Dr Madanmohan Rao

Dr Madanmohan Rao (madanATinomy.com, digitalnomadAThotmail.com) is an Internet consultant and writer based in Bangalore. He is the co-author of the recent handbook, "The Internet Economy of India, 2001." Prior to this, he was the Director (Communications) at the United Nations Inter Press Service bureau, New York, and Vice President at IndiaWorld Communications, Bombay.

Having graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay with a M.S. in Computer Science, Madan went on to get a PhD in Communications from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. A frequent speaker on the international conference circuit, he has given talks and lectures on Internet-related issues in about 35 countries

An articulate journalist, Madan is currently an online correspondent for New York-based Editor&Publisher magazine's MediaInfo site, and Malaysia-based Skali. His articles have appeared in many computer magazines in India and abroad. He is also on the board of directors/advisors of various companies like IndiaCom Directories, SteelRX.com, oolStartups.com, 4Cplus.com, FridayCorporation.com, SoftwareDioxide.com, and InvestSmartIndia.com.

He is the conference chair for India Internet World, Internet event consultant for tradeshow group Messe Frankfurt in Germany and also for Singapore-based Asian Media Information and Communication Centre.

Raju Mathur

Raju Mathur, a Linux user, advocate and supporter since 1992, has the distinction of being the man to have sold the first copy of Linux in India. Having started India Linux Users' Group, Delhi Chapter, he is currently de-facto convener of the Group of 300 members.

A speaker at various national and international conference, Raju has authored numerous articles on networking, operating systems and Linux. Major projects he was involved with include creating a free-software-based WAN for Times of India in 45 cities and being a consulting architect for DoT (now BSNL) for the National Internet Backbone project.

Being in the industry for the past 18 years, he has worked at user and IT corporations including NIIT, Pragati Computers, Times of India Group, SGI.

Today he runs his own GNU/Linux, networked applications and security consultancy, <a href=http://kandalaya.org/> Kandalaya </a> that boasts of an impressive list of clients that include Hughes Escorts Communications Limited, eGuruCool.com, Informatics (Sri Lanka)and Crompton Greaves Ltd, to name a few.

Jeff Alami was the founding Editor-in-Chief of <a href="http://www.linux.com/"> Linux.com</a>, a definitive resource of information for the Linux community. As editor, he organized and published Linux news, feature articles, interviews, guest columns, and other content. He is currently a section editor for the site, managing its developer section.

Dr. Hemant Adarkar

As Chief Technology Officer, Ways India Ltd, Dr. Hemant Adarkar’s (hemantATvsnl.com) job profile includes technical pre-sales, designing architecture, project scoping, management, team selection and sourcing hardware and software, strategic business and technology tie ups and organizing technical training.

He has a string of achievements to his credit. Having started the concept of e-labs in Ways, using Brokat Infosystem's ORB TWISTER, his team successfully completed five projects and executed two pilot projects for Indian Banks in six months. He has also developed an Intra-net based Task Management system called iMind Manager using Java Server Pages. He has spearheaded the strategic partnership program and represented Ways in the mSign consortium. Hemant has also been responsible for developing the idea of the Competency Center to train and certify technical personnel to undertake Brokat implementations worldwide.

Prior to Ways, he worked for 5 years at Source Publishers as Executive Director. Participating in business development, database maintenance and technical consultancy, he helped setup the two most popular database services for Orange, the largest mobile operator in Mumbai.

While at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (1985-1999), he was involved in the Indo-Russian (Soviet) satellite experiment Natalya-II, where he developed on-board computing systems that involved space-qualified processors and other circuit elements. He wrote codes for off-line analysis and developed the on-line data acquisition system for 4000 channels and developed simulation programs on mainframes and offline analysis codes using PCs.

He has written 30 papers in International journals on particle physics, astrophysics, nuclear instrumentation, on-line and real-time computing and articles written for MIS Asia magazine (Singapore), Economic Times, Intelligent Investor, The Hindustan Times, Deccan Chronicle, The Outlook, Express Computer, Computer Reseller News, etc. He has given talks on various topics like Convergence of Technologies and Financial Services (European Bank Technology Fair 2000, Frankfurt), Creating secured payment infrastructure in India (Brokat Global Road show, Mumbai India).

Matthew D. Sarrel

Matthew Sarrel as Technical Director ( Internet) PC Magazine, leads all testing conducted by the Web Development, Internet Services, and Network Infrastructure teams. Sarrel also runs a small consulting business, focusing on LAN/WAN design and installation, Website architecture and design, and custom application development. Prior to this he worked as Vice President of Engineering and IT Manager at two Internet startups.

A firm believer in the strength and practicality of the open source development model, Sarrel educates users and advocates for the use of open source and free software solutions such as Linux, Apache, and Tomcat. Throughout his career, he has worked mainly with commercial OS’s such as DOS, Windows, and Netware. Since 1999 he has been testing, designing, and implementing solutions running on free OS’s such as Linux, BeOS, and Solaris.

Before entering the world of Internet startups, Sarrel spent almost 10 years providing IT solutions in medical research settings, beginning his career as a Network Administrator and ultimately serving as Director of IT for the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center and CIO for the HIV Educational Exchange for Healthcare Workers in Vietnam project.

He has earned a BA (History) from Cornell University and an MPH (Epidemiology) from Columbia University.