Chaching to Google...Googling to Chacha....

Back in the 90's when the Internet was still in it's infancy there were all sorts of search engines poping up. The search space was the hot space to be in then, whether you were Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Webcrawler, Lycos, Alto AuctionSales it was boom time in the search world. The internet was starting to become the in thing then. The general public was a little aprehensive of this new phenomonon that Bill Clinton dubbed as the Information Super Highway. No one quite new what he meant by this term, everyone had there own version of what it meant. Or what is the internet...or inter-net...what is that, many across the nation and world were dump founded.

Putting up a basic html webpage, not even a full site was such a novelty. People would be awe struck, 'wow you did that'. The internet was seen as this geek creation that emerged out of the barracks of DARPA. Who would have thought that a few years later most of the world would be conducting business, interacting with friends, hosting e-conferences and e-workshops which are commonly known as webinars would be commonplace.

Then comes this concept of searching from your personal computer, searching for any and every type of information without leaving your home or office. Search for information without stepping into a library or bookstore. Who would have imagined that this would be possible. Schools and University professors actually discouraged their students from researching for data for papers and projects from the internet. Students who were caught using the internet search engines where severely penalized. This was not too long back, around the mid to late 90's.

Today, the search world is booming with Yahoo! and Google being the top search engines on the internet. There are other smaller search engines, however to the most part these little guys tend to end up using some aspect of Yahoo! and Google.

Both Google and Yahoo! have complicated search algorythms which are continually develop and upgrade. However, they do have limitations, for one searching for specific information still requires the human factor. Where the user has to have some skill in choosing creative search strings. Searching for specific information can take hours, and even then you may not be satisfied. Out of a thousand hits you may find perhaps ten hit that has some relevance to what you are searching.

Despite these issues in the search world, millions of people from around the world search the internet through one of their prefered engines, Google or Yahoo! are generally the case.

But that is about to change with the recently founded Chacha Live Search Engine. Chacha on the surface of things looks like any other search engine. In fact, when you first visit www.chacha.com your first thought will most likely be...'Oh my God, this is a Google copycat...' As the home page looks very similar to www.google.com. Even the logo could be seen as following a Google like style.

But you will notice one thing: there is an option to search with a guide. That is a real live, breathing guide. A human guide who you can speak to and who will help you locate what your looking for. Now this is an experience, recieving VIP service for free !

Literally it feels like VIP service, you feel like a VIP who is being served by a dedicated search consultant. It is a novelty in todays world, to be able to speak with a person via a text chat about information you are in need off. This is would appear to be the new wave in Information Technology--providing the Human Experience to all your online activities. Allowing the user to experience the online world with the human touch. Not just Chacha, but many internet companies are begining to realize the end-users need and demand for the human touch.

Search engines such as Chacha may very well be next distructive technology in the search space. Thus creating a cascade effect where other search companies will be forced to rethink there business and technology models. They sooner or later will have to look into providing the human element to their services, as the trend is appearing to go in that direction.

In the next several months we should be seeing some dramatic changes in the search world, Google most probably will attempt to acquire Chacha, or perhaps Chacha's user share will increase with more and more users opting to use www.chacha.com over www.google.com. This is similar to how Yahoo! search lost its user share to Google.

So are you going to Chacha or Google?

Copyright C. 2007 Rabita Technologies Inc
TechRabita is a trademark of Rabita Technologies,Inc

Butchers go online @ ebakra.com

This is an Islamabad, Pakistan based venture, which has brought the local meet butcher online. It is quite an innovative business model utilizing the transactional technologies which by todays standards may appear archaic in the world of web2.0, web3.0, and tomorrows web4.0. However, one cannot discount the creative aspect of this model.

The world of the internet has opened up doors to unimaginable opportunities. Now you don't have to be a Silicon Valley based techie with access to loads of Venture funding. Anyone with an idea, anyone who is courageous enough and willing to take the plunge can use the web technologies to enhance their business.

Whether you are a Butcher (Kasai as they are known Pakistan) or say a sweeper (Jemadar as they are known in Pakistan), all you need is the courage to go out and present your idea to whatever and whomever will listen. No matter how ridiculous sounding it may be, someone out there will lead you in the right direction.

So whether it is an eButcher.com or a eSweeper.com or eJemadar.com, the sky's the limit, or rather not the limit to the infinit possibilities to explore.

With that we at TechRabita would like to wish all our readers Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Eid-ul-Adha Mubarak.

Until next year Chao !

Copyright 2006 Abdulrahman Rafiq

The Sky's no longer the limit....

