Saturday, May 21, 2011

My team developed Motuto and that's covered by Tech Crunch :)

Proud of this feat as because Cover Story in Tech Crunch is not something happens everyday and you get to read by more than 3million tech users across the World (may be am wrong with the numbers).

Read the cover story here @TechCrunch . I would suggest you to have a look at MOTUTO it's free to download and am sure no body has done this yet other than us so am definitely proud to be part of the Rockers team who made us proud yet again.


Here’s how it works:

Once the free app is installed, users pick from a range of subjects for which Motuto has tutors on standby, covering much of Grade 7-12 math and sciences. They’re connected to the tutor as soon as one is available (if there’s a wait, the user is alerted via push message when their time comes), at which point their 20 minute tutoring session begins. Tutor and student communicate via text chat (students can also snap and send photos of their problems), while a real-time, two-way whiteboard runs alongside for demonstrations. Sessions are stored on the device for later studying, and can be e-mailed to the student for printing and sharing.

Each new user gets 1 free 20 minute session, after which point each session will cost around 5 bucks a pop. Motuto’s developer, Castle Rock Research, pins this pricing model as their strength; real-world tutors generally don’t come cheap, while their virtual competition (such as Tutor.com) tends to charge monthly fees rather than per session.

It’ll be interesting to see how that pricing model plays out. As pretty much every US wireless carrier has learned, a huge chunk of the populace seems to prefer to pay more for “unlimited” access rather than pay less for limited portions – even if they don’t really need unlimited access.

Castle Rock tells us they plan to up the value of their product in the near term with topic-relevant study guides, built to help ensure that any lessons learned are properly nailed in. Also coming soon (“in a matter of weeks”, they say): Android support.

What do you think? Is mobile tutoring the instructional aid of the future?

Know more about Motuto

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Ruby Conf India 2011 Sponsored by CASTLE ROCK

We are sponsoring Ruby Conference 2011 India as Gold Sponsor.
For registering to Ruby Conference  Click Here.

Being part of this exciting organization Castle Rock Research Corporation thrills us everyday by what we do. What are we for!

I am presently working as Technical Head, Mobile for India operation and we do exciting stuffs everyday. To know more about our product like SOLARO (available in web, native app across all the platform) & MOTUTO (I am sure no one ever thought of application of this kind) visit our India website

I am a Proud Member of the Castle Rock's Rockers team.


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Back Again to write

Have been traveling lately to various places | Got Engaged this month | Now in Bangalore office for an official trip to get the team going | Have been attending business meetings with CxOs from tech companies and that was exciting to meet those Thinkers/Leaders/Game Changers.

So in short was bit stuck with all these & that's a bad excuse. But now back again to write the about something new.... !



Wednesday, March 30, 2011

In App Billing now live in Android Market too!

This is definitely some reason for Android Developers to cheer that Android finally supports in-app billing.

What you get now ?
  • You can use the service to sell a wide range of content, including downloadable content such as media files or photos, and virtual content such as game levels or potions.
  • Any application that you publish through Android Market can implement in-app billing.
  • No special account or registration is required other than an Android Market publisher account & a Google Checkout Merchant account. 
  • Android Market uses the same checkout service that is used for application purchases, so your users experience a consistent and familiar purchase flow.
As with application purchases, Android Market charges a fee of 30% for anything sold via in-app billing, which is the industry standard. Hopefully this will help developers more effectively monetize their applications on Android Market — historically users have been less willing to pay for apps on Android than they have on Apple’s App Store.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Backlog Grooming in Scrum

In Scrum, the product backlog is the single most important artifact. The product backlog is, in essence, an incredibly detailed analysis document, which outlines every requirement for a system, project, or product. In simpler terms, it could be described as a comprehensive to-do list, expressed in priority order based on the business value each piece of work will generate. Philosophically, the scrum backlog is the engine of the business; it breaks the big-picture story down into manageable increments of work called Product Backlog Items (PBIs).

Backlog grooming (also called maintenance) is not a formal component of the Scrum process, Ken Schwaber, who founded Scrum, advises teams to dedicate five percent of every sprint to this activity. (As with Scrum’s other meetings, the grooming should take place at the same time and place and for the same duration each sprint.)

Who attends the backlog grooming meeting ? 

The Team
The Product Owner
The ScrumMaster. 

What happens there?


During the maintenance meeting, everyone helps prepare the scrum backlog for the sprint planning meeting. This usually includes adding new stories and epics, extracting stories from existing epics, and estimating effort for existing stories. 

Why is this helpful?

Because a groomed backlog will help streamline sprint planning meetings; otherwise, they can stretch on for hours. When product backlog items contain clearly defined ax acceptance criteria and are estimated by the appropriate team members, the planning process does not have to be tense or overly long. By dedicating a time to backlog maintenance, the team ensures that this preliminary planning always occurs prior to the SPM.