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Today a search engine is born.

Not just any search engine but one that soon will lead the democratization of big data on Hadoop.

Emergent Semantic Graph based search is its innovation.

Its founding brains are Babur, Donald, and Stuart.

Maana CEO Babur (that is moi) is a serial startup CEO. He helped build some of the leading consumer and enterprise technology brands in their markets and spaces today.

Maana CTO Donald is the Co-Founder of the world’s largest deployed base of semantics in Microsoft SQL Server. Who also founded the Knowledge and Reasoning group within Microsoft Bing.

Maana Chairman Stuart led the Database Strategy at Microsoft, an annual $7 Billion business line for Microsoft after Microsoft acquired his data warehouse company.

Maana advisors AnHai, Tarek, Daniel, Tim, Steve, Pascal, Songbo, Brian, Dr. Ozden and Dr. Berkan, are current or former executives at Microsoft, LinkedIn, Endeca, Walmart Labs, Cloudera, SRI International, Mozilla, Sina, SunGard, Bell Labs and Hakia.

We the people behind see Hadoop as the “melting-pot” of data in the enterprise. Data landing on Hadoop has a bigger “potential” for the enterprise than where that data was generated, stored or transacted before. That potential is its propensity to form “latent” knowledge. That knowledge can be “realized.” How much of that knowledge and how fast it can be realized by an enterprise is a function of “# of people” harnessing it.

Or in other words the more people search on big data on Hadoop the more knowledge will be realized from big data and faster. However today the “big data” in any enterprise is available to only less than 6% of the employees (the data specialists) and literally to 0% of its customers! Maana search engine will change this.

(I am sorry this sentence is a bit technical) At the core of Maana lies the end-user represented as the central mathematical object, unsupervised machine learning, dynamic ontology induction and collaborative filtering.

We position Maana search engine as a semantic middleware for Hadoop providing the enterprise a way to discover and represent knowledge that is latent in the data in holds on Hadoop. Maana could be accessed behind any search bar and by any other application via APIs.

We will come out of the stealth-mode in 3Q13.

If you like to reach me please try me at “babur [at] maana [dot] io”

This is why I love mentoring, watch it. Passing along what I know to individuals whose brilliance is a hope for humanity. Last weekend in San Francisco, the US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, delivers a key note speech in front of thousands scientists and luminaries. 50th second into his presentation, my mentee and friend Dr. Veysel Berk is on the giant screen behind Dr. Chu, the whole world of science, press and media from 80 different countries are watching. It is the moment like this the mentor is get to be paid by sheer joy. It is priceless

Welcoming Ms. Mayer, Yahoo’s new boss, to the exclusive Turnaround CEOs club.

I welcome Ms. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s new boss, to the exclusive club of the Turnaround CEOs.

Some years ago this month, I was five months into my first Turnaround CEO experience.

The exchange rate for 1-day as Turnaround CEO is 3-days of rapid growth phase CEO and 5-days of early-stage phase CEO.

And there is more to it! 1 out 3 days of early-stage, and 2 out of 5 days of rapid-growth CEO tenures are occupied by problem solving; whereas every single day of every single day in Turnaround CEO tenure is crises handling and fire-fighting.

Here are some of the of things I compacted in the first year of my first turnaround CEO journey - with that not only we saved our company but we brought it back as the undisputed leader of its space in the US.

1) KEEP THE CUSTOMERS: I got in airplanes and visited all of my big and/or key customers (dozens of big customers spread in 40 out of 50 states in the US) at their C-level to tell them “in person” to stay as my customers and give me six months to fix things. Some of those trips would be in a plane flown by my vice chairman, covering 3 to 5 major US cities in 2-3 days visiting 5-9 customers. And in once such trip we almost landed on the lake instead of the runway in Cleveland during a blizard.

2) PEOPLE/CULTURE CHANGE: I moved the “entire” company from one city to another in another state a thousand miles away! I had to let people go; lots of good people and top-notch talent go. My conscious follows me to the day and will do so until the end of my time. I could found no other way, for the company to have a future (not just survive), a big future - it had to get away and start from scratch, total clean slate.

3) FIND NEW PURPOSE: The hardest challenge I faced was not in convincing customers to give me a chance or shake hands and say good-bye to the people, on the contrary instead it was to change the thinking of the entire company about what we stood for and hence why we have to “abandon” the existing product. And the best time we had together was that (after we passed that initial shock) to find our new destiny together.