Today Google announced its intent to go boldly where no one has gone before, Space the final frontier. Google will provide end users with a conduit to journey into space and visit strange new worlds, witnessing births and deaths of stars, peeping deeper and deeper into deep space, thus fostering a new generation of space explorers who need not venture physically beyond their web browser.

The Google SpaceShip will be launching within the year, allowing its end users to travel for the first time into Space, to view NASA's massive data banks of images and videos it has collected over the years.

There seems no end in sight to what Google will do? From internet search to creating a virtual desktop (VDnet's) environment, where users instead of using there PC based word processors and spreadsheets can create, share, and store documents online. Thus, giving Microsoft a run for its money. Further, there is talk about Google venturing into voice communication, where it is working on the development of a unified data/voice communication system which will be based on the browser---thus giving companies such as Cisco a cause to be concerned about, is Google going to be a possible competitor or partner, is the question Cisco exec's are asking themselves?

Google has taken it upon itself to lead the internet generation into space. Where NASA and the Aerospace industry have failed to provide low cost public transport to Space, Google has the the next best solution to space travel. Instead of physically taking the public to space, it will bring space to them! Perhaps, the next step for Google is to partner or acquire Linden Lab's SecondLife. A social networking site, which unlike other internet social networks provides a 3D universe for users to create an alternate life, with your own personalized alter-ego or avatar. Now this site has not only attracted your typical techies and geeks, but has drawn attention from some of the worlds brand name companies who have setup shop in this virtual reality world.

A SecondLife partnership/acquisition would pave the way for Google to converge all its services into one virtual world. Thus placing Google ahead of the curve, positioning itself for the next big wave in the internet revolution. The wave of web4.0 which will integrate holographic technologies and enable users to create and visit remote worlds and destinations without leaving their homes. The Web4.0 revolution will transform our homes and workspaces into HoloDecks and HoloSuites as seen on Star Trek. Web browsing as we know it will be a thing of the past. Where user interaction with the web, will be like interacting in the Real world. Web4.0 will most certainly blur the lines between the Real-World (R-World) and Virtual-World (V-World).

Copyright 2006

The Techies 'i' ....Who own's it?

iPod, iTunes, iMac are all brands of Apple, it would appear like they have the rights to the iBrand, however with the recent launch of the iPhone it is clear that isn't the case. The iBrand has outgrown Apple and now can be considered a public domain branding tool for all to use.

The iPhone brand rights have belonged Cisco Systems, Inc since 2000, though Apple owned the iphone.com domain since 1999. And now Linksys, a subsidiary of Cisco has recently released it's newest product under this brand--a revolutionary product which could very be considered a destructive technology to the Telecommunication industry.

This techies i is a sought after brand in the Silicon Valley. Public companies to individual bloggers such as iFaqeer have used it. If you do a basic Google search, you will find many other products which have used the techies i, like iGive, iTools, iVillage, iFilm, iRobot

So who owns this techiies i? Apple? Apparently not, it is surely a public domain branding tool and can be appended before any other brand name like how about iGoogle, or iYahoo, or iCisco, or iPepsi. The point is, anyone or any corporation can use this techies i. So whomever is looking to enhance their brand image can do so by piggy backing on Apples with the use of the techies i.


Copyright 2006

Rise of the Silicon Valley: From Skockley Labs to Fairchild Semiconductor

On February 13, 1956, co-inventor of the transistor William Shockley formally announced the establishment of Shockley Labs, Silicon Valley’s first semiconductor company. In their modest Quonset hut laboratory on San Antonio Avenue in Mountain View, Shockley’s hand-picked team of some of the nation’s brightest young scientists and engineers developed innovative technologies and ideas that forever changed the way we live, work and play. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this pivotal event in the history of our region, join technology historian Michael Riordan in a conversation between early Shockley employees and associates Jim Gibbons, Jay Last, Hans Queisser, and Harry Sello.



The Silicon Valley is more than a geographic location on a map. It is a phenomenon that has traveled the globe. From Bangalore to Lahore to Beijing to Tokyo. The idea of Silicon Valley has shown to be quite contagious. Infecting people after people, country after country and thus expanding itself to surpass physical boundaries.



Other than the people mentioned above, there are numerous other people whom you could refer to as the "unnamed" Foot Soldier or your all out Engineer who worked and continues to work day-in and day-out on the numerous projects that have kept the Silicon Valley flame lite.









