After years of using red carpet metaphors, we finally made it to the red carpet. Well sort of. Monsoon partnered with Motion Picture Television Fund and Variety Magazine to create the official touch-trivia application for the Oscars. We are totally psyched about launching this at the Oscars this weekend!

The application lets you spin a virtual orb and answer Oscar worthy trivia questions. HP will be giving away trivia participants some amazing prizes including TV’s, laptops, cameras and free Oscar morning kits.

And while the blue Pandorians may end up mourning their loss to The Hurt Locker, we’ll be celebrating…..because at the end of the day, it’s not really about who took the Oscar home, it’s about which consulting firm made it to the red carpet!

Special thanks to Kevin and John for helping with the install and sharing this video!

With every piece of digital loveliness made by Apple, being a part of this brand and culture fits right into our techno-chic lifestyle and gives us endless gratification. But the ultimate high for us is to see our work on Apple products. We’ve been developing applications for the iPhone for quite some time but we recently had the opportunity to work on an app with another one of our favorite partners, South By Southwest. SXSW brings together some of the world’s most creative artists, speakers and entrepreneurs and my business partner Sandeep has previously had the opportunity to captivate audiences with interactive panels on Outsourcing.

There is no other conference that fosters creative growth and networking opportunities the way South by does. Which is why we’re so excited to announce SXSW® Play, the official media discovery app for the SXSW 2010 Music, Film, and Interactive conferences. The app features a wealth of rich media from musicians, films, and interactive panels that will be featured at the festival in Austin, TX from March 12-21. With this app at your fingertips, you’ll never be bored in line again!

Features of the application:

You can download the free application from the Appstore and find out if you’re an Apple fanboy here.

The app can be seen during jam session week at HP’s digital playground from Thursday through Sunday (Feb 11- Feb 14) at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas.

Here’s a sneak preview and we’ll share more pictures and videos next week.

Core Functionality

At their core, all strong web content management systems accomplish the following:

· Template: provide a collection of easily-edited design themes that determine the style for a website.

· Edit: simplify with a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) system that allows non-programmers to create and edit html

· Function: perform with core functionality and plug-ins that allow dozens of website features to be implemented easily (e.g. ecommerce, mailing lists, analytics, discussion, etc.)

· Process: organize permissions and processes based on business rules for publishing content within the organization.

· Document: store, organize, and retrieve text files, images, and video

· Syndicate: export website data in a standard format (such as RSS)

Dynamic vs. Static Publishing

For the vast majority of CMS projects at Monsoon, we consider three industry-leading Web CMS products that accomplish the above extremely well: Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress. These three systems use a dynamic publishing model.

A dynamic publishing model consists of components that function modularly; stated more simply, drafts and live documents can be updated and published independently of each other. An editor can make a change to one article, save it, and publish it without affecting or republishing the entire website.

Many Web CMS products offer a static publishing model. One such product, Movable Type, resembles the traditional printing/publishing process in its workflow. In common use, an editor makes changes throughout a website and then publishes the entire website as a unit. While MovableType and many similar systems are excellent products, Monsoon feels that the advantages of a dynamic publishing model outweigh the static model for the vast majority of websites, due to the following:

· Dynamic publishing is built for a website that is updated constantly, without a traditional “issue-based” approach.

· Dynamic publishing is faster, both from a business process and site generation standpoint.

· The dynamic publishing system has become the de facto standard for the modern Web CMS.

Open Source vs. Proprietary Systems

Once the decision for a dynamic system has been made, we are confronted with the choice between an open-source and proprietary system. In the past, customer service, paid support, and general product stability were major factors supporting the purchase of an (often expensive) proprietary system.

However, during the past few years, the open-source Web CMS has matured, making the following generally true:

· Open-source systems have become well-established, “safe” choices for larger site implementations.

· Proprietary CMS’s simply cannot keep up with the number of plug-ins and improvements that the open-source community generously and regularly creates.

· The open-source community has begun to offer a variety of options for both paid and free support.

For these reasons, Monsoon almost always recommends an open-source system.

Three at the top

Of the open-source systems available, three products have demonstrated clear superiority:

· WordPress

· Joomla

· Drupal

Joomla and Drupal are both strong systems that were built as open-source Web CMS’s from the ground up; WordPress is a blogging platform that has evolved into a Web CMS.

It is because of this evolution (and not despite it) that we recommend WordPress.

