ICT

Google captures market share from Yahoo, Microsoft

Google further solidified its position as the top preferred search engine in the US in August while Microsoft and Yahoo slipped.

Google was used 63 per cent of the time in August, compared to 61.9 per cent in July, according to figures released Friday by comScore, which tracks online trends. Yahoo came in second in August at 19.6 per cent, down .9 per cent from July. Microsoft garnered 8.3 per cent of traffic in August, down .6 per cent from a month prior.

ComScore’s data was drawn from 11.7 billion total searches. It includes searches done on other sites employing certain search engines but does not include mapping, local directory and user-generated video sites, which are measured separately.

The slipping market share of Yahoo and Microsoft doesn’t speak well for their efforts to invigorate their online services and brands.

Microsoft’s efforts to acquire Yahoo earlier this year were due in part to its struggle in trying to catch up with Google and belief that Yahoo would bring it valuable engineering resources.

The two companies appear to have ceded ground to even more distant competitors in the search market. The Ask Network increased its share of searches to 4.8 per cent in August from 4.3 per cent a month before.

Also, AOL - which has undertaken a revamp of its portal while also building an online advertising business - moved up slightly, from a 4.2 per cent share in July to 4.3 per cent in August.

In separate statistics, comScore drills down into where searches are performed within a company’s services, giving an indication of how popular certain offerings are.

For Microsoft, the news again isn’t good.

Searches on its MSN portal and Windows Live, an opening page that acts as a gateway to blogging and email services and includes search, were down 7 per cent between July and August.

Other notable statistics were a 3 per cent rise in queries on Google’s YouTube video service and a 9 per cent increase in searches on MySpace, the social-networking site owned by Fox Interactive Media.

Facebook saw an 8 per cent rise in searches, according to comScore.

Macworld

Virtusa pioneers Application of Open Source Software with “Keystone”

Virtusa Corporation IT solutions provider and the IT services company operating in Sri Lanka, has long been a pioneer in the development and use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). It has been a strong contributor to the open source movement in Sri Lanka, and has implemented open source tools extensively, both within its internal operations and for its clients.

Faced with its growing need for cost-effective software configuration management support to support its client services, Virtusa launched an innovative project to build a custom software configuration management solution built on open source software, called “Keystone.” It offers a distinct advantage over proprietary systems when developing software for clients.

“Keystone” is a software configuration management system that was built using GForge, Subversion, and Tortoise, all on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and attuned to Virtusa’s requirements. Virtusa uses Keystone both internally and across all client projects to perform issue tracking, source code management, document management and global collaboration.

Keystone represents a breakthrough in the use of open source for a robust, scalable production application. By replacing an expensive proprietary source code management system, Virtusa was able to save $3 million USD on licensing fees and acquisition costs by adopting Keystone.

In the first phase, it tried and tested the FOSS-based tool with its R&D and internal IT teams. Based on that experience, as well as on its extensive use of FOSS components for clients, Virtusa then extended Keystone’s deployment to all client projects.

Virtusa developers got the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the power and flexibility of FOSS tools from the Sahana project for disaster management, initiated after the Sri Lankan tsunami disaster in 2004.

Sahana is a comprehensive disaster relief management application, which includes registries for organisations, shelters and missing persons, as well as modules for aid requests and volunteer coordination.

Sahana has won broad recognition as a premier disaster relief management application, with successful deployments in relief efforts in Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, China and, most recently, Bihar, India.

Virtusa’s Senior Vice President for Global Delivery Operations, Santanu Paul, said “Virtusa launched its “Keystone” initiative in 2006.

This was designed to replace a couple of commercial options that we had bought. We made a strategic decision engineer Keystone on FOSS, and we have reaped huge benefits from our decision.

We have saved $3 million to date, plus we are targeting another $2 million in the next couple of years.

We also realised that we would get better control over our destiny with an in-house tool for our specific needs, and gain competitive advantage and thought leadership-with our customers using open source and gaining from the technology.”