Copyright 2006 Rabita Technologies INC

MIT/Stanford VLAB: An Evening with Geoffrey Moore

[Following are my unedited notes from the Nov15 Moore MIT/Stanford VLAB event. Will edit shortly]

Palo Alto Wednesday November 15, 2006: The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) hosted a special evening with the acclaimed author and venture capitalists Geoffrey Moore and three veteran CEOs from online security and communication management companies (Barracuda Networks, Postini, and Proofpoint) who explored what it takes for businesses to thrive in this highly competitive global marketplace.

Geoffrey, whose books include crossing the Chasm, Dealing with Darwin, and Inside the Tornado, explored insights on the latest developments in the online security space., revenue generation, viral marketing, business model strategies, and other issues critical to the survival of startups.

In his keynote address Geoffrey went through a brief history of entrepreneurship and Venture Capitalist activities in the valley since before the 90's. He mentioned that when he first wrote "Crossing the Chasm" most of the entrepreneurs in the valley where former corporate guys. These were the initial pioneers whom were responsible for the first Tech boom. They were the founders of the likes of Intel, Fairchild Semiconductor, AMD, etc.

The mid-90's saw a second group of Entrepreneurs who came out of the Ivy league educational institutions such as Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, etc. These were "wicked smart people with an exceptionally higher IQ than their predecessors." This group of entrepreneurs set the 'Geek' trend. They were not business people, their motivation was to develop cool stuff. What they needed were business and finance people to help build business models around their "cool geek like" ideas.

Following this group we saw the dot.com era. As most remember it was boom time in the valley. The Valley was littered with dot.com's, it was the in thing then.

We are now back to an era where we need to build "real companies, not so much the picksey dust companies of the dot.com era." We need to build "earnest and thoughtful" companies.

These days to startup a "digital life" sort of venture one doesn't need much capital, and thus there is little impetus to approach VC's. Bootstrapping is the name of the game in this space, as costs are relatively low.

Traditionally VC's have invested in B2B and B2C companies. The Web x.0, or "Digital Life companies" started in kitchens or people garages. VC's weren't interested in such ventures.

Immediately following is keynote, Mr Moore asked each panelists to say a few words about themselves and their respective business:

Dean Drako, President and CEO of Barracuda Networks spoke first: He said that Barracuda is into developing email filter spam appliances. The company was founded in 2003. They are the largest player in the anti-spam market. Their's is a low cost easy to use turnkey application. Their sales technique is simple, they ship customers a box. The company started out in a relatively untraditional manner by bootstrapping. It ran successfully for 2 years before outside investors were allowed. After which they received their first series-A VC funding from the Menlo Park based Sequoia Venture Capital firm.

Quentin Gallivan, President and CEO of Prostini: The company was founded in 2001/2002. We provide secure messaging and compliance services. Their business model is a software to service one delivered from data centers around the world.

Gary Steele. CEO Proofpoint: They deliver message security solutions to large enterprises such as Wellsfargo, Bank of America, etc. Our solutions deal with efficient management of email content. Gary was the 5th employee at Proofpoint. What interested him most about this company was the market. Everybody has to have a solution. Very dynamic and active.

[Following are points from the Panel discussion]

Moderator (Geoffrey Moore) asks the panel to ground us a little in what is meant by spam:

Gary Steele describes it as unwanted bulk email. This is not a virus per say, however there is a convergence we are seeing between viruses and emails. You could call this spam2.0, which is a "very dramatic threat." We are begining to see larger emails, spam embedded in images, documents and videos. This is very hard to detect and filter.

When ask about phishing and farming, Gary mentioned that this on the most part is a threat from Eastern Europe. Phishers and farmers are looking for personal information for quick financial gains.

Moderator: There is a tern 'zombie' used in the spam space. What does it mean? How do you know if your a zombie?

A zombie is when a program or virus is covertly placed our your local machine. On the most part these programs are dormant until activated by an external command. The best way to protect yourself from such spam/viruses is to use anti-virus and anti-spyware software tools. Or if your technological savvy enough then check your machines process controls. Look at the processes that are running.

Question from the audience: Which operating system do you support?

All the panelist responded with Windows. As windows over other OS is widely used. There is a greater threat on Window's based systems. If the trend continues and other OS systems such as Linux find themselves frequently attached, then perhaps we will consider supporting Linux.

Question from the audience: Are corporate networks being zombified?

"Absolutly, and most certainly." responded Greg Steele.

Moderator: What type of money does the typical spammer in your opinion make?

Panelist responded, in the millions per year.

Moderator: Is there any legislation dealing with spam?

There is a piece of legislation Congress approved which is similar to the 'donotcall' bill--called 'donotspam'. But it isn't effective, as it is not easy regulating spam, as all spammers need is " a rack in the Camen's".

