Wikipedians in Bangalore had a meetup on Sunday after a long while. The Meetup was hosted by Tinu Cherian at his home (Thanks Tinu). The excitement was palpable and the buzz was all around.

Many of the wikipedians who were present were meeting for the first time with the exception of few of us. Many were excited to match wiki userid to face. There were some wikipedians from various age groups – some in 12 grade, few others working professionals (@LogicWiki for e.g.) and we had a 71 year old wikipedian retired from government service (@Nvvchar). There were wikipedians who had just started contributing content a few days back while there were others who have been wikipedians for close to 5 years (@Gurubrahma, @Arunram).

There were wikipedians with various passions and expertise. Some had a passion for creating DYKs – Did you knows (@Nvvchar). There were wikipedians who were contributors to multiple wikipedia language editions (@Shijualex). There were others who were sysops (@Gurubrahma), Bot authors (@Tinucherian). Others were passionate about getting the community more connected and organised (@Arunram).   There were others who did a Houdini (i.e. they didn’t show up for the meet but were surely missed)!

A lot of interesting discussions took place. A few of them highlighted.

• Challenges faced by new Wikipedians. How experienced wikipedian could help them better.
• Indian wikipedians and their participation in the larger governance of wikipedia.
• Difficulties in getting approvals for Bots that create articles.
• Attempts by Wikipedians present to create pages for all towns in Kerala and Karnataka.
• What it takes to get a admin nomination through successfuly. Experience sharing by active admins.
• The paradox of “Notability” -  Notability being a pre requisite for a wikipedia article candidate and how being listed in wikipedia improves “Notability”.
• Difficulties in getting pictures for Indian monuments and notable personalities from government sources.
• Lack of awareness of Wikipedia in regional bureaucrats at the state level as was experienced by a wikipedian.
• Review process being over stringent at times. At times being a put off for new contributors.
• Need for Indian wikipedians to share experience, expertise, connect and support each other actively.
• Need to get better coverage to key personalities and content. One wikipedian observed that at times the demise of a personality is what triggers article creation.
• Discussion of automated tools AWB and Twinkle.
• The need for Indian language wikipedians and other Indian Wikipedians to collaborate.
• The need for greater promotion of Wikipedia in Indian languages. It was observed that many did not know of wikipedia in Indian languages.
• Expanding the wikipedia editor base, need to connect to other specialised/focused groups (to bring them into the wikipedia).
• One of the wikipedians emphasised the need to bring Wikimania to India.
• Wiki Academies were proposed to be conducted across Karnataka cities to bring more wikipedians into the fold. Colleges to be the focus within Bangalore.
• It was proposed that a Meetup of Bangalore wikipedians be held every month. Sunday afternoons mid month was agreed as the monthly catch up window.

It was one exciting meet up. The next one is coming up in a month.  If you missed this time around stay tuned for the announcements for the next edition here.

Disclosure: This blog author is wikipedian @arunram and referred to in this post.

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To many the way to describe this lanch is ‘Oh damn, finally! It better be worth the long wait!”

To be fair to Palm, the frustrating and almost endless wait not withstanding, the Palm Pre pre is a darn good comeback phone. A phone that will probably give Palm its one last life line to be back in serious business and its last chance to make another magical impact amongst users.

The launch of this phone means the following:

• It gives Palm a fair chance to stay in the smartphone game after being one of the pioneers in the space.
• It would open up some serious competition in the smartphone space with everyone vying to bring in more innovations.
• It bring the focus back on to Linux being as serious long term player in the Smartphone OS space – With the Android, Web OS and the ALP platofroms.
• It opens up immense opportunity to former Palm OS developers and companies to get back into the fold and ride the Pre wave (Yes, I see one coming).
• It makes the migration of users from Palm OS based Treos to Pre easier with the application backward compatibility.

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What remains to be seen however is the following:

• How well Palm is able to use the mometum it generates with the Pre to roll out newer and better versions of both the hardware and the software.
• How fast and rapid is Palm going to be rolling out the product truly globally. The have struggled in the past with their rollouts of the Treos in the past. (They have been terrible at this to say the least)
• How many mainstream platforms can developers support with Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile leading the pack? Will the inability of developers being able to adopt / support multiple platforms hurt Palm? How many of them will come back and ignite the platform?
• How well does Palm leverage the numerous PUGs (Palm User Groups) that have been dormant for a while? Palm has neglected these vibrant forums for a while.
• How well can Palm bring back the droves of Palm OS fans who migrated to the iPhone, Winmobile and Blackberry devices.
• When will Palm roll out the GSM version? How soon?

