Institute For The Future

Social currencies, India, Mumbai, Kumar, 12/20/2008

KK at his Andheri West home

Family context

Krishna Kumar is 35 and goes by the moniker "KK" (even his son is supposed to cal him that). He works in business development at mKhoj, a mobile ad network. He’s been in either sales or biz dev for many years – at rediff, Microsoft and other places before switching jobs recently.  He lives with his wife and 4-year old son in Andheri.  We visited him at his home for part of the interview and met his family.

KK’s wife used to work as a digital animator, before the kid was born. Now she’s planning to get back into animation, possibly starting her own business.

Domain context

KK is a consummate social networker. He spent the first part of our interview getting our contact information and backgrounds. He spends a bunch on time on SNS, particularly linkedin(500+ connections) and recently facebook (300 connections). What distinguishes KK’s use of SNS from others’ is the systematic fashion in which he attempts to establish contacts with people who are “accomplished, successful” and in “positions of power”.  He is a driven individual, very goal-oriented, and traces his ability and motivation to gain social capital to parents and grandparents that did the same thing in traditional networks and gained power and respect because of it.

He was brought up in Chennai, worked in Delhi, and has lived in Bombay for the last 6 years. He views Bombay as more professional and less prone to displays of social status , particularly with respect to Delhi. He doesn’t own a car, though he could afford one; he recalls times in Delhi when people would walk you to the door just to see what car you’d driven up in.

The most instructive parts of our conversation revolved around how KK selects and engages the people he wants to network with, what value he derives from those connections, and how he indicates his own value to both potential and ongoing  connections.

General insights

There are two different categories of people KK actively networks with. One is the prominent, successful individual that he has “no immediate need of” and likely has not met yet, but he often tries to connect with them (e.g, Jimmy Wales ) through LinkedIn./ FB. The other category is “professional peers” like people from StarTV that he connects with in this role as business developer for mKhoj – those he contacts through email, sometimes getting introductions brokered through SNS.

He views this ability to connect with people as a democratization of social connection. Information and social connection channels are now more freely available to everyone; thus one can build up a network. He is proud of his network , both online and offline – he is a member of a regional group (rajashtani mandal) , though not very active, and attends Mobile Mondays – a mobile-related discussion meetup.

Online, when he updates his facebook status or sends out stuff on linkedin, it is usually articles which he has read and he thinks will be of value to others. Thus, he seeks to establish himself as someone with authority – when KK sends you stuff, it is likely to be relevant and valuable.

In order to do this kind of networking, KK identifies a “social animal gene” – something that makes people accrue social capital via reaching out to and helping others. He recalls how his grandmom used to take him to ram leela (religious festivals) and how watching her social influence was a major factor. In school he participated in performing arts, took up leadership roles, and in general tried to establish himself high on the social ladder.

His first brush with email was in 1999 when a friend set up a hotmail account for him in order to look for jobs. Linkedin and facebook followed, He got into a routine of arriving one hour early at the office when his wife was pregnant to get onto linkedin.. his office mates made fun of him for that, but he stuck with it. When looking for people to “friend” on SNS, he always first checks their educational institution or affiliation. He thinks of chat as distracting “im not a multitasker” and doesn’t even like responding to tons of emails , but likes facebook chat as another means to deepen a relationship. That way, when he needs to call on someone for help or an introduction, he has a better base to build on. Not all the famous people he contacts get back to him; but in many cases, there are people who know him an appreciate him for the articles he sends, but may not recognize him in real life.

KK’s use of SNS is mostly professional – he doesn’t like it when people put up content that is “too emotional [like] vomiting your feelings”. When he is communicating online, he is not projecting a particular status or identity so much as following a code of decorum and extending help / information to others, with an expectation of eventual reciprocation if needed.

KK’s mobile phone is the most important device for him; being in biz dev, he spends a lot of time on the road, selling people on the proposition of mobile ads and monetization. His office is in Vile Parle (mostly sales) with a dev team in Bangalore. When he was with Microsoft, he had a windows mobile device that he used for email, news, calendar and facebook; he now has a blackberry. He also has a couple of MP3 players – at his home he’s hooked on up to a speaker system and plays devotional music in the mornings.

In terms of media consumption, KK says he is “an information buff, not an entertainment buff”. He doesn’t have a television; he is planning to move soon and get a home theater system but “no cable, just educational movies for me and my kid”. For someone who “[desires] to be seen as a authority in [his field]”, KK is not very status conscious in the real world. A lot of his media devices, like his phones, music players and handycam were gifts; the only time he felt his phone was outdated was when he briefly had to use a basic nokia phone and felt that didn’t suit his role as a mobile ad executive.

Sharing informational content is the cornerstone of KK’s online social strategy. In this he is acting as a filter. Offline, too, eg in the mobile Mondays meetings “ I generally have something interesting to say”. He will connect with unknown people online if they approach him with a recognition of this kind of value. KK is a big believer in the power of weak ties.

KK keeps track of social personal and financial goals in a word doc / spreadsheet that he prints out.. he tried using 43things but didn’t find the whole social motivation thing useful. He views motivation as more of an individual thing.

Losing his father-in-law to cancer has spurred an interest in the Tata cancer institute and in becoming more well-informed about the disease. Consistent with his general orientation of reaching out and offering help to people he wants to become more involved with cancer patients.

As a person who often looks for / initiates connections online, he is interested in a service which would aggregate all publicly available information about a person and present it in a search result.

KK's life online is largely separate from his family life; his wife is not on any SNS services.

Trends

The cost and availability of wifi is a big stumbling block. Hotel wifi rates are ridiculous,[wifi is not commonly available in cafes etc.]. 3g, VOIP on phones big areas of interest.

Basic human needs for connection remain the same. But technology is viewed as democratizing via making information available to public in a freer manner.

Along with wider information access, there is a concern about user-generated content and how to ensure quality and credibility. KK has built up his own credibility over years by remaining consistently informative and following the self-imposed “decorum” of being “mature and professional” in his online activities.