Xclusive Interview with Dr.Tarique Sani March 19, 2007
Posted by srinix in FLOSS, India 2.0, Linux/FOSS, MySQL, Open Source, PHP, Start-ups.add a comment
In our recent post about SANIsoft Technologies, we have promised to get you the exclusive interview with Dr.Tarique Sani and here we go….
Storm: Sharing knowledge with your peers might be the only way to stay in business…..said by CEO Swati of SANisoft” How do you explain this to startups ???
Dr.Tarique: May be my CEO can explain it better 
{Swati Sani ,CEO, wife of Dr.Tariuqe Sani}
Okay, Ants! If you look at the natural history of Earth ants have survived the longest without much change. As everyone knows that ants are incredibly evolved as a co-operative.
Translating this for early stage startups would be a bit difficult because the “blaze of glory” syndrome attitude which inflicts most in the beginning. In my opinion, the key for service oriented startups is that market is large enough to accommodate several players so sharing knowledge is unlikely to harm your present clientèle and it is more likely that you will gain more than what you already know.
I am of the firm belief that whatever I am doing right now there are several people much smarter than me out there doing the same and at least some of them want to let me know that they are smarter and not necessarily in a “rubbing it in” manner.
Storm: Same extended to open source business model??
Dr.Tarique: This one is simpler to explain – Open Source exists because of sharing, sharing enables showcasing, showcasing gets you clients.
Storm: You cater to wide variety of clientele … is that with the same model??? Technology and business??
Dr.Tarique: Yes! All our current clients are those which either used or saw some open code written by us or were helped in some way by our code or posts to the forums or mailing list.
It is not that we do not market our services but by grace of open source we are not required to hard-sell ourselves in the conventional sense.
Storm: Indian Foss has a long way to go… how do u see the road map coming years.. With so many service industries taking away the talents mine??
Dr.Tarique: Indian FOSS has a long way to go but then it has come a long way as well. I don’t really have the capability of a FOSS soothsayer but going by the past trend I would say FOSS is here to stay and grow.
Service industries were always there and they will be there always – Here I would specifically like to say that to contribute to FOSS it is not at all necessary that you do it while you are at work and the excuse that there is hardly any time left after work is pretty lame as well.
Storm: CopperMine Photo gallery has caught enough fire!! Can u tell us your about CopperMine, how it started? Concept?
Dr.Tarique: With 3 million+ downloads I am sure everyone will agree with the fire part.
Though I am the lead developer on Coppermine I am not the creator. The earliest version of Coppermine was created by Gregory Demar who for various personal reasons abandoned it.
I personally got into developing Coppermine because it scratched an “itch” – I wanted a nice looking picture gallery which used MySQL instead of flatfiles for data storage. There were several features missing which I coded and gave it over to a then small community. A few more people and several more iterations of similar itches and here we are…
Storm: About your journey of SANIsoft so far?
Dr.Tarique: Tough, at times very tough but incredibly exciting. We have never had a dull day in past 9 years.
Storm: Coppermine announces the ” Google Summer Code 2007 ” why are you aiming student fraternity?
Dr.Tarique: Simple – Catch them young and they will be faithful forever, we need more faithful in the flock.
Storm: Finally, any message to wanna-be-entrepreneurs?
Dr.Tarique: Surviving is more important than monopolizing.
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Special thanks to Dr.Tarique Sani for giving his valuable time.
For rest all of you Techies, just stay tuned, we are going to bring you more of Xclusive series of interviews and talks.
Showcase : SANIsoft Technologies March 15, 2007
Posted by srinix in AJAX, FLOSS, General, India 2.0, Linux/FOSS, MySQL, Open Source, PHP, Start-ups, WebSTorm, web 2.0.add a comment
Rare are the companies who contribute, get recognized and grow as a trusted brand.
SANIsoft Technologies is one of those rare identities.
Think of the word “SANI” and all coffee-fueled coders will think of the man who is well-known and respected in accelerating and contributing to PHP, Dr.Tarique Sani.
SANIsoft Technologies specializes in developing large, mission-critical e-biz applications which includes a big clientele. Knowingly or unknowingly you must have used either of these or atleast heard of these Open Source projects
* Coppermine Gallery
* CheeseCake PhotoBlog * WAPpop
* PHPZipLocator
Yes, all these are the babies of SANIsoft Technologies.
People Behind it:
Dr.Tarique Sani: Needs no introduction!!! Still you are curious enough read it here
Swati Sani: She spearheads the business development and administration at SANIsoft.
Concept:
Adopting Open Source business model helps in many aspects of business but above all personal satisfaction of being part of a much better world.
The logic behind SANIsoft seems pretty simple. Contribute, Collaborate and grow.