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All said, the Pre launch is a good “resurrection” for Palm. The rest of the trench battle remains to be fought.

All I can say is Palm – Jai Ho with the Palm Pre!

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P.S: Like Palm, this blog author is back from a long “hiatus”. The blog post author is the founder of the Bangalore Palm User group (BPUG).

Hats off to all the ISRO scientists who worked to make this happen. “Yeh dil maange more!”

There were many globally who looked at it positively. (Read here, here

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For many in the world the struggle to come to grips with India’s “misplaced” priorities. On one side there is a nation grappling with moving ahead and providing its citizens with basic infrastructure, food for the impoverished and the hungry. And it sure seems to them like we are playing the “fiddle” when “India” is on fire”!

For others it is a space race. A “me too” mentality that is letting India get dragged into a global space race. An ego booster. There were suggestions of a potential lunar land grab race for its rich minerals. More here.

There are other who think it is a nation desperately trying to reassert itself and emphasize that it is an emerging global power economically and otherwise.

Healthy competition is good. So what if there is a space race fueled by national pride? So what if the Americans, the Russians, the Europeans, the Chinese and the Japanese have been there and done that?

Milestones like these inspire the populace and keeps the spirit alive and positive to tackle the plethora of problems and challenges the nation and its people face daily. They are the rainbow in the daily lives of the average Indian.

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The race to the moon inspired a generation of Americans as did did the Petronas Twin towers that inspired a generation of Malaysians beyond anyones imagination.

I am already convinced that this mission has created a flutter and an excited amongst people I meet everyday. Here are some examples of how it inspired young techies:

Thejesh, an avid blogger, watched the launch live and live blogged it. He was wasn’t at the launch center at Sriharikota as you would imagine. He was in front of his Television and on a live a chat with some techie friends of his to revel at the moment dueing the launch.

Another Microblogger decided to do what ISRO should have – Twittered (tweeted for some) the Chandrayaan launch like the NASA Mars rovers had twitter coverage at @Marsphoenix and @MarsRovers

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. Check out @Chandrayaan1 for the Chandrayaan Tweets.

To me this is a good enough an objective to spend 384 Crores on (or 80 M$). Programs like these can do wonders to the spirit of the people and the youth like nothing else can!

The Sydney Morning Herald made some quips: “The pop group Jamiroquai may have been right when they sang Everybody’s Going To The Moon

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“!  “The moon makes space for India“, the story headline read.

The BBC’s forums were flooded with comments, and the moderators had a backlog of a 1000 plus comments to screen and moderate.

 

And Obama couldn’t resist taking note and making a policy comment either.

Cant wait for ISRO to announce aggressive and definitive plans for future manned space missions. The final frontier awaits a definitive Indian presense and participation.

Meanwhile the moon awaits the Chandrayaan-1!

It’s raining PM conferences in Bangalore! – 3 of them this year!

Its a great time for you to get out there and meet your peers from various organizations, share experiences, challenges, share tool expertise and best practices.

All this only indicate the demand for PM practitioners to come together and share. After all Bangalore is the hub of a lot of IT, Space, Construction, Aeronautics among other industries.

PML conference by QAI – May 30 – 31, 2008

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This conference by QAI promises 2 days of action packed at Le Meridien with 12 plenary speakers and 18 papers and practices. The highlight of the conference is the Project Management Leadership Award – “Leadership Recognized“. There is a panel discussion on the “Emerging challenges for Indian project managers in global context”. One of the interesting talks is by Tarak Bajaj of Delphi on “Project Management for TATA Nano Electronics cluster”. The conference cover only the IT industry. Conference fee is Rs. 7500. 14 PDUs for participation.

SPM ICON 2008 by QSIT – July 17 – 19, 2008

QSIT’s conference at Leela Palace is 2 day conference with one earlier day covering tutorials. There are 4 tutorials on the 17th of July on rather familiar PM topics. There are 2 key notes – Lakshmi Narayanan (Chairman, NASSCOM) and Raj Kalady (PMI). There are 10 key talks and 12 paper presentations. The is also a panel discussion on the topic “Managing Projects in a Global context” (almost identical to the PML panel discussion!!! sign of the times?!). 26 PDUs for 3 days.

PMPC 2008 by PMI Bangalore – September 18 – 20, 2008

The Project Management Practitioner’s conference 2008 (PMPC) – This is one of the most awaited and prestigious PM conference of the year organized by PMI Bangalore at “The Capitol”. The conference has been announced to be held from 18th to 20th of September this year.