4) COME UP WITH A KILLER NEW PRODUCT. And out of all that turmoil and happening during my turnaround journey, I realized almost instantly that the future we had was in re-inventing ourselvelves around an innovative new product by utilizing all the finest qualities we had yet my rivals lacked. In my case it was delivering our value prop as what would then be one of the earliest cases of SaaS delivery of SW.

Every day and each day in the annals of a Turnaround CEO is the play ground of ying and yang.

Dear Marisa I welcome you among us. May the force be with you and Yahoo.

#Yahoo #Marisa #Marissa Mayer #Turnaround CEO #Turnaround Yahoo #Turnaround AOL #Turnaround Apple #Google #AOL #Apple #TurkishSpark

Today is the beginning of end of chronic diseases.

(Photo captions: Dr. Veysel Berk, my Friend and Mentee; Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and US Secretary of Energy the two collaborators; Babur and Veysel at epicenter of where the discovery was made in QB3 Level B3 at Veysel’s Lab)

The person behind this ground braking discovery is the UC Berkeley scientist Dr. Veysel Berk, my mentee and good friend.

“Science” magazine, the most prestigious scientific journals (along with the Nature) today published the discovery that a team of scientists, including Dr. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and US Secretary of Energy, and led by my friend gave five years of their lifes.

May I invite you to hip hip hurray this young man’s contribution to humanity by clicking “f”, “t” and “in” at the latter two of the below three links.

Veysel is from Kasimpasa in Istanbul and graduate of Kabatas Lisesi, today both Kasimpasa and Kabatas should be proud of their son, who is regarded as one of the finest young scientists in the world.

Read at Science (if you have a PhD):

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6091/236.abstract

Read at UC Berkeley News (if you have a Master’s Degree):

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/07/12/discovery-opens-door-to-attacking-biofilms-that-cause-chronic-infections/

Rest of us can read it at Popular Science:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-07/first-imaging-technique-examining-structure-biofilms-could-beat-antibiotic-resistance

Diane Bisgeier, PM for Mozilla's FWD Open Innovation Initiative and I visited today at Cafe Venetia in Palo Alto and discussed over espressos Mozilla's new global initiatives.

I think the foundation’s Firefox mobile OS initiative deserve attention from us, the mobile developers.

The way I see it has the potential to do two great things for us:

1) Create for us a new market with 2 billion users. A market segment that there is no way we can reach via iOS / Andorid / Windows, unless phones that run them goes below a price point (not in the horizon for now)

2) Revive for us in a glarious way the browser based apps which we had much hopes few years back yet dumped it due to limitations. Although so far smart phones proved to be a dead ground for browser based apps the opposite may be the case for average phones where Firefox Mobile OS seems that OS that can make them smarter to run our app on avg phones.

Join me an learn more on Firefox Mobile OS and follow Mozilla's mobile ambitions.

Happy 4th

July 2nd 2012 - Today is a special day. I am at the Chu Lab (Steve Chu, Nobel Laureate and U.S. Secretary of Energy) at basement level 3 at the Department of Physics and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UC Berkeley.

A year ago this time at this very location while buried three stories underground and deeply meditated on his work which he vested 6 years of his life (which would eventually lead to the discovery that may revolutionize the way medicine fights chronic diseases) my friend and mentee Dr. Veysel Berk had a vivid revelation on the role of location in social networking.

He envisioned a use for location that is far beyond check-in, finding people or discovering. Although he did not run out of the lab shouting “Eureka” nevertheless I was the very first person he ran by his idea, Wallit, for a sanity test.

After raising over $1 million in three weeks with nothing but what’s in his mind and 5 power point slides, with which we launched in 6 months (from napkin design to product in the App Store) our “if you are not ashamed of your first version you are too late” version!

We were Featured by Apple in the App Store for three weeks, ranked in Top 10 in over 100 countries, and promoted twice by App Store via Twitter to millions of its followers, and major media coverage.

Wallit is my 7th startup and the 3rd as its early, interim or turnaround CMO.

Happy birthday Wallit.

P.S. The images attached at this blog captures my day in the Department of Physics and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UC Berkeley. One of them is the very first super-resolution molecular imaging microscope built by Dr. Berk which would be at the news (big news) in 10 days (be on the lookout J )

A MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT FOR TURKEY

Attention tech entrepreneurs in Turkey: your wish has come true!

One of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firm opens shop in Istanbul.

CAN ONE MAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE? OH YES!