Feature Lock

If we were to build a matrix comparing the functionality of WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, we would arrive no closer to picking a clear winner. Each system offers the functionality, security, and scalability that most sites require. The difference that leads us to our recommendation is based not on features, but on product evolution and philosophy.

Ease of Use

Because WordPress was built for the largely non-programmer blogging community, usability has been a core principle in every step of its evolution. The product contains dozens of intangible design advantages that Drupal and Joomla (which were built for and by the programming community) simply cannot match.

The Community

A rabid community of designers and developers support WordPress. Although Drupal and Joomla also have large open-source communities, WordPress’s support resembles Firefox or Linux (in years past) in the support and passion of those who use it.

This will undoubtedly impact the product’s evolution. While Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress are similar in their current offerings, Monsoon feels that WordPress is positioned to emerge as the leading product in its category over the next few years.

The Monsoon Choice

For almost every site we build these days, we recommend WordPress. Since the three leading systems essentially have functional parity, Wordpress’s ease-of-use, community, and design advantages make it the best choice.

“Experts say this global warming is serious, and they are predicting now that by the year 2050, we will be out of party ice.” –David Letterman

Jokes about climate change may not always garner lasting belly aches, but let’s face it, they tend to be more captivating then scatter diagrams and pie charts. So when the UN decided to collaborate with Monsoon for COP, we wanted to build an application that would be fun and interactive; something even Al Gore would appreciate.

We wanted to leverage the power of touch technology to ensure negotiators and leaders participating in Copenhagen heard voices of those affected by the impacts of global warming. We worked with the UN to create the Climate Wall, an experience that allowed conference attendees to spin a virtual globe and watch real-life stories about climate change.

Sights and sounds from around the globe bear witness to how the changing climate is changing lives. One of these stories takes us on a virtual journey to the Prey Koki forest, located in a quiet corner of eastern Cambodia. The forest has lost most of its cover to desertification and while planting trees, Buddhist monk So Kon shares the impacts of climate change . “Here in Cambodia our climate is changing. It’s getting hotter and the rainfall is irregular. But we believe that these trees can bring rain and help the farmers with their crops and daily life,” says Kon.

In an era where buzzwords like Corporate Social Responsibility and CO2 emissions make climate change feel like a distant paradigm, Monsoon’s virtual globe application brings stories from real people like Kon to your fingertips.

The concept was a success and featured on the home of Seal the deal and the UN. We simply feel blessed that we had the opportunity to make a small contribution in raising awareness about climate change.

See more pictures here.

While at TED India, I had the privilege of sitting down with Ajai Chowdhry, the founder and CEO of HCL.

While I admire their early grit and determination, most of the largest Indian IT companies don’t really impress me anymore.  The market cap of any Indian IT giant is directly proportional to how long they’ve been in business, not to innovative services or bold moves.  That’s how cost arbitrage works - stick around long enough, and people will eventually figure out that you’re the cheaper option. [yawn]

That said, I’ve always been impressed with HCL, primarily for their decision to stay focused on the Indian market, during a time when companies like Infosys and Tata Consulting were raking in the dough from foreign IT contracts.

This short interview covers HCL’s decision to focus on India, Ajai’s view of the state of Indian education, and the major IT challenges that India currently faces.

A warning for our American readers: this interview is Ajai in his own words, so please respect the Hinglish.

Why did HCL choose to focus on IT projects with customers in India? At the time, it seems that foreign projects would have been the much more attractive, if not the blatantly obvious choice.

It was our vision and passion towards creating an ICT market that guided us right from our inception and our efforts over the years to pioneer the technological evolution and revolution in the country and to prominently project India on the global IT map. The Indian IT story has come a long way since then. Globally, India has been a strong player in software and services. However, the PC penetration in India is still low and a lot is to be achieved to bridge the ‘Digital Divide’ and therefore makes it an exciting challenge for us to address even today. In the words of C.K. Prahlad “Improving the lives of the billions of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid is a noble endeavor. It can also be a lucrative one”.

What is the biggest advantage of working with clients in India?

One of the fundamental components is understanding the tradition that forms the basis of India’s society. With this deep understanding we have been able to develop and sustain long-lasting relationships with our customers. Moreover, with a strong presence across the country features which are salient to India gave us the competitive edge to serve our customers better.

Please give us your perspective on the state of Indian education as it applies to software. What are a few things that can be done easily to make improvements?