Paul said “the main advantage for our business is that open source is a good way to achieve market advantage. Companies that offer open source software are able to establish an industry standard at dramatically lower cost, and thus gain competitive advantage.

“Keystone has also helped build developer loyalty, as our developers feel empowered and have a sense of ownership of the end product.”

SLT to sponsor Young Computer Scientist awards competition

The awards ceremony of the Young Computer Scientist (YCS), an annual competition to recognise young ICT talent in Sri Lanka will be held at HNB Auditorium on October 4.

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Zillione are sponsors for this years YCS awards ceremony.

Sri Lanka Association for the Software Industry (SLASI) the national organisation representing the Software Industry in Sri Lanka and a member of INFOTEL has been organising the Young Computer Scientist Award for the last 7 years. This program is conducted modeled on the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA). The competition encourages the younger generation to present their ideas, skills, thought and views on aspects relating to information and communication technology.

The information society presents a challenge for today’s education system, in changing everyday lives, information technology also provides new opportunities for learning.

ICT it is not only the knowledge itself that is changing at a rapid pace, but also the way in which one get access to information. It create a learning environment in which children are encouraged to discover, use their creativity, engage in multimedia communication, cooperate with distant partners, work independently and in groups, and adapt their experience, thus enhancing the acquisition of knowledge and the development of their skills.

The YCS competition is open for two groups of students; aged 12 to 16 the junior category, and 17 to 19 years, the senior category.

The selection process is based on an initial assessment from a panel of judges, followed by a presentation/demonstration by the students and a final judgment by the same panel selected amongst industry and academia.

The winners of the senior and junior student category will have the opportunity to compete in the APICTA event to be held in Indonesia in November 2008. Winner in the senior student category will be provided with the airfare, hotel accommodation and entry fee to participate at Asia Pacific ICT Awards ( APICTA )

Students from Colombo, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Badulla, Galle, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Kurunegala, Matale, Matara, Polonnaruwa and Ratnapura districts schools participated this year’s competition. Over 250 entries were submitted for both categories in this year’s competition.

Lankan gamers set to go global at WCG 2008

Sri Lankan gamers will have an opportunity to showcase their talents at an international level by participating at the World Cyber Games 2008 (WCG).

To be held in Cologne, Germany from November 5 to 9, the WCG is the world’s largest computer and video game festival, designed to build a healthy cyber culture and gathers 1.5 million of the best gamers from 75 countries around the world to compete annually for the title of World Champion in their separate games.

In order to select the Sri Lankan champions for the WCG the tournament will be held at the BMICH in Colombo. Preliminaries will take place on September 27 and 28 in Committee Room D while the National Finals will take place on October 4 in Committee Room B.

The local leg of the games is being organised by Lanka eSports, the authorized representatives of the World Cyber Games in Sri Lanka, an organisation made up of young individuals who are gamers themselves and believe that Sri Lankan gamers are ready to take on international opponents.

This year, Lanka eSports hopes to send local representatives in Counter Strike and Warcraft, arguably two of the most popular games in the country.

The winning team in Counter Strike and the individual winner in Warcraft will be sent for the World Cyber Games, the first time that Sri Lanka will be officially represented at a tournament of this nature.

Over 500 local gamers are expected to view for honours in this tournament which is set in a carnival like atmosphere enhancing the overall gaming experience and will be held to international standards.

Lanka eSports mission is to provide opportunities and exposure for the Sri Lankan gaming community by providing organised game development within Sri Lanka and hopes to become the leading representative organisation for Sri Lankan Cyber Athletes in international events, thereby enhancing the quality of Sri Lankan gaming for both competitive and recreational purposes. More information can be obtained from www.esports.lk.

SALA introduces SAFA mega voice recorder

SAFA introduces SAFA voice recorder to local market recently. The SAFA voice recorder is sleek, stylish and comes with a whole range of fantastic features. It has a record braking recording time of 130 hours. This amazing device could be used as a MP3 player or a WMV player as well as data storage device.

