About Me!

Omi Azad

Contact Details

Email: Omi's Email
Phone: +880 44 7780 0269

Personal Information

Date of Birth: 29 Aug 1978
Nationality: Bangladeshi
Marital Status: Married with 1 child.

My Professional Vision

A reliable and self-motivated achiever with a professional attitude. I believe that the ability to understand and deal effectively with a client’s ICT needs requires as much skill in human communication as it does technical proficiency. I strive to “bridge the gap” between technical know-how and the practical, goal oriented needs of managers and end-users in the working environment, thereby providing simple but effective solutions, which fulfill often complex requirements. With well-developed technical skills I can work alone or in a team. I have leadership experience and can build effective and friendly relations with colleagues and clients. As one of the early leaders of the Bangladeshi ICT sector I have been involved in various initiatives in the sector. Now I want to continue playing my part in the hi-tech technological progress which the ‘tiger-cub’ economy of Bangladesh is undergoing as it becomes a world-class player in the ICT field.

IT Experience

With over 11 successful years as an IT professional I am highly experienced in planning, procuring, and deploying IT solution. Sometimes configuring and troubleshooting small/medium size networks and standalone computers. I am familiar with many web and data communication technologies and have an excellent overview of the IT sector at large. I am familiar with most common software packages and although I regard myself as an advance IT practitioner.

Employment, Education and Career Achievement

Microsoft Bangladesh Ltd. – Dec 2009, continuing
Developer Evangelist

  • To make a bridge between the developers/IT professionals and Microsoft
  • Maintain MSDN Bangladesh
  • Maintain other developer channels and activities.

Maxwell Stamp Ltd. – Jul 2008 to Jan 2010 (Freelance)
Web/IT Expert

  • On behalf of them I’m providing IT consultancy service to Bangladesh Board of Investment, funded by IFC.

GDP Global Development Limited, UK – Aug 2008 to December 2009 (Freelance)
IT Consultant

  • Assisting website Development for them and their concerns.

Siddiqui Telemarketing – Oct 2008 to Sep 2009
IT Manager

  • Maintain Siddiqui Telemarketing and Infratel partner call center servers in South East Asia region.
  • Research on Infratel IP PBX & Call Center solutions to enhance functionalities.
  • Maintain Call Center Server functionalities.
  • Maintain inbound/outbound call center network.
  • Maintain Internal Network.
  • Maintain external network for remote call center agents.

Cowater International Inc. – Oct 2007 to Jun 2009 (Freelance)
IT Consultant

  • I am managing all in-house IT concerns (internal network & SAMBA server) of PLAGE II project, funded by CIDA.
  • Assisting Web Development for Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Government of Bangladesh

Fractal Web, UK – Oct 2007 to Sep 2008
Project Manager

  • Design and maintaining client’s websites.
  • Managing project development milestone.
  • Manage and distributing the development tasks among developers.
  • Evaluating development process through Subversion.

UNDP, Bangladesh – Jun 2008 to Nov 2008 (Freelance)
IT Consultant

  • Lead Unicode based Bangla font development at Election Commission, Bangladesh. Assisted by A2I project, UNDP.

Bangladesh Television – Feb 2006 to Sep 2008
ICT Program Author

  • Use to author an ICT related magazine program “Computer Protidin”

Allomatch, France – Nov 2007 to Feb 2008
CRM, Content Administrator and Assistant Project manager

  • Managed their CRM software (SugarCRM) development and customization project.
  • Use to manage and integrate Joomla based module development for their website allomatch.com.
  • Use to manage project development milestone.
  • Use to evaluate development process through Subversion.

Systech Digital Limited – Jun 2006 to Nov 2007
Project Leader – Bangla Localization

  • Use to administrate Bangla Software Development.
  • Implemented E-Governance through Bangla Language (A project by UNDP and Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh).
  • Use to design and maintain Bangla (Unicode) web portals.

Daily Ittefaq – Feb 2006 to Sep 2007
Contributor ICT Journalist

  • Wrote Articles on ICT related issues and reviews on useful software.
  • Tried to spread ICT4D motto and introduce Open Source software to mass people.

Weekly Ekattor – Apr 2005 to Jul 2006
Editor & Designer – Web

  • Designed & Maintained Weekly Ekattor’s web portal http://www.ekattor.com using Drupal CMS.

ICT Journalist

  • Wrote Articles on ICT related issues and reviews.

