Sunday, February 27, 2011

February 2011 Japan IT Links (Part 2)

11:49 PM  Tech News  No comments

Continued from (Part 1). Middle part of February news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Continued to (Part 3)

Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated.

If you want to know any specific news more, but unable to find them in other English blog/media, please let us know.


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No Relief From SMS Spam Yet – TRAI Postpones the New No Spam Policy

11:28 PM  Tech News  No comments

Seems “delays” are part of  TRAI’s standard operating procedure. The 3G launch was delayed over and over again and now it’s same story with TRAI’s new no spam policy.  After postponing the enforcement by a month earlier, TRAI has yet again delayed it by another month. The new TRAI regulation is now said to be implementing from 1st April.

The delay is said to be due to unpreparedness of services providers and some differences between the DoT and TRAI. DoT had allotted a new ‘140’ series for telemarketers, instead of one starting ‘70’ as recommended by Trai, which has also delayed the process. Some differences have emerged between DoT and Trai on the subject. source

In the meanwhile there is already so much panic in the market that Facebook had sent sms to all user to un-subscribe from NDNC for Entertainment category. Yesterday JustDial also sent across SMSes to all its users asking to send SMS <start 6> to 1909. More Spam to allow spam?

We hope this is not delayed further and there is no April fool prank revealed on April 1st.

Moreover, every service provider has to ask a telemerketer to list according to the rules of the TRAI – with only one outgoing number and can withdraw services from 20th March. What’s surprising is that there is no mention of how consumers can complain about telemarketers who DO NOT register themselves as telemarketers.

Isn’t TRAI’s anti-spam regulations creating more spams and discomfort for the consumers?


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Budget 2011 Live (Reporting) on Youtube, Vodafone to Launch 3G Services [News]

11:28 PM  Tech News  No comments

Starting on 28th Feb from 10 am IST, users will be able to watch the live stream of CNBC-TV18 budget reporting on CNBC-TV18′s channel on YouTube. The URL is http://www.youtube.com/cnbctv18. In addition to this, the special budget related programming on the TV channel will also be available on the same day of airing on its YouTube channel, all through the month of February and March.[source]

Important to note that this isn’t live telecast of budget, but livecast of CNBC’s reporting.

Vodafone 3G Services

Wondering what those new Vodafone zoozoo ads are? Well, Vodafone is launching 3G service this week in a phased roll-out. Vodafone has 3G license for 9 circles and will be the third operator to launch full 3G services after Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications . Aircel recently announced launching 3G services  in 11 circles.

Airtel Launches Speech Recognition Service

Airtel has partnered with Nuance Systems to launch speech recognition service (Rs. 2/minute).

Airtel subscribers can now dial a single number to access a host of services, including hello tunes and news, against the current practice of calling different numbers for different offerings.

This speech recognition-based service, ‘One Number, One Voice’, can be accessed by Airtel mobile users in India by dialling 54321 and customers will be charged Rs 2 per minute for it, Bharti Airtel and Nuance Communications said in a joint statement.

Educomp picks stake in Gateforum

Diversified educational services provider Educomp Solutions Ltd has picked up a majority stake in test preparation company Gateforum Educational Services Pvt Ltd.

Gateforum provides preparatory tools for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), the entrance test for admission to postgraduate courses in technical institutes such as IITs and NITs [source].


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Best of the Week–Foursquare:CCD, Nokia: RCom [and more]

11:28 PM  Tech News  No comments

This week Nokia OVI announced its first ever operator partnership in India, i.e. with RCom. This is quite a milestone for OVi store as operator billing can do wonders to app consumption (as seen with Airtel app store). Though revenue share between operator and OVI isn’t yet known, operator generally gets around 40-50% of of the price paid by the consumer.

Best of the Week:

Startups/Entrepreneurship

India Online/Mobile

  • News Roundup: Aircel Launches 3G Services, Gujarat Bans Bulk SMS
  • India Post Gets a Sexy Web Experience – Looking Beyond NIC [$1Bn Put To Use?]
  • The Google Adsense Mafia – Get Your Adsense Accounts Approved For $10
  • Facebook Places Slowly Rolls out in India
  • News Roundup: eBay India Launches Mobile Site, Apple Updates Macbook Pro Price in India

    • Technology/Gadgets


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    Video: Android Tablet with 1.2Ghz processor from Shenzhen

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    a8-android-table

    We still don’t know its name, but it has been alleged to be the most powerful tablet so far from Shenzhen Shanzhai group. It’s powered by a 1.2Ghz Samsung S5PV210 that’s based on ARM Cortex-A8 processor. The RAM is 256MB, with 8GB ob-board storage. The sad thing is that the prototype revealed right now just get a 800*600 resistive touchscreen. The manufacturer comforted us that the product version would come with capacitive touchscreen. Other specs include a 1.3 megapixels camera, a HDMI port, Android 2.2 OS, and 1080p support. No words mentioned about the price till now.Below is a hands-on video that last 10 minutes, be patient!

