Visitors came from a wide range of places and industries on planet Earth. Trabas Informatika Indonesia document some to share with you from: Advertising, Media, Bank and Finance, Broadcast/Video, Business/Corporate/IT, Corporate R and D Staff, Design Consultant, Distributors and Dealers, Integrated resorts, Theme Parks and Sport Arenas, Logistic/Supply Chain & Warehousing, Manufacturers, Rental and Staging Companies, Retail, Sales and Marketing to Government and Military, and Education and Training.

The products include Audio and Video Equipment and Technologies, Cellular Technologies, Computer/IT/Networking, Digital Display Equipment and Technologies, Digital Graphic, Digital Marketing, Electronic & Interactive Whiteboards and Wall track systems, Electronic/Digital Publishing, LED Technologies, Lighting and Studio Support, Navigation System and Technologies, Speakers, amplifiers and mixerx, video production and editing technologies, packaging machines, chemicals’ ingredients, and printing machines.

Techistan’s friends at Trabas (who are open source everything and experts with SAAS and online solutions) had the opportunity to launch their new product “Trabas SaaS” at the i+C 2011 conference in Jakarta.

They state, “It was indeed a great opportunity for us to do business, network and learn in a high-charged business development atmosphere here in Jakarta, Indonesia.”

Trabas and Techistan were media partners for the i+C Conference that was held March 30 – April 2, 2011. Be sure to participate next year. Visit http://www.iplusc.net/.

Maxis customers will be the first to enjoy the latest, revolutionary Android device, the * Google Nexus S, also known as the “Google Phone”. Maxis Berhad (“Maxis”), Malaysia’s integrated communications service provider, today announced its exclusive rights to the smart phone, as it continues to lead in the Android market in Malaysia by providing the latest and widest choice of Android devices. The device is the first Android smart phone to feature the latest Android Operating System (“OS”) 2.3, also known as the Gingerbread OS (Android 2.3).

Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke, Chief Operating Officer of Maxis Berhad said, “Maxis is focused on delighting our customers and enriching their lives with the latest, innovative devices to keep up with their ever-changing lifestyle needs and demands. We were the first communications provider to bring Malaysians the smartphone experience, allowing them to conveniently access the web for work and play from the palm of their hands.”

He continues, “Today, Maxis is again the first to bring our customers the revolutionary Google Nexus S, the new jewel in our extensive range of Android devices. The market is becoming increasingly mobile; many of our consumers are part of a new generation of go-getter’s and jet-setters. Our leadership position enables us to forge partnerships with leading device manufacturers such as Samsung to ensure that Maxis customers experience the latest and most advanced devices first. Their experience is further enhanced by the fact that Maxis today has the widest broadband footprint in the country, enabling them to enjoy the features of the smart device on seamless high-speed mobile data networks.”

Launched Nexus S by Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke, Chief Operating Officer
of Maxis Berhad and Yu Jai Sul,Managing Director,Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn. Bhd.

Speaking at the launch of Nexus S, Mr. Yu Jai Sul, Managing Director, Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn. Bhd. said, “Samsung and Google are working hand-in-hand with Maxis to make the best Android smartphone experience available to the Malaysian market. The Nexus S will give you both functionality and a stunning user-experience as it integrates Samsung’s world-class hardware and award-winning technology with exciting new features.”

Maxis customers would be able to access popular Maxis applications such as Maxis Movies and Maxis Finder301 from this fastest Android phone to date. The device is available for purchase by Maxis customers with any data plan at affordable prices. See http://maxis.com.my/personal/android/Android_Phones.asp?iStruct=0:2:0.

Maxis was the first to introduce the BlackBerry and iPhone to Malaysia, and has the widest range of Android devices in the market. The company presently offers Malaysia’s widest variety of smartphone devices, encompassing all major mobile operating systems. With an investment of RM1.44 billion in 2010, Maxis successfully modernised and solidified its network, including growing its network infrastructure to support data growth with a record number of base stations rolled out i.e. more than 1,250 3G sites and 1,400 HSPA sites, continuing with network quality enhancement, expanding into new geographical areas and augmenting 2G network. With its end-to-end smart network, Maxis provides the best user experience from simple voice usage to meeting the growing demand for data-intensive applications delivered across an exciting range of smart devices.