We are bringing an Exclusive interview with Dr.Tarique Sani, he will be discussing about Open Source business model, guiding start-ups, and ofcourse about CopperMine Gallery!!!!
Stay Tuned for some real action
iNews: Intel buys into Bangalore based Comat for $4 million March 13, 2007
Posted by srinix in India 2.0, Start-ups, Technology Companies, WebSTorm, iNews.1 comment so far
In a remarkable series of events, Intel buys into Bangalore based Comat for $4 million.
Comat Technologies provides business solutions and services for Government, Healthcare and Legal streams.
Intel has taken up marginal stake in Comat which is a pure sign of Intel investing in e-governance service space.
Intel is believed to invest $4 million in the deal and which only boost up Comat to be a market leader in e-government service sector.
The company executives have confirmed the news of Intel investing in their venture.
Comat already have some of the key projects operating and has partnered some of the best providers and promoters as well.
Courtesy: SillionIndia.com
http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/35203
Pageflakes:Netvibes Competitor?? March 13, 2007
Posted by pv in AJAX, Pageflakes, Start-ups, Technology Companies, WebSTorm, web 2.0.2 comments
Pageflakes is an Ajax-based start page.The site is organized into tabs, each tab containing user-selected modules called Flakes containing information such as RSS/Atom feeds, Calendar, Notes, Web search,weather forecast, del.icio.us bookmarks, flickr photos and user-created modules.You can choose to share a certain page with invited visitors or the world.Any number of pages can be added.It offers a scrollable view.Also the layout of each page is customizable.
You can add feeds,flakes to your page.Feeds based on Several categories are available.Pageflakes is one of a few sites that put RSS feeds, YouTube videos, web search, a to-do list and other modules in one place.You can also add your own feed.
Is the Flakes editable?
Yes, ofcourse.If you are adding Pageflakes News in your page,you are free to mention how many number of posts should appear,whether tooltip and description about the post is required or not.In the case of Flickr flake,you can view,the photos by giving the tag name or the most recent or intersting one.Single picture or 9 pictures can be viewed at a time.
May i know the upcoming events in my city?
Yes,you can also know the upcoming events in your city by giving your Zipcode(US only).Even here you can specify the number of events to be diplayed per page.
Email configuration:
You can also configure your email account.It supports several account types.
Search Offered:
Google search.
People behind it:
Dan Cohen, CEO -Prior to Pageflakes he was the head of My Yahoo!, Yahoo’s personalized homepage, and before that led product management for personalized products at Google, including the Google Personalized Homepage.
Christoph Janz, CPO-Back in 1997, Christoph co-founded German Internet startup DealPilot.com, one of the first comparison shopping services which got funded by Bertelsmann and has later been acquired by Shopping.com.
Omar AL Zabir, CTO-He developed projects for companies like HP, Bank of America, Citibank and other companies in the US, Australia, Germany and Bangladesh
Ole Brandenburg, CMO-He held marketing positions for several other Internet companies including Jamba, which he co-founded, Dooyoo and myBet.
Uday Walia, CIO-He was co-founder and CTO of GetSmart, JobFlash and Done.com, three VC-funded Bay Area startups. Prior to that, Uday held executive and managerial positions with at Wells Fargo Bank and Nortel.
Storm Analysis:
In the startpage market, the independent companies seems to be innovating much faster than the grown ups.So, could Google or Microsoft be interested in acquiring a startpage, despite having their own products ?
Showcasing : Guruji.com March 13, 2007
Posted by srinix in AJAX, Guruji, India 2.0, Javascript, Sequoia Capital, Start-ups, WebSTorm, web 2.0.5 comments
What a beautiful thinking…..why not we have an Indian Search Engine specific to enhance the Indian user experience? You still wondering whether we have one or not?
Guruji.com is the Indian Google. 
Guruji.com helps Indian searchers look for specific Indian content on web ranging from people to cities to hotels and of course, anything and everything of India in one go.
When you visit the site for the first time, you get the feel of Google.
But this “Search Hai Hindustani”
So whats sooo kool about Guruji?
–Offering in Indian languages. Now, Grandpa and Grandma can use Guruji. Guruji is currently offering in Hindi, Kannada and Telugu.
–Since, Guruji is in beta stage; the good thing we liked is that they care for user. They want to keep improving by taking feedbacks from the user experience.
–Its covering a number of Indian cities which includes Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Indore and many more.
– Its not only Search but searching almost everything an Indian user would need.
–Web 2.0 lovers destination as well
Click to enlarge and visit the url!!!
