Meet Mr. Anto Peter

A Pioneer in Tamil Computing and Vernacular Online Domains

Mr. Anto Peter Ramesh is one of the pioneers in Tamil computing who created history of sorts by hosting the first Tamil e-zine in history. In this interview, Mr. Anto Peter talks about the goals a web entrepreneur must set in front of himself, the efforts of the global Tamil community towards the preservation of Tamil literary heritage and the software solutions offered by his company in language computing Tell us something about the various books you have written. How do these books cater to enhancing computer literacy among Tamil-speaking people? AP: Many books have been written to enhance computer literacy among laymen. However, most of the books focus particularly on programming languages or specific applications. I give more preference to specific departments like Tamil computing, multimedia graphics and desktop publishing, among others. Books on programming languages lose relevance in a short period of time. So, I concentrate on department-related topics. I have written about fourteen books in all. One book, called "Tamil and the Computer" has also received the Tamil Nadu State Government Award. I have written books titled "Graphics and Animation", "Internet Guide", "How to Type Tamil in Computing", "Desktop Publishing", "Computer and Tamil" "Computers Q & A", "Multimedia Q & A"

You had started Tamilcinema.com. What is so innovative about this venture ?

AP: Tamilcinema.com was started in 1997 and was the first Tamil e-zine in the market. We even coined a new term, "min-idhazh" (meaning "e-zine" in Tamil) to signify our business in Tamil. The entire content of the website is written solely in Tamil and carries comprehensive information about the Tamil cinema industry. We have a team of journalists who regularly keep the portal updated with the latest information about Tamil cinema. We get about 65,000 – 70,000 browser hits a day, which is really good.

What is kani thamizh sangam?

AP: All of us Tamil software developers, like Modular Systems, Webdunia and my company SoftView, decided to form a nation-wide association called the Association for Tamil Computing. We have conducted several events for the propagation of Tamil computing and we will continue to do so.

What are the prominent issues that an Indian language web entrepreneur must face in order to ensure success?

AP: Most Indian web services don't focus on one certain sector. There almost no portals for a specific area of interest like, say, sports. If you can focus on a specific section of the market, you can hope to achieve success. But, regular Tamil portals garner quite a large amount of advertising while exclusive Tamil portals haven't been that successful. The exclusive portal operators must target their region of interest and the target audience effectively. After all, advertising is the major revenue maker in virtually any portal.

You had developed a host of software also for the Tamil user. Tell us something about that.

AP: Among other things, we have developed over 400 fonts in Tamil. I believe we are the only company to have developed so many fonts just for Tamil. We have also developed drivers for virtually every operating system of Windows, from Windows 3.2 to Windows XP, for the purposes of Tamil computing. These drivers can also be used to compute in Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.

Are the software you developed implemented in Unicode?

AP: We are in the process of switching over to Unicode at the present. Microsoft Office 2003 fully fulfils the requirements of the content developers and the administration here very satisfactorily. Of course, competition with Microsoft Office 2003 is virtually impossible but we still seek to focus on local flavours like Language Sense or Grammar Sense that would seek to solve specialized requirements.

Your company, Softview, offers a variety of diploma courses in Coimbatore. Can you tell us about some courses that assist the development of language computing?

AP: The unique feature of the courses we offer is the fact that all the courses are taught in the regional vernacular. All the courses are creativity-based subjects, like multimedia, graphics, photography, desktop publishing, journalism and animation. We hope that this would boost the capabilities of the vernacular-speaking people and they can express themselves better in these creative fields through our courses.

You're a member of the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil. Tell us about this organization and its objectives.

AP: It is a worldwide body, combining the efforts of academic and research organizations and people towards the development of the IT sector in Tamil. We work together to developing different ideas and technology to assist the development of Tamil and Tamil computing. I, as a member, concentrate on the development of the rural community. I concentrate highly on awareness programmes for the rural community towards computing. After all, I'm a rural guy and I'm more interested in giving the best of my efforts to the place where I grew up.

You have been nominated as the Secretary of the Tamil Heritage Foundation. What are the goals of this organization?

AP: The Tamil Heritage Foundation is a $ 1 million book project that aims at collecting and preserving old and rare books in Tamil literature's history in a digital format. This project is carried out by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore under the leadership of Professor Balakrishnan.

You have developed various forms of software to showcase Tamil classics. Tell us something about them and the commercial impact of these products.

AP: Softview has also released a large number of books in the digital format on CD. Classics like "Thirukkural" and "Aathi Chudi", along with self-help guides like "Tamil Learning" and "Cooking" are among a large collection of products we offer. However, language computing is our company's mainstay. I have been established in the field of language development for over fourteen years now. There are over 82 outlets all over the world that have our products showcased. You can find our products in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Germany, websites and back home in major retail shops like Higginbothams in Chennai.