Maxis aspires to fulfill the dreams of our customers through the best that communications technology and human creativity can offer; making our customers lives better in ways that matter.

Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke, Chief Operating Officer of Maxis Berhad and Yu Jai Sul, Managing Director, Samsung Malaysia Electronics Sdn. Bhd. viewing and experiencing the Nexus S

About the Google Nexus S
The new “Gingerbread” OS contains user interface improvements for simplicity and speed. It allows for faster and more intuitive text input as well as one touch word selection and copy or paste functions. It gives users improved power management, better control over applications and also provides for new ways of communicating and organizing materials on their mobile phone.

The Google Nexus S is sleek in appearance, with a 4” contour display; this slim device featuring a more ergonomic design in terms of style and feel. The brilliant touch screen provides an unmatched viewing experience and is powered by a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor which produces rich 3D graphics as well as providing for faster upload and download times. Equipped with a 5 megapixel rear facing camera and camcorder as well as a VGA front facing camera, the Google Nexus S comes with 16GB of internal memory for data storage.

The powerful device also includes existing Android features such as portable WiFi as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) support, a feature that future proofs the device as it will enable users to use it for mobile payments as soon as the infrastructure is in place.

Media Representatives checking out the Nexus S at the launch

About Maxis Berhad

Maxis Berhad with its consolidated subsidiaries (together, ‘Maxis’) is the leading integrated communications provider in Malaysia with 13.92 million mobile subscriptions as of 31 December 2010. Since 1995, Maxis’ Malaysian business has been providing a full suite of communication services on multiple platforms to satisfy the needs of individual consumers, small and medium enterprises, and large corporations in Malaysia.

Maxis has pioneered and led the Malaysian market in providing innovative mobile products and services. It was the first to launch 3G services, Maxis3G, in March 2005. In September 2006 it was among the world’s first to use HSDPA, a high-speed upgrade of the 3G network. In December 2009 it was first to introduce to Malaysia, HSPA+, the latest advancement in 3G/HSPA network capabilities, to further enhance its wireless broadband services.

Maxis is a leading regional content player with 41.5% of non-voice revenue as part of mobile revenue and with over 50% of its customer base being active mobile internet users. It continually explores global and local best partnerships with partners such as Western Union, PayPal, the Barclays Premier League and the Lotus Racing Team in Formula One to bring the latest relevant content first to customers. Maxis actively builds a local content ecosystem with partners to forward the Malaysian content industry.

It was also the first telecommunication service provider to bring the BlackBerry™ and Apple iPhone™ smart phones to Malaysia. The company in April 2009 unveiled the first-in-the world commercial near field communication service, which enables customers to use their phones for wave and pay transactions.

Maxis’ growth and strong track record of enabling innovation, excellent customer experience and value to stakeholders have won the company numerous awards over the years which include Asia’s Best Employer Award 2010 from Singapore’s Employer Branding Institute. Maxis was nominated as Best Mobile Operator in 2010’s World Communication Awards for leadership in service innovation.

Maxis’ vision is to bring advanced communications services to enrich its customers’ lives and businesses, in a manner that is simple and personalised, by efficiently and creatively harnessing leading edge technology, and delivering a brand of service experience that is reliable and enchanting.

Maxis has also been active in carrying out Corporate Responsibility programmes to serve the communities. Since 2002 Maxis has been dedicated to working in unison with the Ministry of Information Communications and Culture Malaysia (‘KPKK’) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (‘SKMM’) on the Bridging Communities corporate responsibility programme to increase Malaysian access to the digital platform.

For more information, please visit: maxis.com.my

* The Android Nexus S has a touchscreen-only device has a 4-inch curved “contour” Super AMOLED display, 1-Ghz Hummingbird processor, 16 GB of internal storage, and a 1500-mAH battery rated for 6.7 hours of talk time. The handset showcases some of the new hardware features of Android 2.3, such as support for near-field communication (NFC), which can be used for close-range contactless data exchange. It was available to T-Mobile users or available at Best Buy unlocked.

