Meeting the formidable Microsoft User Group Leaders

“Microsoft community drives Microsoft products” – a statement that would make you roll with laughter, isn’t it? it did for me too till i attended the User Group Leads meet organised by Microsoft. it is here that i witnessed the seriousness with which the user group community goes about its job (i had earlier tweeted about this).

User Groups is the life blood of the Microsoft communities (other community avenues include blogs, forums, webcasts and events) in India…  there are more than 40,000 known users spread across India in numerous professional user groups in various cities (there are another equal nos. in student user groups)… the bangalore user group can alone boast of more than 10,000 users (truly amazing)..  with more than 71 user group sessions in the last year alone, u can’t be far away from one happening in any large city of the country.

The user group leads were a very attentive and enthusiastic bunch who met the MS folks with great deal of passion and feedback. the commitment from MS folks was more than evident with around 10 MS employees present to engage with the community leaders. Not only were the user group leads eager to provide feedback, they also spent significant time exchanging notes and sharing their vision of the user groups with each other.

The focus wasn’t only on the established user groups like in Mumbai but also on the emerging ones e.g. in Jaipur. the most exciting moment was the User Group award time:

the BEST Developer User Group for the country was found to be the Bangalore User Group. the BEST Networking Professionals User Group was the Bangalore IT Pro User Group. Amongst the new or emerging user groups in the country, Chennai .NET User Group was adjusted as the best and Hyderabad Techies was the choice in the IT Pro UG section.

If you want to enhance/ share your knowledge with the community, head over to http://www.microsoft.com/india/communities/usergroups/default.aspx to find the user group in your city and join the same. Joining any MS User Group anywhere in the country is absolutely FREE. The quality of speakers in the user groups is surprisingly high with most being MVPs, Microsoft Employees and other reputed speakers.

If you know of an active MS community that is not mentioned in the list above, please leave a comment here and I will take the responsibility of getting it listed

Technorati tags: microsoft, india, user group, community

Live Mesh Comes to India

Live Mesh technical preview has expanded to include Canada, India and Ireland (English only).

So what is Live Mesh you might wonder? Live Mesh is supposed to be a platform on which anyone would be able to build applications using the basic services of synchronization across the devices done over internet. Mesh, true to its name, will enable users to reach their information and applications irrespective of the machine they are currently working on (think entire Office running on any computer you log on without having to install app on every machine)…

As of today, Live Mesh team has made only some of these experiences available. These experiences are:

1. Files that automatically get syncronised on all the machines that run this program (sort of Foldershare)
2. Online file storage (sort of Skydrive)
3. Online group collaboration (sort of Groove)
4. Remote Desktop Viewing (sort of SharedView)

The cool thing here is the seamless implementation of Software + Services. The cloud becomes a core part of the Mesh system.

To experience this path breaking technology in India, go here: www.mesh.com

You can pass on your feedback about Live Mesh at the forums..

CAUTION: There is still a  maximum limit on the number of users for the Technology Preview. However, anyone in the allowed countries can sign-up with no delays or wait list as long as they are below the limit. So don’t delay the sign up!

Technorati tags: mesh, india, beta

Independence Day

Congratulations Countrymen!

May peace and sense prevail..

How to report software piracy in India

Software piracy is bane to all the software developers in the country and ultimately hurts the reputation of the country on the world stage. in order to establish ourselves as respected, India needs to tighten its laws & enforcement against software piracy.

I have always believed that any law enforcement has to be done on a citizen - govt. partnership (see my trafficviolators.com initiative).. A citizen plays an equally important part in this education and enforcement.

Microsoft has now enabled people to report its software piracy. If you are in India and observe any software piracy of Microsoft software  you have the option of reporting the same in the following ways:

Method 1: E-mail piracy@microsoft.com.

Method 2: Call the Microsoft Hotline  at 1800-111100  (from MTNL & BSNL landline) or 1800-1021100 (from Mobile and  Airtel) 

Method 3: Fill out an online reporting form.

