Wireless Utopia

Like me, are you having a BCB hangover? Dont worry, help is at hand. We have announced the MoMo Bangalore April event. Its about innovation in future mobile services and the speaker is Ashish Thomas of SingTel. The demo is from our own MyDuniya team. This looks to be a promising event. So please sign up for it now.

Tags: momobangalore, momo, mobile, india

Warning: This is a very passionate post.

This post is a direct response to Vijay "PROTO.IN" Anand's post. Its a "howto" on Barcamps. In one sentence "impose some rules". Which begs the question: why?

I have been an avid barcamper. Starting from BCB1 to BCB6. I skipped BCB5 since I got thrashed by the un-organizers on when I suggested that collectives dont work. It pissed me off big time. But BCB6 went back to its original roots. The good old paper wiki and a better second day crowd. And damn.. i loved it. There was this session conducted by our own Prof. Suresh, on Startup Pains. He asked for a show of hand on how many people wanted to startoff on their own. Allmost all the hands in the room went up. And mind you, people were standing and sitting on the stairs. The energy there was incredible.

I loved the in feeling there. So you are a CEO. So what? So you are a hot chick. So what? So you are a avid barcamper. So fucking what? You do not deserve a t-shirt or a mug if you have attended all the rest of them. You are just as good as others.

Who makes rules in barcamps? Who has the right to do it? If you are an organizer, or as my good friend Werner says it, "organ-raiser", can you impose rules? I dont think so. Barcamp is like the linux kernel. To borrow Greg Korah Hartman's words, its not intelligent design: its evolution.

So beware. Stay away from those Barcamps which impose rules on you. You are the barcamper. You decide whats going to happen. Not some moron who's intent is to make the world more friendlier.

Tags: barcamp, barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6, bcb6

I conducted a session on VoIP in India at BCB6. The focus was the legality of VoIP in India and what can be done about it. VoIP is regulated in India and interconnections between a VoIP network and lanline/mobile network is not allowed. The primary reason is to protect the monopoly on International termination fees/rates. The security issue is more of an excuse than a real reason.

The end result is that we as consumers lose out. We are not allowed the benifits of VoIP: lower tarrif, more services etc. And cannot create businesses around it. Any VoIP startup in India ultimately runs into the wall of legality in India. And VoIP is one of the hottest technologies out there today. It is disrupting the Telco business model and we cannot participate in it.

India is still in the stone age as far as VoIP is concerned. Our economy is growing fast and we are supposed to overtake US by 2050. If we do not sit up and take notice, then the status quo will remain. Join our discussion group and tell everyone that you know about it.

There's a new VoIP kid on the block: Toktumi. I have been using it since it came out of private beta few weeks back. To put it in easy terms, its Skype + a free SkypeIn number + free voicemail. There's something similar to SkypeOut as well but the pricing is more like a monthly rental + call charges. The call charges are not laid out (5cents to most phones) so a side by side comparison cannot be done. But it should be competitive, given the state of VoIP minutes market. Whats more, it provides a USB adapter to which you can connect your normal phone to.

Their system is differs significantly from Skype though. The website claims that its P2P PBX which sounds like a bunch of Asterisk servers which are peered together on the internet for load balancing. Looks like that the PC is not invovled in routing other's traffic through your system. Contrast that to Skype where any PC can become a super node if its in a good bandwidth environment. The other thing about this approach is that QoS can be monitored closely. Which eventually improves the call quality. The approach certainly has mertis on its own. But can it be cost effective is the question.

The soft client is breeze to install and use. The interface is more traditional compared to Skype which is more IM'ish. After using it for a few weeks, it found some annoyances about it though. For example, it does not startup minimized: you have to close it and then click ok on the message box which pops up. Another feature lacking is that there's no way to set the ringer to your PC's speaker. So if you are using a headset and a call come's in, you are in a bit of trouble if you are not on your PC.

