All Posts in BarCampBangalore3

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In the past there have been many articles written on this blog on BarCamp i.e. BCB2, BCB3, BCB 4 where I came across lot of smart people working on some cool stuff !!! It is during BCB3 that I met Lakshman Srikanth for the first time when he was a “Microsoft Student Partner”. And now straight out of college he dived into entrepreneurship with his startup GAViSTA TECH that solves a very interesting problem. In this episode, we talk to him about his startup journey, challenges, entrepreneurship, idea & many more things….

Can you let us know about yourself and your startup GAViSTA TECH ?

Well, I am an Entrepreneur. Started working on an idea – LegalCrystal and then later on registered GAViSTA TECH as a firm. LegalCrystal is now a product of GAViSTA TECH.

What is LegalCrystal all about ?

LegalCrystal is a search tool for Advocates, Anyone can use it to find laws, judgments decided at different Courts all over India.

Every idea addresses a problem, so what problem does LegalCrystal cater to ?

LegalCrystal addresses two problems mainly-

  • Before we started working on LegalCrystal, we researched existing softwares and came to the conclusion that Searching relevant judgments using phrase is the main problem. We started developing our own algorithm and indexers & built a search engine which is particularly tailored to Indian Law.
  • User Interface messed up in other softwares. Lawyers need to undergo a Teaching Class in order to use the product.! That is just lame. So we worked on UI and “Search Features” which makes advocate’s life much simpler and easier.

So would it fair to say that “LegalCrystal wants to be the Google of Law industry” ?

Well Google is for the WEB and we are for Lawyers on the WEB! With respect to Search Engine and ease of use you might say we are as good as “Google for Indian Law”.

How do you guys ensure that the information on LegalCrystal is up to date with the changes in the law system [penal code etc.] ?

We have a dedicated team to handle updates. We get case-laws from Judgement Information System hosted by National Informatics Center(NIC). For Few we go to respective courts and apply for a copy and then Convert it to text using OCR’s. We have another team which will take care of the data entry. As every judgement is sent to a panel of advocates who write Headnotes, Case Analysis etc. and then its paraphrased , formatted and updated on the website.

GAViSTA came up with the corporate offering of your flagship product LegalCrystal, how has been the response so far ?

Response has been really good! They just FEEL comfortable using LegalCrystal Corporate. We have approached International Law firms, Companies… First thing they like about the product is the User Experience and then the Search, Features. We are expanding the reach to other states very soon.

LegalCrystal started out as a college project, off late there have been many other Indian startups born in a similar manner, do you think that times are changing where students are getting more serious about last year projects ?

It depends on the individual, but there are lot of students who are trying hard to build something unique; Commercializing their invention is what they need to look into..!

Being a student entrepreneur [i.e. right from college], how did you get about hiring the initial team members & getting them to join you ?

As I was Microsoft Student Partner Lead, I already had a network of students in every college in Bangalore. So initially my friends & I started in my room, then later on we hired few folks from MSRIT and PESIT as interns who worked on really challenging tasks. Well, joining a startup isnt a joke! because there are too many uncertainties involved. As we had a solid product with great market scope we were able to convince them!

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|In: BarCampBangalore3|Last Updated:
This was my third BarCamp and I should admit that “It was one of the most memorable unconferences I have ever attended biggrin Great effort by Jace,Arpit,Kesava and his team for organizing such an event.

So,what was different for me in BCB3 as compared to BCB2?
The event (particularly the second day) was excellent and everyone enjoyed the second day a lot.It was discussion and networking for the two days of the event.I met all the old timers in BCB3– Shiv,Ashwin,Kiruba,Syed(K & S of the Knowledge Foundation fame)

Also, after the end of BCB3,I had good conversation with the guys from MobileMonday,Bangalore–Rajan and Rajiv….Along with this,met many Entrepreneurs and to -be Entrepreneurs.Looks like I would get good help for setting up my venture biggrinAnyways,below is one of the photos(At least I look smart in Photos lol), where I am there with my “Love-The laptop”

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|In: BarCampBangalore3|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
Rajiv Poddar is the founder of Sedna Wireless,a Banaglore based startup and he gave a demo of his product called ThinFone.You can know more about Sedna here

There was a demo of the product by Sedna which is slated for release in Summer 2007.The demo is available in a movie file which would be uploaded on Youtube and hence have not recorded much lol

Below is a small insight into what ThinFone is all about :

ThinFone is a WLAN device which acts as a cordless extension to your PC and provides VoIP Call Transfer and Audio Streaming facilities. It is 802.11 b/g compliant and comes with inbuilt speaker, microphone, antenna, battery and USB port. It is Skype, Yahoo Messenger and GTalk compatible provides VoIP call transfer capability for all these clients. It can also be used to stream high quality audio from the computer playing any kind of locally stored, CD or an Internet Radio service.