More details are available here:

https://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/reports/report.aspx

Technorati tags: enforcement, microsoft, piracy

The dangers of joining the iphone party

This post is thanks to the meeting with an iphone enthusiast over the weekend. Now this iphone enthusiast isn’t from India and has been using an iphone for some time alongwith his Mac. While checking out the cool interface of the iphone we casually started to compare the features of his iphone with the HTC Windows Mobile we were carrying.
this is more relevant as airtel and vodaphone are planning to come out with iphone 3G soon in India (for airtel the launch is fixed on Aug 22nd)… while the pricing is not yet disclosed, i would assume that they may cost around 30K in India. and the irony is that in India there isn’t a single 3g network and the ones most likely to get are the govt. carriers like BSNL :)
What follows below are some discoveries we made in that friendly comparison:
iphone has cooler interface than Windows Mobile. Agree. One of us has tried to include a iphone shell (iPhonz) on Win Mobile but the quality of that shell was really bad and the phone had to be rebooted.. i am now running a skin that emulates the slide to unlock feature..
we all agreed that apple is a control freak and iphone is a marvel of their work! you can’t get any app on the phone if you don’t buy it off the apple store without jailbreaking the iphone (voids the warranty!!).. meaning thereby you have to pay for every app you install on iphone.. windows mobile comes with numerous applications developed by the community and are available for Free (a good site to get this freeware: http://www.1800pocketpc.com/)..
the commercial applications that you develop for iphone have to be hosted on the apple store and they keep a cut off your IP.. no such bull crap for windows mobile… you get to keep the money on what you developed..
the iphone is going to come out in 1 or max 2 versions… very limited choice.. i.e. if i wanted a qwerty keyboard i can’t do anything or a slider keyboard.. windows mobile does offer you that option from multiple vendors.
the iphone is really maimed on the following accounts:

1. no copy paste of contents  (e.g. email/ SMS text) or files from one location to another (how can one NOT have this??)
2. no bluetooth transfer of anything i.e. mp3, images, videos
3. can’t use iphone as wireless modem for your PC.. hence you can’t share your internet with your own PC..
4. the camera is a simple 2 MP and can’t record video
5. no Java support (thereby a lot of existing apps won’t work)
6. the battery is locked inside the phone.. changing the same means getting to the apple store…
7. Can’t send MMS.. imagine this!!
8. no FM radio
9. can’t use MP3 files as ringtones..
10. can’t use ipod as external storage device to carry documents, pictures etc.
11. there are no expansion slots available apart from built in memory..
12. no flash or silverlight support
13. no office apps installed… i.e. u can’t read documents on iphone or quickly revise your presentation
14. if you are a coporate customer you don’t any security features like remote wipe if ur phone gets stolen or any corporate management server to manage mobile devices..

Well it is upto you to buy into the hype or be intelligent and make an informed choice..

Technorati tags: iphone, windows, mobile

Book Review: Blogger – Beyond the Basics

Blogging is easy – blogging right is difficult! A little help is always useful if you are planning to blog right.. The book “Blogger – Beyond the Basics” by Lee Jordan proved to be my bridge from blogging to blogging brilliantly..

The book is for users who have just entered the blogging field and would like to create a name for themselves in the blogosphere. The book quickly ramps you up from beginner to an advanced level user with ability to derive maximum out of your blog.

This book is for those who want to use Google’s Blogging platform – Blogger. However, many tips in the book go beyond blogger and are generally useful for anyone. This is the first book that i have found in the market that covers blogging. Frankly I have also thought about writing a book on blogging but never went beyond the initial TOC.

The key to blogging (as you may have heard) is content. Without appealing content, a blog will not get readers. This book is about getting the platform right so that your content can create maximum impact. At one place in Chapter 9 the author does provide interesting suggestions on how to discover content that you could be writing based on the keywords.