The conference seeks to bring together Project Management practitioners and the key stakeholders namely – Industry, Academia, Government and Society. The conference seeks to brings Project management learnings from large projects from various industries.

Last year’s conference had – 3 days, 7 keynotes, 28 speakers, 3 panel discussions and 10 industries

. Some of the key speakers of last year included T.R.Anand (Satyam), N.S.Parthasarathy (MindTree), Dr. Prahlada (DRDO), Sqn. Ldr. B.C. Srikanta (ADA), Stéphane Vesval (EADS) amongst others.

(Disclosure: the blog post author is associated with PMI Bangalore)

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The numerous PM conferences only underscore the need for better Program and Project and the huge demand for PM practitioners in the burgeoning IT services industry. And it is interesting to note that vendors like Serena and iPlan are sponsoring more than one event. And don’t be surprised if all of these run full capacity.

The demand for Project management is simply there in abundance to fuel all these conferences!

The show started at 11 PM and went on into the early hours around 3 ish. it sure was fun to watch these videos together with so many others! Surely more fun than watching it from home on the Star Network which screened the event live.

The were numerous celebrties speak from around the world, musicians and of course the 40 select vides as well. Here are some things I liked from the evening – videos, people et al.

Some videos were touching…

This video about six Sierra Leonean refugees in a West African refugee camp who came together to form a band to cheer up other refugees. I found their music rustic and addictive.

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Some videos were very creative…

There was this film made by Sumit Roy from New Delhi about the “dancing queen”. It is very creative, keeps you guessing and wondering till the touching climax in the end! I really loved this one. And every one around applauded spontaneously when it ended. And guess what this one was short on a Nokia phone!!!

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Some were rather inspiring…

I am reminded of another called Papiroflexia which means “origami” in spanish. It is an animation and imaginative piece about a man who is skilled and can shape the worlds ills with his hands! If wishes were horses this guy could change the world! It was nice and symbolic and set one thinking (me for sure) on what all we do to mess up the world around us.

The event had some interesting people…

Gilberto Gil is a singer, guitarist and guess what the current Brazilian Minister of Culture. He was one helluva character and got everyone tapping to his number he was singer and playing along on the guitar. He was singing for peace! What an appropiate minister for “culture”! Inspiring… His number still rings in my ears… Dont miss his performance here.

In summary, it was a fun event… and a noble attempt… It was great thought to connect audiences in 6 cities across the world live, get celebrities to support the cause and speak up for it. the 40 videos were a kaleidoscope into the world and various issues facing us all.

The were things that could have been better. The event could have had the hosts from various cities to make it even more global. Some of the themes carried the usual western prototypes of the world. There was a lot of focus on the suffering from the “middle east” and “africa”. I thought there was way too much emphasis. A wider view of the world would have been nicer.

If you are rueing the fact that you missed it, wait… you cans ee the who program here. You can also see all the 40 videos that were screened here and here. ]]> http://www.arunram.net/blog/2008/05/pangea-day-my-impressions/feed/ 0 http://www.arunram.net/blog/2008/05/pangea-day-my-impressions/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PonderPoint/~3/iS6OAWTuFMI/ http://www.arunram.net/blog/2008/05/its-pangea-day-tonight-at-gmt-1800-or-2330-ist/#comments Sat, 10 May 2008 23:21:19 +0000 arunram http://www.arunram.net/blog/?p=43 I came across an interesting global event called Pangea Day that seeks bring people together through films! And you can participate in this from wherever you are in the world. Even back home in Bangalore at the Thoughtworks office memento dvdrip at Airport road.

Pangea Day – as the organizers put it – is a global event bringing the world together through film. It seeks to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film.

Starting at 18:00 GMT or 11:30 PM India on May 10, 2008 (tonight), locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program (24 films selected globally) being broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes.

Post event, it is expected that those inspired by the event and its messages would participate in community building activities around the world. A very noble and creative idea to galvanize people to do things together to make a difference.

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I cant wait to meet people at the event and check out these movies that are meant to inspire. Its 20 mins to the event and I got to get to Thoughtworks.

If cant make it to the event at your city, or online, follow it on twitter!
http://www.twitter.com/pangeaday

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• A few phone calls on my mobile phone that woke me up…
• Calls on my land line wishing me.
• Some friends who walked in to wish me.
• SMS wishes.
• Email – Office email & Personal email on Yahoo and Google.
• Instant Messaging – Yahoo messenger and Gtalk messages chat messages wishing me.
• Twitter messages.
• Social networks – Facebook

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  and Orkut messages.