    [Source:M8cool]


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    Female Innovation In Competitive Markets – 2 Mar

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    An exclusive 3-hour workshop with internationally renowned entrepreneur, fund raiser and Silicon Valley mentor capitalist, Margarita Quihuis. You will learn how Astia (formerly known as Women Technology Cluster) raised US$65 million for women-led startups and receive direct insight, advice and techniques to turn your idea into a successful and well-funded business enterprise.



    About The Speaker

    A social entrepreneur and mentor capitalist, Margarita Quihuis’s career has focused on innovation, technology incubation, access to capital and entrepreneurship. Her accomplishments include directorship of Astia (formerly known as the Women’s Technology Cluster) where her portfolio companies raised $67 million in venture funding, venture capitalist, Reuters Fellow at Stanford, and Director of RI Labs for Ricoh Innovations. She is currently a member of the research team at Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab. She was most recently Director of RI Labs for Ricoh Innovations, Inc. where she oversaw research efforts centered around discovering market opportunities from generational behavior (Millenials), cloud and mobile computing, emerging social technologies, crowdsourcing and open innovation. Her past efforts include access to development capital through the productive use of remittances in Mexico and developing and advising mobile banking companies that serve the needs of transnational workers and their families. In 2004, Women’s eNews named her as one of their ’21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ and was one of WITI’s Women to Watch in 2003. In 2007 she was named ‘One of The 100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley’. Ms Quihuis has served as a consultant to the US State Department on entrepreneurship and sits on the boards of UnaMesa, Women’s eNews, and the James Burke Institute. She is a past board member of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, and was a member of the screening and coaching committees for Springboard 2000, the venture capital conference for women and was part of the working group for the Business Women’s Initiative on AIDS. She has been widely quoted in the Asian Venture Capital Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, US News & World Report, Forbes ASAP, CNN and CBS MarketWatch.



    Event Details


    When: Wednesday 2nd March 2011
    Time: 9.30am-12.30pm
    Where: RMI Seminar Room 1, I3 Building, National University of Singapore, 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrance Level 1


    Register here.



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    Power Of Profit For Social Good – 2 Mar

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Three world-renowned, award-winning social entrepreneurs from different corners of the world will share their experience and provide insight and direct advice on how to generate social change through successful business initatives in Silicon Valley, Asia and Latin America. You will learn how to create successful strategies, pitch your ideas to investors and engaged th masses for crodsourcing, crowdfunding and real social impact while turning in a profit and generating wealth for local communities and reaching global markets.



    Speakers


    Margarita Quihuis, social entrepreneur and mentor capitalist focused on innovation, technology incubation, access to capital and entrepreneurship.


    Carlos Miranda Levy, social entrepreneur in residence at National University of Singapore, Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford University, Google Developing World Scholarship recipient, named by CNN as one of Latin America’s top 20 more influential people on the internet.


    Atif Mumtaz, founder of Jaroka Tele-healthcare a servicing rural Pakistan, which won the mBillionth Award’s mHealth category in 2011 in New Delhi, India, organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation.



    Event Details


    When: Wednesday 2nd March 2011
    Time: 2.30pm-5.30pm
    Where: RMI Seminar Room 1, I3 Building, National University of Singapore, 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrance Level 1



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    “If not you, somebody else is gonna do it.” – Startup Lessons From Box.net Story

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Yesterday, California-based Box.net announced $48 million funding (in Series D) to expand its Cloud based data storage service (collaboration based).

    What’s interesting is that the company was started in a dorm room and the founding team used to answer customer support queries sitting in a class room.

    Watch these two videos where CEO Aaron Levie shares great learnings.

    • Do something that was not possible three years ago,
    • Do something you are extremely passionate about,
    • Don’t compromise,
    • If you feel comfortable, you’re probably not doing it right, and
    • Don’t write your obituary too early

    1. Launching From the Dorm Room

    2. Five Solid Startup Lessons


    An important quote from the video: If not you, somebody else is gonna do it.

    What’s your take?


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    Japan’s Online Music Market Shrank For First Time Ever Last Year

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments


    Bad news for the Japanese music industry: the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) yesterday released [information in English] the sales figures of digital delivery in 2010 and said that the market for online music shrank for the first time last year.