The book starts by introducing a fictional business that wants to ensure its social presence in Chapter I. The next chapter logically dives into creation and customization of the site look. It is here that they cover conversion to a 3 column layout (my absolute favourite!).. The interesting part of the book is inclusion of 3rd party tools and sites apart from blogger platform itself making it relevant to the person rather than the tool.. chapter 3 is all about social bookmarking including introduction to quintessential feedburner.com.. The theory on blogging isn’t left out as it makes its appearance in Chapter 4 and covers blogrolls, backlinks and suggestions on how to get ur blog interesting.. The blogger platform let’s you extend the functionality e.g. polling, slideshow, 3rd party badges on the site using widgets.. if ur interested, they even introduce you to setting up ecommerce on blogger.. for the tinkerers, you can get ur fill by learning to create custom widgets! yes, it is not that difficult (but u don’t know that if you haven’t read this book :)).. Web 2.0 is driven by RSS and the guts are opened up for you in Chapter 6. by now, you are expected to know everything that is there to know technically about this platform..

so how about making some money like a pro? Chapter 7 gets u started with google adsense & leaves u with more options of making money $$.. Chapter 8 covers analytics and measuring site performance with google analytics.. and if u thought adding the javascript was all there was to this chapter, you will be surprised by the comprehensive coverage of analytics here. Oh and they don’t leave you just yet.. the final pillar is the SEO and that is taken care of in Chapter 9.. some great tools and techniques are presented here and this is generic to all bloggers on any platform.. and if you are only running a blog, you are done with here. for all corporate honchos with their static corporate websites, the final chapter 10 covers integrating blog with their corporate website..

Since i have been a blogger user for long, this book proved extremely useful for me. The book is complete with required screenshots and contains code where required. The screenshots are useful and the code provided immediately relevant.

The language of the book is a tard dry but I am ok with it (after having read numerous technical manuals).

While the book covers a lot of ground I would have loved some case studies on popular blogs that would have customised blogger. Information on how regular users have found blogger useful for them would also have been a welcome addition.

One can only gauge the relevance of the book based on the impact it has had on one’s blog. For me I have implemented the following after reading the book:

1. Converted my layout to 3 column and expanded my template to 1024 pixels
2. Put up a comments feed (i had been looking for this for sometime now)
3. Added a sitemap for the blog
4. Verified the blog with google and live search webmaster tools
5. Changed the blog XML Validation from Strict to Transitional
6. Changed the Facebook profile from vertical to horizontal

I am sure that there is something for you in the book that is waiting to be discovered. really, this is worth a read if you are in the blogging world and are using the blogger platform!

and if you are in the Delhi/ NCR region, do remember to setup urself with fellow bloggers in Delhi at www.delhibloggers.in.. u can work out the finer details with other folks from the group…

MY RATING: 5 on 5

Technorati tags: book review, blogger

Microsoft India finds its leader

Recently, Microsoft India lost its General Manager – Neelam Dhawan to HP.

Now Microsoft India has found her successor in Rajan Anandan from Dell India. Rajan was until recently VP and Country GM for Dell India (appointed on May 17, 2006).. Recently it was reported that he had returned to US ..

A brief profile of Rajan is available at: http://www.indianangelnetwork.com/memberprofile.aspx?id=29 and is reproduced below:

Rajan Anandan is an active angel investor in the US and in India. Rajan focuses on early stage investments in education, clean technology, internet, software and healthcare. Rajan has invested in several IAN companies including Authorgen, Druvaa, Eurekha and Viedea.

Rajan's professional career has spanned across high technology and management consulting. Most recently Rajan was the Vice President and Country General Manager of Dell in India where he grew the Dell business from $250million to over $800 million and made Dell into the leading player among corporates in India. Prior to leading Dell India he held several leadership roles in Dell International Services Dell's off shoring division. Rajan joined Dell as the Executive Assistant to Chairman Michael Dell.