The SAFA voice recorder has a very high memory capacity and in addition to that, it gives the option of increasing the memory capacity by adding a micro SD card as well.

The recorder has VOR (Voice Operated Recording) capability as well as the ability to record cell phone conversations and land phone conversations too. Not only that, one can use it to record sounds from external devices like stereo tape players, CD players, DVD players ... etc.

The SAFA voice recorder is not just a MP3 player. It comes as four multi recording Modes (STEREO HQ/HQ/SP/LP) with 5 preset equalizer modes as well

The SAFA voice recorder comes with a USB 2.0 interface which can be plugged directly onto the computer to transfer the data without any problem, while other voice recorders presently in the market would require special software/ drivers to convert the data on to your computer..

It also could be used as an iPod. One other most important and amazing feature is that one could organize the information stored by separating it into different folders which could be accessed easily.

Xerox strategic planning meeting for 2009 to be commenced

Xerox Corporation’s strategic planning meeting for 2009 will be held in Sri Lanka this week with the participation of Xerox heads based in the SAARC region. This is the very first time that a Xerox Corporation conference of this nature is being held in Sri Lanka and with the presence of all South Asian countries.

A number of Xerox heads based in the SAARC region, together with other delegates, will confer at the Blue Waters Hotel in Wadduwa.

Chief Operating Officer of Lumen Technologies, the authorised distributor for Xerox in Sri Lanka, Rukshan Sheriff, said that Lumen was proud to welcome the Xerox representatives to forthcoming parley.

“This is also an honor for Sri Lanka and an endorsement of the country as a conducive location for conferences of this nature”, he said.

Chief Financial Officer at Xerox Lewis Sringfellow said “This Strategic Planning Meeting is critical to our business operations in the SAARC region. It brings together key Xerox personnel based in the region to confer and plan steps and strategies for the forthcoming year”.

Executive Director, Production Systems Group, Integrated Marketing and SAO Vipin Tuteja, said “We are delighted to be a part of the regional planning meeting and look forward to this visit to Sri Lanka”.

Lumen Technologies Ltd, a member of Golden Key Group and a Ceylinco Consolidated company, entered the Sri Lankan market in April 2007 in order to offer world renowned document management solutions.

Xerox Corporation is the world’s largest document management company. Xerox develops and markets innovative technologies, products and solutions to improve business results.

Affordable computing devices based on Intel Atom Processors now available

Intel announced the availability of affordable, computing devices from a host of OEMs such as MSI, Asus and local system builders like EPSI, PC House and Newnet. All these devices are powered by the Intel Atom processor, Intel’s recently announced family of low-power processors formerly codenamed Diamondville and designed specifically for a new class of simple and affordable Internet-centric computers.

Country Business Manager - Sri Lanka Intel EM Ltd, Indika De Zoysa, said “Currently in the market there is a price point vacuum at the sub $500 mark. At the same time there is also a demand for Internet-based content and usage models exploding. Coupled with low PC penetration in Sri Lanka, this means there is a huge potential market for these devices.”

As per the Sri Lanka Government Statistics’ Department’s 2005 report, the IT literacy rate in Sri Lanka is only 12%. The emergence of these affordable computing devices based on Intel’s Atom processor will go a along way in achieving the goal of 60% IT literacy by 2010 in Sri Lanka.

The Intel Atom processor is Intel’s smallest processor, built with the world’s smallest transistors based on industry-leading 45nm high-k metal gate technology.

Intel Atom is purpose-built for netbooks and nettops, which is a new category of simple, affordable devices for the Internet. Netbooks and nettops offer both emerging and mature markets an easy-to-use device with simple interfaces and targeted performance for a good online experience.

Netbooks are rugged and compact in design, and offer the freedom and flexibility of wireless connectivity. Nettops offer an affordable at-home experience on a reliable computing device.