A Prototype of the Qwiki Alarm Clock was released in 2010 quarter four. It’s personalised for the user.  “It is an example of Qwiki genius,” says an anonymouse user of Qwiki and part of Techistan communicty.

Good Morning, Doug from Qwiki on Vimeo.

More and more of what you search for on Qwiki will produce results in the form of a story filled with sounds and visuals. What would really be cool is if and when it includes scent, taste, and/or tactile sensations. That would be above and beyond even Second Life. Does it automatically translate to any language one wishes to experience?

Adam Dachis at Lifehacker says, “Qwiki Is Like a Mini, Visually-Rich Wikipedia That Reads to You.”

Techistan requested to interview someone in September 2010  from the Qwiki Team. The response from Qwiki in January 2011 was an email with the following Qwiki Fact Sheet. (We did add the hyphen between “computer” and “aggregated,” capitalized “Internet,” and linked to a few web sites in our ongoing effort to educate ourselves and others.)

1. Qwiki was co-founded by entrepreneur Doug Imbruce and Internet veteran Louis Monier, the founder of Alta Vista (mostly remembered for its Babelfish translator, now used by Yahoo), in 2009.

2. Qwiki is a new media format that transforms data into an “information experience” – a more organic method for information consumption via rich media.

3. Qwiki’s platform enables mass customization of rich media on multiple devices via proprietary technology that merges Art and Science.

4. A “Qwiki” is a 100% computer-aggregated multimedia presentation of online data.

5. The company is currently in private alpha with hundreds of thousands of user signups.

6. Qwiki recently raised $8 million in Series A and has raised $9.5 million to date including its angel round.

7. Qwiki’s individual investors include primary investor Eduardo Saverin (co-founder, Facebook), Jawed Karim (co-founder, YouTube), and Pradeep Sindhu (co-founder, Juniper Networks); institutional investors include Greylock Partners (via the Discovery Fund), Binary Venture Partners 1, Lerer Media Ventures, Tugboat Ventures and Contour Venture Partners.

8. Qwiki’s public alpha site will be unveiled in Q1 2011 and all users will be able to contribute content to Qwikis.

9. Qwiki iPad and iPhone apps are to be released in Q1 2011.

10. Qwiki will announce partnerships with publishers to put different kinds of non-reference content in Qwiki format in Q2 2011. Thousands of publishers have already contacted Qwiki to be content partners.

11. Future Qwikis will be widely distributed on third party websites via “embedding.”

12. Qwiki debuted in September 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, where it won the TechCrunch Disrupt Cup for “Best Startup.”

As of January 2011, Qwiki had 15 employees and is based out of Palo Alto, CA.

In About Qwiki’s alpha page, it states it “is the first step towards bringing the information experience to life.” The goal of the alpha is to harness the work of users and experience of visitors to improve Qwiki via feedback and contributions of user-generated content relevant to each Qwiki much like Wikipedia and other popular platforms.

People add content by clicking “improve this qwiki” button at the top of each Qwiki playing page. As of Feb. 28, 2011, “Qwiki covers 2 MM reference topics” from a plethora of people, places and things. (What’s 2 MM mean?)

The sun shines every Friday around 12 noon EST when the VoIP Users Conference conducts its weekly podcast on some thing to do with IP communications.

On October 29, 2010, the star was SIP Communicator is an audio/video Internet phone and instant messenger that supports some of the most popular VoIP and instant messaging protocols such as SIP, Jabber, AIM/ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Bonjour, Google Talk, Facebook and a whole lot of other useful features.

Welcome to the DIDX podcast media channel where we bring you the expertise and inspiration from IP communication leaders, early adopters, all kinds of people, from around the world. I am your host Suzanne Bowen. And today we have Yossi Ne’eman. He is a freeSWITCH open source telephony developer and IP communications entrepreneur. His company is Cartis Solutions.