I salute my good friend Baris Aksoy. It is because of him this is happening.

The world is moved forward by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial persons like Baris.

They charge forward with vision, determination, diligence, perseverance and smarts.

Witnessing the rise of another friend, a Turk in the Valley makes me very proud.

Baris is one the three formidable Turks at the Silicon Valley venture scene.

Along with Aydin and Nuray.

THANK YOU INTEL CAPITAL

A big thank you to Intel Capital.You have elevated Turkey several notches up.

The door you opened will be followed by other top tier VC firms from the Valley.

I of course recognize the pioneering work in Turkey by venture capital firm Tiger.

I also salute Hummingbird and Earlybird who put people on the soil in recent years.

The fledgling local tech venture firms will benefit from the arrival of heavy guns.

Once again thank you Intel, it is your move now puts Turkey on the global VC map.

ONE SHOULD NOT FORGET

The contribution of the Turkish state and government to these developments.

Valley witnessed in the last 3 years a series of things for the first time in her history.

Minister of Technology of Turkey, my friend, Nihat Ergun, has visited Valley 3 times.

Minister of Economy was here twice. A permanent Attaché is placed in the Valley.

Technocrats has been travelling behind the scenes (making things happen)

The grand finale (of the opening saga) was took place last week.

An unprecedented 5 day visit by the President of Turkey, Honorable Gul.

I salute Turkey in its efforts to connect to the Valley.

NOW MY FINAL WORDS IS TO YOU

The tech entrepreneurs in Turkey.

This is all for you, and I mean it, all of the above is happening ONLY for you.

Realize it, respect it, protected it, spread it, and best of all take advantage of it.

God bless Silicon Valley, Turkey and all that involved in connecting the two

by Babur Ozden, TurkishSpark

#Turkey #Turkish Venture #Silicon Valley Turkey

WRITE on virtual WALLS in APPLE STORES during iPAD launch

https://www.facebook.com/WallitApp/app_188313187945940

SUPERONLINE SATELLITES 1998 - More to see and read on this please go to SUPERONLINE OYKUSU group on facebook, it is opne to public. (Bu konuda lutfen facebook da SUPERONLINE OYKUSU grubuna bakiniz, herkeze acik.)

#Superonline #Babur Ozden #Yapi Kredi #Cukurova #Mehmet Emin Karamehmet #Burhan Karacam #Turkish Sattelites

IXIR almost invested in GITTIGIDIYOR 11 Years ago!

The Internet company IXIR that I started in Turkey in 4Q1999 (funded by Dogus Holding and Garanti Bank (both in Turkey) had an incubator arm, OKYANUX through which we discovered GITTIGIDIYOR at idea stage in 2000 and decided internally to invest and incubate them.

However ensuing collapse of Turkish economy and the burst of the Internet bubble taking place in the same time in 2001, took Ixir out of business. I am happy that we could not invest in them, because with the closing of Ixir they will be hurt.

The reason I write this bit of memory here is that OKYANUX was probably the first "real" incubator in Turkey and some 12 years ago! And we were attracting and finding the best future entreps in the country whose products would rule later in the decade such as Gittigidiyor, whose was acquired by eBay in 2011 for a nice sum.

The images shows the summary presentation that I gave to Ixir Brd of Dir (members from Dogus Holding and Garanti Bank) and telling them which ideas (and entreps) we selected to invest and incubate (Gittigidiyor was one of the three at that meeting) and asking their blessing. All my brd members gave us thumbs up that day.

4 Kasim 1999 -20. yuz yilda da Turk Internetinin En Buyuk Ani! (Nov 4, 1999 - The Biggest Moment In Internet in Turkey in the 20th Century)

Turk Internetinin Tek Bir Hamlede En Buyuk Kalemin Atildigi Ana Goruyorsunuz Bu Resimlerde. (These images captures the single biggest moment in Turkish Internet in 20th century)

Ixir de Turk Telekom Liasonumuz Arkadasimiz Alaettin 300,000 hat icin $4,000,000 Deposito Ceki ile Turk Telekom Dogru Yola Cikmadan Once Muhasebe Mudurumuz Ender ve Genel Md Yrd Cengiz den Ankara yerine yanlislikla Hawai ucagina binerse basina neler gelecegini dinlemekte. (Ixir ISP is writing a $4 million deposit check for 300,000 lines)

