My friends often ask me, what do engineers at CloudFactory do to wind up when they get tired of hacking? Well, they go for hiking, sometime bungee jump and sometime movie. Wait, they do lot more than hiking, they are fond of flying in the clouds too. Literally. Here is what we did in our last trip to Pokhara.

Our planned annual team-building trip to Jiri got postponed at the last moment on December last year because of the blockades on the highway.  That was a bad experience for us, however we rescheduled our team-building trip to Pokhara on first week of April after four months.

On 5th April, the CloudFactory family left CloudFactory complex at 7:45 am in a Tourist bus for our annual team-building trip to Pokhara. We picked our remaining CloudFactory members on the way.  Passing through the hilly roads, after 3 hours of a long ride along Prithvi Highway, we stopped in Malekhu for an hour and had Lunch in ‘The Blue Heaven Restaurant, Benighat’ sitting by the bank of Trisuli River. 

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After having lunch and some cold drinks, we left Malekhu at 11:30am. It was already 12:30 pm when we crossed the Mugling Bridge. We stopped again in Ghasikuwa at 1:45pm for half an hour and had cold drinks though that restaurant charged us ridiculously; they’d overpriced their each item in their restaurant and sadly we’d no option other than paying them. Passing by Damauli at 2:30 pm, we reached our hotel ‘Taj’ in Lakeside Pokhara at 4:15pm.  Pokhara is situated about 200 km west of the capital Kathmandu and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nepal. It was raining when we reached our hotel. Hotel Taj welcomed us with a cup of hot coffee and sandwich. 

In the evening Mark and Tom briefed about the CloudFactory and its vision and mission once again. Mark and Tom also presented the roadmap of CloudFactory for upcoming months and years.  Since, the purpose of CloudFactory is to connect 1 million people in the developing world to basic computer work and raise them up as leaders to address poverty in their own communities. We discussed the various ideas, goals and our responsibility.  Buffet was opened for dinner at 8:00pm. We went to bed at midnight after roaming around Lakeside for some hours.

The next morning a few of us woke up at 5 so that we could get to Sarangkot just in time to see the Sun rise. After having a sumptuous breakfast at 8:00am, we attended another session by Sunil, Evan and Sharan, in which they talked about Poverty, 10-F Assessment and CloudFactory Values respectively followed by the team building activities. 

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The real fun began when CloudFactory engineers, who are accustomed to hacking together things in Ruby and Rails day in day out, were handed paintbrush and a canvas to paint a picture that best represented the vision of CloudFactory. 

After having lunch at noon, we visited the Powerhouse. Along with swimming we also collected garbage from that river. Back in hotel we’d bonfire in the evening followed by barbecue and musical program. 

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The next day was Saturday and it turned out to be the most adventurous day for us. After having breakfast we set out for paragliding, flew from Sarangkot and landed nearby the side of Phewa lake after doing some acrobatics in the air. An adventurous sport, paragliding was the breathtaking experience for us, we flew almost half an hour over the Phewa Lake before landing. One of the CloudFactory engineers Ashis Rai recalls paragliding as mind-blowing experience. He says, “Never thought that paragliding experience could be that much fun.  I was flying with one of the most experienced paraglider from Australia, Tom who was in this profession since last two decades. The most dangerous moment was acrobats i.e. 360 degree round. This acrobat was triggered when we saw another guy doing it, which was just above the Phewa Lake, 1500m high.” 

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The next morning, on Sunday after having breakfast we left Hotel Taj at 9:00am.  We crossed Mugling Bridge at 11:40 am and then stopped in Malekhu at 12:30pm for lunch for an hour. We arrived our Office in Bhaisepati at 4:30pm. 

For more photo, check out CloudFactory Facebook Page.

What does it look like to make history? Are their bands and movie cameras to mark the occasion? Most of these milestone events slip past our view only to be seen more clearly in our rearview mirrors as one speeds through life. These past weeks at CloudFactory history is being made for Nepal. It looks like this.

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Our goal was to find some of the best and brightest in Nepal and train them on our newly released platform for completing microwork tasks.
Seek and you shall find is how the old saying goes. We were amazed at the level of talent and excitement we discovered in this process. In fact, on our initial survey prospective candidates scolded us for not promoting the opportunity more intensely. “People need to hear about these opportunities!”

“I was fascinated with working environment there at CloudFactory, I was even more excited about the whole place (Awash Bhaisepati) You guys should visit it if possible coz its so peaceful with organized town planning, beautiful hills and surprisingly clean and green :).” Manika  

After several rounds of testing and the final interview process we painstakingly choose our final 25 pioneers.

The first week of orientation was not without its trials. Unveiling a new way to do work is bound to have some roadbumps along the way. Tuesday morning the office was a whirlwind of excited candidates and anxious developers hoping, praying that their years of work would pay off. It absolutely did. Within 24 hours, the first 2 groups of candidates were making great headway towards their predetermined limits for this trial. How did they do?

“We’ve manually checked around 30% of the first completed tasks and all of them are perfect. Awesome!!.”                                                -Sarwagya Pandey Solutions Manager

You shouldn’t take our word alone. Look at some of the responses from these pioneers of CloudFactory.

It makes a massive difference. I am a student in 3rd year of Law Degree. I wouldn't say that my parents will not be able to afford my fees, however many additional expenses, besides colleges, for eg. moot courts and conferences and trainings require certain amount of money, which I hope to earn via this project. These trainings and additional activities are vital for my future career too. Moreover, one needs to start becoming capable, and it is a process which I think begins for me from this work.

- CloudWorker Trainee

"I get very less pocket money from my parents, so yes, it'll definitely make a 'substantial' difference in my life. I may do some professional trainings with the money, like webpage designing, personality development workshops, etc. and I genuinely wish to buy my younger brother a drum kit, so that he can also teach me how to play :-)"

-CloudWorker Trainee

Meet the CloudFactory Cloud Workers

After an unforgettable trip to Bandipur in last November, the CloudFactory’s social committee once again organized a 2 days hike to Sailung on first week of March.

On Saturday morning of 3rd March, the 12 CloudFactory hikers left CloudFactory complex at 7:30am for 2 days Sailung hike. We picked our remaining 4 members on the way. After 4 hours of long microbus ride along Arniko Highway, we reached Mude around 11:30am and had lunch in a local restaurant.

After having a lunch and buying some snacks, water bottles and chocolates in Mude, we started our hike to Sailung around 12:30pm. We’d planned to take our Microbus to Chaichap, a base of Sailung Mountain but it didn’t went according to our plan. Because of the poor condition of the road, we’d to walk from Mude, leaving our Microbus and Driver dai in Mude. We’d also missed local bus to Chaichap, thus there’s no option rather than walking.

Firstly, we’re disappointed because we’d to walk more than 6 hours to reach the top of Sailung. But as we hiked forward, the beautiful scenery pleased us, though the road was dusty. Moreover, we met one NEA personnel on our way, who’s also going to Dhunge Bajar for his official work. He asked us to take shortcut instead of walking along the road, thus we took shortcut from Deurali and within half an hour we reached Baghkhor from Deurali. We took rest in Baghkhor for a while and then started our hike again. As we climbed the uphill from Baghkhor, we saw Sailung at distant and, once we all thought we couldn’t reach there that day.

Passing by the dense forest, we reached Dhunge Bajar at 4:00pm. There, we stayed in a near by hotel for snacks. At 4:45pm we left Dhunge Bajar for Sailung, and it was the most difficult trail for us to climb up. We hardly walk along the uphill; we used to walk for 10 minutes and then take rest for 3 minutes. As we climbed up, it was getting cold & we’d already given farewell to the Sun as well for that day.

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We reached Kalapani at 5:50pm and asked locals whether we could make it to the top or not? They encouraged us saying, “You can make it, and it’s just a 30 min walk from here”. We believed them and continued our hike under the half-full-moon but we could not make it, instead it took more than 1 hour.

We reached the top at 7:00pm, and by the time we’re worried, since we’re not following any trail, we’re just climbing the uphill. Once we thought we'd lost our path and even we thought we’d to stay whole night under the sky. Oh, it’s freezing cold!

Finally we figured out the trail near from that giant rock. We steep downhill and finally reached Kholakharka at 7:20pm. There were few motels in Kholakharka. We stayed at one of the motels of an old lady. She cooked, rice, daal and local khukura for us in a firewood, and we sat besides the fire. Some of our friends were having headache, thus we asked her for medicine. To our surprise, she said they do not have medicine since they do not need any kind of medicine there. She also told that, people wouldn’t get sick there in Sailung area, this fresh air & cool weather is enough to keep ones healthy. We went to bed at around 10:00pm, near by a next house, which was specially designed for guests and trekkers.

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The next morning, we woke up at 5:20am and set out for Sailung at 5:40am to see the Sun rise. After 30 min walk from Kholakharka, we finally reached Sailung at 6:10 am that is situated at 3146m above the sea level. At the top there’re small hills, thus it has been named as Sailung. We saw the rising sun and took some photos, and had black ginger tea there. Well, I can’t explain that moment here in words, that moment was just awesome. That majestic view of Sailung, which were covered with dew, cool breeze, and those Buddhist flags and Sailung Mahadev (Hindu Goddess), just awesome! Moreover drinking black ginger tea at 3146 m, wooo! That’s somekinda cool thing, ever I’d done in my life. However, unfortunately we were not able to see beautiful Himalayas clearly due to fog.

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At 7:00 am, we left Sailung and headed down for Chaichap since we’d to catch a bus. We reached Chaichap around 9:00am and had breakfast; and then we boarded a bus from Chaichap at 10:00am and reached Mude at 12:00pm. After having a lunch in Mude, we returned back to Kathmandu! On the way, we stopped by in Dolalghat and had snacks. Overall, it’s a memorable and adventurous trip.

Here is what our CloudFactory Engineers had to say about their experience:

Dipesh Gautam: I don't think there was much to enjoy in the scenery but it is impossible to forget the experience. It was very challenging, far from what we had expected it to be. I remember how silently the night came upon us as we were climbing up the hill and then everything became so different. Hope to have such hikes again :)

Lujaw Shrestha: It was hike of a lifetime. More of like a Bootcamp with backpacks, 8+4 hrs of marching, mostly uphill. But the rewards of seeing the majestic view made it all worthwhile and as a bonus now have legs of steel.:)

Prasvin Pandey: Was nearly exhausted before dusk, then had to endure 2 hours more of uphill walk in moonlight and finally peace of mind - but, yea, more exciting and challenging than anticipated. After walking a couple of hours in moonlight and just when we thought we wouldn't be reaching 'KholaKharka' soon enough, I'd made up my mind, that we need to spend the night up there itself, some place where we'd be protected from the wind, by lighting up a fire and cuddling around it :)

For more photos, please check our CloudFactory page on Facebook.

Apps like Bump or My Name is E are great when people have them, but the reality of many is that they get business cards exchanged every week and sometimes every day. To make turning those cards into contacts in your phone, you can find lots of business card reader apps on your iPhone or Android but all of them are not created equally. Here's a quick showdown of a few.

Test 1: Super Easy Card

	BizcardArmy	ABBYY Reader	CamCard	ScanBizCards	Evernote
Company Name	dioxyportfolio	dioxyportfolio	-	dioxypoMolio	**
First Name	Merijn	Mehjn	Merljn	MU)o
Last Name	Hoogeveen	Hoogeveen	Hoogeveen	Noogeveen
Work Phone	255 255 255	255 155 255	255255255	-
Mobile Phone	255 255 255	25525525	255255255	-
Email	info@dioxyportfolio.com	info@dioKyportfolB.com	info@dioxyportfolio.com	-
Title/Role	Graphic Designer	Graptic Designer	-	-
Web URL	www.dioxyportfolio.com	wwwdkHyporTfoEio^om	-	-

Test 2: Handwriting Style Card

(because not all cards are specifically designed to be super easy for scanners)

	BizcardArmy	ABBYY Reader	CamCard	ScanBizCards	Evernote
First Name	John	-	Acct	-	**
Last Name	Smith	-	Mahager	-
Work Phone	(125)653-8971	025)653-697	125653,,897	-
Email	jsmith@abc-inc.com	-	-	pclw@abc-in.com
Title/Role	Acct Manager	-	-	-_Acc'c Manage.r_-
Web URL	www.abc-inc.com	-	-	www.abc-mc.com
Address	123 Pine Tree Court ,suite E	f25 P^e Tree CourtSuite ^	(23 Pine Tree Coc+rt, Suite E	-123 Pine T-Fc.TeTCourf, Suife.F7
	Springfield	j.^m^fi&VJL 0(035-	Springfield	m.b9E..'_el.c1,JJ.2l_o.:.5
	IL	-	IL	((rZ5>eSr.-@974
	01035	-	01035	-

** Evernote cannot determine any individual field or even text. It comes up with multiple possibilities for lots of pieces of text on image but can't tell you where it's pulling a company name from or even if the text it pulled was dioxyportfolio, dioxypoMolio, or blank.

BizcardArmy is a mobile/web app to let users just take a snapshots of their piles of business cards and have them turned into contacts in their phone, email system, or wherever they want these like LinkedIn or Salesforce.

BizcardArmy created contacts are hand-completed by real people so are actually usable! Just check out the findings -- even on an easy card, the next best competitor peaked at getting only 50% of the fields correct. 50%!  And then with just a slightly more difficult card, while many of the others dropped to close to 0% correct, BizcardArmy was 100% accurate!

OCR engines (the term for what BizcardArmy competitors use) employ misleading sales tactics for these quality measures and will tout figures close to, "We're over 90% accurate!" But when that's measured on a character-by-character level, how useful is a 10-digit phone number that got 9 of the 10 digits correct?

So what's BizcardArmy's secret sauce?  CloudFactory!

With CloudFactory, BizcardArmy has a scalable group of human workers they access on-demand that are transcribing the cards and just pay-as-they-go. CloudFactory gives them an API to access these workers seemlessly within their own app and build quality assurance features to ensure their users are getting the quality they need.

P.S. Someone once asked me how I thought BizcardArmy competed with an app like Evernote Business Card Manager which we both agree has great ability to search for text on images. My reply is that there is a reason in Evernote's app, that you still have to manually enter the phone number and details from the card yourself into your iPhone. They don't even attempt to be confident enough in automating this feature for you. Just check it out here... How they can seem so good at searching images but bad at direct OCR is a story for another post.

P.P.S. It could be argued that on Test 2, BizcardArmy had a lower case "s" for Suite in the street address field. One: case was not considered for any of the competitors on any of the fields so this doesn't impact the findings. And Two: In a fictitious world, if you mailed a letter to this fictitious address, it would still work.

*** In full disclosure, I pulled these test card images off public online images, so no worries about disclosing any private information.