Now it is time to take it to the next level! Are you ready for the roller coaster ride? Read on to know how…

Quoted below is the application release mail by Microsoft:

Hi,

As many of you are aware, we have collaborated with Yuva Unstoppable to enable you, our Student Partners, to make a positive social impact in the communities around you. The Yuva Unstoppable – Microsoft Digital Literacy Initiative is a social revolution that aims to bring together and empower people with technical competencies to impart the power of knowledge to the under-privileged strata of society.

Under this project, MSPs will lead groups (like Student Tech Clubs) towards social responsibility and help them become agents of positive change by teaching underprivileged students and enhancing English & Digital Literacy.

We encourage MSPs across India to contribute to the Digital Literacy drive:  http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/Citizenship/giving/programs/UP/digitalliteracy/default.mspx

The curriculum is currently available in various languages used in India like Bengali, English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil & Urdu.

Here’s what Pratima Amonkar, Director Academia, Microsoft India has to say:

“I urge each one of you, our Student Partners, to impact the lives of those less fortunate than yourselves, with your biggest strength – your knowledge of technology. Transform India with the power of digital literacy!”

If you have the passion & commitment to make a difference in this area & would like to facilitate this initiative, use the attached template to send your application to yuvamsp@yuvaunstoppable.org by 20^th Aug 2010.

Regards,

MSP India Team

You can find the application in your @student-partners.com mailbox.

In case you havn’t received it yet, you can download the form here (skydrive), fill it up and mail it back to:

yuvamsp@yuvaunstoppable.org and studpart@microsoft.com

with “Yuva Unstoppable – Microsoft Digital Literacy initiative” (without quotes) in the subject line.

Hope you have an amazing journey with us.

Know your real competitors

Often when talking to a new client we’ll ask them to identify five of their most direct competitors.

The truth is we already know the answer. We’ve done our research, now we want to see if they’ve done theirs.

It always surprises me when business owners don’t have a firm grasp on who their competitors really are. It’s a lot harder to compete when you start playing on the wrong field.

Your competitors are who your customers would give their sale to if you weren’t around. That means you may have different competitors now that you’re online and not just a brick and mortar. It also means that just because YOU think you’re competing with Amazon, doesn’t mean you really are if your customers wouldn’t put you two together. That may not be how THEY see you. That’s what you need to know and understand- who do your customers think you’re competing with?

Know your ‘other’ competitors

Your other competitors are the ones you create yourself. They are the things/people/sites that take you away from your business and eat your time.

It’s Twitter. It’s Facebook. It’s industry drama. It’s the ringing phone and the binging email. It’s your self-doubt. It’s your sending five emails to get approval you didn’t need. It’s the really good show on TV. It’s your woulda, coulda, shoulda. It’s your fear of being successful.

These are all competitors to your business. Know that they exist and then work to keep them under control.

Know your team

Very few people survive on the Web alone. Instead, they surround themselves with a team of people, with each player attaching more value.

Knowing and being able to rely on your team helps you to compete better and gives you allies you can go to when you need someone to help you make a play. It also gives you people you know you can trust. That tends to be important in business and on the Web.

Know, for certain, who is on your team and who is simply lingering by the benches looking for information or to dethrone you.

I know that I’ve benefited from creating a strong Web team. I have the people I work with on a daily basis (Rae, Rhea, and Dawn), but I also have the people I can run side plays when one of us needs a push or if someone’s having a hard time moving the ball down the line.

I know certain bloggers I can call up when things get dry and we want to cause some trouble. I know who to go to for assistance on a big play. And I know who has my back when I need someone to fill in.

Building yourself a Web team helps you support what your business is doing

Know your strengths

My strength in sports was always my speed. I was simply head and shoulders faster than anyone near me and, because of that, I could help make things happen even if I didn’t have the best aim when kicking a ball.

In business, my strength comes from my words. I use them to create impact.

When we started Outspoken Media in a recession (it’s a good story) we trusted it because Rhea, Rae and myself all knew our individual strengths and we knew how those strengths could be used together to kick ass as a team. And to date, we’ve been right.

As a business and as an individual, you should know your strengths and create your strategy around them. There are certain things about you that make you uniquely qualified to do what you do (and if not, maybe you should be doing something else). That’s your point of difference, it’s your secret weapon, and it’s what you should be using to compete.

Make note of your strengths and figure out how they can be incorporated into your business.

Know when to make a play

Business is sport, but it shouldn’t be a war. That means knowing the right time to make a play and when to sit out and save everyone from the bloodbath.

Taking every shot that comes your way is going to drain resources, exhaust you and probably make you look a little desperate. While keeping your eyes open, listening and knowing when to strike is going to help you capitalize when opportunities expose themselves.

Make a play when a competitor has opened a door, when there’s a chance to create leadership through action or when you’re following a noble purpose. Sit out when you risk burning a bridge, damaging your brand, and when “winning” won’t aid your long term objectives.  Learn to tell the difference.