    Online music sales contracted by 5% year-on-year to 85.99 billion yen/$1.05 billion from the 2009 figure. According to the RIAJ, music delivery via PCs and smartphones remained relatively stable (slipping just 1% to 10.12 billion yen/$124 million).

    But sales of music titles via feature phones, which represent 80% of the overall market, dropped 6% to 74.74 billion yen/$915 million.

    Full breakdown (click to enlarge):


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    Cheating With Japanese Yahoo! Answers Happens At Kyoto Univ Entrance Exam

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Today, 26th February in afternoon, one question around Japanese translation to English on Yahoo! Chiebukuro [J], one of Japan’s most popular Q and A service run by Yahoo! Japan, was mentioned on giant bulletin board 2-channel [J] by an anonymous Japanese web users.

    The following comments (all anonymous) pointed out that the question is identical with the one from entrance exam questions of Kyoto University, one of the nation’s top university, done in the morning. And the time asked was just after the exam began. So this person must submit the question from examination room.

    Then, 2-channel users found that the same person (id: aicezuki) made a series of English and math questions on Yahoo! Chiebukuro [J]. The math questions were done from 13:37 to 14:11 on Friday 25th, which is during the math exam time (13:30-15:30) [J, pdf].

    Although some commented that it is stupid to expect answers within under 2 hours on web Q and A services, suprisingly, he/she got answers before the math exam ends at 15:30. And 4 out of 6 were correct.

    Some explained how they think it can be done. Remember, memo or take photos of the questions, then ask permission to invigilators for toilet break, accessing Yahoo! Chiebukuro and write questions. Or, if you have a cooperator outside, you can e-mail to him/her, and he/she will handle Yahoo! Chiebukuro. (You need to go to bathroom twice in a single test, if you yourself want to pass the exam, though.)

    The real English questions were not published yet. We will update when we get it but for the English exam, he/she could not get good answers within time.

    Some of 2-channellers wrote that it is unlikely to get the exam passed by using these answers without found, and said that this may be done by a part-time exam solver, who are hired to leave exam early and make a quick model answers for big preparatory school, as those schools are expected to disclose all questions and sample answers in hours.

    There is also an opinion that it is not for passing the exam itself but protesting against something or showing that the exam can be cheated.

    Yahoo! Chiebukuro is one of two popular online questions-and-answers website (the other is OKWave). It was built based on Yahoo! Korea’s Q-and-A service success in 2004, then U.S. Yahoo! made a clone of it and named Yahoo! Answers.

    Cheating exam by cellphone was a news in Korea in 2004, but that one was organized mass cheating. This time it goes advance with croudsourcing, which a certain Japanese web user called “Cheating 2.0″.

    [Update 22:31] Public TV NHK reported the issue on its website [J]. PR person of Kyoto University answered to NHK that they would investigate issue.

    [Update 22:55] Asahi followed [J]

    [Update 0:54] Nikkei says that the same person did it at Doshisha University on Feb 8 [J]


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    Group Buying Deals – How Much of a Good Thing is Too Much?

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Who doesn’t love a good deal, even when it involves a spa session we didn’t know we wanted? Thanks to the proliferation of group buying sites, bargain-hunters no longer have to wait for special holiday promotions or end-of-season sales to snap up a good deal. All they have to do is check their e-mail.

    Sounds great, right? Well, not really, say critics who are concerned about whether merchants can turn a profit using the group buying business model. As recent reports in the US and Japan have shown, being the hot ticket of the moment isn’t always a good thing. The sudden surge in demand can sometimes be overwhelming for merchants, resulting in unhappy customers and employees.

    In Singapore, DEAL.com.sg felt the heat from angry customers recently when a 4D/3N Bangkok travel deal ended up offering less than what was promised.


    The Bangkok deals on DEAL.com.sg.


    Among the complaints: hidden costs in the form of high airport taxes and weekend surcharges, and late arrival and early departure flight times.

    According to DEAL co-founder and CEO Patrick Linden, the company is currently in the process of refunding customers their money and has implemented “a much more rigorous screening process for all merchants.” He talks to us about what went wrong and whether he thinks this incident proves that there are flaws in the group-buying business model.

    You mentioned that the merchant spelled out the T&C incorrectly and overestimated their capacity. Can you elaborate on this?

    We don’t want to put too much of a bad light on the merchant. The main reason which upset customers with the Bangkok deal (2600+ sold, featured in early January) was the very long appointment dates given to our customers by the merchant. Some had to wait around one month for an appointment. Also, some customers didn’t get their preferred choice of hotel and airline (there was a list of three each to choose from). It was clearly spelled out in the T&C that choices are subject to availability. However the long appointment time was something we have not been aware of.