Yossi Ne’eman: I’ve been with the freeSWITCH guys for quite a while, very good friends of mine. I have been to every single Cluecon convention that has occurred. Back when I first started doing business on my own, I start working with the Asterisk open source PBX. I went to the first Cluecon convention. I got to know guys like Tony, Brian, Mark Spencer and all sorts of people, active in the open source community.

I was gearing up to do some software development for Asterisk some custom nodules and interestingly enough, I found myself at the roundtable at a restaurant in the Milwaukee area after Cluecon sitting with Tony Minessale, Brian West and Mike Jerris. We were talking about things we have learned and experiences we have working with the existing solutions including Asterisk and how we would like to take things into a different direction.

Basically, it was this and the other conversation that Tony and Brian and Mike had with the other peoples that lead to the development of freeSWITCH project. As soon as Tony will released the freeSWITCH source tree to public… that’s when I got cranking away. I was the first non-core developer to release a module for freeSWITCH. That was the original mod CDR. It was written in C++ as part of an experiment on our behalf to see if we could incorporate C++ modules into the freeSWITCH environment. Once we incorporated C++, we were able to will able to incorporate a series of other languages as well, both scripted and compiled. Unfortunately, the mod CDR was deprecated and removed, as we shifted the functionality in the core and it is no longer necessary at this time.

Suzanne Bowen: You are talking about Cluecon. I believe the first one was in 2006?

Yossi Ne’eman: 2005. It was in hotel in Elkgrove Village, IL. It is certain we had some interesting experiences at the hotel itself. You might have heard about the police coming looking for someone who was not affiliated with our group.

Suzanne Bowen: I know I have been to a couple of Cluecons myself, 2007 and 2009. And I was able to get some of the most interesting content that people in IP communications, whether they are entrepreneurs or developers for our You tube or podcast channels and plenty of photos, too. I like the fact that even though a lot of it is freeSWITCH community-involved. Still you see some people from Asterisk, OpenSIPs, Kamailio, Opal, Woomera. How would you compare the first Cluecon to the upcoming Cluecon at the Trump Hotel in Chicago on August 3-5, 2010?.

Yossi Ne’eman: I would say that a lot of synergies, knowledge, and experience have been gained over the years. At the very first Cluecon, they chose Elkgrove Village to save money for the attendees and the producers. You save money initially on the hotel but you are in a much less convenient location. The facilities and amenities were not as nice and readily at hand as they would have been at a nicer hotel in downtown Chicago. So, that’s why we located afterward to the city. I am wondering how much better the Trump Hotel is. We had it at the Omni last year.

Suzanne Bowen: Absolutely there is a lot to do downtown. So, people can have fun after at the end of the day after the development, educational and entrepreneurial sessions are over.

Yossi Ne’eman: It’s as much a business and development convention as it’s a social event.

Suzanne Bowen: No doubt. I’ve made some of the best friends ever at Cluecon conferences, but also much new business for our DIDX, our IP-PABX, etc. and also for our customers’ businesses also. So speaking about some past Cluecons, do you have some funny stories of what has happened at any?

Yossi Ne’eman: In 2008 I started to take care of videography and both Mike Harris and Brian West were doing the actual video taping for that year. So, we caught a very interesting exchange. Doing one of James Body from Truphone’s presentation one year. Here was giving a demonstration of some software they were working for. And he warned everybody that the next cell phone that rings, he was going to be take it and passively destroy it. It was a pretty serious threat. A little bit later, Jame’s own cell phone rang unexpectedly.

Suzanne Bowen: And you know the guys carries about 12-14 different smar devices on him at one time at all times.

Yossi Ne’eman: However smart these devices are, they know when to shut themselves off. I just thought that was a very hilarious moment because we were all threatening to take his phone away from him, make him live up to his own threats.

If you have access to the videos 2008, put them online. Unfortunately, they are no longer on the files from the freeSWITCH.org site. In there, I did include the out-takes which includes an out-take file for James Body and get a few laughs.

