What took us underground in the last two months?
March 2, 2010
January and February took us underground and brought a lot of changes to Orangut, some good and some bad. But these two months also brought a smile to our and our users’ faces. So, we can finally say that 2010 has begun on a bright note.
January saw the launch of two new products: Orangut Subrooms and Orangut Events. Then we began our first word-of-mouth marketing campaign that ended in the last week of Feb and resulted in several Indian colleges and universities using our products for managing their events, fests, competitions and academic activities over the last two months. You can see a partial list here.
There was a time when we added 800+ users in less than a week. This has happened for the first time in Orangut’s lifetime of 9 months and proves that there indeed is a latent need for our products in the market. Several prestigious universities and organizations have expressed interest in Orangut and we hope to add them to our list of satisfied users very soon.
We’ve also sent out a survey to a few selected users who used Orangut in the last two months. If you happen to be one of them but did not receive our mailer for some reason, click on the following link to complete the survey:
http://www.orangut.in/orangut/faces/ui/surveys/Feb2010.jsp
Also, our team is growing. So if you are interested in interning with us or are simply interested in volunteering for Orangut’s cause, check this out.
That’s it for now. Until we write again keep experimenting with our products and whenever you have something to say or suggest, do write to us at feedback@orangut.in. After all Orangut is FREE and is here to cut out the unnecessary workload and bureaucracy involved in managing events.
Keep Smiling and Happy March 🙂
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Orangut V-Day 2010 Trivia
February 14, 2010
Two out of the four colleges featured in Channel [V]’s Day of Love are currently using Orangut to manage their events, fests and competitions.
Can you name these two colleges?
Orangut featured on Yourstory.in
December 7, 2009
Recently, Orangut had the priviedge of being featured on YourStory.in. Read the whole story here.
Yea! Orangut has been shortlisted to present at the demo-pit in Headstart Summer 2009. For this Orangut will set up a kiosk in the ‘exhibition area’ of the event (this area would be free for all to visit). It will run from 12:30 pm – 5:30 pm on the day of the event (20th June 2009) at Nehru Center, Mumbai.
In their words only – This makes us eligible for demoing our product at the event’s exclusive demo-pit, where 20 of the most innovative startups would present their products in front of an ensemble of investors, entrepreneurs, mentors and other players in the Indian startup ecosystem.’
So, your good wishes are needed in plenty 🙂
Orangut hosts Poster Paper Submissions for International Conference on Comtemporary Computing 2009 (IC3 ’09)
June 2, 2009
Yipee!
Little about IC3 – The Second (2009) edition of International Conference on Contemporary Computing (IC3) is scheduled to be held from17 Aug to 19 Aug ’09 at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University (JIITU), Noida. Every year, this conference is jointly organized by JIITU and the University of Florida (UFL). IC3 calls for paper and poster paper submissions from all over the world. A student project exhibition is also organized during the event.
Its time for you to intern with us!
May 14, 2009
The development of Orangut’s first product is in full swing and we plan to release it very soon. However, we need enthusiastic people who can act as catalysts in the development cycle; in short we are looking for summer interns. Click here to get the details; and please write to internships@orangut.in if you think you have the steam!
Some good news to start with. Orangut‘s business idea has been shortlisted for the ET Power of Ideas Round 2 which is essentially an Elevator Pitch round. Hoping for the best in the future rounds..
From JIIT-LMS to Orangut
April 3, 2009
Orangut draws its inspiration from the system that we made for our college JIIT. Yet, it is very different. So how’s Orangut different from traditional LMS systems? Stay tuned to find out…
The Beginning: JIIT-LMS
April 2, 2009
I remember those Fridays when I and all my friends were in a mood to bunk that 9am lecture and watch the first show of a movie released that very day. Shipra Mall which was right across the street from our college hosted all pre-noon shows for only Rs.40. We usually reached college at around 11 to be in time for the movie but sometimes decided otherwise and reached college at 9 to attend the lecture. Little did we know that at times another surprize would be awaiting us: an announcement that the lecture stands cancelled. Sweet! Why did we have to get up from bed that early? What would we do for those two extra hours? And when on earth was that announcement made? It usually turned out to be that our professor decided to cancel the lecture last night due to some urgent work and wrote out the notice in a text file which he placed in the folder of his course on the college LAN. None of us knew about it, not even our hosteller friends; because it was just not expected. If only there was a mechanism that would email us such announcements…
Then there were those days when we had had an exam the next day and we as day scholars were at home and did not have an updated copy of our online study material (SM), which was available only on the college LAN. Our USB drives must have been last updated a month ago by a friend who was in the library while we were sipping coffee in Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) and setting our ‘targets’ for the next day. The Internet in JIIT’s hostel was usually chocked during exams because everyone would be hooked on to it, so it was not possible to get the SM emailed. It was not even feasible for us to drive all the way to college for the same reason. How we wished that all our lectures would be available somewhere on the Internet…
And now coming to the classic scenario of submitting assignments. An assignment is due today and although the submission is in the form of a PDF, it has to be physically copied on to our professor’s computer. What would happen to students who are working from home? And what if the professor is not on his desk during the submission timeframe? I remember having faced such problems so often..
So was there a unified solution to the problems mentioned above? Was there a more streamlined way of managing academic activities?
The answer was NO at that time. But definitelty a solution could be developed. We were aware of some other colleges where similar systems existed; though they were not very good. Ultimately we took the initiative and built a Learning Management System (LMS) for our college. JIIT-LMS as we named it, made it easier to post notices, announcements and have unified discussions. Everything could be managed online now and timely email notifications were be sent to students and teachers to keep them updated with important information. Submissions could be made and taken online and there was a provision to host SM also on this system.
JIIT-LMS was deployed for beta testing on the college LAN in the third quarter of 2006 and was made accessible on the Internet in early 2007. Although this system was targeted only towards JIIT students, it stands as the main inspiration behind the concept of Orangut.
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