‘Two million monitoring sensitive posts on Internet in China‘

BEIJING: China has deployed over two million people to monitor web activity, state media say, providing a rare glimpse into how the Communist giant tries to control the Internet in the world's most populous nation.

The Beijing News says the monitors, described as Internet opinion analysts, are on state and commercial payrolls.

China's hundreds of millions of web users increasingly use microblogs to criticise the state or vent anger.

The report by the Beijing News said that these monitors were not required to delete postings.

China's Internet is one of the most controlled and censored in the world. Websites deemed to be subversive are blocked. Politically sensitive postings are routinely deleted.

But with the rapid growth of Internet users, the ruling Communist Party has found itself fighting an uphill battle, the BBC reported.

The Beijing News, while reporting the story of microblog monitors, has admitted that it is impossible for the government to delete all "undesirable" postings.

They are "strictly to gather and analyse public opinions on microblog sites and compile reports for decision-makers", it said. It also added details about how some of these monitors work.

Tang Xiaotao has been working as a monitor for less than six months, the report says, without revealing where he works.

"He sits in front of a PC every day, and opening up an application, he types in key words which are specified by clients.

"He then monitors negative opinions related to the clients, and gathers (them) and compile reports and send them to the clients," it says.

The reports says the software used in the office is even more advanced and supported by thousands of servers. It also monitors websites outside China.

China rarely reveals any details concerning the scale and sophistication of its Internet police force.

It is believed that the two million Internet monitors are part of a huge army which the government relies on to control the cyber space.

The government is also to organise training classes for them for the first time from 14 to 18 October, the paper says.

The most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, launched in 2010, now has more than 500 million registered users with 100 million messages posted daily.

Read More

Smartphone app ‘Take Control‘ alerts users at risk of binge eating

A smartphone app which aims to strike at the same moment that binge eating urges occur has been developed as part of two new treatments designed to help those suffering from the disorder. Developed by scientists at Drexel University, the 'Take Control' app will track users' individual patterns of consumption and binge eating behaviour, alerting them at times when they may be susceptible to overeating.

Alongside this, small-group behavioural therapy techniques are also being created to equip patients with the psychological tools to help them benefit from the standard treatment received by those who binge eat.

These developments arise as it is revealed that even the most scientifically supported treatment — Cognitive Behavioural Therapy ( CBT) — leads to remission for only between 50-60% of those who complete a full course.

Binge eating has only recently been identified as an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and is already suspected to affect more than twice the number of people as bulimia nervosa.

However, it has been noted by scientists that those who suffer from binge eating are often left feeling ashamed and isolated, as they are not aware of the amount of people affected by it and sometimes don't even recognise it as an official condition. The app aims to break the cycle of binge eating by becoming familiar with the individual's habits and triggers and warning them when the risk is high.

Acting in a similar way to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, the app will allow patients to record factors such as their multiple mood states, binge eating activity and urges, and whether or not they have eaten regular meals and taken required medication.

In contrast, the new in-person treatment programme is designed to help sufferers deal with the discomforts of traditional therapies by giving them psychological strategies to combat the disorder.

Read More

Messaging app Line expects to cross 20 million Indian users in 2013

MUMBAI: Japanese messaging application Line said it reached 10 million registered users in India and expects to cross the 20 million mark this year, as it focuses on advertising and localizing content.

India, which has overtaken Japan to become the third-largest smartphone market is the world, is an attractive target for messaging applications. In May, China's Tencent launched its application WeChat in India.

The volume of mobile messaging apps is forecast to be twice that of person to person, or P2P SMS, messaging by the end of 2013, according to Informa Telecoms and Media.

"We haven't experienced such rapid growth in any other country to date," Akira Morikawa, CEO of Line Corp, said.

Morikawa said Line had 260 million users globally, though he was unable to say what portion of those users actively used the service. US messaging application Whatsapp has more than 250 million active users.

Line has roped in Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as its brand ambassador. It will also have stickers and the official accounts of movies like 'Phata Poster Nikla Hero' and 'Besharam'.

Line has also tied-up with Sony India and will come pre-installed on the Sony Xperia Z1 and Xperia C smartphones. Sony Music Entertainment will open official accounts on Line.

Read More

IT life-cycle management becoming complex task for CIO: Cisco

MUMBAI: IT life-cycle management is becoming more complex for Chief Information Officer ( CIO) as the influence of other lines of business ( LoB) like HR and marketing, is on the rise, IT firm Cisco said.

According to a Cisco survey, over 90 per cent of the respondents said the influence of LoBs will extend across all IT life-cycle stages and create unprecedented complexity for organisations as they grapple with security and technical support.