Suzanne Bowen: Absolutely! Ok, so now, I am looking for a pat on the back. From what you know about DIDX, the kind of service we provide. I would love to hear your thoughts how it may enable and help a new company, any Voip company, and also love to hear if you have any advice or any thing that you wish DIDX would do?

Yossi Ne’eman: I know how it would be beneficial to me, and I am having a small company. A site like DIDX would help me. I don’t have a lot of negotiating power and DIDX levels the field for me. Let’s say I have a bunch of clients who are in different geographical regions where they need telephone numbers. It takes the incumbent LECs out of the picture. I find that the incumbent LECS are most inflexible to the needs of modern, small companies.

So if I need a pool of numbers then I will go and purchase them from DIDX and get them from just about anywhere. It looks like you guys serve the greater part of the world. If I have a company and I want to have local numbers in these different countries. I actually received bids on projects that would need phone numbers in different regions.

Something like your service would be perfect because we could order numbers we need in different locations and just have all the inbound calls routed over SIP or 323 and keep the old PSTN out of the loop. It makes us able to re-locate our systems, load balance differently than on the PSTN. It is much more flexible than having to deal many individual large telecom companies.

Suzanne Bowen: In a company like yours can better meet the needs of small businesses because you are there for them. Let me give you an example. I met a lady who is with the technical staff for the Los Angeles police department at ITEXPO West last year. I noticed that LA police department was using something called BrightComms for video conferencing. I found that it was very expensive. I know about things like Skype or TokBox, have video and some other free video conferencing softwares online. So I realize that couple of reasons that a police department would not want to use Skype like the security issue and the privacy issue. Those are important for the law.

But I asked her, “Are there any other reasons that you choose you choose to use BrightComms as supposed to something free or very inexpensive?

She said that a lot of people involved with police department may not have the knowledge of technology and they need to take service such as video conference from someone who they can call. Like can you help us this way or can you help us in that way, something we don’t understand. Like your company will offer that kind of personalized support, but Skype is not able to do that. Whereas, Skype, yeah, they are cool, but they would laugh … don’t have time to do that. It’s a point about the difference between small companies and big companies. On DIDX, we have large companies like incumbents and CLECs to sell DID to others on wholesale, but many, many smaller, lithe, entrepreneurial companies who are face to face with the customers. You are able to serve their needs. DIDX basically saves its members time.

Yossi Ne’eman: We have to be nimble. You need to be able to change with your clients’ needs. Small clients have different needs than larger companies. Their needs can change very drastically over the course of the business relationship even, so services like DIDX to companies like mine and then from companies like ours to our SMB users … we make it much easier for business users to get what they need.

Suzanne Bowen: That’s an interesting way to express this. So what’s your website address?

Yossi Ne’eman: I am just hosting some dial tone services for some very small companies I have business relationship in the past seven years that I’ve been incorporated. I do some software proprietary development. I am not really focusing on dial tone services on a large scale. When I do hosted applications, I have tried to advertise to small companies. Say they need something like a “Call In Time Clock.” I would provide the DID phone number and I would develop the script or program tapping into freeSWITCH!

Suzanne Bowen: So do I have this right? What people can contact you for, keep business with you, get your consulting service, you can provide customized solutions like what you mentioned. So people hearing this pod cast who are looking for this kind of thing, so how can theycontact you?

Yossi Ne’eman: I can be contacted at Mishehu@freeswitch.org or freeswitch@cartissolutions.comspan. I do the following services: deployments of freeSWITCH-based solutions, Linux and Windows, I do custom development in C and C++ and I can do some script development in languages such as PHP5.

Suzanne Bowen: So we have been talking with Yossi Ne’eman of Cartis Solutions. Now you know how to get in touch with him to collaborate with him or to business with him. We were focusing on the coming Cluecon conference which is scheduled August 3-5 2010 at the Trump Hotel in Chicago. You can go to www.cluecon.com and signup. Hurry and sign up. It’s right around the corner. They have a great list of sponsors on board. Connect with people like Yossi and me Suzanne Bowen, open source telephony-oriented.

