.Chan Kim).

Facebook did create a blue ocean by having its platform open to developers and having a proprietary standard like FBML. Now, Google has created a bigger blue ocean by creating a social networking platform standard and by making the learning curve shallower for developers. In my opinion, Open Social is a true blue ocean, as it creates opportunity for other social networking companies to participate, rather than compete!

Who is next? Lets wait and watch this space..its going to be really interesting.

Open Social - The Killer Whale?

Open Social is the next big thing in the world of social networking. To give you a better idea of what this is, here is a screencast:


Find more screencasts like this on Ning Network Creators