Moderator: So speaking of "Category" when did spam hit the radar screen?

Spam has grown at an exponential rate. It started become a concern around 2002/2003, and now it is out of control.

In 2002 it became obvious that email is now part of our daily lives, both personal and corporate lives. And it had to be protected.

Barracuda Networks was founded on the premise of providing an easy to use plug-n-play appliance. Their aim was to launch the company to "sell a pain killer not s vitamin." As there are more dollars in selling pain killers and vitamin's. This is a better strategy for small businesses. The single item on small businesses agenda is to determine what created the 'category' across the chasm and find a quick solution.

Question from the audience on bootstrapping vs. going with a VC, or "VC'ing"?

If you can afford it, and afford to grow slowly then it's better to bootstrap rather than go with a VC.

Question: Tornado time, when is that?

Spam is growing at an astronomical rate. This market is currently in a tornado.
The U.S. spam rate is growing faster as compared to the rest of the world.

Question: How do you determine between GOOD and BAD mail? And what about confidentiality?

Panelist responded that confidentiality is a big issues. However, only BAD mail is stored on their respective systems. The GOOD mail is allowed to pass. As to differentiating between GOOD and BAD mail we use algorithms which are continually updated. Further, sometimes certain BAD IP addresses are blocked.

However, there is a limit to how aggressive you can get. As for all you know "Grandma's computer may be acting as a botnet." That is a computer which has a dormant program controlled virtually by a spammer. Spammer are becoming increasingly good at covering their tracks.


Copyright 2006 Rabita Technologies INC

TelePresence---A Revolutionary Business Tool

Recently I had an opportunity to experience a TelePresence demo at Cisco Systems, Inc, in San Jose, California. It was an amazing experience. Myself and four other individuals where in a conference room split between two buildings separated a mile apart from each other.



The fact that we were physically sitting miles apart wasn't evident. Nor was the fact that we were interacting through a telephone and video screen. I literally felt like I was in the same room as everyone else.



TelePresence is only the begining, as this has the capabilities to expand into the world of web4.0 where Holography will be the centeral technology.



Sitting in this TelePresence conference truely felt like I was on a HoloDeck or HoloSuite as portrayed in the popular Science fiction Televeion serial Star Treck.



One may argue, that this has already been achieved by HP under the guise of the Halo video collaboration system. Howevever, all that glitters is not gold. As Cisco TelePresence may look like HP's Halo, experiencing is believing. I will admit I haven't personally experienced Halo, but based on third-party reviews I can safetly say that Cisco's TelePresence tops that of HP's Halo.



Following are several video clips discussing the Cisco TelePresence experience, earlier posted on YouTube



Cisco TelePresence



Vist to Cisco TelePresence







TelePresence--It's all about the Experience







TelePresence in the OR







Following is a servey on TelePresence by HPL














Copyright 2006

Second Life

This is like a virtual theme park. People go here for mostly the same reasons they go to Disneyland, DisneyWorld, etc. Where you get to spend DisneyDollars----just a whole lot cheaper than the $50 per day ticket or if you want to, purchase the annual Disney passport. But then the virtual life is meant to be cheaper---or why would corporations be so adamant in encouraging employees to limit physical travel and try to conduct long distant business through net-meeting, phone, video-conferences, etc?



Virtualization is not just a buzz word, or a mere fad--it is a real, living, breathing phenomenon, it is the future. A future where the lines between real and not-real are blurring.



Yesterday we were in the world of web 1.0, today its web 2.0, and web 3.0 which deals with mobile applications. Tomorrow we will see the world of web 4.0--the world of holographic or 3D applications, where you may start to experience say a vacation to Cancun in your single bedroom apartment, or visit your hometown or homecountry merely by the press of a button and your whole apartment turns into a holographic projection, where entities appear as real as the outside world. Sounds like science-fiction, a mere concept out of Gene Rodebury's Star Treck!



Following is a discussion I recently had with some folks on the sv-pak e-group list.



Commentator_1 wrote:



I attended an event on this last year, If you look at it carefully it is pretty scary n creepy how people getting involved in such virtual worlds



http://www.vlab.org/site/events/details.cfm?event=59#Rosedale



MC



On 10/6/06, Thread_iniatitor <*****@yahoo.com> wrote:



http://secondlife.com/



Second Life is a 3-D online world with a rapidly
growing population of more than 800,000 residents from
100 countries. The residents themselves create and
build the world, including landscapes, homes,
vehicles, nightclubs, stores, clothing, and more.