Yossi Ne’eman: I suppose that if we have large groups registering and we hit a certain goal, maybe Brian West will shave his head. Chuckles.

An interview between Suzanne Bowen, VP of DIDX and Techistan with Anthony Minessale II, lead developer and creator of freeSWITCH, an open source soft-switch and application media server!

Results?  A history of Cluecon, past, present and future. Readers can make plans to participate in Cluecon Aug. 3-5, 2010 at the Trump Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.

Suzanne Bowen: Remember our last talks were at Cluecon 2009 and then the DIDX podcast interview. So, would you compare the first Cluecon with the one scheduled for 2010 this year?

Anthony Minessale II: There is a drastic difference between the first ClueCon and ClueCon MMX (2010). The first ClueCon was in an obscure hotel near one of the airports very far from downtown. There were several people in attendance who were intrigued by the idea of an open source developers’ conference. There was no FreeSWITCH at that time. It was only an idea brewing in my head. One major difference is that it’s the only time Mark Spencer attended, giving a presentation on Asterisk. Today, after 5 years of ClueCon, we are in downtown Chicago (have been since 2006) and this year we are at the luxurious Trump Hotel and we expect the biggest and best ClueCon ever!

Suzanne Bowen: John Todd of Digium gave an interesting presentation about the job outlook for open source developers. I liked how he used Craigslist to hire graphics artists for his PPT. I attended the 2007 and 2009 Cluecon conferences and have some great memories like West in pajamas and his big, friendly smile and leadership, the announcement of Barracuda Networks investment, the hot but friendly debates in Q&A sessions that I have recorded on Youtube, playing basketball with everyone, meeting a BBC correspondent, learning from Kamailio, openSIPs, freeSWITCH, Opal, Asterisk and other open source developers and entrepreneurs. Would you share a hilarious story about a past Cluecon, Anthony?

Anthony Minessale II: In 2008, we had a night where after the presentation we had beer and pizza in the conference hall. At 8pm they told us we had to clear the room for the night and we were stuck with 2 half-barrels on a luggage cart. With nowhere else to turn, we went to someone’s room where we hung out and played some instruments. The next day we realized it was on Youtube.

We still carry the tradition to this day to bring instruments to the conference for the night time.

Suzanne Bowen: I play the piano, Anthony. Can I bring it this year? I remember you guys taking us in 2007 to the DIDX-sponsored Cluecon party in a limousine, about 20 of us. The parties are just as creative and memorable as the conference itself. So, share a story about one of the best business developments from a Cluecon conference.

Anthony Minessale II: The number one best business development we have ever had from ClueCon is our relationship with Sangoma Technologies. They have been a proud sponsor of the conference every single year since the first. This year they will be announcing their commitment to the FreeSWITCH project by adopting the maintenance of our TDM abstraction layer FreeTDM (formerly OpenZAP) We are happy to have them in attendance and we can’t wait to see our friends!

Suzanne Bowen: Sangoma is wonderful. I met their CEO David Mandelstam last year at CommunicAsia. We spent a lot of time brainstorming business development ideas and ways to better enable more of the IP communications industry to Sangoma, DIDX and open source telephony applications like freeSWITCH. Give us a tiny blurb, plug-in about voip phone numbers and how DIDX just might happen to be a good service to jumpstart and grow one’s freeSWITCH or other open source telephony application and IP communications consulting and business. What do you think? I don’t mind some suggestions and critique, too.

Anthony Minessale II: FreeSWITCH lends itself well to services like DIDX. With a simple configuration tweak, calls can be routed in and out of FreeSWITCH instances all over the world allowing anyone to gateway the PSTN into VoIP space and to many FreeSWITCH services like conferencing , voicemail etc.

Suzanne Bowen: Let me tell you. Many DIDXchange members, readers of our media channels like the TMCnet DID/DDI channel, our blogs, and our new online magazine Techistan can’t wait to get together with you guys. Tell the venue, date, place, and how to sign up to sponsor, present, and participate in any way again please.