"As cloud adoption becomes more mainstream, a number of cloud adoption decisions are being initiated by business heads. IT departments need to increasingly re-model the way in which they partner with business," Cisco Consulting Services Director ( Cloud Computing) APJC Neeraj Arora told reporters in a tele briefing.

This will involve acting as a broker or intermediary of cloud services orchestrating the planning and procurement process for LoBs across internal and external clouds, he added.

However, the report said respondents in emerging markets like India, China and Brazil believe IT will maintain a centralised and well-funded role, managing cloud solutions with consistent policy and security solutions.

The report surveyed 4226 IT leaders in 18 industries across nine countries, including India (600 respondents).

Read More

Cloud infra company VMWare to expand Pune centre

VMware, a global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure today announced it will be expanding its operations in Pune.Cloud infra company VMWare to expand Pune centre

Read More

Collabera hits $100 million mark, appoints new CEO

PUNE: Collabera, a global IT and professional services company has appointed Raj Mamodia as CEO. The company also also hit the $100 million business mark, as result of growing demand for IT services. Mamodia comes to the company from Cognizant where he was a part of the global leadership team. Hiten Patel, Chairman and Co-founder of Collabera, said, "Many of our strategic clients are betting heavily on emerging technologies to transform their business and engaging us in their strategic programs. Our investments into IT services business and in multiple acquisitions we have made over a decade are well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity with many of our strategic clients looking to deploy new wave of technologies to improve their businesses."

The company intends to invest significantly to growth the business, via both, organic and inorganic means.

Mamodia has been tasked with leading the company's next wave of growth and transformation into a new age IT services firm focused on consumer oriented and insight driven industries. He said, "Collabera is building deeper capabilities and re-tuning the expertise to address new IT architecture to transform IT and businesses. Our goal is to deliver greater value to our clients through transformational services like using automation to reduce run costs significantly, rapidly cloud enabling legacy applications and applying insights & mobile enabled technology architecture to transform the legacy application landscape.".

The company employs about 9000 professionals over multiple locations and has four delivery centers in the U.S., UK, India, Singapore and Philippines.

Read More

Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer seek re-election to Microsoft board

SEATTLE: Chairman Bill Gates and retiring Chief Executive Steve Ballmer are standing for re-election to Microsoft Corp's board of directors, according to the company's annual proxy filing made public on Thursday.

Ballmer and Gates, both 57, have been the target of activist investors over the past few months who believe the software maker needs new leadership to compete with mobile-savvy rivals such as Apple Inc and Google Inc.

But it is highly likely they will retain their board seats.

Ballmer announced his plan to retire within 12 months in August, but there is no sign that Gates will relinquish his role or leave the board of the company he co-founded with Paul Allen 38 years ago.

Microsoft has not yet named a successor to Ballmer and is in the midst of a search process it said could take until next August.

Ballmer is set to stay on as CEO until a successor is appointed, but Microsoft has not said whether Ballmer will remain a board director after that. Whether on the board or not, Ballmer made it clear last month in a meeting with Wall Street analysts that he plans to remain engaged as a major investor.

According to the proxy filing, Gates remains the company's largest individual shareholder, with a 4.5 per cent stake, followed by Ballmer with 4 percent.

The filing made no mention of Mason Morfit, president of activist shareholder ValueAct Capital Management, who was offered a board seat by Microsoft in August.

Morfit is expected to take up that offer and will likely be appointed to the board after Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting on Nov. 19, people familiar with the matter said.

Read More

Google, ASI usher in ‘digital tourism‘ in India

Archaeological Survey of India and Google India have embarked together on a "monumental journey" to usher in, what possibly will be "digital tourism" in the country

NEW DELHI: Archaeological Survey of India and Google India have embarked together on a "monumental journey" to usher in, what possibly will be "digital tourism" in the country.

After bringing iconic global landmarks like France's Eiffel Tower, America's Grand Canyon and Japan's Mt Fuji, among others, alive on the Internet through its immersive "visual walkthroughs", Google has now commenced work on putting 100 major Indian monuments and sites in that league.

Once completed, architectural icons like the Taj Mahal, Humayun's Tomb, and heritage wonders such as Khujuraho, and Ajanta and Ellora Caves, among others, will "visually explode" on the Internet in a "360-degree panoramic imagery".

"We wanted enhanced and an active experience for our (virtual) visitors and not just mere passive viewing of the sites. And, that's why we want to partner with agencies like the ASI, UNESCO, World Monuments Fund to source authoritative content - current and archival to enrich user's experience," Google Cultural Institute Director Amit Sood told PTI.

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the Ministry of Culture has prepared a "tentative list" of the 100 monuments and Google would keep on executing them, "as and when the names get cleared."

The Internet giant recently signed a memorandum with the Ministry in this regard at the Qutub Minar complex here, which would see the company creating the application using its 'Street View Trekker' technology for the first time in India.