Great for the Internet, netbooks and nettops are an affordable option for education, photo and video viewing, social networking, voice over IP, e-mail, messaging, browsing and other Internet activities as well as for basic applications.

IT employees feel the prick of slowdown thorn

Sailing through the murky waters of the Indian IT, the software professionals are becoming more panicky with the collapse of the U.S. financial sector, who is the key customer of IT and BPO firms. The unruly impact of the U.S. slowdown on the IT firms has left the employees in an indecisive state.Tarun, a mid-level executive at an IT services firm says, “There is a considerable amount of apprehension among IT professionals as nobody is sure what would be the direct impact on their jobs.”

Moreover, the economizing tendency of the firms who are expected to adopt rigorous cost cutting measures is the main catch behind the increasing fear and the pensive attitude. Adding to it even the recruiters feel that the situation will be more critical than the cloudiness that prevailed in the industry during the dotcom bust.

Thus, the incessant slashing of employees and holding on further recruitments can be seen to be in compliance with the observation. “Now is the best chance for companies to offload ‘non-performers’ as well as those on the bench.

Already, companies such as IBM and TCS have reportedly removed some staff, primarily on grounds of poor performance,” says Shashi, who works for a small IT firm. Apart from offering pink slips the firms have introduced concepts such as just-in-time inventory and an offline bench.

The effect of the downturn has become the buzz word for the techies, and going by this trend Debhashish Haar, a freelance software programmer remarks, “The scene is not as great as it used to be, with topics of downsizing, tepid increments and project delays absorbing all talks.” Though in some cases this extreme reaction is yet not viewed like E Balaji of Ma Foi finds no alarming signals though companies are not rushing to hire. Even Adecco India CEO Sudhakar Balakrishnan is of the view that it is too early to talk about employees pressing the panic button.

However, the light in these dark days are seen by the product companies and the start ups who are roping in employees at the minimum cost, in their words it’s the “right talent at the right price.”

siliconindia news burea

DEN goes live with solutions from Duo Software

Duo Software was selected by DEN Networks Limited ( DEN )to deliver an end to end solution which encompasses billing, mediation, provisioning, inventory management, CRM and contact center management to handle the entire process flow of DEN in terms of subscriber process requirements.

From a customer calling, to creating a subscriber, distribution of inventory, installation, and provisioning of services to generating bills, runs seamlessly through out DEN through the adoption of Duo Software.

Duo Subscribe Version 4.9 is a highly scalable system recognised as the world’s fastest billing system for the Pay TV industry, with the capability of generating one million bills in less than 22 minutes.

DuoSubscribe’s inventory management module was used at DEN to manage the entire inventory distribution operation. DuoContact is a fully integrated contact center solution that facilitates delivery of service through multiple channels to ensure that DEN streamlines its customer interactions across all touch points.

DuoContact provides a comprehensive, intuitive and easy to use interface which enables speedy navigation and retrieval of information in order to deliver superior standards of service to customers.

CEO, DEN Anuj Gandhi, “We chose Duo Software after evaluating their products in depth. We found their solution to have all the features that will deliver the highest levels of service in terms of quality and efficiency to our customers and all our stakeholders. Duo Software was able to deliver the best value to our subscriber management processes.”

President - Digital Initiatives and Corporate Strategy, DEN Vikas Bali, said “We are extremely happy with our decision to select Duo Software as our partner for the Subscriber Management System and Contact Center Management System. We are confident with the way the system handles process flows and are impressed that the system was customized within a short period of time which enabled us to market out digital services, within a minimal time frame.”

CEO of Duo Software India, Miran Shah, said, “We are honored and happy to have been selected for our true potential to deliver DEN’s comprehensive requirements. Having successfully implemented the application and having gone live has given the team members of Duo and DEN great enthusiasm. From here onwards we are certain that the customers of DEN will start benefiting from these features.”