Bangalore Operating System - revisited

Several months ago I posted a 'thought' that the surge in IT related startups and infrastructure improvements in India (specifically Bangalore, but it is growing all over the country) could spawn; given the right capitalistic approach, a new operating system to rival M$. My post was less about the actual idea of a new OS, and more about India based IT companies taking more of a ownership role in the products and companies they develop and develop for. It really only takes the right person to make it happen.

I have been thinking about this idea more and more since a colleague Stuart Henshall has been making the short commute between CA and Gurgaon India. And I am guessing, positioning a tech startup in India to become the next 'big thing'. As I anxiously sit and wait to see what Stuart and his team have cooked up, I have been enjoying his posts on the cultural differences between NA and India with respect to telephony, consumer electronics, and how they are being adopted.

Check out his newly rejuvenated blog - The Unbound Spiral, or as I like to call it, the blog that started it all :)

Keeping Kids Safer with IM

Alec Saunders has brought to light a very important new startups flagship product called IMSafer, the premise behind IMsafer is it allows parents to monitor IM conversations without intruding on childrens privacy. With the recent public outrage over the Foley emails and IM's currently under investigation in the US - the need for a product like IMsafer couldn't be more apparent.

According to Alec

It lurks in the background on any PC, discretely monitoring IM traffic, and uses lexical analysis techniques — the same techniques used by law enforcement – to look for the telltale signs that your child is having an exchange with a sexual predator. If it finds those signs, it alerts you, the adult, so you can intervene before it’s too late.

The IMSafer service also allows parents to leave feedback on people they believe are having inappropriate conversations with their child. This feedback allows IMSafer to be even more proactive in alerting parents about potentially inappropriate online relationships. As more parents get involved, the stronger the service becomes.

Check out the post on Alec's blog, and I would kindly ask you digg the story from there as well, it is important and needs to get out. They are launching tomorrow with support for AOL, MSN, AIM, ICQ and YIM, and plan to add support for Skype and Gtalk soon.