    One of the concerns a lot of people have about group buying sites is that this business model isn’t financially viable for small businesses. Would you say that the Bangkok deal is an example of this?

    Generally it works out well for most merchants to get new customers and get their business into the spotlight – through our combination of newsletter, site visits and partners such as Yahoo, we reach more than 250,000 people on a daily basis.

    This is also reflected in the number of incoming featuring requests (passive sales) we get from merchants (currently 10-15 a day.) It works extremely well as a marketing channel for them. We see it as the next evolution to local search marketing such as AdWords.

    Only in very rare cases does the merchant sell below cost price. For food for example, the cost factor is on average only 30% of the USP. So if you subtract the discount and our commission, the merchant still makes a small cut. Plus, most people order additional items at the normal price. So the average “loss” for the merchant ends up somewhere at 20-30%. Plus they get a new customer who will most likely return in the future if the experience was positive.

    For the Bangkok deal, the merchant also had a small profit cut above his cost price.

    Previously, did the company allow merchants to cap deals?

    We always allow merchants to cap deals and generally our sales people will actively advice a merchant to implement caps if they see their customer support staff could approximately only support x number of people in a given time period.

    Also in the case of the Bangkok deal, our sales manager saw the number of customer support staff at the merchant’s office, that’s why we went ahead with the merchant’s request of no cap.

    Do you think that in their haste to attract publicity, merchants sometimes neglect to consider the logistic implications of a group buying deal?

    For some of that this might be the case. As I mentioned, if logistic issues are visible to us, we advise the merchant to cap and/or only put the deal as a special deal (on the side) which generally doesn’t sell as well.

    Can you give us an idea of how many repeat merchants you have at Deal? Following the introduction of your new screening process, has the company ever turned a merchant down?

    We have F&B outlets which we featured more than three times in the past nine months. If they sell well, they’d generally always want to re-feature. If sales didn’t go so well, they might not.

    We’re turning about 50% of the deal offers we receive down due to a variety of reasons such as capacity issues, not appealing to the mass market, not being an established brand et cetera.

    You mentioned that the new process will “evaluate the capacity of any merchant and calculate the deal structure accordingly.” How does this work and will this affect the discounts on the website?

    It’s a formula which basically results in a recommended cap. The main components are estimated sales potential for the deal (attractiveness of brand, location and price point), capacity of the merchant, validity period, and track record. According to the result, we put a cap on every deal. It will not affect the general discounts (30-90%) on the site.

    Image credit: tanvach


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    Meet NYC EDC – Learn About Business In NY – 4 Mar

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Organised by IDA & IE in partnership with New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), you are invited to join us at the World to NYC Outreach event. We will have speakers from NYC EDC speaking about the infocomm opportunities and business ecosystem in New York.

    About NYCEDC

    NYCEDC is the City’s primary vehicle for promoting economic growth, which aims to foster the growth of New York businesses, and to attract vibrant, new businesses. A successful economic development relationship between NYC and Singapore has the potential to increase the vitality of both countries’ economies and create jobs across all levels and industries. NYCEDC has partnered with IDA and IE Singapore for World to NYC, an initiative that promotes trade and investment between New York City and Singapore by hosting business delegations of Singapore-based companies and helping them expand to New York City. As a lead-up to the mission (happening in May), they will make this trip to Singapore for a World to NYC Outreach to share and meet interested companies.


    Programme

    Opening remarks
    Introduction video by Mayor Bloomberg
    Presentation by Ann Li, Senior Director, NYCEDC on
    Why NYC?- Doing Business in NYC
    Opportunities in the Infocomm & Media Sector in NYC
    The World to NYC Programme in May
    Q&A



    Event Details

    When: Friday 4th March 2011
    Time: 9.30am – 11am
    Where: Little Red Dot room, IE Singapore, 230 Victoria Street


    Registration is free and on a first-come-first-serve basis. Email “Charlene [underscore] WONG [at] ida.gov.sg”



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    Image credit: zoonabar


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    On evil VCs and Startup Ecosystems

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Man who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt man doing it. - Famous Chinese Proverb I‘ve always thought that catchy headlining was a tool reserved for segments of Western media, until I came across a guest post by Teo Sze Siong on e27 titled VCs are evil, says this Malaysian startup.  Not only [...] Related posts:
    1. Get your Asia Venture Schwag today
    2. Six winners for NRF Early Stage Venture Fund
    3. Doom and Gloom across the Pacific: from Singapore to Silicon Valley

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    TEDxKRP – Social Change Through Local Innovation and Global Entrepreneurship

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. This upcoming event is called TEDxKRP, where x = independently organized TED event. At TEDxKRP, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized. Join in for 13 mind blowing sessions about the power of local innovation and global entrepreneurship for social change. TEDxKRP aims to bring you the unique experience of 11 live speakers from Silicon Valley, Pakistan, Singapore, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean sharing their inspiring stories and projects changing the world at a local level with a global vision and impact. Plus, you will enjoy formal TED videos, a delicious dinner and a Taiji Ball performance at no cost.


