Month: November 2021

Internet Chats

Shabbir Chunawalla

Networked chatting predates the internet. When computers are connected, that is the most obvious thing to do. Internet Relay Chat or IRC appeared in 1988. It was the first version. Groups of people choose each other, and typed messages in real time. Chat has become ubiquitous since then. Mainstream service providers (CompuServe and AOL) offered chat. E-mail services too offered chat. Napster was a chat app. Early social networks had chat features. Users had accounts on popular instant messaging services.

Multi-player games too relied on group chat. Smart phones were used as chatting devices. In 2010s, the apps had chat features or chat-like DM services.

Even livestreaming is about chat. Chatting in a live setting for the elderly is natural.

In chat, you have the freedom to join or leave. Groups can have a common interest or purpose. They are private by default. Chatting is like hanging out.

It is difficult to monetise chats. Feeds are okay. Chats have preceded them, and will survive them.

Discord app has several million people who hang out in servers of their creation. Its voice-chat feature is being used by gamers. Discord makes social media subordinate to chatting.

Metaverse, the next version of Internet, will put us into virtual environment to interact intimately from all around the world. Metaverse is not posting, it is essentially chatting.

Probe of Instagram’s Effect on Children

Shabbir Chunawalla

Instagram is being probed by several states of the US such as Texas, Nebraska, Massachusetts, California, Florida, Keutucky, Tenessee, New Jersey and Vermount for its effects on children and young adults, especially the risk it posses to their mental health and well-being.

It has been observed that Meta, the company that runs Instagram, has put profits over safety. The probe seeks to end this behaviour. It will examine the techniques to boost usage among young people. Meta itself has paused plans to create an Instagram for kids when the Wall Street Journal outlined company’s own research on the app’s impact on children, especially teenage girls.

Facebook and Hate Speech

Shabbir Chunawalla

A whistle blower Frances Haugen, also a former employee, levelled charges against Facebook that it did not do enough to prevent the spread hate speech and misinformation.

In fact, Facebook allocated only 13 percent of its total budget to counter hate speech and misinformation in 2020 outside the US, including India.

Monica, VP, Content Safety Says they have a network of 10 fact checkers working in 11 Indian languages. There are similar number of fact checkers in the US market.

There are reviews of problematic content in 20 Indian languages. In addition, there are hate speech classifiers, which is an automated detection technology in regional languages.

Cryptos Being Reviewed

Shabbir Chunawalla

Instead of an outright ban on cryptos, India will adopt a nuanced approach towards cryptos. Though cryptos may not be permitted as currencies to settle transactions, and make payments, they could be treated as assets like shares, gold or bonds.

The government is likely to classify crypto exchanges as e-commerce platforms. They will be subjected to GST. They will be put into three categories. They are facilitators or brokerages or trading platforms. They are expected to collect tax at source (TCS) from those buying and selling cryptos.

They sale, purchase and mining of cryptos are likely to be taxed retrospectively from 2017. Investors will have to pay 18 per cent GST. TCS deducted by these platforms can be set off against the tax liability of investors.

It is likely that active solicitation by companies including exchanges and platforms will be barred. It is likely to make SEBI a regulator, but a final call is to be taken yet.

There is likely to be a bill in the winter session of the parliament. The government is likely to take a middle path on cryptos.

RBI has serious concerns about cryptos and their effects on financial stability.

Blockchain technology is more than 10 year old. It can grow, with or without cryptos.

Application Programming Interface : APIs

Shabbir Chunawalla

Application Programming Interfaces called APIS establish connection between computers or computer programmes. They are software interface since they are little pieces of code at the endpoint of a software allowing a connect and communication. In short, we can say they serve as a bridge between different softwares and devices. Here, the term endpoint refers to a simple URL through which you can use an API. API is essentially software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.

As we know, there is a need to share data, and networking facilities such sharing. The system are distributed. There is sharing of resources or even softwares across different applications.

While doing so, there should be no compromise on privacy. It is for this reason, there is a layer of abstraction. It makes these universally understandable and easy to use. High level programming languages have APIs which provide abstraction like Collections in Java and STL in C++. A developer need not implement basic components like Lists, Linked Lists, HashMaps etc. from scratch. Another example is sorting function in JavaScript.

Privacy is ensured by integrating an authentication mechanism, say a secret key or token. API gateways intercept incoming requests and manage authentication.

APIs have revolutionised banking and finance.They could be used in healthcare too.

Either a fee is charged for API use or they are offered free.

In India, we have IndiaStack, a set of public APIs. Aadhar is an illustration of this. Many third party service providers can connect to Aadhar database and do the authentication. Its eSign API allows electronic signing. Its UPI API together with virtual payment ID or address enables bank account holders to transfer money digitally using the smart phones. Even third party service providers can use these APIs, say Google Pay and Phone Pe. API allows to do KYC of an individual in his absence in a trustworthy manner. A customer can be served virtually.

Old banks with legacy systems tie up with fintech companies or neo-banks and using APIs can make available a variety of offerings. Mostly neo-banks do not have banking license, but tie up with a licensed bank.

India in Gaming

Shabbir Chunawalla

India has taken in a big way to video game development. Gaming is entertainment. There is availability of gaming designers in India. Investors are interested in gaming. Previously, gaming apps depended on ad revenue but now they have started spending money on in-app purchases. It facilitates faster monetisation of games.

There are about 400 plus gaming studios in India. All kinds of games are being developed — hyper-casual, hyper-social and mid-core. Some games feature hyper-realism and are meant for new consoles. These are costly and complex.

The gaming industry changed from old days of pixelated graphics and restricted audio qualities.

All gaming studios have got excellent traction. There were real money games or fantasy sports to begin with. However, now even core game studios too are flourishing.

India has about 425 million gamers who play across three broad gaming channels.

China too is active in gaming. However, of late, China has cracked down upon gaming firms.

By 2026, Indian gaming market will reach $7 billion.

Indian games are likely to bring Indian mythological characters from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata as characters. Even Indian celebrities can be introduced as characters. It will not require too much context building.

Brave New World : Metaverse

Shabbir Chunawalla

A connected digital world is envisaged in near future. It is a concept akin to Second Life, where people will create an online avatar of themselves and would live a second life in online space. Creators of second life have issues with metaverse, which they find too much controlled and ad-supported.

Metaverse relies on gaming as an essential component, whereas Second Life does not have games or points to play. It is just a community built by users.

There are activities which are considered odd in mainstream culture. These are welcome in the metaverse. Events, art, interactions and unique self-expression are common elements of metaverse. These are unique within Second Life. There would be mode for commerce too. Cryptos could be used here.

Second Life as a game is required to be run on a PC or laptop, and has not got a proper mobile app. It, therefore, has not become mainstream. It is a 2-D experience. The future lies in 3-D technology, making use of AR-VR. An iOS app has been developed that allows playing Second Life on mobile device, but it has not been built by Linden Labs, the parent firm.

Second Life provides ultimate escapism, where players forget about family and social lives. They build deep social and virtual sex connections. It is a matter of concern.

In metaverse, we share immersive experiences with other people who may not be physically together. It is a feeling of presence — you are right there. It is the climax of social technology. Every trend is being gamified. And VR is the favourite gaming technology, followed by AR and wearable gaming.

Metaverse : Demerits

Shabbir Chunawalla

Metaverse could be toxic for women and minorities. How could there be moderation of users? They can speak anything and behave the way they like. Can we afford continuous recording? Will it not encroach on the privacy? And there are physical limitations of hardware — at some point the headset will run out of memory and power. It is not possible to monitor the users at meaningful scale.

While designing, iterating and bringing new products, we must be mindful that technology has the potential to harm the users.

Corporates may invest heavily in the concept of a metaverse. They would like to create a social, 3D virtual space to share the immersive experience, though people are not together physically.

Metaverse could be an existential threat to Facebook itself if it wards off mainstream customers from the medium. Facebook would like to have ‘almost Disney levels of safety’ for its virtual worlds.

The Patil Committee, 1949

Shabbir Chunawalla

To streamline the film industry, a committee was constituted only two years after India got independence. It was headed by former Mumbai mayor SK Patil. One of its five members was V. Shantaram.

In 1951, the Committee made several recommendations. It proposed a new Film Finance Corporation and an Institute of Film Technique. A year later, the country’s first international film festival films from abroad. In the years, that followed, many institutions such as Children’s Film Institute (1955), Film Finance Corporation and Film Institute of India (1960) and National Film Archive of India (1964) were set up to allow making and watching of movies with nation building.

NFTs : Technicalities

Shabbir Chunawalla

A non-fungible token, called NFT, is a unique digital certification based on blockchain technology. It is stored on a blockchain to provide certain ownership rights of a digital space. The asset is non-fungible as each one of them is unique and of different value. It contrasts with fungible assets such as rupees or bitcoins.

NFT can represent easily reproducible items such as art work, photos, videos, audio files etc. as unique items.

An NFT is generated or minted using a smart contract which is a computer code stored on a blockchain. As the transactions on blockchain are transparent, anyone can view the underlying information including blockchain address of the owner or minting of NFT. A buyer can purchase an NFT, if he has a digital wallet to receive, access and transfer it.

NFTs attract criticism due to energy consumption in minting and carbon footprint left while validating transactions.