Prior to joining Dell, Rajan was a Partner with McKinsey & Company in Chicago. At McKinsey he worked with companies across a broad range of industries including technology, industrial and services companies.

Area of Interest:

• Education

• Clean technology

• Internet

• Software

• Healthcare

Rajan joins MS India at difficult times when economy is undergoing a lot of stress and the global cues are also negative. India has been a poster child for all MNCs and it will be upto Rajan to carry on this dream for MS India. The traditional problems are reducing piracy rates in the country, gaining favourability in govt space, competition from Google etc.. As mentioned by Ballmer, MS would be readying to take on consumer space seriously with its slew of consumer releases from the Live stable…. MS India would be expected to play an important role as this is the 2nd most populous country in the world!

Rajan will be joining MS India on Sept 1 2008.. the country is watching :)

Technorati tags: microsoft, india

Microsoft makes breakthrough in community software – Offline Forum Reader

In this era, the importance of social media can’t be undermined. Forums are community avenues where people converge and discuss issues of relevance to them.

Forums were preceded by BB software and newsgroups. India, however, jumped this technical cycle and moved directly to forums. The main advantage that forums presented to users was access using browser over internet and searchability. however, the drawback was that you have to be connected to internet to read the forums. Google acquired DejaNews that used to make newsgroup posts available over internet. There are a lot of forums in existence today and most likely you have been to one of them already.

Microsoft for the first time has released a preview (CTP) of Offline Forum Reader for its MSDN/ TechNet Forums. This software is dependent on the APIs exposed by the forum and hence only works with the same. This combines the benefit that newsgroups provided of offline access with the traditional forum. Currently the beta software only supports following activities:

Getting the list of available forums

Subscribing to forums you're interested in

Manually (by right click menu) synchronizing the Question and General Discussion threads in a forum

Reading posts that have been synchronized

Hierarchical (threaded) view of conversations

In this preview software, the reader doesn’t support posting questions or answers to the forum. however, that would definitely be a part of the final release. Also, a lot of options in the “Subscribe to  Forums” window seem to be turned off in the current release.

The offline reader requires the following prerequisites for installation:

1. .NET 3.5: the application seems to be a WPF application
2. Windows Live ID Client SDK: Reader uses Live ID authentication to
3. SQL CE 3.5
4. Existing profile at forums: This means you should be able to log in with an existing Live ID at the forums before you can use this software

One of the enhancements that i think that would make forums reader a super hit would be to introduce a pluggable architecture or some API so that it is able to read any forum that complies with the requirements. I think there should also be tools for forum moderators to do additional moderation tasks e.g. mark post as spam, move threads etc.

This being a preview software comes with very little functionality. the release of offline forums reader marks an important step in the evolution of community software. From purely being a web based solution, forums will now become Software + Service…

I am pretty excited about this development. In case you want to give this a shot or if you are an MVP, head over to http://www.codeplex.com/msdnforumsclient and get your download. In case you have any comments or bugs to report, you can do that at the discussions section of the project homepage.

Technorati tags: forums, reader, community

Live Search Gets a New Face

Today I went to http://search.live.com (BTW, for all my non-technology searches I use Live Search) and was surprised by the new look of the site. This is however only implemented for US.. Take a look here:

It has a pleasing picture on the main screen. Not only that, when you casually move around your mouse, it shows interesting tits bits of information about the picture… very very NICE!

NOTE: if you want this look too, click on the country name located on the right top of the page and select US (English).. 

I think Live Search does a MUCH better job of searching images and videos. And yeah, i have used the cashback feature (that let’s you get back money on every purchase online) of Live Search. It has saved me some money and would save you too if you intend to go shopping online.

Compare this to the standard Google page:

This is outrightly boring :(..

Google searches are good for technology searches.. but in the rest (esp rich media), google lags behind!

 

I think Microsoft has learnt from Apple (look good) and Google (look simple and do good) and has put learnings in bringing this feature out!

Go Experience the good looks!

Technorati tags: Live Search