| The
Times of India, Saturday, June 16, 2001 |
Instant messaging buddies set to leapfrog across platforms |
| Mumbai
tech firm develops tool to permit polygamous desktop-to-desktop
chat |
| By Raghavendra
K. N |
 |
| |
| The
great Indian contribution to e-evolution continues.
Joining the long line of mathematical inventions - from
the all-important zero to revolutionary net-based free
e-mail - Indians have now evolved a new boundary-less
world of instant messaging (IM). |
| |
| For
the uninitiated, IM is instant e-mail chat, PC to PC.
Log on to your mean machine, and IM technology helps
you - a la Harry Potter's Marauder's Map - locate friends
who are logged on at that precise moment. Brand-conscious
companies had so far limited access to only their clients.
If you used MSN, you could only instant message your
MSN friends. If you felt like chatting with someone
on Yahoo, you had to get a Yahoo messenger ID first |
| |
| But
all that might soon change. Thanks to a Mumbai-based
technology company, the Berlin wall of corporate and
brand borders in the world of instant messaging has
been broken. |
| |
| Geodesic
Information Systems has developed an IM application,
which allows interoperability. This means users of AOL
ICQ, MSN and Yahoo, all hot platforms for IM, can now
instantly access any platform, without the bother of
acquiring separate IDs. |
| |
| A
New York-based Israeli company, Odigo, had introduced
an application, which allows Odigo users to chat with
Yahoo or MSN - but only one at a time. As far as its
attempt to connect to AOL goes, both have been playing
a game of chess for quite a while with Odigo releasing
programme patches to refresh the code each time that
AOL blocks Odigo's users from connecting into its network. |
| |
| Claims
Kiran Kulkarni, Geodesic's director, "Our interoperable
mail, news ticker and messenger tool, called Mundu,
aggregates content, e-mail and popular instant messengers
and lets people across unconnected services talk with
each other - a world first - in a single browser." Another
plus is the exclusive facility to hold a conference
between five users at one go. |
| |
| The
significance of the technology is best established by
the projections of International Data Corporation, an
international organization, which provides technology
intelligence and market data. According to an IDC survey,
even in the present scenario where interoperability
is not possible, more than one billion instant messages
are sent out each day, eclipsing the 900 million items
sent through the postal service. |
| |
| The
market is, in fact, expected to grow from 250 million
users worldwide in 2001 to about 500 million in 2004
- a growth rate of 100 per cent. By then, the number
of messages sent will approach a staggering two trillion
annually. Not surprising, since instant messaging is
affordable and is the fastest way to keeping in touch
with friends and colleagues, be it across cities or
continents. |
| |
| The
vast potential of IM is just being realized. Online
meetings, enhanced wireless services and new forms of
collaboration are just the start. IM can enhance any
type of time-sensitive communication, with online auctions,
e-commerce, inventory control and clearance, stock market
activity, alerts, traffic reports, sports scores, travel
information and action reminders being a few of the
potential applications. The team, whose average age
is 24 and is entirely Indian, consists of 26 programmers
and software engineers from the National Centre for
Software and Technology and NIIT. |
| |
| The
IM tool project involved an expenditure of nearly Rs
1.5 crore. Revenue-generation will be in the form of
licenses to leading portals and fee-based downloads
from such sites. Geodesic was founded in April 1999
by four promoters - Pankaj Kumar, Kiran Kulkarni, Mahesh
Murthy and Prashant Mulekar. The quartet have over 60
man-years of experience in IT and more than 20 man-years
of experience on the Internet. |
|
 Headlines
: |
|
 SME success story |
|
|
| The
biggest IM provider you never heard of |
| Girvan
Institute Places Order With Geodesic For Instant Messaging
Platform |
|
| IM
tools are latest tech toys for corporate users |
|
| Geodesic
shows the way for startups |
|
| Geodesic
sees 400% spurt since listing |
|
| Geodesic
tipped |
|
| Instant
messaging buddies set to leapfrog across platforms |
|
| Mundu
wraps up problems in instant messaging |
|
| Finally!
Internet start-ups log on to logistics to push sales |
|
| |
