UPDATE: NEWER POST HERE.

The future of LxLabs has been under much debate and question since its owner, Ligesh, committed suicide last month, June 9th 2009.

I was one of the first to blog about his death, though at the time, the reason was unknown. It is still unknown, as with nearly all suicides.

The future of LxLabs was determined by Ligesh’s cousin, Brijesh a few days ago when he posted on the LxLabs forum. He determined that a consortium shall be created to manage the products. He wants the code to be out of the public’s eyes for two years (or close to it), while the image and trust becomes properly recreated.

I was contacted by and contacted the forum user lxbhargava, a former employee of Ligesh about the possibility of being part of the consortium. Brijesh had recommended that the top contributors get free membership into the consortium and get the ability to modify the code to make it better.

I informed Mr. Bhargava that I was personally interested in working on Kloxo, as that is where my two years of experience lies. He responded and mentioned that he wants me to be part of the development of Kloxo. This is a major plus in my development life. It is sad how my role came about though, and it is tragic.

I will be starting with development as soon as Mr. Bhargava desires, as I have let him know. A non-profit organization will be created in the US, or that is what I believe will be occurring from my communication with Mr. Bhargava. He said a client of theirs will be helping with the legal aspects of the transition, and that due to more than “95% customers are from US” the “obvious choice would be to follow US norms” in regards to the consortium. That leads me to believe that he is following my recommendation of having a non profit in the USA and one in India.

I believe that is the best way to do this, as it would leave two non profit organizations in charge of the consortium. Both would be specifically working on the projects and as such, it would have redundancy.

Another great positive about one being in the US is that the public will know they can trust the products because the US organization will have to follow US laws in regards to security of the products.

This means Ligesh’s dreams will live on forever, even though he did not.

Ligesh was a great developer, though I never personally knew him. I did chat with him on occasion through his forums, commonly offering my suggestion for new features, etc.

Hopefully the consortium will start soon and get off its feet being able to regain public trust and its market share.

And now begins the new chapter for LxLabs and for me in my life. My role will most likely be unpaid, though I do not mind, because I will be working with some of the great people in the web hosting industry.