Are you a Linux and open source software expert?

Are you an expert in latest mobile technologies such as HTML5 and Android?

Are you an expert in latest web technologies such as Javascript frameworks, REST and AJAX?

Are you an expert in digital marketing, communications and/or project management?

If your answer is yes to any of the above and you are passionate about sharing your knowledge with others like we do, we need you as a part-time trainer at Knowledge7.

Fill in this online form and tell us how you can contribute to our training activities at Knowledge7. Send us your CV by email too ()

There are billions of pages online and the numbers are growing everyday. For companies and brands, the issue is how to stand out in this crowded and competitive place. How to ensure that your content gets seen?

More than 90% people use search engines

Today, search engines like Google and Bing play a key role in bringing people to websites. Internet users have increasingly recourse to search engines whose results are deemed to be trustworthy and unbiased in general.

It is thus vital that your website is well constructed so that it can be effectively found, read and indexed by search engines. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) refers to such techniques which help enhance a website’s visibility with the ultimate goal of ensuring the site is as close as possible to top relevant search results.

Using white hat SEO

The focus is on creating relevant content. A good SEO strategy involves defining an optimal information architecture which will help boost search rankings. Another technique is to determine what keywords people use when searching for information related to your business. Then, when creating your content, you ensure that these keywords are present.

In this way, visibility, credibility and authoritativeness are enhanced for the company and brand, thus increasing the potential for business.

At Knowledge7, we can help you optimise your website for search engines.

We can also train your personnel or yourself in Search Engine Optimisation, a course which is scheduled to start on Monday 1st April 2013.

Contact us for more information by email or telephone on 5834-9001.

2013 is the year of responsive web design according to Mashable and, at Knowledge7, we believe they are spot on.

Wikipedia defines responsive web design as “a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones.”

Important aspects of responsive web design include the optimal use of CSS3, fluid grids and images sized in such a way to prevent them from being shown outside the screen. This new way of building websites is a direct consequence of people browsing more and more using mobile devices likes smartphones and tablets with smaller screens than traditional desktops. It would be stupid to show them only part of the content and therefore web designers need to adapt.

Adapt or perish

At Knowledge7, we have been providing web design courses for the past three years. And, like everyone else, we also need to adapt. This is why, for our coming Web Design with HTML and CSS training starting on 18 April 2013, we are currently updating the content to better reflect this new design philosophy.

As a reminder, here are the topics we are going to cover: markup and styling, changing text, tables and links, color and images, multimedia, the CSS box model, enhanced navigation, flexible layouts and printing, scripting and forms.

Feel free to call us on 5834-9001 to have more information.

Since I decided to quit being a lecturer at the university in 2008, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how bad our education system is, why is it so bad and what can we do about it.

When I read about uneducated Ethiopian kids learning the alphabet by themselves after having been given tablets and no instructions at all,  I immediately thought about my kids, Anya and Kyan, not having to go to school everyday (or, heaven forbid, private tuition) and, instead, spend some of their precious time under a tree with a tablet and learning things that they are passionate about by themselves.

That’s why we’re pivoting at Knowledge7. In the coming months, we’ll be less of a traditional training company and more of a startup creating an elearning platform which everyone will love using.

I’m doing that for my kids.

I’ll keep you posted.

Pour toute entreprise qui a des partenaires ou des clients francophones, il est impératif que tout le personnel puisse maîtriser la langue française.

En effet, il est important que la communication se passe bien pour que les contrats et projets soient complétés à la satisfaction du client. Avec des employés qui rédigent et parlent le français avec aisance, l’entreprise gagne en efficacité, productivité et prestige. Les fonctions relationnelles, administratives et commerciales se déroulent sans anicroche.

Éviter les formulations maladroites

Cependant, à Maurice, malgré une situation dite bilingue, notre personnel ne maîtrise pas la langue française. Les interférences avec d’autres langues telles que l’anglais, les formulations maladroites et approximatives constituent des obstacles à la bonne communication. La rédaction de rapports, propositions ou comptes-rendus n’obéissent pas aux codes et styles requis, ce qui crée parfois de la confusion.