"Eiffel Tower, Grand Canyon, Mt Fuji, etc have all been immersively mapped on to our GoogleMaps and can also be seen on the World Wonders site, part of our Cultural Institute. Indian monuments too will be available there once we go live," Sood said.

At the launch, a preliminary walkthrough of Qutub Minar was shown, and a Google employee also gave a demo of the 'Street View Trekker' by walking on the manicured lawns, with the gadget strapped to his back.

Google India said it saw the opportunity as a happy marriage between "5,000 years of Indian history and 20 years of internet history" and an opportunity for "digital preservation" of collective heritage.

Read More

IPO spotlights Twitter co-founders Evan Williams

"It showcases the difference between perceived power and real power," said independent Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, who sold blogging platform startup Pyra Labs to Google a decade ago, will cash in anew when the hot one-to-many messaging service hits Wall Street.

While Google didn't disclose how much it paid to get its hands on Blogger, which fueled what was then a hot trend in online journals called "weblogs," the deal likely lined the pockets of co-founder Williams and helped him continue on as a "serial entrepreneur."

Twitter's stock market debut promises to clinch for Williams, who tweets from his @ev account, a spot in the billionaire category due to his 12 per cent stake in the San Francisco-based startup.

It also heralds riches for co-founder and Silicon Valley wunderkind Jack Dorsey and his 4.9 per cent stake, especially if the hot Internet firm rockets to the $20 billion high-end of its forecasted market valuation.

Dick Costolo will remain chief of the globally popular one-to-many messaging service, but as major shareholders the co-founders will be forces behind the scenes.

"It showcases the difference between perceived power and real power," said independent Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle.

Enderle said that it remained to be scene how the power mix would shape Twitter, noting that Google thrived while Eric Schmidt served as chief executive but Larry Page and Sergey Brin controlled the course of the California-based company.

Paperwork filed this week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission listed Williams as the Twitter executive with the largest batch of shares, while Dorsey's stake was second.

The filing was made public ahead of an initial public offering of stock expected by the end of this year.

Costolo, Williams and Dorsey could collectively be worth as much as $3.7 billion after the company's IPO if Twitter shares soar and the company's value by Wall Street standards climbs quickly to $20 billion, as some have forecast. With the IPO filing, Twitter was valued at $10 billion.

Costolo was listed having a 1.6 per cent stake in the company. No mention was made of what share, if any, is held by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, whose tweeting handle is @biz. Stone left Twitter about two years ago.

Dorsey and Williams are listed as members of a six-person board of directors at Twitter and have done stints as chief executive.

Dorsey, who tweets as @jack, is a Silicon Valley boy wonder portrayed by some as following in the footsteps of late, legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs when it comes to world-changing innovations.

Things have not always gone smoothly between Twitter's co-founders, with Dorsey pushed out after the launch only to be later brought back to help run the company.

While away from Twitter, Dorsey co-founded a company called Square that lets people accept credit card payments using smartphones or tablet computers.

He said the idea for Square came from an artist friend who bemoaned losing out on a big sale at a fair because the buyer wanted to pay with a credit card.

Read More

EMC Corp targets mid-market segment to boost growth in India

MUMBAI: EMC Corp , which provides data storage and security solutions, is making a push to sell more to smaller, mid-market customers, as it looks to cement its position as the biggest player in the Indian storage market.

Technology firms are increasingly targeting the mid-market as they look to boost their business in the country. TCS launched its iON cloud services business to target that segment two years ago, and had said it expected it to become a $1 billion business by 2016.

"We have taken steps to help the mid-market segment grow. That includes focusing on channel partners and tailoring the discussion around mid-market needs. We have also tied up with service providers like NetMagic and Ctrl S for this," Rajesh Janey, President - India and SAARC - at EMC said.

Research firm IDC said, in India, EMC has about a 32% share of a $62 million market. Jaideep Mehta, country general manager for IDC, said while the storage market in India contracted in the first half of the year, EMC had grown, increasing its market share.

EMC also launched a "transform coach" - which is a bus that will tour seven cities in six month period to reach mid-market customers who might otherwise be unable to come to the company's briefing centre in Bangalore.

The bus will go to Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi and the company expects to reach out to 500 customer organizations.

Virtualization and cloud provider VMware, which is majorly owned by EMC, is also focusing on Tier-2 cities to drive growth. Virtualization is a way of making more efficient use of hardware through specialized software.

"A good portion of our customers are small and medium sized. A good indication of the growth in that market is our move into Tier-2 towns," T Srinivasan, managing director - India and SAARC - said.

VMware currently operates in cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Srinivasan said further penetration was planned by declined to give details.

Read More