For want of a better term I call these ways of communication “channels”. That was 8 different channels or means that people used to communicate with me this birthday!

And guess what? – I got no Birthday cards or Electronic Birthday cards this year!
I suppose… The thought is more important than the deed!

It made me stop and think what all this meant. I tried to make sense of it all… And here’s what I concluded.

• “Impersonal” is now becoming “personal” – Wishing is becoming more and more impersonal… And so are many relationships and acquaintances. It is now normal to receive an offline IM birthday message. Communication is getting asynchronous elektra divx movie online all or nothing dvdrip even when it could have be synchronous. An offline IM message, or SMS or facebook message instead of a call.
• The onus of picking the wishes is “yours” – You don’t “pick”
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• It is getting tougher to acknowledge wishes xxx divx – You need to reply and acknowledge wishes on all these many channels. Even if you find sending an SMS back boring. After all your acknowledgment mean a lot to the sender.
• More social channels => the more connected you are – The more social channels you are on the more you might get wishes. I got wishes from people I would never have expected earlier.
• Channel usage patterns are changing – For many Twitter is almost email, thought it was never meant to be. The usage patterns between some channels are blurring.
• They still care for you no matter the channel – The important fact is people want to wish you and that is what matters. it doesn’t matter if its impersonal.
• You are really old fashioned if you expect Birthday cards!

No matter how much I adopt technology or geeky I get, the charm of being wished by some one in person or receiving a “real” greeting card is unmatched.

And of course as always, many others who simply forgot my birthday despite all these channels.

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Its a great team and we all enjoy great camaraderie and team spirit. Every one of these guys has a busy week day. Come weekend we all came together to think BCB and its execution.

The picture says it all – the energy, the spirit and the passion to team and make a difference.

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From left clock wise…. Amit Singh (green jacket), Arun Ramarathnam (yours truly!), Kesava Reddy, Shourya Sarcar

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(red tee), Suresh B, Kiran Jonnalagadda (face partially hidden), Aashish Solanki, Pradeep BV (struggling to raise his face), Akash Mahajan, Nishant Baranwal, Srinivas Yelandur and Harinath Pudipeddi (hand in pocket).

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It is one great team that rocks!

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This going to be very interesting. A quick look at the registrants gives me a feeling that many of the participants are from a “corporate” background and may not be familiar with the barcamp format or philosophy. It would interesting to see how things play out at the event. I am looking forward to the event and sessions since the KM is of interest to me.

My interest in KM is centered around how KM methods can be used in the context of managing strategic accounts that run over a few years. Such accounts tend to be a microcosm in themselves and poses a unique set of challenges.
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I have also been experimenting with some FOSS tools to put together a compelling model for addressing some of these challenges. Looking forward to sharing experiences and learnings with folks interested in the topic.

After being part of putting together last weeks Barcamp Bangalore 5 , two other barcamps this year and PMPC 2007, I am looking forward to being an active participant! I would have *all* the time to discuss and meet interesting people. If you are attending KAMP and are interested in similar themes, lets catch up by the sidelines.

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How many BoKs do you think there are in vogue? Here are some that I know…

• PMBOK – Project Management BoK from the Project Management Institute (PMI).
• SWEBOK – Software Engineering BoK from IEEE.
• Usability – Usability BoK from the Usability Professionals’ Association
• PDMA BOK
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  – BoK for Product Development from Product Development and Management Association (PDMA).

• CST CBOK

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  – The Certified Software Tester BoK from QAI.

And then there is the International Institute of Business Analysis’ (IIBA) BABOK for Business Analysts gaining prevalence and traction.

The BABOK intends to be a standard for Business Analysts. It defines Business Analysis, The BA profession, Knowledge Areas and key skills required for a BA. Certifications based on the BABOK are now being offered in the US. Certified BA are called Certified Business Analysis Professionals (CBAP™ ). IIBA model is similar to that of PMI at a macro level with regional chapters for professionals to network and interact.

The interesting thing about all BoKs is the following:

• they bring standardized definitions and terms for the profession.
• they rally the community of professional around the standard.
• they create local communities of professionals in the field to meetup and network.
• they are built around a certification model.

and most importantly certification is a measure of awareness of the profession but by no means a measure of guaranteed results.

What are  you experiences with BoKs? Are there any other you have come across besides the above?

EDIT:

Came across a few other attempts at BoKs that might one might find of interest…

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• Computer Science BoK from ACM SIGCSE
• KM-CBK from KM Network

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