DinajpurOnline – Aug 2000 to Jun 2006
System Administrator

  • Designed complete ISP.
  • Use to troubleshoot users’ computer problem and recommend hardware/equipment purchase.
  • Maintained the web site http://www.dinajpuronline.net

Dinajpur InfoTech Limited – Jun 2002 to Jan 2004
Project Administrator

  • Project Manager for Software Development.
  • Training organization for Medical Transcription.
  • Content management for the site http://infotech.dinajpur.biz using Mambo CMS.
  • Designed complete ISP.

Dinajpur Networking Journey – Jan 2005 to Jun 2006
IT Advisor

  • Designed complete Broad Band ISP.
  • Troubleshoot VSAT, Firewall and other network problems.
  • Maintained the web site http://dnj.bd.net using Drupal CMS.

Educational and Other Qualifications and Experiences

Secondary School Certificate – 1994
First Division from Dinajpur Zilla School, Dinajpur, under Rajshahi Board

Higher Secondary School – 1998
First Division from KBM College, Dinajpur, under Rajshahi Board

Two years’ Higher Diploma on Computer Science – 2000
CGPA 3.2 from Brac Information Technology Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bachelor of Social Science – 2002
Second Class from National University of Bangladesh

Summary of Qualifications

  • Oracle Certified Professional
  • Oracle Certified Web Administrator (WebMin)
  • Microsoft Certified Professional
  • Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA), Windows 2000
  • Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA), Security on Microsoft Windows 2000
  • Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) on Windows XP

Other Experiences

  • Seven years experience of Web site building using popular CMS like Drupal, Joomla, Jaws.
  • Over Seven years of Windows NT4/2000/2003 networking experience. Network technologies include TCP/IP, DNS Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Apache Web Server, Ensim, MailMax, MailEnable, MailGate, cPanel, WebMin.
  • Six years experiences of running an Internet Networking company.
  • 15 days workshop on Tricode Systems remittance processing software arranged by United International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh and Omega Systems LLC, USA.
  • Over Five years experience with TTF/OTF development.
  • Three years experience on CMS based Web Site development.
  • Seven years experience of Audio/Video (Non-Linear) editing.
  • Three months experience with Online (Non-Linear) Video editing.
  • Two years experience on Primary Level Computer Education Program for The Tribe in Novara Technical School, Dinajpur.
  • Nine months experience on Adult Primary Computer Education Program by Community Development Project, Dinajpur.

Trainings Received

  • Windows or Linux based Networking and administration.
  • Oracle Web Administration.
  • Internet connectivity & mass distribution.
  • Digital Video Editing.
  • Graphic Designing.
  • Digital Audio Editing.
  • Microsoft Visual True Type.
  • VSAT Installation.

Technical Skills and Experiences

Experience in Operating Systems

  • Windows 7 (All Editions)
  • Apple MAC OS X
  • Windows Vista (all editions)
  • Windows Server 2008 (Without Hyper-V)
  • Windows Home Server
  • Windows Server 2003 (standard edition)
  • Windows XP (all editions)
  • Windows 2000 (all editions)
  • Windows 95/98/ME
  • Windows NT 4 (all editions)
  • Windows 3.1/3.11
  • MSDOS 4/5/6
  • Most of the common distribution of Linux

Hardware I’m familiar with

Apple, ATI, AMD, A-Data, Motorola, Compaq, Dell, NEC, IBM, HP, Adaptec, 3Com, Intel, ASUS, Maxtor, Sony, HP, Dazzle, Pinnacle, 3D Labs, Microsoft, Samsung, Linksys, Philips, ATARI, Creative Labs, Nvidia, Hitachi, Samsung, LinkSys, D-Link, Netgear, Samsung, Crossair, Acer, LG, S3, Sandisk, OCZ.

Experience in Software

  • Adobe Dreamwaver, DHTML Menu Builder, Java Script, Mozilla/Netscape Editor, Microsoft Sharepoint Designer.
  • Oracle 9i Application Server, PL/SQL, Developer 6i, Designer 6i, Oracle WebDB, JDeveloper.
  • Macromedia Fontgrapher, FontLab, Microsoft VOLT, Microsoft WEFT, MSKLC, Microsoft Visual True Type, FontForge.
  • Adobe PhotoShop, GIMP, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe FireWorks, Ulead GIF Animator. AVID Video Editing, Adobe Premier, Ulead Media Studio, Boris RED, HollywoodFX, Sound Forge, Acid.
  • I used many software and still using for my Bangla computing and localization projects on all platform

Contributory Involvement

Microsoft Corporation, India – Oct 2006, continuing
Most Valuable Professional (Microsoft MVP)