Copyright 2006 Rabita Technologies INC

AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford & Technology CEO's Showcase

The World Business and Technology Televsion show covered AlwaysOn Innovation Summit at Stanford University from July 25 to 27, 2006. We interviewed Iqbal Syed, who is the Volunteers Co-Chair for the MIT/Stanford VLAB.

Please stay tuned for additional Video Clips from this AlwaysOn Summit.

Consumer Robotics--Rise of the Machine

On June 20th, 2006 in Palo Alto at Stanford University the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab's (VLAB) monthly presentation and panel discussion was on "Consumer Robotics --Rise of the Machine". An unusual theme, as most of topics to date have centered around web2.0 type of ventures. The general audience turn out was not as it would ussually be expected. But I guess that is to be expected, given this is a niche topic, and in a sense an acquired topic of interest.







Following are the transcripts and my personal comments.







Speaker:





Bob Christopher, CEO & Co-founder, Ugobe







Moderator:





Chris Shipley, Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences; Co-founder, GuideWire Group





Panelist:





Khalid Al-Ali, Director of Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University - West; CEO, Senseta





Robert Capps, Senior Editor, Wired Magazine





Jason Morella, Regional Director, FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology





Warren Packard, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson






The event was kicked off with the moderator Chris Shipley outlining the agenda for the evening, which is to explore how far robotics is going in consumer market-Imagination from 20 50 yrs back, and what robots can do for us.





The evening's presentation was given Bob Christopher who spoke about Ugobe. Immediatly following Bob, the moderator led a provocative panel discuss which ended with a heated Q&A session from the audience.






Bob Christopher Ugobe presentation:





(Following are key points from Bob's presentation.)




Tage Line: "If you can imagine it ugobe can create it"





Objective: To bring robots to life and discussed Uogbe's corporate team and advisory
board strategy in doing so.





--Any startup company must have a senior leadership team with experience and vision





--They must know and be able to anticipate any and all potholes.





finances: $7.5M Series B now doing $3M Series A done





Note many vc's have funded robotics companiesVC and robotics not a common relationship





What are we doing and why are we here?





Robotics is an Emotive life forms interactive pets 5.4B S Furby





NinterDogs...Tamafatchi...Simsgrowing to 668B 40M+unitsmarket by 2025 $28+in sales PLEO (This is ugobes space)





Robotic people seem to get the how part right but tend to stumble on why, why are you doing this what is your market





Think robot market will go in interactive pets direction to get widely accepted in consumer market place





Getting a good media response--japan primariily Fascination with robots is amazing, we think its next PC, platform Wire Mag, Discoer, Popular Sc have covered ugobe





As a company we launch life forms, robots that are alive. With sensory arrays, something that is potentially aliveWe are a physical version of pixar which tells story on cgi..We have to get robotics so good that you dont think of robotics, its transparent to you.





Marketing strategy: 1st yr: Pleo 2md yr: launch compelling new life form by 2007



Pro-Forma:$5M 2006$85M 2007$127M 2008



Life form OS (TM) Platform needs to adapt.





need to create different levels of interaction with your consumer. Hacking your robot, making to fun stuff.





Opportunity for robotic industry is large, for us an opportunity is to create relationship with consumers





Panelist discussion:





Quick response from panelists and intros.





Khalid Al Ali--involved with nasa products work with nasa ames. Carnagie Melon labariel vehicles and space vehicles. Has take a company to market out of his lab at Carnagie.





Robert Capps--wired magazine. Sr Editor. Use to be products editor for magazine. People love robot, they tap in to our imagainationimagination has far outstriped what we are able ot do with robotics.





Warren Packard---MD, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Emotional and community...going in to next generation where robots will really impact us at emotional and community level.Revolutionarly b-models will come about. Gaming to practicle robots for helping with our lives. One critical point is how do you cross the casim, how do get to the mass market. How do you make it acessible---move from tinkers to mass market. Execution is key, like to watch ugobe and now there approach.





Jason Morella--Regional Director, FIRST. Show video on what FIRST is. And show robotics is not for education but also consumersDean Kamen, Founder Challengs young ppl to think create and inspireThey program design build robotsPutting the kids in contact with scientists and engineersFIRST is all about conquering the challengs. Larry Page, Google co-founder a proponent of first. Givng kidsa first hand experience with robotics and s&t.www.usfirst.org






Moderator: Consumer robotics. How do we get from big science to the products that will be sucessful in opening up a Billion dollar market?





Asks bob how do you reconcile both cultures:We are about creating a relationship between consumers and robots---there is a signifcant value to our construnt (1) appeal to consumer (2) sensory aspect, and (3) the ability of robots to evolve.





Moderator: What makes robots appealing, especially when facing the consumer market?





Robert Capps---at pleo they seem to be going a certain level of companionship, I assume like furby, pleo is getting invloved at an emotional level. NintenDogs article by David K, about how these robots engage in kids emotions.





Bob C---robots are the next PC, next thing kids want to hack into to do things. Write scripts, AI, etc.We want to foster this, create a level of SDK for kids to get in and hack, open source it. Ploe is a relationship productyou can tweek and do diff types or relationships. But its not a kit you assemble from ground up. It is a companion like opportunity





Warran Packard---interjects. Objects to Bob's statement of it is the next PC. its more than just PC programming. I am personalizing, dressing it up.





Bob--PC can be a game machine, you can take robots for game playing and interactivablilty, so it is like a PC. We find kids, college kids want to get under the hood.





Moderator: (1) enagage kids (2) toysRus model, have to direction we are trying to drive robotics. Talk about program at carnagie mellon and how are you driving to market? Question was directed to Khalid.





Khalid---resistance to this market, there is always a difficulty to shift from curiousity to practicality. Asked sears sales person who buys these robot sweepers, normally people do buy as gifts during the holiday season. So it is a toughs struggle to take on the hovers of the world.
We at carnagie mellon are big on rebotics. We push robotics, thus creating a community and to find ways to engage kids.





According to Gates this robotic space will dwarf PC industry. Like look at the laptop, a very versatile machine. But if you go to VCs on sandhill road, try to pitch your robotic product as a versatile device, you will find it is a tough job. There is no shortage of talent and the know how. What is needed is to bridge gap between science and tech and pitch to investors and vc's.





Moderator: TO Jason whats your objective.





Jason--we don't have anything to do with robotics. per say. We are trying to make kids work with professionals in the field. Robotics is the carrot. If Ogby needs qualifications, then they will hire some of our kids. We are about creating the work force who will solve alot of the products.
We are not a science fair. We don't want kids to do it on there on. We want professional to get invovled with kids. Creating a professional 2 kids relationship. Want to show that adults dont know everythin, but will find ways to solve problemsWe want to get back to 10-20 yrs ago when kids liked taking things friends apart. We are trying to make kids learn how all these things work.





Khalid: FIRST Is on to something. We ar Carnagie and nasa "learning by doing". But that is not new, Leanordo DeVince was like that. We do a lot of that in our lab, many of the students are involved with NASA projects. Other thing engaging young minds, creating out of the box thinkers. We get a lot of great ideas which perhaps a lot of us haven't thought of. As kids dont have a set mindset--they are very creative.





Moderator: Okay, lets Shift direction and talk about the V of VLAB, ventures. How do you look at robotic investment? Or how do these ppl get you interested?





Warren--I love robotics. Way to approach it is as not robotics, as something instead solving some kind of issue. Look at what the market needs, and target that. What are customer needs, what are the unique business and technology. If you look at ugobe, they have a great product for the toy business. The business model they are pursing is incredibly innovative. On all elements it looks like a great business. Bottom line it is a mix of things, we try to reach out to the customer and figure things out.





Moderator: What makes a great product in this space?





Robert--its a toy and got to survive as a toy and got to be appealing to kids. Consumers can be "fickly" of what they like or dont like. The best way to evaulate is to look at the energy behind the product, and what do you think about it, what do consumers think?





Open to audience: Q&A





(I am posting a few of the highlights from the Q&A session)





--Bob: need to have empaty and emotions for your product. Body langauge is so important to us. Need to create a rich evolving relationship between the product (robot) and its owner.





--ugobe has been approached by enterprise sector. Whats more imp to be sucessful in robotics business, need to start as a tech toy and build up. We think Robots are not robots as we see any more.





-irobot went from defence to consumer product (moderator intejects)





-Bob: creating a property around robot, a story. Telling the story is part of our challenge






Commentary by ARR:



Robotics has been around us for years, in th defence industry, manufacturing and now toys.



We see advance robots in Sci fi, but to reach levels of Sci Fi such as a DATA AI Robot/Anderoid we see in Gene Rodenbury's Star Treck TV serial type of technology is quite a ways from becoming a reality. For now it will continue to find a place in theSciFi space for many years to come.



The key is to watch the robotics industry evolution.





Copyright C. 2006 Rabita Technologies INC

Web 2.0 -- Trends and Opportunities (Event Notes)

Cupertino June 14, 20006: The Silicon Valley Indian Association (SIPA, http://www.sipa.org/) on Wednesday June 14th, 2006 hosted there monthly colloquium at the HP Cupertino Campus. The topic of this event was “Web 2.0: Trends and Opportunities”.