So can it really take on Skype? Skype is superstar of VoIP services today. It has been going through a bad patch recently, with troubles at the top. But a little competition in this market would not do any harm. As the founder of Toktumi, Peter Sission says on his blog, entrepreneurs can still challenge Skype. It remains to be seen whether Toktumi can be as viral a hit as Skype was. But I would still recommend this service. Especially if you are small buiness owner or working out of home. Or if you are looking for a free US number as me. :)

Tags: Toktumi, Skype, VoIP, Asterisk.

A video tutorial on howto record Skype calls using Call Graph.



You can download the application from here.

http://www.callgraph.in

Its completely free and without any restrictions. Happy recording!

Tags: CallGraph, Skype, Beta Software, Howto, Tutorial.

I recently took off to Goa for a break. I was visiting after a gap of two years and was alone this time around. Here're some notes I made during the trip.

Twitter is definitely a great tool for lonely travelers. Here's my archive. I used it throughout the trip to post updates. The only thing it lacked was a easy way to upload your photos directly from the phone. Would have been great! Still I could not figure out why its the hottest thing right now in the valley. Maybe because its one way traffic for me. With more friends following and more interaction, I can see the point.

The GPRS service worked flawlessly through out. I used Airtel Mobile Office. The last time I was in Goa, Airtel did not have its own network. It used Idea's network there. And the SMS's I sent to activate the service would not reach Airtel since I was roaming. This time it just worked. It was slow and painful, but it worked. Even in the beach shacks. And into the sea. I was missing my Nokia Tablet. Would have been perfect for the trip.

The surprising thing was that GPRS never broke down on the road! I took a bus (KSRTC Volvo) and I was checking my mails from some obscure places deep in South India. Gives you a kick when you can do that. And speaks volumes on how the mobile operators are moving aggressively into the rural areas in India. Good job Airtel!

Another interesting this was the availability of Cell Id everywhere. It kind of gave me an sense of where I was on the road. And I had an eureka moment. How about a mashup between Google Maps and an mobile app which records the Cell Id as you go along. I would be able to trace the route of the journey which I'd really like to because the bus made the trip in 14 hours flat (fastest ever in all my 5 trips till date) and I want to know the route. It would also be able to tell me how far I am from the destination next time around. And it would also record which places I had been to during my trip which again would be a nice thing to show off to my friends. Better still have a Facebook app for it, spam your friends with it and get back at them for ditching me. :) Would be a nice weekend hacking project. Anyone up for it?

I am really glad that I have integrated all my mail id's (around 5 in total) into Gmail with mail fetcher. It was a lifesaver. The J2ME app for GMail worked flawlessly I was able to check all my accounts at one place. Thank you Google.

Goa is still a very cheap deal. For a comparison a KF pint is for 40 bucks. So is Old Monk quarter. The food in the shacks is just great, especially the sea food. Reasonably priced. The Condolim, Calangute, Baga stretch must have over 200 beach shacks. So lots of choice.

Surprisingly I saw very few iPod's or iPhones in Goa. Most of the tourists in Goa were European. But still no iPods at all. Forget about laptops. Did not sight a single one. Maybe because of complete lack of WiFi hotspots. But this time I did find a place which offers WiFi. Its called The Indian Kitchen (98221 49615), off Calangute Baga Road. Five minutes walk from the beach and not very expensive. They had a broadband connection and charges were Rs. 100 per day for WiFi. So thats where I'm gonna stay the next time. :)

Finally, the KSRTC Volvo bus service rocks! I recommend it highly.

The only thing I did in there was drink, eat and sleep. In that order. And man, it was soooo good. Its the best place to unwind and relax.

Tags: Goa, Wireless, Travel

A shameless plug to promote our product Call Graph :)

We have just released Call Graph. It is a simple call recorder for Skype. It records your calls into an mp3 file and indexes them for search. The best part: its completely free. You can record for any amount of time, SkypeIn calls, SkypeOut calls. But its beta right now, so expect a few problems. But if you like it please recommend it to your friends and fellow Skypers! Its pretty simplistic right now but w are going to add a lot more features to it soon. So download it now.



On the personal side, this scores a couple of firsts for me. My app which I have distributed, my first website (although simple html + css + php, i still like it!) and obviously the first product to be released as part of Sedna Wireless (though not our primary product). Something to show at last :).