  • Windows Desktop Experience

Microsoft Corporation, USA – Oct 2002, continuing
Input Processing & BETA Testing

  • Microsoft SilverLight
  • Microsoft PopFly
  • Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC)
  • Uniscribe Engine of Microsoft products for Bengali Opentype fonts
  • Bengali Opentype font Glyphs processing (to look good in 8pt size)
  • Bengali Opentype Font and Lookup table input processing
  • Windows Vista Beta Testing
  • Windows Longhorn Server 2008 Beta Testing

Ekushey – Jan 2001, continuing
Bangla Computing

  • Designed Unicode based fonts for Windows, Linux & Mac OS X
  • Delivering Unicode based Bangla computing solutions for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple MAC OS X users
  • Designed the Website http://www.ekushey.org using JAWS CMS

Mukto.Org – Jun 2006, continuing
Editor Chief

  • Designed complete Open Source based Bangla E-Magazine
  • Designed the website, using the popular CMS Joomla
  • Content Management of Mukto.Org
  • Writing articles on FOSS for Mukto.Org

Ankur and Ekushey – Jan 2001, continuing
Professional Translator

  • Working with many Linux Bangla Localization projects
  • Working with many popular Open Source software Bangla Localization projects

Altruists International – Jan 2001, continuing
Software Architect, Ambassador for Altruism

  • Designing software architecture according to users’ needs
  • Output Analyst
  • Font developer & Graphic Designer for Altruists International’s Projects

Gift Economy – June 2007, continuing
Project Analyst

  • R&D on gift economy and its prospect to the society
  • R&D on Social networking based web environment

Gopsop – Feb 2008 to Jan 2009
Head of Ideas

  • Create Social Networking ideas and share them with developers
  • Pick up ideas from popular SNS portals and share them with developers
  • Beta Test of new features

Social and Forum Activities

I’m member of many online communities and also have offline activities too. My activities are specially related to language development on computers (localization) and Open Source based forums. I play a vital role on behalf of my country for Bangla Localization and Bangla computing related forums, especially Unicode and Linux forums.

It’s not easy to put all activity names and their description on this limited space, but I want to mention some of them here:

MVP Community, Microsoft Corporation, India
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, Windows Desktop Experience

Microsoft keeps their eye on people who are involved in various ICT activities to the community and they pick few of the leaders and honor them with MVP award. They can never pay back for our contribution to the community, but this award is to show the humble respect to the community leaders. I have been awarded “Windows – Shell/User” category in 2006 and till now they have renewed the award every year for my restless contribution to the community. In 2007 Microsoft renamed Windows – Shell/User category into Windows Desktop Experience. Right now Microsoft South Asia region (Bangladesh, India, and Nepal) has approximately 200 MVPs.

Unicode Consortium
Member – Indic Computing & Indic Common Locale Data Repository

To simplify global language computing, Unicode Consortium aims to centralize all the language of the world in a single platform. Unicode provides a unique number for every character of each language script, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program. The Unicode Standard has been adopted by such industry leaders as Apple, HP, IBM, JustSystems, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun, Sybase, Unisys and many others.

I am representing Bangla (Bangladesh) to Unicode Consortium since 2003. I report Bangla language related computing issues, which they can take care in future and apart from that they have common locale data repository for each language, I maintain the Bangla (Bangladesh) part and besides me, members of Ekushey and Ankur helps me to do that.

Ekushey
Co-Founder and Moderator

This is a very active mailing list started on Yahoo Groups. This list is dedicated for the Bangla speaking people from around the world and the major discussions here are on Bangla computing. Beside Bangla Computing, on this list member discusses on OpenSource related topics. Right now the mailing list has approximately 300 members.

Mukto
Founder and Moderator

The word MUKTO means Open in Bangla. I started this list to give people some space on the virtual world to discuss on OpenSource related topics. Started in 2007, this list has approximately 170 members now.

BDLUG
Advance Member

This is a very old mailing list of Bangladesh dedicated to the Linux users. The list has currently approximately 900 members. This is an informal forum where Linux users, fans and followers can meet and exchange information.

Dinajpur Anusandhani Biggan Club
Joint Secretary

Established sometimes back in the earlier 80s this club is very encouraging to the Science Enthusiastic students. Students from Schools and Colleges are the members and at present time the club has 120 active members and won National Science Fair award for 42 times under different categories. Apart from Scientific practice the club has several activities like AIDS and Anti-Drug awareness.