2000 yilin Mayis ayinda ayrica ilave $7 Milyon daha koyarak, $11,000,000 lik TC Internet tarihinin en buyuk Internet erisim hatti yatirimini yaptik, ki 2,000,000 abonemiz mesgul diye bir sey bilmesin. (by May 2000 Ixir had made a total of $11,000,000 investment for 300,000 active lines to provide an Internet access service without busy signal to 2,000,000 paying subs)

Ixir Efsanesini Facebook dan daha detayi ile ogrenebilirsiniz

IXIR - Farkli olmaktan ve Buyuk dusunmekten korkmayanlarin efsanesi

12 yil once bu ay, Subat 2000, Ixir hizmete gecer, Turk Internetin en hizli buyuyen sirketi olur, tam bir yil tum Turkiye onu konusur, tartisir, kullanir.

Kurulusu Eylul 1999, hizmete acilisi Subat 2000 - Sifirdan 300+ kisilik bir takim kurup, 6 ayda yoktan bir ISP, bir duzine portal, binlerce dagitim noktasi, Turkiyenin en iyi musteri hizmeti kurup acarak hala dunyanin en hizli kurulup acilan ve buyuyeyen (buyume hizi yuzdesi) Internet firmalari arasinda.

Buyuk rakiplerinden 3-5 yil geriden baslayan, ve tum Turkiyenin IMAGINATION inin yakalayan Ixir, sadece Turk Internetcilerine degil ama tum Turk girisimcilerine FARKLI OLMAKTAN ve COK BUYUK DUSUNMEKTEN korkmamayi ve bunlari rekabetci guce cevirmeyo ogretti.

100,000 hatla acilan Ixir Ersim hizmeti, acildigi gun rakiplerinin hepsinin hat toplamindan daha fazla hatti vardi (ve bir yilda 300,000 cikti); rakiplerinin bir veya iki abonelik plani varken Ixir 6 planla geldi; rakiplerin hepsionin toplaminda daha fazla noktada Ixir paketleri satildi (cunku kutulari mionacik yapip raf yerine checkout noktalarinda kasalarin yanina geldik); Turk Internet icerigi gazete, dergi, TV icin yapilmis icerigin webe tasinmasi seklinde giderken bir duzine markali vertical portalda (Chivi, Chilek, Nakhita, Sosyatix, Yepnew, Champion, Zakkin, NtvMsnbc, vs vs) sadece web de tuketilmek icin icerik yaptik.

En yavas gununde 1800 yeni abone kayit ederek, 13 ay surekli buyuduk. AOL ile satin alinma gorusmelerinin ortasinda 2001 basindaki es zamanli ama bir birinden bagimsiz cifte krize (ABD de Internet sektorunun cokusu, Turkiyede ekonominin cokusu) yenik dustu.

Bir yil once veya iki yil sonra baslamis olsa idi, bugun Almanya ile Hindistan arasindaki en buyuk Internet grubu olurdu Ixir (kisisel gorusum), sermayedari Dogus Holding i Turkiyenin ve bolgenin en buyuk Internet ve Web oyuncusu yaparak.

Ixir den bana kalan Turkiyenin en yetenkli ve konularinda "rock star" olan 300+ arkadisim ile omuz omuza cok buyuk bir hedefe inanarak 100m sprinter hizinda kosmanin hazzi ve anilari; ve Turkiyede cicegi burnunda genc girisimcilere farkli olma ve buyuk dusunme den korkmamayi birazda olsa asilayabilmis olmaktir.

Ixir ailesini olan tum mesai arkadaslarimi (ve eslerini), Ferit beyi, yatiricimiz Garanti Bankasi ve Dogus Holdingi, urunlerimizi satan tum bayilerimiz, hizmet aldigimiz tum tedarikcilerimizi, bir yandan rakibimiz olsada bize 300,000 hatti vermek icin kollari elinden gelen butun hizla sivayan Turk Telekomu, ve o tarihte rakibim olan firmalarin basindaki arkadaslarimi ve ekiplerini, Ixir in 12 yil once bu ay hizmete girdigi Subatta, Ixir Efsanesininin adina bir kadeh kaldirmaya davet ediyorum.

Silicon Vadisiden sonsuz sevgiler, babur

This is a unique opportunity to join Wallit founding core engineering team.

We are hiring Server Side Developers.

Think different. J Wallitapp is the only way to write on walls at place with your phone.

We are a venture funded mobile app company based in the Valley coming out of stealth mode soon and expanding our founding engineering core team with talented and experienced Server Side Developers who are passionate and excellent in what they do. We offer competitive salary and very attractive equity of the company.