The ThinFone System consists of a Server software and the handset device. The Server software is installed on a computer running Windows XP. The ThinFone system has been designed for residential users and requires a pre-installed 802.11 b/g wireless router along with the broadband connection.

The video would be available on my blog once it is available biggrin

|In: BarCampBangalore3|Last Updated: | 6 Comments
Kiruba Shankar is one of the early stage blogger’s in India and has been podcasting for Podtech.He had a few tips for people who are new to podcasting and who have the myth that Podcasting is difficult biggrin

Q. Why don’t many people podcast just has people do blogging?
There were mixed reactions which are given below:

  • Consumption is not easy
  • Equipment is very costly and hence many people don’t prefer podcasting
  • More preparation is needed
  • Editing
  • Quite environment
  • Permission
  • No easy application
  • Good Content

Ans. Some of the answers given by Kiruba were a. Podcasting is not a geeky stuff but is also not so simple smile You just need a PC, Headset with a mic to do a podcast and none of the equipments are costly.Audacity is one of the best softwares to edit audio and damn,it is available for free.Some of the best podcast sites are PodBazaar,Odeo

Q. What is one of the most important things you need to focus in a podcast?
More preparation and content is very much important for a good podcast

He touched upon Mobile Podcasting which is very prevalent in western countries but is in a nascent stage in India sad

14 Mantras for a good podcast:

  1. Podcasts should be short( maximum of 10 minutes)
  2. Be passionate about your subject
  3. Have fun
  4. Segmentize
  5. Cram good stuff
  6. Edit and than edit again
  7. Continuously improve
  8. Be regular
  9. Invest in equipments
  10. Get a buddy
  11. Preferably a girl
  12. Use music
  13. Time stamp
  14. Subscribe to every feed

More would follow once the slide is up on SlideShare biggrin

Ashwin of CruiseManiac has also covered the session here

|In: BarCampBangalore3|Last Updated: | 6 Comments
I could not blog many of the events(live),which I attended since my laptop was drained out and later on,I had some problems with my internet connectivity.But again SlideShare came to the rescue and I was able to find few Slides on SlideShare.Two of the sessions are given below:

Web 2.0 Social Blogging Platform


This session was given by Vibhash(8th Semester student) and I had spoken to him during my lunch break.I was impressed with his passion and excitement and I am sure he would go a long way smile.Below is a session on his blogging platform called bForBlogs

Widgets and Open Standards – Opera


This session was given by Vivek and Navjot from Opera Software,Chandigarh.The session was excellent and the debate was all about widgets with the Opera Browser.There was a debate as to whether the opera widgets would work with Firefox lol I guess everyone knows the answer

Fortunately Ashwin had blogged about it and you can an excellent coverage here
More updates on Day 1 would soon follow and I would definitely try to cover everything live tomorrow lol

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So,finally I managed to get up early at around 6:30AM(damn,6:30 AM is too early for me biggrin) and reached Indian Institute of Management(IIMB) at around 8:15 AM.Yup,I was very early at the BCB3 and this time I had good company of my fellow blogger Ashwin.

Finally, I managed to get a place where I could have the adaptor connected to the laptop so,blogging live would be great fun biggrin

Check out session list in a small diagram below

Till than let me read something and get me in the mood wink

|In: BarCampBangalore3|Last Updated: | 2 Comments
The days of unconferences are back.Yes,Bar Camp,Bangalore is back and this time it is being tagged as “Bar Camp Bangalore3“.Even though the Logo of the unconference not yet finalized , there are already 90+ participants who have already registered for the event.

Do not miss the opportunity to Network,Learn and Share knowledge so, quickly register for the event here before it’s too late.

You can check out some of the BarCamp Bangalore 3 logos designed by Vijay Kiran here .Good work Vijay lol