So give it a spin and let us know what you think of it!

Update: Here's the code for the badge if you want to put it up on your site.

<br /><a href="http://www.callgraph.in/startdownload.php"><img src="http://www.callgraph.in/images/badge.png" border="0" /></a><br />

Tags: CallGraph, Skype, Call Recording.

Is there a startup in India which is doing something which simply blows you away? We once asked ourselves this question but unfortunately we came up with nothing. But if you just broaden the horizon and look at established enterprises, the you do see some amazing stuff being done. Obviously the Tata's One Lakh Car is one such project. The coverage it has been getting in MSM is amazing: Digg, Slashdot, IHT, BBC, CNN, you name it.

One which caught my eye was this one. To quote the article.

Overnight, my canteen manager Sitaram-ji, my driver's elderly father who is a retired army man, my grocery supplier Mr Arora, and all such nice people with decent but limited income can start dreaming.

That's wow! Really!

This is the wow factor. A giant leap rather than an incremental improvement. Something which touches the life of the "common man". Solves a problem, elicits a "wow" from them. That is the market we have. The "common man" market. And its here. Its ready.

We entrepreneurs have lot to learn and a long way to go.

Tags: Entrepreneurship, Startups, Tata, Nano.

So you are a startup in India looking to launch your product, generate a buzz for it and get some visibility. Then look no further than Headstart, a new event in Bangalore hopes to do all that for you. It is an attempt to showcase the best of products to the industry. You might find partners or early adopters for your product along with a good exposure to the investor community. The idea is to bring the innovators and the consumers on a single platform and create opportunities for both.

Proto was the first such event to come up in India to a very positive response. The unfortunate part is that both these events are on the same dates this time around. So companies are forced to choose between these two events. Thats the tough part. But more and more such events cropping up is a good sign for product entrepreneurship in India. Things have never been better.

Tags: Headstart, DEMO, Proto, Bangalore.

I have been a huge fan of OLPC. It's one of those revolutionary things which promises to change the lives of millions. I have blogged about it previously here, here, here and here. The criticisms kind of reminds you of Thomas J Watson's statement that there is a market of 5 PC's worldwide! New technologies always create controversy. OLPC just happens to be one of those ideas. After pooh phooing the concept both Intel and MS are trying their best to outmarket them now. That in itself validates this concept.

But as this story by BBC points out, the politicians are the last ones to approach if you are working on something which changes the status quo. Change is risk. And risk is the last thing they want to court. So it seems that they are changing their approach as per this report. Instead of talking the governments they are approaching HWNI's and other charities. They recently launched the buy one give one free program and it has generated orders for around 90.000 laptops. Which is a very good number in itself.

I for one would love to get my hands on it. It seems that the India team is doing a good job of it as well. The smiles tell the whole story dont they. I am actively seeking their contact. Would love to invite them to MoMo and hear about their experiences. So if you happen to know them, pls. contact drop in a line.

Harsha Bhogle's podcast.

If you love cricket and care about it, dont miss this. I am amazed at what this guy has achieved. Truly inspirational.

Few quotes.

When you are earning a lot, when you had too many possibilities in front of you, then you got more to loose. And actually you start to take fewer risks. Because what you have is very comfortable.

- On the young guns.

And you can never let the viewer down. Because the viewer is doing you a favor by switching it on. You're not doing the the favor by saying listen, you must be hallow because I'm in thy presence.

- On viewers.

I know the answer but I am getting it from a quality resource.

- On Geoff Boycott

The Australian cricket board is about cricket. The Indian Cricket board is about finance.

- On BCCI

Tendulkar comes once in a lifetime.

- On Sachin Tendulkar.

I dont go to watch cricket matches in India. I feel the shame. I think its a disgrace to our cricket lovers who fund the game, that we put them up in such sub human conditions, its a disgrace.
...
Its an absolute disgrace the way we treat our spectators. And the reason is we dont care for them, absolute disgrace. Money itself is not a disgrace, but obsession with money is a disgrace.

- On stadium facilities in India.

I think he just buried his ego and played for his side. When he was a part of four bowlers his job was to run into the wind. And because he ran into the wind the others could bowl into the wind behind him.

- On Courtney Walsh.

Nobody, nobody has the right to come and throw stones at you because lost a cricket match. You didn't leak military secrets of your country, you didn't go and kill your countrymen, you played a cricket match that you lost. That is it. You talk about playing for India as a matter of life and death. I'll let you hear a stupidier statement than that. This is not about life and death. You are making fun of people whose job is life and death. Are you telling a jawan in Siachen that Yuvraj is playing for life and death. I mean its a joke. Our lives can never be compared to theirs. There's this guy in Siachen, there's this guy in the western border. He's been really looking at death in the face. We need to look at his life and say that all we are doing is playing a cricket match. You win a cricket match you go home. You lose a cricket match you still go home. You lose a war you don't go home. And I think we need to put cricket in perspective in this country. I think cricket gets way to much importance, far far too much importance. A lot of things said about cricket is stupid, because we have lost our sense of perspective about cricket. Cricket is a game, cricket is a sport, and that is it. At the end everybody goes home. And I think we need to understand that.

- On the cricket crazy Indians.

The passion comes out so clearly!

Tags: Harsha Bhogle, Cricket, BCCI, Cricket Stadiums, Cricket Crazy India.

Its fascinating to see how Bangalore Barcamp is evolving. I have attended all the four events till now. My main motivation being a) network with like minded people and b) attend the interesting talks. To get an idea of how it has changed, here's a comparison of the format, the focus of the event and the position of the topics and participants page on the website.

The first one was a one day event with the classic paper wiki. The theme was Web 2.0 and the participants and talks was on the first page itself. It featured talks from Tara Hunt, Pete Demmer of Yahoo and even Chirs Messina. Its was relatively a small event, with around 100 or so people turned up. It was definitely a good start.

The second one happened six months later at the wonderful Thought Works office. This time it was a two day event and and the theme was entrepreneurship. The website seems to be empty, but if I remember right, the participants and topic page was one click away from the main page. True to its character, the best discussions happened in the vast main hall. One memorable moment was when Sandeep Singhal asked the audience how many wanted to start off on their own and almost all the hands shot up!

The third one happened around four months later at IIM Bangalore. The format was modified a bit to have rooms dedicated to each topic. The theme was more or less centered around Technology. The participants and topics were on different pages, one click away from the main page. The best of talks were in the Mobile track. That room was always full! I loved the session by Savita Kini about services vs. products.

The fourth one happened four months down the line and was a two day event. This time the format was changed to group topics into collectives and were given a shorter time in each room. The official theme was Technology and Social Implications. The topics page was three pages away from the main page depending upon which collective you were interested in. The organization left a lot to be desired and it chaotic at times.

The fifth one has just been announced. The theme and the participants/topics page is not up yet, but I expect it to be similar to BCB4. But reading this gives me a distinct feeling that it is moving away from its unconference roots.

To my mind, BCB3 was the peak and the decline has started. One of the most attractive aspects of Barcamp was its simplicity. It was easy to find who was attending and who was talking about what. With each Barcamp it got progressively difficult to do so. With BCB4 it was impossible to get a quick snapshot and I dont expect BCB5 to be any different.

To think of it, the significance of Barcamp has also diminished over the past year with more events and unconferences cropping up. Barcamp itself has played an important role in germinating these events. These spinoffs have taken over the role of bringing together people around a narrower common interest. And as such Barcamp in its bloated form does not really interest me any more.

But still its hard not to feel nostalgic about BCB. It was fun while it lasted.

Edit: Check out Jace's response here. Have a look at the comments as well.

Eidt 2: If you are one of the organizers and want to suggest that I should do something instead of whining, pls. stop here. Read this, read the post once more and spare yourself the trouble.

Edit 3: OK. If I look back at this thread with a cooler mind, it does seem very harsh. Its embarrassing in fact. Sorry for getting carried away.

Tags: BCB, Barcamp Bangalore, Entrepreneurship, Startups, India