October 25, 2012 1 Pitstop4Performers

October 25, 2012 2 Pitstop4Performers

Dear readers:

As an extension of the ‘Pitstop4Performers’ channel in YouTube

(http://bit.ly/TopTalk), we are happy to announce the launch of

‘Pitstop4Performers’ as a fortnightly online magazine to present

snapshots of what fires up and engages entrepreneurs, business

leaders, domain experts, authors, and any performer exploring

new ground, pursuing stretch goals, learning lessons, and

tasting success.

Feel free to send in your suggestions and feedback to

dmurali@outlook.com. (For subscriptions and information,

contact: Shrinikethan, 34 Second Main Road, CIT Colony,

Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. Also available on Magzter.)

Wishing performers and wannabes success in their endeavours,

and productive video viewing!

D. Murali

Editor

Contents of the inaugural issue dated October 25, 2012

The Magzter story

Public WiFi

Five points, someone o Chinese bamboo o Writing about emotions o Tamil and technology o Infinite connections

Disclaimer: "Management and editors do not necessarily agree with the views of

the authors in their articles, the guests in their videos, the readers in their letters,

and the query editors in their replies. The editors, authors and / or publishers

shall not be responsible for any kind of result generated out of any action taken on

the basis of suggestions, etc., made in any of the write ups, interviews contained in

any part of the magazine or for any error, omission, commission to any person,

whether subscriber or otherwise. The copyright of all the materials printed herein

including articles, queries and replies etc., rests with the publishers".

October 25, 2012 3 Pitstop4Performers

The Magzter story

How Magzter was born

o We were dealing with technology

aspects of Galatta Cinema

o Realised the difficulty of a single

magazine to port itself to

different devices

o Our passion is to create a product that is made in India and goes global

o So we created a global platform with the knowledge of physical magazine

o The company was started in New York, with a back office in Chennai

A global product

o What started off for our own

magazine began catering to

other publishers

o An agile team of 45 people

working round the clock

o Our product has reached from end to end of the globe

o Publishers and users from Australia to North America

o We have a fantastic product!

Digital-only publishers News, now a commodity Work with archives

October 25, 2012 4 Pitstop4Performers

The Magzter story contd…

The Harry Potter parallel

o Digital replica of magazine and

also the enhanced version

o Example of India Today on

Magzter, with links to videos, as

in the Harry Potter world

o Our focus is on magazines, rather than newspapers

o We will be launching news feeds, free with ad support

o Help consumers discover related products facilitating cross-promotion

Viral growth

o We started with about 35

magazines in June 2011

o The physical storefront generally

has 50-60 magazines

o In about 12 months, we have

700 magazines from different countries

o Crossed 3.5 million users of our apps

o Exponential growth, virally

Revenue model Article-wise approach Magazines out of magazines

October 25, 2012 5 Pitstop4Performers

The Magzter story contd…

Deep and local

o Digital magazine providers

generally focus on top 5-10

magazines in each country

o Our objective is to go deep, with

a focus on local languages

o More than 14 languages supported in Magzter, including Chinese

o Example of Ananda Vikatan, Nakeeran, with global buyers

o On iPad, magazines look great irrespective of paper print quality

As simple as Facebook

o Self-service tool for publishers is

a factor behind our success

o Zero-cost model for publishers,

based on revenue-sharing

o Ease of coming on board, and

uploading, for publishers

o 98% of the world is still in print, with base file in PDF form

o 30-45 minutes to go digital, with no upfront costs, like getting FB page

Monetising opportunities Analytics in the system Complete playlist

October 25, 2012 6 Pitstop4Performers

Public WiFi - can it be a reality?

Muthu Logan

Not too long ago, Google set up public WiFi at its own

expense for the City of Mountain View, CA as a way of

showing its commitment to its HQ city. Google offered

free WiFi service called GoogleWiFi. The service

essentially comprises setting up WiFi access points at

various locations and leveraging the power

infrastructure of the city and bandwidth for Internet

access using high-speed fibre optic backhaul from a

service provider. This can be termed as a privately-

sponsored model

of public WiFi

offering. In a similar vein, the island

nation of Singapore set up public

WiFi access for all its citizens. This

model involved the government

coughing up the expense to provide

ubiquitous access to the Internet via

its public WiFi infrastructure. So,

there are two models already in use to

embrace public WiFi.

