Deepak Sivakumar

“Free” is one word that makes heads turn and Google is one search engine that is absolutely free. Nobody pays for all that search made, but Google makes a profit for each search we make. John Battelle has researched deeply into the search engine industry and done multiple interviews with different organizations and people to write this book. Companies now make a lot of money off the internet by advertising over the internet and Google is one of the company’s that gets paid for this purpose.

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.
By John Battelle

This books talks about how Google survived and thundered up after the Dot Com bubble and how the old search engines such as AltaVista ran during the mini computer business. AltaVista went to become the number one search engine followed by rivals such as Excite and Yahoo!. Later on Larry Page and Sergey Brin went on to find Google which is now the number one search engine in the world. It also emphasizes that Google was an instant hit but it took a longer time to get rich. They never allowed too many advertisers to come in and they concentrated on a more user centric design where users find it really easy to navigate.
They focused on having more text advertisements compared to their rivals who had flashy picture advertisements in their search page. Before Google arrived the links went only forward such that people never could actually tell where the link originated from but after the coming up of Google, users could tell where the link originated from. In general the book gives us a picture about facts that happened all the way and he leaves us hanging to decide whether it was for the good or the bad.

Posted by Deepak Sivakumar at 02:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Strategic Communication is a type of communication that tells us how a bunch of people can plan together to execute a change.

People get so involved on where they want to get that they forget the journey and the complications involved in the process. The final destination or the goal of our communication is our primary need but it is necessary that we think and analyze the communication situations. There are four questions involved in the process and they are: 5
The Why Question – This question makes us think of the reason why Effective communication is actually required in a particular situation. This helps us move towards the problem ad helps us solve it. And as KarthiK Chinnasamy had quoted “Effective communication occurs when the pot holes are sealed and when the road is clear” supports the fact that the purpose of the communication helps making it much easier by removing barriers.
The Who Question – This makes us think as to who the audience is and whether their presence must be felt during the communication process. It is also required to know whether the communication would make an impact on the audience.
The What Question- This tells us the description or the important aspects of the communication. We should always be aware of the type of communication appropriate for any situation. There are different styles of delivery in different situations. It is necessary we know the structure of the communication. Another word to describe this would be the genre or different classifications. The tone of our voice also accounts as a type and we should use it appropriately under different situations. The level of an important type since there are both formal and informal situations we might have to deal with and it is necessary to respect that aspect.
The How Question - This is the final question we need to ask ourselves before we communicate and this is where we take all that we have learned from the previous three questions. Effective communication can also be told as putting together motivation, the audience and the description. 6
As quoted by Kelly Antoine “Human Communication examines the process involved when sending, receiving and understanding messages from one individual to another”. It is required to know and feel what the message is for the proper understanding by the receiver.
In the book “Theories of Human Communication”, there is a quote by Little John that tells us about personal identity and it goes like this “The Communication Theory of identity or CTI, incorporates all three of these cultural contexts – the individual, the communal and the societal”. 8 This tells us that we can communicate with other individuals in a system builds our personal identity and this is what makes us different from the others. People are always watching each other and making decisions or are being judgmental based on the way we project ourselves to the world.
This Personal Identity can be controlled by us and we can make changes to our personal identity based on our style of communication. Boundaries play an important role in constructing our personal identity

A Boundary of an individual is like a boundary of a country. The individual has every right to protect his/her boundary and during the course of communication, the individual can control as to what can be allowed inside his/her boundary just like the immigration rules of a country. So, the boundary of a receiver cannot be controlled by the sender at any given point of time. It is completely the receiver’s choice whether to open the doors of his boundary to allow the information the senders sends inside. The receiver builds personal identity by making decisions for itself by opening or closing the doors for information and the handle of the door is facing inside, always.
CONCLUSION
Human communication is no longer a luxury but it is a necessity and it is always happening around us. It is necessary that we focus on the process or the journey by which the communication takes place and not just the grand finale. And in the process of experimenting and varying communication techniques, e can build our personality, boost our self esteem and establish our personal identity.

REFERENCES
1. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences. 2006. 23 Oct. 2007 .

2. Johnstone, Christopher. Ethics in Human Communication. n.d. 23 Oct. 2007 .
3. Michael, Burgoon. Sage Publication, n.d. 23 Oct. 2007 .
4. Goodall, Bud . Global War of Ideas. 2007. 23 Oct. 2007
5. 1999. 23 Oct. 2007 .
6. n.d. 23 Oct. 2007 .
7. Jensen, Bill . 1996. 23 Oct. 2007 .

Posted by Deepak Sivakumar at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Human Communication is a system where individual participants understand each other’s actions and makes decisions based on the thoughts or intentions behind them. Communication is no longer a simple system where two individuals transmit messages to each other.

When we talk about one mind transmitting messages to another, there would be two instances where the receiving end may or may not acknowledge the communication process BT nevertheless human communication has occurred in that given situation.
A simple example to reason the above theory would be to consider the two participants as A and B. A would be successful in his/her communication only if B thinks and applies A’s thoughts into action. Similarly, the actions of B in turn are a sign of acknowledgment and influence A. This is more of a mutual relationship between A and B both the participants and we can rightfully call this mutual interdependence. But this does not always mean that the communication is a success, there are definitely instances where even If message is clearly communicated or sent and received by the receiver, it might affect or make the expected results. The message can be sent repeatedly but it needn’t necessarily create reactions in the receiver. This shows that no one or nobody is in charge or control of the system. It is definitely the individual’s willingness to cooperate that makes a difference.4
Another important aspect of communication is not to persuade or force any receiver to comply or think in a biased way or a particular way. This means that an individual cannot make decisions in another persons boundaries and trying to make them is not acceptable by any standards. An example would be a person coming from a different country to a new country finding that he/her would have to follow standard housing or boarding rules that doesn’t allow them to return or leave their home b y a particular time.7, 4
An existing model called as the Pragmatic model which is more advanced than the Shannon-Weaver Model deals with reality. This might upset the prior thinking of the Shannon- Weaver model but would definitely give a fuller insight on the perspective of human communication. The first principle of this model tells us that no one can control the message. We just need to accept the fact that the message is not in our control. The second principle would be that a major transformation or a change in the system or the way the system thinks would occur only if there is a big imbalance in the normal functioning of the system. The third principle involved is the new approach that should be included in respect to selection and the different themes of the messages should be varied and experimented with. The last principle that is involved in the model would be to be prepared for failure and when a message is sent instead of concentrating on how the message will be understood, concentrate on why the message would not be understood.
The Old Model or the Shannon- Weaver Model says that the communication between the sender and receiver would always be successful but would be affected only if the connection was bad.
In the well acclaimed book ‘Thriving on Chaos’, Tom Peters had quoted that “Engaged Listening is Strategic”.9 and when we speak about listening, it needn’t just be to a higher official or a boss or someone important. It could be to anyone, can be a construction worker, a sweeper, anyone who can provide since Information is Wealth. 9

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