Experience in designing, developing and expanding large-scale web applications is a must.

This is a full-time on-site on payroll role starting right away for the perfect candidates. We’re (currently) 2 blocks from the UC Berkeley campus, by downtown Bart.

Please see the role description below and if you are interested to find out more than please send your resume to [email protected] (and CC: [email protected])

Wallit Server Side Developer Role Definition

We are building a highly scalable, flexible and robust framework using next generation technologies that will enable rapid deployment of new features by mobile app developers.

We are seeking full-time experience developers who will work on-site as part of our core team to architect, develop, maintain, and optimize the server side of this framework using cutting-edge technologies leveraging state of the art distributed database systems and shared computing environments.

Experience in designing, developing or growing large-scale web applications (that are still in use) is a must.

Detailed Requirements:

- 5+ years of software architecture and development on the server side of a web application

- Demonstrable experience developing highly scalable and flexible server side frameworks using Google App Engine & GWT

- Solid fundamentals of Java Programming Language and related languages, protocols, etc.

- Experience with commonly known server technologies, applications and environments such as apache, linux, etc.

- Proficiency in data modeling, RBMS and MySQL

- Ability to work independently with little or no direction

- Creative problem solving abilities

Extra Brownie Points J :

- Experience developing mobile applications on both iOS and Android platforms is a huge plus

- Experience with Object Persistence Models

- Experience integrating mobile applications with cloud platforms using a variety of protocols

- Experience with distributed database technologies (Hadoop/HBase, Cassandra, MongoDB, Memcached, or other distributed object storage systems)

- Experience with Amazon Web Services

#Engineering #Jobs #Developers #Server-side #hiring

BABUR's PAPER ZOMBIE game is in APP STORE

Greetings from Palo Alto, California

This summer an iPhone game called “Paper Zombie” swept Spain.

I now bring this addicting game to America and Turkey.

Fantastic characters, great music and action, superior graphics, lots of tools and weapons and levels.

Would like to play as my guests? If you do, than please:

STEP ONE: From your iPhone (3GS or above) go to App Store, install “Paper Zombie” or alternatively, if you are reading this from your iPhone than just click on this link http://tinyurl.com/3fflkgy

STEP TWO: Open up Paper Zombie app on your iPhone, and where it asks you to enter ZCODE, please enter my invitation code u1crp which gives you Free 25 zCash in-game-credits.

If you liked the game please help me spread it, by:

INVITE - Any and all members of your family and your friends, this invitation extends to them all, “copy” this entire message, and “paste” it in email message and send it to them.

LIKE - click the “f” and “t” buttons inside the game and leave a ravaging review on the App Store, for each such good deeds you will earn additional zCash in-game-credits.

Thank you for playing my game and helping me spread this game around the world

#Zombies #Games

We were on CNBC today

Today CNBC premiered its new live TV segment “Science on the Street.”

Guess what story they selected to air? TrailerTail.

Please watch the TV Clip here http://www.atdynamics.com/cnbc.htm

As a new addition to CNBC's now very popular "Squawk on the Street," which broadcasts live from New York Stock Exchange every trading day morning, "Science on the Street" features every day a novel ground breaking technology that is changing a very large industry.

In this respect, CNBC recognizes the participatio of the Trucking Industry as a key player in reducing global dependence on fossil fuel and green-house emissions, and TrailerTails’ role in helping this industry reduce its fuel consumption by 6% in one simple swoop - a 45-min install of TrailerTail behind each trailer.

By changing the shape (box) of the trailer (what 18-wheelers pull) we help reduce US fossil fuel consumption (foreign import deficit) which will be billions of dollar annualy in few years.

Yogurt is healthier than Groupon! In every criteria of real business viability and success.

America’s fastest and “profitably” growing startup is not Groupon NOR it is an Internet, Mobile, Social, SW or tech company.

It is the CHOBANI yogurt startup by a Turkish entrepreneur Hamdi Ulukaya. From zero to $700,000,000 in annual revenues in 4 years.

And listen to this “it is profitable” (and lost of it), “not taken a single dime of investment” (and started as real garage sweat equity), and “Turk calls his yogurt Greek” (can this get any better :) )

Hemserim (my countryman in Turkish) Hamdi bey may the force continue to be with you. My fridge is full of your products, my family is hooked on your Turkish Yogurt and love the way you call it Greek. You are a role model.

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