Seventeen months into Outspoken Media, I’m still learning how to be a confident businesswoman and entrepreneur.  But one thing I’ve already learned how to do is smell blood and compete.  I can sum up my competitors, anticipate their moves, and I refuse to let anyone get the better of me.  It drives me to be better, to always be on, and to strike when I feel it in my gut.

You, the diverse crowd coupled with enthusiasm made it an amazing experience.

Also embedded below is the presentation itself (as i promised… )

I am starting this thread specially for your feedback, queries, love, hate (!) or to share anything you have in your mind.

Feel free to freely comment

Forget everything you know about Windows Mobile. Seriously, throw the whole OS concept in a garbage bin or incinerator or something. Microsoft has done what would have been unthinkable for the company just a few years ago: started from scratch. At least, that’s how things look (and feel) with Windows Phone 7 Series. This really is a completely new OS — and not just Microsoft’s new OS, it’s a new smartphone OS, like webOS new, like iPhone OS new. You haven’t used an interface like this before (well, okay, if you’ve used a Zune HD then you’ve kind of used an interface like this). Still, 7 Series goes wider and deeper than the Zune by a longshot, and it’s got some pretty intense ideas about how you’re supposed to be interacting with a mobile device. We had a chance to go hands-on with the dev phone before today’s announcement, and hear from some of the people behind the devices, and here’s our takeaway. (And don’t worry, we’ve got loads of pictures and video coming, so keep checking this post for the freshest updates).

First the look and feel. The phones are really secondary here, and we want to focus on the interface. The design and layout of 7 Series’ UI (internally called Metro) is really quite original, utilizing what one of the designers (formerly of Nike) calls an “authentically digital” and “chromeless” experience. What does that mean? Well we can tell you what it doesn’t mean — no shaded icons, no faux 3D or drop shadows, no busy backgrounds (no backgrounds at all), and very little visual flair besides clean typography and transition animations. The whole look is strangely reminiscent of a terminal display (maybe Microsoft is recalling its DOS roots here) — almost Tron-like in its primary color simplicity. To us, it’s rather exciting. This OS looks nothing like anything else on the market, and we think that’s to its advantage. Admittedly, we could stand for a little more information available within single views, and we have yet to see how the phone will handle things like notifications, but the design of the interface is definitely in a class of its own. Here’s a few takeaways on what it’s like to use…

Start screen: the Start experience is completely revamped, now focusing on sets of tiles which represent links to applications or contacts. It’s a completely contextual experience which can be customized both by users and carriers, and allows people to “promote” items higher up in the list. To the right of this screen is a long, vertical list of all your apps for quick jumps. It will take some time getting used to this layout; one or two tiles per line, and that long list which goes up and down rather than left and right, but honestly — this does have some advantages. Things seems less out of reach in this configuration, and Microsoft swears that they’ll be working closely with developers to build widgets that make use of the concept.

General phone navigation: If you’ve used the Zune HD, you know what this is like. Lots of bold text on the device, lists with text cut off on the sides of the phone, and additional screens to the left and right driven by arrows pointing you in either direction. For the most part this works, though in instances like email, it feels like there’s a bit of wasted space. Everything else is super stripped down — the calendar app looks like vector line art, the browser seems to be using the bare minimum to show its content (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), and the phone application is essentially monochromatic. On the other hand, you’ve got a beautiful and robust photo app (with pinch to zoom, as in the browser), and the Zune experience is perfectly integrated… but what did you expect?

[Via: TheOatmeal.com]

The key to successfully building these types of applications is to achieve a decoupled or very loosely coupled design. Loosely coupled applications are more flexible and easier to maintain. They are also easier to test during development. You can mock up shims (lightweight mock implementations) of objects that have strong concrete dependencies, such as database connections, network connections, enterprise resource planning (ERP) connections, and rich user interface components.

Dependency injection is a prime technique for building loosely coupled applications. It provides ways to handle the dependencies between objects. For example, an object that processes customer information may depend on other objects that access the data store, validate the information, and check that the user is authorized to perform updates. Dependency injection techniques can ensure that the customer class correctly instantiates and populates all these objects, especially where the dependencies may be abstract.

Read More At MSDN

The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation:

Boy: “Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn?

Woman: (at the other end of the phone line) “I already
have someone to cut my lawn.”

Boy: “Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price than the
person who cuts your lawn now.”

Woman: I’m very satisfied with the person who is presently cutting
my lawn.

Boy: (with more perseverance) “Lady, I’ll even sweep the floor and the stairs of your house for free.

Woman: No, thank you.

With a smile on his face, the little boy
replaced the receiver.

The store-owner, who was listening to all
this, walked over to the boy.

Store Owner: “Son…. I like your attitude; I like that
positive spirit and would like to offer you a job.”

Boy: “No thanks,

Store Owner: But you were really pleading for one.

Boy: No Sir, I was just checking my performance at the job I already
have. I am the one who is working for that lady I was talking to!”

This is called “Self Appraisal”

(via Juned Munshi)