With a distinguished lineup of speakers whom included Satish Dharmaraj (co-founder/CEO Zimbra, http://www.zimbra.com/), Robert Seidl (CTO and co-founder, Genius Inc, http://www.genius.com/), and Seth Sternberg (founder and CEO Meebo, http://www.meebo.com/). The panel was moderated by John Koenig (president RiseForth Inc, http://www.riseforth.com/).



What is Web 2.0?



A new class of engaging websites, not it is not a standard. In fact is a method for making the web more interactive, and engaging users.



Panel Introductions:



Satish: Zimbra is an open source ajak powered collaboration client founded in 2003, at that time ajak term was not coined yet. We were the early pioneers in doing web2.0 stuff back in 2003. Web2.0 and ajak took off in around 2005.Robert: My CEO at Genius was the chief marketing person at webex. Our aim is to provide sales and marketing tools to people who are outsourced. Provide service on subscription basis. SalesGenius first offering, aimed at sales people. To provide assistance to qualified leads---strategic marketing, rather than going to trade shows and sending out email blasts.Our backend technology is ajak. Our business model is based on providing solutions that is we are solution oriented rather than being than technology oriented.



Seth: We provide a web based messaging client. Ajak is our main technology. We were three founders, started in 2005 with no funding. We raised angel funds a month later. In December of 2005 we were approved for Series A funding with Sequoia Capital.



Panel Discussion



Moderator: How do you see your company perceived different from traditional companies?
From your internal and the external perspective



Seth: We focus strongly in communicating with user. Our model is customer centric marketing. Meebo is available in 48 languages, all this was developed by users through a wiki site. We also have an online forum, this a way to engage users and build community around Meebo.



Robert: Now a days release cycles are much faster than they use to be. Not constrained by physical distribution. Have direct access to customer in software service. Quality wise, things are much tighter than when you used to do the shrink wrap cycle.Sales for larger corporations have an enterprise based sales cycle, which tends to act as a bottle neck, resulting in long time line. Now we have much smaller costs, smaller unit costs and we have trials. Thus allows us to run with smaller sales cycles.



Satish: On development or business side, there are several ways we distinguish ourselves. First we have an open source model. Allowing customers to connect Zimbra to other tools, languages, etc; A Strong open source community which embraces Zimbra. We have not made a single cold call client/customer call. Everyday a customer downloads zimbra, builds it, etc. We don’t know the customers, but all serious people come back for value added support, upgrades, patches and getting the branding of Zimbra.Most open source models revolve around brands. So customers cannot sell Zimbra, but can sell our product under another brand. If they want Zimbra's brand customers will come back and pay a subscription for our brand.All these things break down traditional model of hiring sales heads, regional sales heads, and teams. This leads to interesting types of sales plans, compensation plans, bookings, revenue recognition, and marketing. That is on the business side. End user wants rich client like functionality. Consumers are getting more experienced than businesses in terms of what’s on the web browser. What Zimbra does is managing software on the server server, as apposed to the desktop.



Web2.0 allows us to provide a rich experience to the user/customer. IT users love it, as they don’t have to manage fat client’s servers/desktops. Everything is centralized.



Before Web 2.0 we could not deliver anything any application over web. Now we can deliver rich applications over the web.Zimbra gives away as a open source, and has preferred hosting services.



Question for Robert from Moderator: How do you define web2.0?



Robert: It is a big deal the ability to tie multiple services together. And we can do it in house. Integration is much easier than before. Client capability, nice to have something with enough java script, etc to deliver a rich app now days; It’s much easier to shrink wrap apps now and internationalize apps.Seth: A VC came to our office, "what on earth is web2.0?" I came up with three branches. Moving apps that were traditionally delivered in software are now delivered in web browser. New Versions of old tech: New evolution of a all web dev tech. E.g. Scooby, a new version of evite. They are making it much more public. Has some ajak stuff in it more flashier, more looks like an app. New version of Yahoo, netvibes, etc3. Individual empowerment. Flicker, YouTube, wordpress, blogger.com/ These are websites or technologies which allow anyone of you to publish photos, videos, content.Moderator: New patches to software.



Satish: Believe in a big way about enterprise mash up.Web20 platforms, there is not going to be web20 platforms. Yes there will be a platform for ajak development platforms. IBM Zimbra has just initiated an open ajak imitative.Robert: One thing that is not so great of web20 is that tech is evolving so fast. Hasn’t evolved to a point where it is mature or perceived as something enterprise corp. want to endorse as their platformModerator: Is web20 more about content, services, business process



Seth: No it’s not just about content. Tech behind doing a heavy ajaks website is very difficult to do. Technology scaling large volumes and demands is hard to do. Also a lot about web20 is about user empowerment. Empowering users by putting platforms out there for them to take advantage of.Moderator: Which big companies get this?



