Super Time at Barcamp Bangalore 7

Barcamp Bangalore is one of those events which I just wait for. Its a time when I rejuvenate my thought process which is drained thanks to the often hectic work at office. Also this is one place where geeks can feel at home and talk about anything under the sun. Its pretty cool that its not just Tech thats discussed but also other topics close to us, like politics and life.

Like most times, the paper wiki was filled completely as soon as it was put up. I actually saw a few people going disappointed with not being able to put up their talk. And like most other times, it started with the intro session for the first timers. This time it was Pradeep BV taking charge and explaining it to the first timers, what barcamp is all about. After that it was realized that one of the four rooms were actually not available for Barcampers.

Anyways another great thing that happened was that an Impromptu Sessions paper wiki was put up. Amazingly it too was filled in a matter of minutes, it was put up. It was really amazing to see that we had too many people all set to give sessions.

For me it started with the session on Concept Search by two people from Core Objects. It was pretty interesting to see it. If I get the link to it I would definitely post it. But then they actually nearly ripped apart the Google's search strategy.

Next it was Jayanth and Ashim from Stoke. Ashim talked about 4G technologies and how they are growing and what to expect from the future. Jayanth told about some device they had made at Stoke. Amazing, this thing is happening right here in Bangalore.

At the same time it was session by the Beagle Board guys who were demoing the board to the junta at BCB7. Something interesting but could not help it, it happens all the time at BCB.

Next session was by Mr Dorai Thodla on Tracking Technology Trends. It was nifty little presentation. Some very interesting sites and stats mentioned to track trends in technology. more over here http://dorai.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/bcb7-presentation-on-technology-trends/

It was lunch and we headed for the cafeteria. Decent lunch with a random conversation with a bunch of friends I had found at BCB. Vinayak reminded me of BCB6 when during lunch we had an interesting conversation over why Google is cool with all the data it has of mine. It was around that time that Biking guys demoed their gears with some real costly cycles(bikes for some).

The next session that I attended was by Ujj. This was a cool session(better known as discussion in BCB Circles) where we talked about how to manage your personal project with the hectic day jobs. Interesting thoughts there.

I took a session(read discussion) on ELearning. I got Pradeep BV to share his thoughts on how Elearning is shaping up in India. He talked from his experience with  VTU's EduSat program and other initiatives in Karnataka. Then we had the entire junta just wanting to talk about their experience. The basic idea of this session was to come up with whats happening currently in the ELearning scene and what it lacks. What lacks is something which will shape up the future for sure. Some interesting point which came up were

1. It should be interactive

2. It should be fun

3. Collaboration on content and between users is the key

4. Ease of creation of content is important

5. Synchronous feedback is important but then it limits. Some alternative solution is required.

I had to leave the session in there as a few others were all ready to give their session on Economies of Internet. It was taken by two guys(I am sorry I dont remember the names Sad, help me please). It was a rather interesting take on how the big telecom companies are crushing the internet by not investing enough in the middle mile. They just sit there and make loads of money just by the virtue of being big monoliths. I wonder if technology of the GenNext would be able to break it.

That was pretty much it, when BCB7 day1 closed for me. I had a nice time there attending all these sessions. What happened on Day2, calls for another post, hopefully tomorrow of by the end of this week Happy

Comments

Anonymous said…
Saurab,
Thanks for the mention. It was nice meeting you at BCB7. Looking forward to the next one.

Dorai
September 20, 2008 5:59 AM
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