Anthony Minessale II: ClueCon will be held at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, IL +1 (312) 588-8000. The Trump is located at 401 N. Wabash Avenue Chicago, IL 60611. When contacting the hotel to book rooms, please call +1 877-45-TRUMP (87867) and refer to booking number 4347 (FreeSWITCH Solutions or ClueCon).

We are giving away some great prizes including 2 Ipads and a MacBook PRO engraved with the attached image.

Sponsors and anyone interested in attending can contact us at 1.877.742.CLUE (+18777423583) or on the web at http://www.cluecon.com/ or http://www.cluecon.com/sponsor.

Be among the movers and shakers in open source telephony as Cluecon sponsors and partners:

Sponsors – FreeSWITCH Solutions, Sangoma, CudaTel, bandwidth.com, iCall, broadvox, tropo, *#StarPound, Illinois Institute of Technology VoIP Conference & Expo, Voip88, Voip Providers List, TMCNet, VoipSupply, meraki, Voip-info.org, polycom, Modern Tailor, BayScribe, Dialogic, Paetec, NACT, VoipX, WCGS, DIDXchange, and Voice Networking.

By Rani Wemel, Techistan correspondent.
MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference 2010 brings together the foremost thinkers and industry leaders in the open source movement to share how open source software can boost Malaysia’s global competitiveness.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – June 29, 2010 – Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), the driver of the MSC Malaysia national ICT initiative, is encouraging Malaysian companies to adopt open source software as a means to raise productivity and efficiency, lower costs and improve their competitiveness in global markets.

Towards achieving this transformation MDeC, MAMPU (needs to be in full) and the Open Source Developers Club Malaysia (OSDC.my) have jointly organized the MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference (MOSC) 2010 that opened today at Berjaya Times Square.

The open source movement has seen strong growth in emerging economies that are enhancing their competitiveness by allowing their markets freedom of choice in software usage. Malaysia stands out among these nations because of its well-organized open source community and government support across all levels of the open source movement. In 2009, MSC Malaysia Status companies in the open source industry generated local revenues of over RM595 million, export revenues of over RM234 million and employed 6,206 ICT knowledge workers.

“2010 is Malaysia’s Year of Innovation and this means more than only creating new and original products, services and solutions. To truly embrace an innovation culture, Malaysian companies must explore new ways of empowering their people, improving their business processes, and refining their management. Open source software is a pillar that can support Malaysia’s innovation-led transformation into a high-income economy,” said MDeC CEO Datuk Badlisham Ghazali speaking at the opening of MOSC 2010.

“While vendor-based software delivers a ‘closest-fit’ solution to the ICT needs of Malaysian companies, open source software can be customized to deliver further refinements and greater efficiencies,” Badlisham elaborated, saying that this was in addition to the more familiar advantages of open source software: lower costs, improved security, rapid bug fixing and freedom from vendor lock-in.

The open source movement also benefits Malaysian software developers who study open source codes for understanding into the inner workings of large-scale software solutions. Furthermore, the open source community provides these programmers with access to an unrivaled pool of talent and experience from which to develop their skills. “The highly skilled knowledge workers emerging from the open source community will be essential engines of Malaysia’s future growth and development,” said Badlisham.

MSC Malaysia has continued to support the Malaysian open source industry through a range of initiatives, programmes and events. These address the need for the education of open source developers, knowledge sharing among professionals, R&D into new open source innovations, and marketing of open source software and development expertise. Some of the MSC Malaysia activities that support the open source movement are:

1. conducting the Java Education and Development Initiative (JEDI) program in collaboration with SUN Microsystems, establishing the Open Source Lab at MSC Malaysia Incubator Centre in MMU Cyberjaya, launching PHPAcade.my and PHPMarketplace in partnership with Microsoft and PHP.net.my

2. co-organising the industry’s MSC Malaysia Open Source Conference, and

3. partnering with MAMPU for Malaysian Government Open Source Software Conference.

Themed “Making the Change,” MOSC 2010 will feature 22 talks, 34 tutorial sessions over 3 days, and 16 demonstration booths showcasing open source technologies from Microsoft, Novell, Redhat and 20 MSC Malaysia Status companies.