Satish: IBM gets it, was involved in business side of java with sun. Open ajaks---IBM invited others to join ajak initiative Google gets it very well; Firefoxs browser is faster than IE. Microsoft gets it....but they are more threatened by ajaks and web20. Basically cannonalize there product. Diminishes value of OS, which Google and yahoo are out to do. Companies that don’t get it run of the mill businesses and enterprises across America. Consumers get as they use, may not understand it. Business on the other hand are still trying to struggling to where it fits inRobert: Not easy to move to the new sales model, from the old. Google as a large array of technologies, with lots of data--not monetized as yet. From a monetization prospective precise are still missing. From that prospective Google doesn't have a marketing model(s) yet---its free.



Moderator: What you might see as some nice opportunities for people to start a business?



Seth: love utube, we also share board member with utube. utube a service to upload video and share it with anyone. Trends: internationalization is very imp from people perspective. Mobile, everyone talks about mobile---funny our users don’t talk about mobile much



Robert: (1) some way of monetizing what you put out there for smaller companies and pieces of services (2) tool kits.



Satish: general trends and ideas that might be funded--i am biased to opensouce co's and b-models. This model is here to stay .Linux is pretty mainstream; most datacenters have linux running somewhere. MYSQL getting a lot of momentum in enterprise systems. Middleware, aps...that stack is getting filled out soon. Network monitoring app.Never do an app for the sake of being open source. What you do has to be innovative enough that solves your customer or end users problems. And should be hard for your competitors to replicate.



Robert: Hardware is completely commoditized. The lock that software holds presently prevents hardware from moving faster. With zimbra like apps, things could change. Will give Microsoft a run for the money. Data transfer from laptops---transferring your content to a new laptop is a bottleneck due to propoertary software. Now if your on the web browser then you don’t care about local software---but a new laptop and throw away your old one.



Q&A:



Question: AJAK vs Flashflash has advantage its same on all browsers. but pre-2005 was all about graphics and moving fonts and text around. Only recently they have dev apps -- macromedia flex 1.0 visual basics, flex 2.0 visual basics for web.Places where flash is better than Ajax’s, and places where Ajax is better than flash.



Ajax JavaScript has openness than flash where adobe is closed. Google yahoo has gone Ajax way want to embrace open standard and open programming ways.



Question: Application



Web2.0 aps are any rich UI app you generally see on the pc.



Question: Marketing



-- Find new way of doing things



--viral marketing, blogging, etc. Far better than old sales models and techniques.



Question: What types of apps



--documenting, spreadsheet, word processors can be down on browser



--things memory centric need to be done in app.--end result now will always end up as a web interface.



--however if its memory infective or something that needs to right to your local file system, it will need to be done locally first.Question: Monetizing web20



--embedding modules you charge for. Such as search tool and charge for search made



--partnering with carriers for sms.



--sell subscriptions



Question:



Apache tomcat is platform for web20Xml http serversAjax is purely client side, not server side. you deliver Ajax through zip file. Protocols b/w Ajax front ends and back ends could be propitiatory.



Question:



Security issue with Ajax in a way its probably cumulatively safer to do things via browser than through 20 - 30 client apps.



Question: Hardware



--$600 pc can run all ajak apps. --but memory need to have anough memory



Question: third world activities for web. sales through web



--one answer get close to customers



--let customers drive relationships, what genius is built on



Question: when to get vc money



Seth: initially they didn’t need--its hard to take vc money lots you have to do, as they slow you down



--if plan is grow big, flip it fast, then don’t take vc money.



--be really clear on what you want to do



--want to do a business or a quick flip



--not bad to do a quick flip, probably much safer bet in current climate.



--Find right vc partner is a huge deal, painful board meetings.



--Good VC characteristic: have they been an entrepreneur in the passed? That is a safer bet typically than b-school/investment bank vc’s



--In addition to having a good b-model get a good team before launching a product for VC funding



--meebo didn’t have a good team for VC funding



---were great professionals but not credible for VC funding before launch



--if meebo team was like Satish (zimbra) team composition then they would get money before launch.



--team members for pre-launch vcs are credible people from top visible positions or former entrepreneurs-vcs look at three things: (1) Team is really imp (2) marketability of product--is this something that can sell, reducing market risk (3) reducing execution risk.