On behalf of our enthusiastic team, I wish you all a Very Happy New Year!  May 2008 bring you all peace, plenty and prosperity!

I recently attended a program hosted by Prof. Tom Kosnik of Stanford University, Graduate Student Mohit Gundecha and BDA about the future of Indian Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) Market.  It was a very interesting evening filled with a discussion by a panel of distinguished experts in this area.  Chetan Sharma, a well-known guru and one of the panelists has written an excellent summary of the event.  His post also provides links to the free report released on the occasion and videos of the event.  I also got a chance to have a quick word with him and get his insightful views on some points.

It is matter of great significance that with India poised to overtake US as the second largest number of mobile subscribers (see TRAI pdf press release here) as early as some time next year, how will this market shape up and what opportunities lie for the entrepreneur and startups? 

Thanks to Prof.Kosnik, Mohit Gundecha, BDA and Qualcomm (event sponsor) for organizing this event.

Watch this space, because a number of interesting and related topics are worth discussing (Falling ARPU numbers, which Value Added Services will fly, falling SMS usage, role of WiMAX, what role will the rural markets play, VC investment in India and some of the hottest startups rising there).

Techcrunch40 list leaked out before Techcrunch officially announced the list of presenting companies. Paul Boutin discovered the name of the companies on the banners they are hanging in the Palace Hotel where the conference is taking place (Sep 17-18). However list so far has only 39 lucky presenting companies listed

Here is list Paul posted. Most of links are already live.

Clickable
Flock
Ceedo
Cake Financial
DocStoc
CastTV
Cubic Telecom
CrowdSpirit
Cognitive Code
Mint
MusicShake
Ponoko
PowerSet
PubMatic
Teach the People
8020 Publishing
Faroo
GotStatus
FlowPlay
LoudTalks
Kerpoof
MetaPlace
mEgo
Orgoo
StoryBlender
Spottt
TruTap
Tripit
Viewdle
Zivity
Wixi
Xobni
ZocDoc
eXtreme Reality
WC
AppYou
WooMe
Yap

Mike had placed a strict embargo for all presenting startups, I guess to get exclusives. Did they really forgot about the banners or this is planned leak to generate additional buzz? If yes, then Mike’s plan is working.

Update 1: Valleywag is reporting that they are banned from attending Techcrunch40. Scoble says that the best news is flowing fast on Twitter, way faster than Techmeme. I disagree, I have been monitoring techmeme and it is updating regularly with very relevant content.

Update 2: Techcrunch finally posted the official list of Techrunch 40.

Stirr.net’s Mixer event No.4 had great success and great crowd. I had the chance to take some pictures and talk to some of the companies and founders that presented. Here are the links to the conversations (podcasts)…

Andrew Martinez-Fonts, Product Manager, Prosper

David Snider, Co-Founder, Boompa

Jeff Zwelling, President and Founder, EchoSign

Jakob Snilsberg, VP, Jajah

Stirr Mixer 4 pictures (click here).

Indian blogger are getting together in Chennai, India on 9th and 10th September for a BlogCamp. This is going to be the biggest get together of the Bloggers, Podcasters and Video Bloggers in India.

Here is the high level confrence agenda:

• Blogging and Governance - How blogs are being used to provide assistance during times of crisis, uncovering potential crimes, activities, taking on the government, etc.
• Blogging and Entrepreneurship - Many professionals are using blogs to change their world. Here we talk about how blogging can work towards career development and related areas.
• Corporate Blogging - Many corporates have started blogging, taking them closer to customers. Here, you could share your stories on why you are incorporating blogs in your products and media strategies.
• Getting Geeky - The Art and Science of Blogging, how to go about it, tips and tricks of trade and taking blogging to the next level.
• Blogging as New Media - As blogging goes mainstream, it complements journalism. Here we talk about why traditional media should care about blogging as a form of citizen journalism.
• Blogging as a Hobby - How blogs help you in showcasing your talents and skills, in sharing your deep thoughts.
• Blogging and Community - As a tool for action, collective or distributed, as a binding force, as a way for individuals to contribute, and to get back something.

Organisers say that BlogCamp works on the basis of the rule that “the expertise of the speaker is less than the collective expertise of the audience”. We want you to participate - without you, there is no BlogCamp. You can conduct sessions, help out with the organizing, and take part in the conversations or just absorb the spirit. Most importantly we’d like you to share the spirit of the BlogCamp - learn, share and grow.

The Platinum sponsor of the blog unconference conference is Yahoo India which a contribution of $6,500. Good gesture Yahoo. Microsoft…. missing the bus again?

BlogCamp, Blogger, Blog, Podcast, Video Blog, India, Media, New Media, UnConference

Plug & Play hosted the Sherif University Reunion Reception, on the 6th of August. Saeed Amidi as usual was a great host, and had planned a great Gala Dinner with all the festivities and regional food.

A bigger delagation from the university was planned I was told, but some folks ran into visa problems due to tense relations with Iran. Sherif University is Standford of Iran, so I had the chance to meet very smart people from that part of the world and was throughly impressed.

I had brought in my camera and took some pictures.

Click here to view pictures from the event

Thanks saeed and Rose for the wonderful evening and inviting me over.