In emerging nations like India, some

experimental work was carried out to

implement public WiFi with no

success because of a lack of proper operational model. However, it is

possible to implement public WiFi with positive results if the following can

be adopted:

1) A city like Chennai that is working towards substantial infrastructural

improvements like advanced traffic management system using wireless

video surveillance involving WiFi hotspot connectivity and a world-class

Metro Rail project with yet-to-be-announced user facilities, can leverage the

infrastructure to carve out public WiFi networks in an incremental fashion.

Since power and fibre optic connectivity are readily available, it makes sense

economically to ride the WiFi network on top of this infrastructure at the

same time increasing the utilisation of the complete infrastructure that is

being already built out. The surveillance portion will be securely maintained

Since power and fibre

optic connectivity are

readily available, it makes

sense economically to ride

the WiFi network on top

of this, increasing the

utilisation of the

infrastructure.

October 25, 2012 7 Pitstop4Performers

in the private cloud portion of the network, while public access will go

through a separate public cloud.

2) The operational model can be a public-private partnership to make the

whole public WiFi a reality. In this case, an enterprise like BroVis Wireless

Networks (having WiFi equipment, infrastructure management and cloud

networking capabilities) can provide the operational needs and generate

revenues using location-based ad revenues, as an example, to meet the

costs involved. With increased proliferation of smartphones, tablets and

laptops with built-in WiFi, it is possible to make public WiFi a reality.

The above-described model can be extended to other metros and many tier-

two cities/small towns in an incremental fashion. Public WiFi with the right

technology approach and creative operating paradigm can be a definite

reality.

(The author is the founder and CEO of

BroVis Wireless Networks, an equipment

provider of commercial, SMART WiFi access

equipment for enterprises, service providers

and large government infrastructure

projects. BroVis pioneered the concept of

Broadband Access equipment using de-

licensed bands for the emerging regions ten

years back and has over 20,000

deployments in 25 countries. The company

is based in the Silicon Valley, with

operational HQ in Chennai, India, and

offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, India,

and San Jose, US.)

Selections from Muthu Logan playlist:

IP work in Brovis products

Is India contributing to wireless standards

Outlook for wireless telecom, datacom industry

Wireless connectivity in apartments

Innovation driven by customers

With increased

proliferation of

smartphones, tablets

and laptops with

built-in WiFi, it is

possible to make

public WiFi a reality.

October 25, 2012 8 Pitstop4Performers

Chinese bamboo

o Good time for us to introspect

o Chance to relive where we

started from

o A whole lot of people helped us

grow

o Next decade is likely to be of momentous and fast growth

o We look at ourselves as the Chinese bamboo

Uma Balakrishnan, CEO, Axcend Automation & Software Solutions

Writing about emotions

o Was a mainstream journalist,

and the wish to write was at the

back of the mind

o My husband eased out my work

calendar as a behavioural

trainer, and I got 8 months to write

o Never set out to write a psychological thriller, though it turned out so

o Always wanted to write about emotions, and EQ is a pet area of my work

o Writing in the first person meant that I conceive the whole plot at the

outset

Lata Gwalani, Author of 'Incognito'

Five points, someone

October 25, 2012 9 Pitstop4Performers

Tamil and technology

o Technology penetration is low at

the village level because of cost

o Tamil readership is more in the

physical form, for low and

middle class

o Not much reaction to what I wrote on websites except emails

o Reminiscing Ambalam, and Chennaionline work

o Print media will continue to have its impact among the Tamil readers

Thiruppur Krishnan, Editor, Amudasurabhi

Infinite connections

o Biggest challenge in emerging

economies is to connect people,

with markets and governments

o Television screen, one thing that

is common among people

o ‘Infinite connections’ using TV, for DTT, digital terrestrial transformation

o Started off as a technology book, but is no longer so

o Real convergence is when society is converged with technology, not when

technologies converge into each another

Rahul Nehra, CMO and Global Head Sales, Exset, UK

Five points, someone

October 25, 2012 10 Pitstop4Performers

Published by: Shrinikethan, Chennai http://bit.ly/ShriMap

Edited by: D. Murali http://bit.ly/dMurali http://bit.ly/TopTalk

October 25, 2012