    TEDxKRP is curated by Carlos Miranda Levy with the support of Jolia Tan and Wong Sang Wuoh, mentoring advice of Prof. Wong Poh Kam and a great team of volunteers. It is sponsored by the National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre.



    Event Details


    When: Tuesday 1st March 2011
    Time: 6pm-10pm
    Where: 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, University Hall Auditorium, National University of Singapore, Lee Kong Chian Wing level 2, 119077 Singapore


    Register here.



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    Events For The Week – 26 Feb-5 Mar

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Latest Entrepreneurial Events in SingaporeFor a one-stop to all events related to or concerning entrepreneurship, certain industry-meets-business forums and seminars in Singapore, check out our Calendar. If not, you can also follow our bite-size updated posts for upcoming events for the week.

    Events range from simple get-togethers to full-blown conferences. Get to meet fellow developers, entrepreneurs, startup CEOs & founders, and meet & learn from CEOs of established companies who have seen it all.

    Our aim here at SGE is to make it easy for you to pick & choose from the event buffet. Enjoy.

    Here are the events for this week. Events are mostly in Singapore (generally 30 minutes drive from anywhere), but we also include key events from around Southeast Asia and beyond.


    Fri-Sun 25-27th Feb:


    (1) (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Facebook Developer Garage-Ureka Weekend


    Tues 1st Mar:


    (1) Drupal Meetup – Controlling Content Visualization with Display Suite


    (2) TEDxKRP – Social Change Through Local Innovation and Global Entrepreneurship


    Wed 2nd Mar:


    (1) Singapore Ruby Brigrade Meetup


    (2) Female Innovation In Competitive Markets


    (3) Power Of Profit For Social Good


    Thurs 3rd Mar:


    (1) Conversations On Vietnam Tech Scene


    Fri 4th Mar:


    (1) Meet NYC EDC – Learn About Business In NY


    If you’re looking for a real-time Q&A solution for your event, check out PigeonHole Live. The team at PigeonHole has kindly agreed to allow event organisers who quote SGEntrepreneurs to get to use their solution for free till end June 2011.


    Image courtesy of joyosity.


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    Conversations On Vietnam Tech Scene – 3 Mar

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    Vietnam has one of the fastest growing online population in the region, probably globally too. Vietnam is also seeing growth in IT companies exploring the local market and setting up offshoring centers. Vietnam-based entrepreneurs and technology event organizers Dang Hong Phuc and Mario Behling are visiting Singapore and will be talking about the startup and tech scene in VN and what opportunities there might be for collaboration (tech events, open source, women in IT etc.).



    Event Details


    When: Thursday 3rd March 2011
    Time: 7pm
    Where: Hackerspace.sg, 70A Bussorah Lane



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    Drupal Meetup – Controlling Content Visualization with Display Suite

    8:25 PM  Tech News  No comments

    At the next Drupal meetup, meet guest speaker, Matthias Vandermaesen. Matthais represents Krimson, a company that works on large Drupal projects within media, culture, non-profit etc. Employees of Krimson have submitted thousands of commits to about 30 Drupal modules.


    Synopsis and Programme


    Drupal is a great content management framework but comes with a steep learning curve. A big problem is the way objects (nodes, comments, user profiles,…) are displayed. You don’t get a lot of control out of the box. Worst case scenario: you start overriding templates in a custom theme and hard code data. It makes development hard and maintenance challenging.


    Luckily, there are a number of good solutions out there to give control to the developer. Who hasn’t heard of Panels? Another great tool is Display Suite.


    This module not only allows you to control visualization of individual Drupal objects through an easy UI. It’s a fully fledged API giving developers the opportunity to plug in their own code.


    This session will give you an introduction to Display Suite:


    * What is Display Suite
    * A overview of DS features
    * Several demonstrations showing you the ‘handiness’ of DS
    7:30pm-8:30pm: Duration: 45 min + 15min of questions
    8:30pm-9pm: Networking



    Event Details


    When: Tuesday 1st March 2011
    Time: 7.15pm for registration
    Where: 179 River Valley Rd #04-10


    RSVP.



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