Plug & Play had another rousing success with Internet 2.0 Plug & Play Investor Forum. Plug and Play Investment Forum is a great place to network with opinion leaders of Silicon Valley, Entreprenuers and learn about the current trends in the Silicon Valley. An insightful and valuable use of time. At least 100+ opinion leaders and Entreprenuers were present at the Investor Forum.

The Venture Capital Panel consisted of Ken Elefant of Opus Capital, David Lane of DiamondHead Ventures, David Welsh of Partech International and Chi-Hua Chien of Accel Partners. There was extensive Q&A from the VC panel with each company and great interaction with the audience as well.

Saeed Amidi & Pejman Nozad once again opened up their Plug & Play “home” with their great hospitality and Dinner Themes. After the Investor Forum event, the highlight of the evening was the Amidzad Summer Party, which was an elaborate and tasteful dinner & dance party complete with DJ for approximately 200 high tech executives here in the valley. An excellent sit down dinner with a five course meal, complete with belly dancers, and dance floor for mere mortals to mix it up. What else do you want in Internet 2.0?

Those who participated in the Investor Forum were invited to the sumptous food and the hospitality of Saeed Amidi, Pejman Nozad, Rahim Amidi and their fantastic staffs at Amidzad and Plug and Play, led by Rose, Mardin, Baharesh, JoJo, Ryan, Shobeir and others….

From the networking to food to the belly dancing, a good time had by all and here are the pictures which will tell you some of the story!

Click here for the pictures from the Plug and Play Dinner Party…

Here is the run down of the companies which presented at the event:

100% Youth Made, Member Made & Original Productions

- Original youth created media.

- Upload your stuff and get it seen.

- Profiles, Forums, Wiki. Be a part of it.

- Work with Uth TV, get exposure, get paid.

Watch It

Carl Rosendahl, CEO He is really onto something with the digital generation here. As the former founder and CEO of Pacific Data Images (PDI) he certainly does know quality when he sees it (Shrek was only one of 70 films/700 commercials) and he’s getting great short (paid) movies from amazing youth, 15-25!

The Bowling 2.0 and New Tech Silicon Valley Hosts! Check out bowling 2.0 @ www.bowling20.net

Vinnie Lauria, Product Manager, is a really active entreprenuer in the Silicon Valley working on a brilliant strategy for Meetro. Layering on top of existing applications, Meetro provide for a holistic digital presence, getting on everybody’s buddy list is a goal and making a “GEO IP” like effect will make the location aware capabilities of Meetro ever more important to Meetro users, brands and advertisers that understand this important feature.

Meetro RSS feeds will be available for youth (that aren’t into the RSS feeds) and will be taking advantage of the rapid proliferation of WiFi networks that is sweeping the nation. While they don’t take full advantage of phones/smart phones they are aggressively targeting the laptop users, many of which are in fact the 15-25 yo market.

Swapthing is a community driven barter swap site, for the exchange of goods ($1) and services ($10) and a rating system to build trustworthiness. SwapCircles has a new initiative to build strong communities/social networks for traders of like interests. Jessica, Brian and Mital are getting some real momentum in the areas where they provide local swap services. They have evolved from a traditional company to a true web 2.0 style company. Their best success yet has been with “Mothers Groups” and those wanting to trade up! Most are not “like for like” trades. They’re also getting great press, including MSNBC. SwapThing has already started their public beta to rave reviews!

Swapthing was featured exlusively a while back on HotFromSiliconValley blog. You can find podcast of Vic’s conversation with Jessica here….

web surfer, is a way to earn valuable rewards using tiny chunks of your spare time,to perform a small task. It looks like a banner ad, can be fun and can do some good too!
web host, it’s a way to make money for your site without bombarding your visitors giving up on annoying web ads.
business customer, with data processing or digital services needs,a high-quality outsourcing provider.

Mycroft [ Not Microsoft ] claims to be able to do this cheaper and faster than you thought possible: document coding, data cleaning, media tagging, audio transcription. Mycroft re-defines the word ‘rush’ - forget days and weeks. Try minutes and hours. Even for big jobs. All due to spreading the computing resources across a vast network of users and putting it into bite size pieces.

Benjamin and Judd have worked extensively while they were at Berkeley in their graduate programs and have delivered on the Proof of Concept earlier this year.They’re now preparing for private betas!

Market experts, bloggers is a way to create internet buzz and business development for you and your company increase your stature in the community based on your advice and performance.

Novice and regular traders are the key beneficiaries, as this is not only a way to get expert (and not so expert) advice, but a way to get an ever widening array of information that you otherwise would not get.

The founders are a team that started this while they were in Stanford and have rolled this out within the last six months, expecting to build a wide ranging community to embrace this concept.

- Guest Post by Scott Lane

events, internet 2.0, investor forum, plug & play, silicon valley, venture capital, web 2.0

Technology was China being one of the fastest growing economies. The highlight of the day at the Special Executive Meeting with China’s Vice Minister of Science and and market. Innovation is on China’s mind and that is their 2020 goal. China, it is predicted, will have enormous investment opportunity for U.S companies.

Click here for pictures from the CINA event

The business relationship will need to be developed in such a way that it is approachable by businessmen here and companies in China. And it seems that is where the key lies. The keynote speaker was Dr. Yong Shang, Vice Minister, Ministry of Science and Techology, of the People’s Republic of China.