India is recognized for its competitive & effective education system and is having one the largest talent pools of experienced scientists, engineers and professionals that prove its capability and potential for education. HCL with its deep understanding of the Indian education segment has constantly innovated and brought IT solutions that are relevant for Indian consumers. With increasing global exposure it is imperative for the Indian education sector to take rapid strides towards inclusive learning. Innovative methods to facilitate learning thru IT with localized content and solutions that improve managed internet-era learning outcomes in the classroom, as well as across campuses and schools will enhance the learning experience.

What are the major IT challenges for Indian companies today?

The Indian information technology sector has been instrumental in driving the nation’s economy onto the rapid growth curve. India’s IT growth in the world is primarily dominated by IT software and services such as Custom Application Development and Maintenance (CADM), System Integration, IT Consulting, Application Management, Infrastructure Management Services, Software testing, Service-oriented architecture and Web services.

There is a direct co-relation with number of PC’s and GDP per capita. Study shows that for countries like China, the per capita GDP is expected to increase from $ 8000 to $ 18000 as PC penetration increases from 5% to 24% from 2005 to 2015. India too is poised for a similar growth and hence there is an urgent need to increase PC penetration at war footing.

Digitizing will empower the people of India to receive, absorb & act on information faster thereby opening a plethora of opportunities for growth.

The challenges that the country is facing to rapidly expand digitization can be bridged by enablement of three pillars

1. Higher PC Penetration

2. Availability of Broadband and Internet Access

3. Content

Today, India contributes less than 1% of global production, where China outnumbers us almost 100 times. India has a great opportunity to be a part of the global supply chain but we have to realize that there is only a small window of opportunity and we are fighting tooth and nail with countries such as Vietnam, Czech Republic and Mexico City where manufacturing clusters are fast emerging.

This is an industry of scale: a key driver to bringing down costs. For countries such as India, this is a chicken-and-egg situation. The first thing is to build the size of the PC market, which is the door opener for the entire ecosystem. Over a period of time, with the right policy and logistics environment, the ecosystem will be build, but there are no short cuts. It is no coincidence that the mobile phone manufacturing ecosystem began to develop, once critical scale emerged.

The focus should be on building a large domestic market, supporting existing computer manufacturers and thus encourage them to pull in their suppliers to India.

“Body Shopping”

Sandeep in conversation with Lakshmi Pratury

Let the touch-tweeting begin

5 Rules for Hiring Offshore Teams

School uses Monsoon software to help autistic children

Sandeep’s TED India Recap

Contractually obligated to get you laid

And, here are my 5 favorite posts from the past few years:

Time to Retire the Flat World Metaphor

Name Change: Monsoon Company

Outsourcing is Dead

Look for No

Know the True Cost of Labor

Fast-forward to today, and I can’t help but want to touchscreen-activate everything and tweet every one of my “lightbulb moments” (eat your heart out Deepak Chopra!). Yup, my name is John Doe and there is a tech-junkie in me. Thankfully geek-chic is in, and with Monsoon Company’s latest product launch, my tech-junkie and I are walking the metaphorical red carpet together. Body by touch, brains by tweet.

We are proud to premier the very first Touch Twitter app for Windows7.

Get a taste…scratch that…get a touch here.

The first release of the app brings with it many of the twitter essentials: quick access to tweets via a full feed, the ability to search, post an update, and lots of following/followed views. Let the touch-tweeting begin!

We’ll be releasing an update to the app with a lot more touch-friendly features shortly. The ability to share photos, drag Twitterati (or whomever else you choose to follow) into groups, and save searches and trends, to name just a few.

The app is getting media coverage in almost every major tech outlet and blog. See what Laptop mag and PC World had to say.

To learn more about Monsoon Company’s recent touchscreen projects, follow the links below:

Top 100 colleges app for US News
Notes Application for HP
iPhone app for South by Southwest (*coming soon)

my talk on social networking at the Craigslist foundation

The focus is mainly on the entrepreneurs and students from India who have shaped industries like technology and farming in the Bay Area.  A few things I learned:

- Indian-owned farms in California’s Central Valley produce 95% of the state’s peaches (why peaches?).
- There are more foreign students in California from India than anywhere else.
- In 1910, there were a total of 6,000 Indians in the US (imagine how tight that marriage market was)
- In 1990, 23% of Silicon Valley’s engineers were Indian.

By and large, doing work in India does not come at the expense of American jobs.

I’ve created a smaller pdf that features the excerpt on Monsoon and Badmash, or you can download the full report for free.

And, here is KQED’s Forum with a short show about the report: