In General

I did an interview with Monsur Hossain, the founder,creator,programmer of the wonderful Bloglet to be published in DQ Week, a computer weekly published in India. I had used his service on my site ( see it on the right nav, scroll down a lil’ bit….see the “subscribe” section…yeah, that’s the one. ) and was pretty impressed. Bloglet is a service you can use on your site so that your regualr visitors can receive your updations directly into their email without the need to visit your site. Finding almost no personal info about Monsur on Bloglet.com ( Boy , he really likes to be low profile….so much so that the “About me” column in his personal site, Monsur.org is unavailable !! ) , I decided to ask him straight. He comes across as a very affable person. Less than a day after I sent across the questions, he replied back, which is very nice. You can help yourself to a preview of the interview below.

Question : Monsur, what gave you the inspiration to start Bloglet?

Answer : Ideally, there are maybe about 30 blogs that I would read regularly if I could (both personal and zines). Unfortunately, during the course of a hectic day, it becomes nearly impossible to visit 30 sites regularly and give them the attention they deserve. Inevitably, the number of sites I visit regularly would dwindle. Bloglet was born out of a desire to keep updated on all of these favorite blogs.

Hey, there is hardly any personal information about yourself in Bloglet. Is it a concious decision not to mention anything about yourself?

I’m really a private person, which is why I don’t feel the need to put too much personal information about myself online. However my site http://www.monsur.org does have semi-regular updates on my life, and I hope to improve this site as time goes on.

How long did it take for you to finish Bloglet – from conception to completion?

Bloglet took about 2 months to write from conception to completion, and this is only because I worked on it in my spare time. The actual email subscription engine isn’t that difficult; what took up most of the time was designing and programming the look and usability of the webpages.

Is Bloglet a solo effort or team effort?

Bloglet was conceived and programmed by myself. However I could have never delievered it without help from some friends. Dan Huddle helped get the site hosted and the hardware running. John Hiler of Microcontent News (http://www.microcontentnews.com/), Marc Ginsburg, and Biz Stone (of http://www.bizstone.com ) helped with the testing and feedback and other details of getting a web service up and running.

Is there a commercial motive behind Bloglet?

Although I do accept donations, Bloglet has no commercial motive. I’m a Blogger myself, so I envisioned a service that would be helpful to all Bloggers and just did it. My only motive is that hopefully someday all the blogs I love to read will be using Bloglet, so I can keep up-to-date on all of them! 🙂

Do tell a bit about yourself.

My name is Monsur Hossain. I was born in Bangladesh, but have lived my whole life in the United States. I’m a programmer, currently working in New York City. I’m a avid film and music buff. I also enjoy reading, playing guitar and playing chess. You know, normal nerd stuff. 🙂 You can delve into my psyche by reading http://www.monsur.org.