Monday, August 6, 2001		Article

INDIAN mobile phone users now have an easier time downloading e-mail thanks to WAPpop, which is spurring hundreds of downloads each day after an upgrade last month.

Mobile users have access to phone services while on move, but they need a computer in order to have a look at their e-mail. "WAPpop was written keeping the problem in mind so that they can have access, to have a glance at their e-mail while on move," says Dr. Tarique Sani, a Nagpur-based medico who has written the software.

By using a WAP (wireless access protocol) enabled device, like a phone or palmtop, the software Sani wrote—WAPpop—can read mail from an Internet server, reply or forward mail, even delete mail and send new messages.

The paediatrician-turned-software expert says WAPpop, the first version of which was released in July 2000, remains the only OpenSource software of its kind in India. OpenSource is a type of specially licensed software code that offers its users the freedom to use and adapt. This form of collaboratively writing software through the efforts of volunteers worldwide has been making news worldwide.

"The response (to WAPpop) has by far surpassed expectations. Before the release of second version the downloads (by persons seeking a copy of the software) had tapered down to an average of 1,000 per month. The downloads for the second version have been an average of 500 per day," Sani said.

At present, he concedes, the tiny screen and cumbersome typing procedures is a "major hurdle" for anyone wanting to use such wireless devices to access the Internet. There is also limited bandwidth available for WAP. But this could change in the near future.

"When we started this project WAP was a hot technology around the world. Unfortunately most of the WAP development was centred on Microsoft’s ASP," Sani says. But he himself "loves PHP", which is the OpenSource’s answer to ASP and the most popular Web-scripting language around the world. "I felt that I could make a mark for PHP, OpenSource and in turn myself in the WAP world and to that extent I feel this project has been a success," he says.

Sani, a medical doctor who did his post-graduation in paediatrics and forensic medicine, opted to become the chief technical officer of his own Web engineering company SANIsoft, based in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The small firm specialises in Web development using OpenSource technologies.

Sani says modestly that he is not the "lone author of WAPpop". Two other programmers in SANIsoft, Girish Nair and Vinay Kumar, have made "significant contributions to the code," he says.