People Behind it
Anurag Dod, CEO, Alumnus IIT-Delhi
Gaurav Mishra, COO, Alumnus IIT-Delhi
Suvir Sujan, Need we say more? Okay, co-founder of Bazee.com
Groups Behind the venture
Great ideas need more of mentoring than capital. But it would be great if one can get a combination of both.
Sequoia Capital India: Yes, these the people behind the success stories of Google, Apple, Cisco etc providing mentoring and capital.
Storm Analysis:
Search has always been a crowded market and we have seen enough changes in the way search is done. There are enough of global players like Google, Yahoo!, Ask etc.
Search has a new face in near future; currently the indexing is done using text. What about brining video or audio indexing?
But, Guruji seems good at beta stage. But needs to take constant user feedback to improve the results. Storm team liked the concept of Guruji’s Gyaan; A perfect piece, guess even Google is missing this. A good move from Guruji.
Long way to go for Guruji.
Technorati Tags:
Guruji 
WebStorm 
Web 2.0
India 2.0 
Start-ups 
Sequoia Capital
WebStorm kickstarts by showcasing Desicrew Solutions. March 12, 2007
Posted by srinix in Desicrew, IIT-Madras, India 2.0, Start-ups, TeNet Group, WebSTorm, web 2.0.1 comment so far
WebStorm kickstarts by showcasing Desicrew Solutions.
About Desicrew
Desicrew Solutions is unique BPO initiative that provides high volume data services at an affordable cost from rural areas across India. Using knowledge enhancement and technology,
Desicrew’s central team based in Chennai manages training of rural workforce, distribution and monitoring of work, quality control and client interaction. It builds capacity in villages, creates the right systems and networks for remote operations and ensures highest level of professionalism and quality standards.
Concept behind Desicrew
Business Process Outsourcing has been a buzz word and has helped organizations in providing and managing an organization’s critical and/or non-critical enterprise processes and applications. Some of the most common and successful examples are Call Centers, Human Resources, Payroll, Data-Entry, Digitization etc.
In India, BPO is a blessed boom which is adding up lot of employment opportunities due to availability of immense talent, resources and geographical location. Currently BPO’s are flourishing in developed cities or urban areas. Why not we take it into deeper roots? Why not we make use of the rural youth and their potential?
Desicrew is an initiative which fulfills this dream.
People Behind Desicrew
Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, prof Electrical Engineering, IIT-Madras
Saloni Malhotra, Head of Operations, Desicrew
Dr. Arti Kawlra, Consultant TeNet group
Groups Behind the venture
TeNet group is a country’s leading technology group, which has brought into life many successful companies, all with a common aim to make technology transform lives of common man.
IIT-Madras needs no introduction when it comes to world-class research and development, especially in encouraging entrepreneurship by giving the world-class education and giving world thought leaders and visionaries.
N-logue Communications, an incubator company in IIT-Madras developing next-gen products and applications in the telecommunication domain.
Storm Analysis:
WebStorm team has reviewed and discussed with Saloni, the chief of Desicrew. Desicrew is first of its kind venture which has a vision to penetrate deep and create more employment opportunities and utilizing the rural potential.
Desicrew is all set to bridge the digital divide between Technology and common man.
WebStorm analyzed that Desicrew holds responsibility to provide the best-of-the-breed quality standards, which shows the commitment of the people behind the venture.
Your Contribution
If you know of any organization interested in joining hands with Desicrew please drop us a mail we will bring you in touch with Desicrew team.
Tell us know your feedback/what you think through comments.
Technorati Tags:
DesicrewStart-ups
India 2.0
IIT-Madraswebstorm
WebStorm :- Model, Features and Behind the curtains!!! March 10, 2007
Posted by webstorm in General, Start-ups, WebSTorm.add a comment
Wondering what WebStorm will have for you?
Okay, here I give you a sneak-peek of what we have in store for all you beautiful people.
WebStorm will have some special sections and categories like “Showcase”, “Featured”, “What’s Hot”, and “What’s Bluff”, “Mento” etc.
Showcase: This section will be exclusively for the start-ups. We will detail about the founders, investors (if any) and above all their products. In short start-ups unplugged.
Featured: This particular section will highlight one product/company per week which our team will survey based on various parameters.
What’s Hot: This section will be hotter than its name. Will dig the best of markets to find out what’s hot and happening.
What’s Next: Thanks to our Researchers and Academia for developing the next generation products, technologies and making our life simpler.
Mento: A good idea doesn’t need much money, but a good mentoring. We cover all the action on the investors, VC’s and their mentoring front.
Confo: This section will keep you updated about the conferences happening around the world. Be it Demo.com or Proto or Ruby Conf …we will serve you hot!!! Stay Stuned…..
Team WebStorm is fully committed to reduce the gap between the companies, investors and their customers.
Keep watching this space for some real action.
Cheers
