Monthly Archives: February 2011

What to expect at GNUnify – Pune’s biggest open source conference – 11/12 Feb

Events, , ,

GNUnify is possibly India’s biggest open source conference and it is happening in Pune on 11th and 12th February. The schedule (day 1, and day 2) is up and there’s a lot of interesting stuff.

There are workshops, talks, labs, and a wikipedia track. Here are what we believe are the highlights:

  • Workshops: There’s one workshop on efficient numerical computing with Scilab, and another on data visualization with R. Data visualization, data analysis and in general number crunching will be one of the most important activities of all software development in the next 5 years, so this is something that people should take an interest in. For beginners, there’s a two-day workshop on building websites quickly with drupal. And the ‘Beginning with Python’ workshop is another one you should take an interest in because python is a great language to learn and use. (There are also workshops on firewalls, GCC, C+Linux, and LaTeX that you can check out.)

  • Talks: there’s a bunch of talks on security, so anybody interested in this area has a good choice. Understanding Firewalls. Linux Hardening. Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing. For the systems hackers there’s embedded systems design and development, there’s virtual networks various linux utilities, and linux kernel debugging. There’s lots to choose from for people in the application layer too: harnessing the poewr of sms for your web portal, Android native development, data visualization. There are a bunch of talks on mediawiki (the software that runs wikipedia) and Mozilla. And a talk on Haskell – one of the most interesting programming languages that you could learn today.

And remember, many of these talks are not by local Pune people; a lot of the speakers are travelling from outside Pune, and in fact, from outside India for these talks. So, if you miss these talks, you will not get a chance to hear them again for a long time.

And even after that long laundry list of talks that I’ve mentioned, there are a whole lot of other talks, labs, and workshops that I’ve missed out. So take a look at the GNUnify website and register to attend.

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here

PHPCamp is back – Register to be a Speaker

Events, Featured, ,

India’s largest unconference, PHPCamp is back. PHPCamp 2011 will be on Saturday, 5th March, 2011. The venue is not yet decided but the call for speakers is out.

If you’ve done any interesting work in PHP, this is your chance to show it off to 100s of PHP developers and students (actually the number has been known to even go up to 1000). If your company is doing cool PHP work, then the easiest way to attract star PHP developers is to give a talk at PHPCamp.

PHPCamp is a “barcamp” for PHP developers and enthusiasts. It is basically an unorganized conference where anybody can attend, it is free and open to all, and anybody can register to be a speaker.

For more information check out the PHPCamp FAQ

Rescheduled: POCC event “Termsheet Basics #2” moved to 12th Feb

Events, , , ,

A few hours back we published information about the Pune Open Coffee Club event Termsheet Basics #2: Negotiating with Angel Investors which was supposed to be on 5th Feb. However, a few hours later comes news that this event has been rescheduled to Saturday 12th feb; the venue has shifted to Persistent. So the final details are: Date: Sat, 12th Feb, 4pm, Place = Bhageerath, Persistent Systems, SB Road, Time = 4pm-8pm).

Please check out the updated event.

CloudCamp Pune – Day long semi-unconference on Cloud Computing – 5th Feb

Events, ,

Cloud camp is a day-long event happening in Pune this Saturday. It is a semi-barcamp, in the sense that there are three tracks: 1 track of invited/sponsored talks and/or panels moderated by pre-determined speakers, 1/2 a track of demos by the event sponsors, and 1/2 a track of barcamp style talks. The detailed schedule is given below.

Cloud camp will be held on Saturday, 5th February, 10am to 6pm, at “Bhageerath”, Persistent Systems, SB Road.

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here

Detailed Schedule

  • 10:00 am Registration & Networking
  • 10:30 am Welcome, Intros, and Thanks
  • 11:00 am Lightning Talks (5 minutes each)
    • Persistent Systems
    • TrillionTech
    • Microsoft
    • Clogeny
    • NetMagic
    • Nasscom
  • 11:45 am Unpanel
  • 12:30 pm Begin Open Spaces (organize the sessions)
  • 12:45 pm Lunch
  • 2:00 pm Open Spaces – Round 1
    • Migrating Applications to the Cloud – Strategy and Best Practices
      Moderated by Shreekanth Joshi and Janikaram MSV
    • To Be Decided(TBD) by audience (Library)
    • Demo by Trillion Technologies (Cafeteria)
  • 3:00 pm Open Spaces- Round 2
    • Can Cloud Computing level the playing field in India
    • TBD by audience (Library)
    • Demo by Microsoft Windows Azure (Cafeteria)
  • 4:00 pm Open Spaces- Round 3
    • How are Entrepreneurs Leveraging Cloud Computing (Moderated by Shaloo Shalini)
    • TBD by audience (Library)
    • Demo by NetMagic (Cafeteria)
  • 5:00 pm Wrap-up Session
  • 5:30 pm End

Organizers:

  • Shreekanth Joshi, Persistent Systems
  • Larry Carvalho, RobustCloud

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here

Termsheet Basics #2: Negotiating with Angel Investors – POCC Event – 12th Feb

Events, , , ,

Update: This event has been re-scheduled for 12th Feb. All other details remain the same

Santosh Dawara writes:

The Pune Open Coffee Club is hosting an informative session on “Term Sheet Basics II: Negotiating with Angel Investors”.

Date: 12th February, 2011, 4pm (Saturday)
Venue: Bhageerath, Persistent, SB Road.

Entrepreneurs who are preparing to raise money from Angels can benefit immensely from a direct one-on-one interaction with attending Angels and experienced Entrepreneurs. The session will cover basic concepts that are unique to Angel investing such as ‘Convertible Debt’, common concepts such as ‘Valuation’, what preparation can help you increase your effectiveness and what to expect when you begin negotiations with an Angel.

This should be an exciting session as Angel Investing has subtle nuances as compared to other forms of institutional finance.

As an entrepreneur – will you prefer an equity round or a convertible note round – which is preferred by whom and why? What does participating preferred mean, and how does the math work in an exit scenario? What kind of anti-dilution protections are there and what are the differences? Do VC’s prefer to offer exits to early Angel Investors?

These and many other questions are encountered by investors and entrepreneurs alike every day. The session will introduce these concepts and considerations in order for you.

Presented by dynamic speakers and active angel investors, with extensive experience in venture creation, this session is a must for those focused on building or investing in new ventures.

The high level agenda will be as follows:

  • 1600 to 1630 Introduction to attending Angels
  • 1630 to 1715 Walk-through an actual term sheet template or memorandum of understanding
  • 1715 to 1730 break for tea / coffee
  • 1730 to 1830 Discussion, QnA between attending entrepreneurs and angel investors
  • 1830 to 1930 Networking

Here are some of the high level topics we can cover:

  • equity types and convertible loans
  • how much should be raised
  • pre-money, post-money, price per share – valuation vs. other incentives, pre and post cap tables
  • liquidation preferences
  • anti dilution provisions
  • protective provisions
  • post funding board composition
  • setting up the option pool
  • some key tips to entrepreneurs and to investors (not necessarily the same tips!)
  • negotiation tips and a mock negotiation if time permits

Note: