HTML 5 - The New Language

HTML5:
The new language

The current HTML standard 4.01 is ten years old. In this time, the Internet has become rich with multimedia and interactivity. So it’s definitely time for change!

Videos are really popular on the web, so it should come as no surprise that sites like YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo are among the first few sites to integrate the new HTML5 standard. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, the language in which the basics of the Internet are written. The standard specifies rules according to which this happens. Since Web browser engines need to be adapted to this, four of the big browser manufacturers (not including Microsoft), developed HTML5 comprising of numerous new functions that help close the long gap between being a document-oriented markup language as it has traditionally been, to becoming an application-oriented one, as the modern web demands. Many can now dream of a revolution on the web.

Videos without Flash 

The core of HTML5 is better integration of multimedia content. So far, browser plug-ins such as Adobe’s Flash Player have been needed to play video and music. But these consume resources, are prone to crashes, and most importantly, are a safety risk. Flash, in particular, allows a lot of malware to creep into a PC. In spite of this, almost all big websites use it to incorporate video, interactive applications, and other imaginative content. HTML5 intends to make a difference here - the new

Another disadvantage of the video implementation is the lack of support for acceleration using the graphics card. The Adobe Flash Player has this capability as of version 10, and thus remains a better choice for HD video on the web, especially on weaker PCs such as the popular netbooks.

The HTML5 “Canvas” function is an interesting and considerably problem-free innovation. It defines an area on the website where the browser engine can create its own graphics in real time. Thus, a browser can be instructed to draw crisp, scalable vector graphics. Your website can thus contain an integrated drawing program, games, or beautiful animation all without requiring the user to install Flash or the like. This function will become more attractive as soon as it starts supporting 3D graphics. At present, browser manufacturers are working on the WebGL standard, which will enable the Canvas function to render even complex 3D scenes in real time, using the OpenGL graphics library. 

Quick and easy surfing

HTML5 supports multi-threading to avoid slowdowns that might be caused by Canvas scripts or other functions. Scripts and web applications run in parallel in separate threads. This will enable quicker rendering of sites on your screen, and eliminate jerks while scrolling or delayed text input on heavy pages. HTML5 also brings something new when working with user data. So far, such data has been stored in small cookies. As opposed to that, the new Web Storage mechanism stores data of up to 10 MB on the user's computer, either permanently or for as long as the browsing session lasts. While cookies are limited to plain text files, Web Storage uses a database that can stores even whole applications for offline use. However, this gives hackers new invasion options, which would affect all operating systems. HTML5 will, however, provide more protection in other areas. One of the biggest safety risks on web sites today is that of iFrames; sections in which the content of external sites are displayed. iFrames infected with dangerous code can hide on pages, contaminating visitors’ PCs.  

To avoid this, web developers should use the Sandbox attribute in the future, instead of iFrames. This will disable or limit external sites from implementing scripts, accessing cookies and inserting or manipulating inputted data.

 Further innovations include Web Forms 2.0 (forms which process text input better), new tags for page structuring, and the GeoLocation attribute. This last one is not an actual part of the HTML5 standard but can still be implemented in the browser engine. GeoLocation is a programming interface which a Web site can use to locate a computer without plug-ins. It accesses the IP address as well as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless data and can display the location on a map, opening up new social interaction methods, for instance.

Soft upgrade, loud effects

Whether and when these new functions will become widespread is still unforeseeable. One of the obstacles is that Internet Explorer, the most entrenched browser, barely supports these features. The lack of a universal codec to replace Flash will also dampen momentum. The other functions will definitely be accepted and make surfing more comfortable, but will also take time to creep into the mainstream for both web developers and end users.

Banking on the MOVE

Banking 
on the move

Banking has never been simpler. If Internet banking made going to the bank passé, the mobile revolution promises to make banking a breeze.

No longer do you need to go to the bank, wait for your turn, fill in slips, or even maintain cheque books. Right from transferring money to paying bills, recharging your mobile to booking movie tickets, and shopping to managing your finances, online and mobile media have revolutionized banking. We take a look at the various banking services, which will make you a more efficient money manager.

 

PAY USING YOUR MOBILE

Remember that ad for a leading cellular network that has a woman haggling with a fisherman over the price of fish, only to end up paying using her mobile phone? Well, that is no longer just an idea, but a reality. While there is still a long way to go before you can actually pay the local vegetable and fish vendors, you can start by paying your utility bills, and you can even shop, using your mobile phone. 

 Obopay is an application that allows you to do this. Its Easy Money option is just like a mobile top-up, and for this, it has tied up with Nokia. All you have to do is walk into a Nokia Priority store and pay cash; this amount will be credited to your Obopay account. You can then use this amount to pay all your utility bills and recharge/top-up cell phones. There’s also an Easy Send service that allows you to transfer money from person-to-person or pay merchants for their products/services. To activate this service, you will have to go to a Nokia Priority store and download the application. Then, you will have to fill a know-your-customer form (as per RBI rules) to open a YES Bank account. This service is activated within 24-48 hours. The only catch is that the recipient has to be an Obopay member, otherwise the money won’t be transferred when doing a person-to-person money transfer. Currently, Obopay services are available only in Pune and Chandigarh. 

Another great payment gateway using the mobile phone is mChek. Through this service, you can securely pay for your phone bills, flight tickets, insurance premiums, movie tickets, utility bills, and online shopping. mChek links your mobile phone to your Visa/Mastercard credit or debit card, allowing you to make payments through your phone. It allows you to key in details for a credit card and a debit card, and for every transaction, it lets you choose between the two cards as your mode of payment. After selecting the payment mode, you must authenticate the transaction by entering your mChekPIN number. mChek has a comprehensive list of merchant partners and when you shop online, you will see an option to pay using mChek. All you have to do is feed in your mobile number and then you will receive a payment authorization request on your phone, which when confirmed, completes the transaction.  

 While Obopay and mChek are fairly newer services, PayMate has been around for a while. It links your mobile phone to your existing bank account or credit/debit card, letting you pay for online purchases, utility bills, flight tickets, and much more. When you wish to conduct a financial transaction (online or offline), all you have to do is share your mobile number, and you will instantly receive an automatic IVR call-back confirming the transaction. Once you authenticate the same with your PIN, your payment will be processed and you will receive an SMS confirming the status. If you have more than one accounts linked with PayMate, then while making the payment, you can choose which account you wish to use. If you do not wish to transact using your credit or debit card, you can even purchase a GiftMate voucher, which allows you to transact using a pre-paid balance. 

 PayMate has also come up with a Green Money Transfer service in association with Corporation Bank and Tata Teleservices. It is a person-to-person mobile money transfer, wherein any mobile phone user can send or receive money almost instantly. A person who wishes to send money has to go to a Tata Green PCO and submit in cash the amount to be transferred. He will receive an IVR call asking him to confirm the transaction with his mPIN. After this, he will get a transaction code on his mobile to be shared with the recipient. All the recipient has to do is walk to a nearby Tata Green PCO and share his transaction code. He will then receive an IVR call asking him to authenticate the transaction with his mPIN. Once the verification is complete, the cash will be handed over to him. Currently, the services are limited to registered customers of Corporation Bank in Kerala and Karnataka. 

 THE BANK COMES TO YOU

 

 If you don’t trust third-party applications, look no further than your own bank.  Almost all major banks now offer their customers the convenience of mobile banking at no extra cost. Apart from SMS alerts regarding transactions and checking balance, you can now carry out full-fledged banking transactions. Getting started is simple; just follow the m-banking link of your bank and download the application. After keying in your login details and getting verified, you are good to go.

You can conduct funds transfers and transactions involving purchase of goods/services to a maximum of Rs 50,000 per day, but this may vary from bank to bank. Mobile banking is absolutely safe as it is user-specific and requires a four-digit PIN code for any transaction. In case you lose your phone, simply call the 24-hour customer care and request them to block the application. Also, as with the ATM, the application blocks itself on feeding three consecutive wrong PIN entries.

 MANAGE YOUR MONEY ONLINE

 With all this talk of paying bills and shopping, let’s now look at something that will help us save some money. We came across Intuit Money Manager (www.intuitmoneymanager.com), which is an online personal finance tool that helps you plan, save and grow your money. The best part about it is that it allows you to consolidate all your financial accounts, be it your bank accounts, credit/debit cards, loan accounts, investments, and even your bills, under one platform. After logging in, you’ll have to feed in the details for all your accounts and then you can easily keep a track of all your expenses at a glance. Your expenses are categorized, which allows you to map your spending trends and even set budget goals. You can fix a budget for each category and when you reach the limit, you will receive an SMS or email alert asking you to stop spending. It even calculates your tax liabilities, which helps you to set aside money and invest it later. 

  

With Intuit Money Manager, you can even monitor your stock investments, ULIPs, mutual funds, etc, thanks to live price updates. It also allows you to set reminders for all your payments, so you don’t have to worry about missing a due date. It thus acts as a constant reminder of your financial health and motivates you to save more. Currently, it supports over 40 major financial institutions in India, including banks and brokerage firms. This service is available with a 90-day free trial, and if you like it, you can go for an annual subscription at Rs 365.

Another website you can look at is Perfios.com, which provides a 360-degree view of one’s personal finances, right from bank accounts and credit cards, to mutual funds, loans, and taxes. With Perfios, you can also invite your family members to share accounts and integrate the same with your portfolio. This will help you keep tabs on your family’s finances and plan better. As of now, the service is free, but they are planning to launch premium services in the near future at a nominal cost. The best part is that this website even provides mobile access. 

Social Media Manager

Be a
Social Media Manager

If writing a blog comes naturally to you, if your Facebook profile is the center of activity, if you have a huge following on Twitter, if you have more videos on YouTube than your peers, then social media management is just the right career for you.  

You will find that almost every brand today has a presence on one of the many social networking sites. And it’s not just a happy coincidence or some brand aficionado who is doing it for them. Social networking today forms a crucial part of companies' marketing and communication strategies. Having a social media manager is no longer a fad, given that over 50 percent of the world’s population is under 30 years-old and spends the better half of their day on social networking sites. Increasingly, companies are looking for dynamic young people who know their way across the various social platforms and have the ability to communicate well to manage their virtual image.   

According to Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO WATMedia Pvt Ltd, social media in India has taken a serious turn over the years. It’s still at a very nascent stage but more and more companies have started investing their money on social media. He says, “There are 71 million Internet users in India according to the IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India) report in 2009. Approximately 22 million people are active on social media. Looking at these numbers, it’s important to understand that these users would be sharing information about various brands, which could be positive or negative experiences.”

He states further, “These users create pages of their favorite brands and start conversations which can be harmful as these won’t be the official presence. Thus, it’s important to have a social media manager who will look into these pages/conversations, will manage them and create official presence of their brands on social media. A social media manager is required also because social media is two–way communication platform, thus enabling users to communicate their feelings about the brand. A crisis situation can be well handled on social media with the presence of a social media manger.” 

EXPERT SPEAK

“Anyone from a communications background with a fair knowledge of the Internet can become a social media manager. Apart from that, and from personal experience, anyone with street smarts and common sense can become one. And hard work of course! The starting salary can be between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. The growth prospects are huge since the social media concept has taken everyone by storm, especially all the marketing and advertising agencies in the world. Every such agency has an in-house team, and if they don’t have one, they outsource it to smaller agencies. In the past 12 months, my own startup company has seen a 600% growth, with an addition of two members to the team every month.” 

- Aditya Rao, Co-founder and Director,
Social Business Strategy, Superchooha

“Experience in this field as a social media executive is necessary to graduate to the level of a social media manager. The ideal candidate should be proficient with Microsoft Office products, must have a deep knowledge of online marketing, must possess excellent communication and writing skills. He should also have the ability to manage multiple priorities in a limited timeframe. He should be able to identify threats and opportunities, and make quick decisions. Of course, he should have a deep knowledge and understanding of all social media platforms. Social media is an upcoming field and therefore the career growth of an individual depends on his/her capability and interest in this field. The salary model is based mostly on the PR model.”

- Rajiv Dingra, Founder and
CEO WATMedia Pvt Ltd.

“Anyone who's passionate about the web and understands the flow of conversations between people can become a social media manager. The industry is a fast evolving one and a lot of PR/advertising/digital and specialist social media agencies, along with many brands, are looking at having social media specialists. Growth is totally dependant on you. You could go ahead and become digital heads in agencies, become entrepreneurs employing social media in your activities, become consultants, community managers to brands, etc. Salaries are typically based on experience. I wouldn't advice joining a formal training program at this stage. Get on the job and explore your interests in social media. It's the best training module available.” 

- Robin Jacob Abraham, Solutions Architect, Drizzlin Media

“Social media is a specialized subject and one needs to have a good understanding of the medium in terms of technology as well as in terms of understanding how social media communications need to be created. Thinking of social media like mass media, communication is the biggest hurdle. One has to unlearn some of the mass media communication principles in order to be successful in social media. On the personal front, if one is an introvert, then pursuing a career as a social media practitioner is not easy; you have to be "sociable". Also, one does not need to be tech savvy, but must have the ability to learn new things and keep oneself abreast with what is happening. It is sun rise industry and growth prospects are very bright.”

- Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO, Social Wavelength

What constitutes social media?

When we think of social media, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube come to mind, but social media goes beyond these platforms. As Robin Jacob Abraham, Solutions Architect, Drizzlin Media, says “How do you create meaningful dialogue and establish communities? This could involve going offline to generate conversations online, creating a branded community itself, creating videos, presentations, blogs, other forms of content, or engaging in already active communities across the web.” The most challenging aspect, according to him, is to engage the community. He says, “You need to understand what conversations and content works in generating engagement and buzz, maintaining engagement as well as reacting to negative and sometimes abusive comments.”

What does the job entail?

Broadly speaking, the job of a social media manager is to communicate with the customers and clients. It’s all about talking with people rather than talking to people. What sets it apart from PR is that while PR is one-way communication, social media facilitates two-way communication. It is the job of the social media manager to identify the proper channels of communication for the brand and come up with meaningful strategies. It is also his/her job to ensure that all the communication flowing from the organization, be it PR, advertisement, marketing or social networking is in sync and conveys the same message. A part of the job is also to pass on the communication across the various platforms to the relevant department in the organization, so that a suggestion can be implemented or a query resolved. Another important aspect of the job is keeping an eye on the activities of the competitors and always being prepared to combat bad publicity.    

Required skill set

If you are looking at taking up social media as a career, then firstly, you need to be a social and outgoing person. Analytical as well as out-of-box thinking abilities can come in handy. Most importantly, you should have thorough knowledge of all the social networking sites and you must keep yourself abreast with the latest trends and newer sites. You should not only be able to identify and develop communication strategies for the brand, but it’s also important that you execute them with efficiency. “It is not an easy task to handle communities with thousands of people in them. You have to say the right things at the right time. A good psychology and common sense are plus points.  Basically, you have to be street smart and internet smart,” says Aditya Rao, Co-founder and Director, Social Business Strategy, Superchooha.

Courses available

Looking at the increasing demand for social media managers, IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India) together with WATMedia Pvt Ltd, recently launched India’s first social media course. The four week program is designed to aid the corporate as well as the student communities to demystify social media and its practices. For further information on this program, you can log on to www.socialmediacourse.in. You can also join the Social Media Club, Mumbai, which is the local chapter of the International Social Media Club Group. You can attend workshops that are held there, listen to the experts in the field, meet new people, share case studies, learn about industry trends and even develop business leads. To know more about Social Media Club, visit www.smcmumbai.com.