About MSC Malaysia

MSC Malaysia is the national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiative spearheaded by the Malaysian Government to develop and promote the ICT industry. A test-bed for the global ICT industry, MSC Malaysia provides a conducive enabling environment designed to facilitate companies to harness their full potential.

With its ideal business environment coupled with availability of talent resources, MSC Malaysia has attracted participation from major global ICT companies to develop and host their leading-edge technologies in the designated MSC Malaysia Cybercities. MSC Malaysia also provides the ideal growth environment for Malaysian ICT SMEs to transform themselves into world-class companies.

Steering the development of this initiative is Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) a government implementation agency set up as a company to drive the MSC Malaysia vision of an innovation-led, knowledge-rich and progressive society and nation. For more information, please go to www.mscmalaysia.my

Watch two hands, two Android phones and a laptop show you how to use SIPDroid. The first time you watch, dance. The second time, pay attention.

Asterconference in May 2010 was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. If readers could not be there, Techistan shares the photo gallery of presentations, inventor, speakers, relaxing, brainstorming, development clans and talks, and more … where East and West met for just a few days in May 2010.

David Duffet was extremely entertaining and informative at AsterConference with the same inside out view that gives the listener that “ah ha, I’ve got it” epiphany about open source telephony related ideas like “No Rules Telephony.”

Astricon is scheduled October 26-28, 2010 in National Harbor Maryland! Sign up at http://www.astricon.net/.

Thank the sponsors and be one!

Premier Sponsor: Digium

Platinum Sponsor: NEXTUSA

Gold Sponsor: AudioCodes, Panasonic

Sponsors: Aastra, AG Projects, Aksys, Allo, Asteria, Broadvox, Codedial, Freeside, Intuit, Lumenvox, OpenVox, Orecx, Presence, Sangoma, Snom, Synway & Xorcom

Media Sponsors: Internet Telephony, TMCnet

Who will be at Astricon?

• Programmers
• Open Source Coders
• Enterprise IT
• Software Developers
• PBX Developers
• Call Center and CRM Developers
• System Integrators of Open Source Technology
• Entrepreneurs o Web 2.0 Integrators

Slideshow from AsterConference 2010 in Malaysia.

Gigaom Blog quote: “But do we really need the option of sharing on so many random services? What if those sharing widgets had a bit of intelligence about what a certain user already prefers, and just showed her the options she’s likely to use?”

Meebo has created a consortium, along with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, JanRain, Diquis, Gigya, and MySpace to encourage an open social standard called XAuth that enables a variety sites that opt in to connect with users. XAuth will be available under the Open Identity Exchange or the OpenID Foundation.

It appears that the tool will detect if a user has logged into any service or not in the recent past. As a result,  when the user does login, a display will show the user the social networks and communications sites that he or she logs in to most often to encourage the user to do so more.

Have you noticed the Meebo Bar at the bottom of hundreds of websites? You can even download the Meebo app for Droid.

Meebo is not the only service that provides such a toolbar or will be. Facebook plans to launch its own soon which could be as soon as during the f8 developer conference in San Francisco. And, about two years ago, James Mowery shared what he believed were among the top 23 best social networking toolbars and plugins for Firefox: del.icio.us, digg, Fleck, Facebook, kaboodle, Linkedin, LiVEJOURNAL, myspace.com, newsvine, NowPublic, orkut, RatePoint, Simpy, SQUIDOO, StumbleUpon, twitter, Technorati, Skype, YouTube, Wikipedia and Mashable Jobs.

But do users want to have any one source to have so much power over what, when, where, why, and how they use the Internet? Even if there are privacy restriction and white-listing intact, what does that mena? Take a look at the recent announcement that the U.S.A. Library of Congress will archive all Tweets since the first day of 2006.

Take note that Meebo is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm. Check the rest of True Ventures’ portfolio at http://www.trueventures.com/portfolio/.

Read more at http://pro.gigaom.com/2010/04/meebo-uses-xauth-to-try-and-block-facebook/#ixzz0ljvTAWeu.