Par exemple, nous disons ou écrivons souvent: “Nous allons faire une application” au lieu de “Nous postulerons” ou “Nous présenterons notre candidature”. Nous utilisons souvent des anglicismes car nous ne savons pas traduire les formulations en français correct.

Apprendre à rédiger en français correct

Quelles sont donc les conventions pour rédiger des lettres ou courriels? Des propositions? Des rapports? Des comptes-rendus? Comment éviter les faux-amis (mots qui se resemblent d’une langue à l’autre mais n’ayant pas la même signification)? Comment rédiger des phrases correctes? Comment structurer nos écrits pour faire passer clairement le message?

La formation Techniques de Communication Écrite pour l’Entreprise de Knowledge7 permet aux participants d’apprendre tout cela. Après 30 heures de formation, votre personnel fera beaucoup moins de fautes en français et communiquera à l’écrit en respectant les codes du monde francophone. Afin que votre entreprise soit plus performante et convaincante!

Pour en savoir plus sur cette formation, appelez Liliane sur le 5834-9001 ou envoyez-lui un email sur
Veuillez noter que cette formation est offerte sur demande.

Knowledge7 has been chosen by Orange Business Services to provide a series of training courses on Hardware, Networking, Solaris and Linux for upgrading the skills of some of its IT personnel. The courses were scheduled in January and February 2013.

Vanessa Arokeum, one of the participants from Orange Business Services, has agreed to share her views on her experience at Knowledge7 with particular emphasis on the Linux training.

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Vanessa Arokeum, Technical Support Specialist at Orange Business Services, which forms part of France Telecom Group. After completion of a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering at the University of Mauritius in 2011, I joined OBS. So far, I have received on-the-job training on various technologies and now I would like to upgrade my skills.

When Orange Business Services informed us about the possibility to upgrade our skills through this series of Knowledge7 courses on Hardware, Networking, Solaris and Linux, I seized the opportunity and here I am!

I already work in a Linux environment at Orange Business Services but I only know the basics. I wanted to learn more about Linux and become more competent and effective in this major operating system for businesses. I have learned about Linux installation, user management, package management, logical storage management using LVM, the boot process as well as file sharing services like NFS.

I thought it was an excellent training and I really liked the practical and pragmatic approach of Avinash Meetoo and the fact that everything which was taught could be immediately tried on the Linux computers at Knowledge7.

How do you think this training will benefit you?

I will definitely have more scope in Orange Business Services. I will also be able to help my other colleagues as I have gained a lot.

As a personal achievement, I am now more motivated to learn more and more about Linux and embark on Linux certifications such as the ones from the Linux Professional Institute. For instance, I would love to come back to follow more advanced Linux courses at Knowledge7 such as the Linux Network Services and Security training.

How do you see yourself in five years?

A Linux expert. What else? 🙂

Knowledge7 organised the first of its series of free technology meetups, Driving business forward with Social Networks, Mobile & Cloud technologies, on Friday 18 January 2013. This event took place at Burrenchobay Hall at the University of Mauritius with an audience consisting of marketing executives, IT professionals, lecturers and students.

With the widespread adoption of social networks and mobile & cloud technologies by users, it is crucial to review conventional business operations and long-term strategies. During this seminar, the Knowledge7 speakers attempted to show ways these technologies can drive innovation and grow business.

Driving your business forward using Mobile and Cloud Technologies

Avinash Meetoo, Founder of Knowledge7, explained how to integrate mobile and cloud technologies into day-to-day business activities to save time. Smartphones and tablets allow businesses to deliver their services anytime anywhere, quickly and efficiently. He also showed ways for businesses to shift towards cloud technologies whether Software, Platform or Infrastructure as a Service (SaaS/PaaS/IaaS).

Driving your business forward using Enterprise Applications Development

Jean-Marc Desvaux, Head of Information Systems at General Construction, explained how choosing the correct Enterprise Application Framework can make a business more resilient to a changing environment. Issues such as the technology to be used, the kind of skills needed, and long-term strategic issues were addressed. Jean-Marc explained how Oracle ADF is used at General Construction to build mission-critical software solutions.

Driving your business forward using Social Networks and Digital Marketing

Darshana Seetah, Trainer and Developer at Knowledge7, explained the emerging role of the Digital Marketer. Given that a growing number of Mauritians use social networks, she explained how businesses can leverage this opportunity for better communication, branding, marketing and sales. The multiple roles of a digital marketer were enumerated: from content creation to social media engagement, from search engine optimisation to the use of analytics to maximise return on investment. The shift from conventional to digital marketing was seen as crucial to today’s business.

To help marketing and IT departments achieve their objectives, Knowledge7 is launching two new courses in February:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will help businesses increase traffic to their websites by improving their rankings on popular search engines.
• Facebook Application Development will help businesses create interactive and immersive Facebook applications to better engage with customers. Participants should know the PHP programming language.

Both courses are MQA-approved. Many other courses in Digital Marketing, Linux Administration, Mobile Development, Web Development and Communication are also on offer in 2013. Call Knowledge7 on +230 5834-9001 for more information and to book your seats.

Since its initial release in 1996, Squid has become a high-performance and secure web proxy. As Squid includes good caching facilities and is free for use, it has become the most commonly used proxy server on the Internet.

Squid can be installed on Linux distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Debian. It also runs on other operating systems including Windows. It is licensed under the GNU GPL.

Squid is a caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, FTP and more. It reduces bandwidth requirements and improves response time by caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages and resources such as images. ISPs, companies and various organisations rely on Squid to to drastically increase the number of users who can access the Internet at the same time. Squid tends to reduce web server loads.

Squid can also be used to deliver content from around the world – copying only the content being used, rather than inefficiently copying everything – using its advanced routing facilities. Multiple Squid servers can be setup hierarchically to build content clusters which route and load balance requests to web servers.

On Wikipedia, Squid is used to increase scalability. “[The Squid systems] are currently running at a hit-rate of approximately 75%, effectively quadrupling the capacity of the Apache servers behind them. This is particularly noticeable when a large surge of traffic arrives directed to a particular page via a web link from another site, as the caching efficiency for that page will be nearly 100%.” [Wikimedia Deployment Information.]

Technical aspects of Squid

By editing /etc/squid/squid.conf, one can change Squid’s http_port, the default port being 3128. Another important parameter is cache_mem, the amount of RAM Squid uses for caching objects. The default value is 256 Mb but can be increased.

Another important aspect of Squid is that it uses part of the disk for a cache. The cache_dir parameter is used to specify where and how big that disk cache should be. It generally belongs under /var.

Most people use Squid for its security features including the use of Access Control Lists to determine who can browse what websites and when. ACLs are very powerful and useful in a business setting.

Do not hesitate to contact us at Knowledge7 if you have any web caching needs or you want to implement access control. We can also train your personnel in Squid administration.

Special session for Data Communication Ltd (DCL)

We ran a special session of our Squid training for DCL personnel in December and, while they still have some interrogations (e.g. on how to use Squid to cache video streaming content such as what exists on YouTube and Vimeo), they left us with some positive impressions that they have kindly authorised us to publish.

Novindra Appadoo  liked when we talked about ACL, peering, stats and authentication in Squid. Junaid Balladin mentioned that our explanations were good as well as the practical sessions. Jyotee Kumaree Caullychurn said that the course put emphasis on the practical implementation and configuration of Squid and that this will help her to administer and run Squid in a real world environment.

Ravi Jeetun also liked the explanations given while Shah Nawaaz Toonah found the introduction on HTTP, TCP and Apache very useful for a proper understanding of Squid.

Finally Vishaal Ramessur made us very happy when he said he liked everything! Thank you all.

Dear all, we are urgently looking for a replacement lamp (a RLC-035) for a ViewSonic PJ513D projector. We have called a number of suppliers but they do not currently have the RLC-035 in stock.

Call Liliane or Navind on 5834-9001 if you are selling one and you have it in stock now. Thanks.