All posts by Navin Kabra

SEAP Book Club Event Report: MindSet presented by Gireendra Kasmalkar

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(This is a live-blog of the SEAP Book Club meeting that happened on 4th Feb at Sungard Aundh. Gireendra Kasmalkar, MD & CEO of SQS India, talked about a book called “Mindset – The Psychology of Success.” The contents of this post are not directly related to technology, however, it is published on PuneTech since this was a SEAP meeting, and most of the people attending were senior members from Pune’s IT industry. Hence, we felt that it would be of interest to PuneTech readers to get an idea of what senior member of SEAP are talking about. Please note: this is a partial and incomplete account of what Gireendra talked about, and possibly has my biases. Also, since it is a live-blog, it will ramble a little and might contain errors.)

There are two different mindsets for humans: Fixed Mindset and Growth Mindset. People with a fixed mindset use events as opportunities for assessment and validation of what they’re already doing. Those with a growth mindset use events as an opportunity to learn. Thus, the potential of a person with a fixed mindset is known, whereas the potential of a person with growth mindset is not only unknown, but also unknowable.

The key difference between the fixed mindset and growth mindset is how they think about natural talent vs effort. In general, as a society, we tend to value natural talent, and effortless accomplishment. But what’s so heroic about having a gift? Effort ignites ability and turns it into accomplishment. Note: just because someone is talented and can accomplish things effortlessly, it does not mean that we should think less of them. But we shouldn’t give them more credit just because they did it effortlessly.

A person with a fixed mindset thinks that if you need to put in effort then you’re not talented. And they are terrified of putting in an effort, because what if you fail even after put in effort? Thus, failure is a setback, and they tend to blame it on someone else. On the other hand success is about being gifted and is validation of being smart. They have a sense of entitlement. They get a thrill from doing things that are easy for them, and their self-esteem comes from being better than others.

By contrast, a person with a growth mindset thinks of effort as the main driver of success. They are terrified by the idea of not capitalizing on opportunities. Failure does hurt them, but it does not define them. It is taken as an opportunity to learn and improve. So success is about putting effort and stretching yourself, thrills come from doing hard things, and self-esteem come from being better than yesterday.

So, in the long term, growth mindset brings more success, and also helps you stay at the top.

Benjamin Bloom studied 120 outstanding achievers over 40 years. After 40 years of research, they concluded that it is not possible to predict future achievement of a person from current abilities. Basically, that their research showed is that if one person can learn something then any other person can learn the same thing given appropriate prior and current conditions of learning (except for 2% of extremely gifted or extremely impaired people.)

Not performing up to standards should be seen as an indicator for further learning.

Psychological research shows that people who are told they were brilliant become more conservative (because they want to conserve their “brilliant” image) whereas people who are praised for their effort put in more effort the next time.

Bottomline: negotiators, managers, leaders are made not born. Any ability, including artistic ability can be learnt. And does not really take very long to learn.

Failure is the key to learning, and achievement, and ultimate success. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, gave a great commencement speech at Harvard talking about The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination. The basic claim is that success in school/college, resulting in a well paying job, is actually a deterrent to success – because you will no longer be willing to leave your comfort zone and take risks. Nitin Deshpande of Allscripts talks about an incident from the early part of his career: a person who was considering offering a partnership to Nitin asked Nitin whether he had ever failed at anything in life, and when Nitin said that he hadn’t really failed at anything, he was told that he was not qualified to be a partner.

Final thoughts:

  • If you think: “This is hard. This is fun,” then you have a growth mindset, and you’ll do well
  • Categorize people as learners and non-learners (instead of successes and failures.)
  • A fixed mindset will limit what you can achieve with your ability, whereas a growth mindset will help you realize the full potential.
  • You can and should train yourself to get into a growth mindset

SEAP Book Club Meet: “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success” – Gireendra Kasmalkar

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Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) has a Book Club that meets on the first Saturday of every month, where one of the senior executives from the Software Industry in Pune gives a presentation based on a popular book.

This month, Gireendra Kasmalkar, Managing Director and CEO, SQS India, will talk about “Mindset – The New Psychology of Success”, at 10am on 4th Feb, at Sungard, Aundh.

If you are a professional in the IT industry, the SEAP Book Club is a good way to not only get a feel for the kinds of topics you need to worry about as you progress in your career, but also a place to meet some of the leaders of software companies in Pune.

More details about the book:

Mindset is one of those rare books that can help you make positive changes in your life and at the same time see the world in a new way.

A leading expert in motivation and personality psychology, Carol Dweck has discovered in more than twenty years of research that our mindset is not a minor personality quirk: it creates our whole mental world. It explains how we become optimistic or pessimistic. It shapes our goals, our attitude toward work and relationships, and how we raise our kids, ultimately predicting whether or not we will fulfill our potential. Dweck has found that everyone has one of two basic mindsets.

If you have the fixed mindset, you believe that your talents and abilities are set in stone-either you have them or you don’t. You must prove yourself over and over, trying to look smart and talented at all costs. This is the path of stagnation. If you have a growth mindset, however, you know that talents can be developed and that great abilities are built over time. This is the path of opportunity-and success.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. It’s on Saturday, 4th February, from 10am to 11:30am, at Sungard, Westend Center, Aundh. Register by sending a mail to rsvp@softexpune.org.

Call for Speakers: GNUnify – India’s Biggest Open Source Conference

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(Sorry about the late notice. This CFP for GNUnify is open until Wednesday Feb 1st, so please hurry and register as a speaker.)

GNUnify, organized by Pune Linux Users Group (PLUG) and SICSR is one of the biggest free and open source conferences in India. It will be held on 10th and 11th Feb in Pune and will feature speakers and attendees from all over the world (yes, it regularly gets international visitors).

This year, the theme is “Emerging and Next Generation Technologies in the World of FOSS,” and they are looking for speakers in these tracks/categories:

  • Mobile Computing
  • Cloud Computing
  • System Programming
  • Emerging Languages
  • Sys Admin
  • Security
  • Web Technologies

To register as a speaker, go to the Speaker Registration Page and follow the directions there. All you need to do is provide a short abstract of what you would like to speak about. This, you should be able to do, in spite of the fact that PuneTech has provided you with just 1 day notice 🙂

Benefits of being a speaker at GNUnify:

  • Accomodation and reimbursement of travel expenses for speakers from out of Pune
  • Get established as an expert in your area of work
  • Interact with some of the most passionate students and professionals in open source
  • Give back to the community that has given you so much.

Register Now. See the GNUnify Website for more details.

TechM presents i5 Talks: On Innovative Tech Ideas to better Society – 31 Jan

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i5 Talks is a quarterly technology talk show organized by Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam that showcases innovative ideas which incite, ignite and inspire people to create a better society by using technology. The idea is to create something similar to TED, but specific to India and Technology. And this is not restricted just to Mahindra – the audience as well as the speakers are drawn from across the industry.

The next edition of i5 Talks is tomorrow (31 January, 2pm-5pm). The theme of this edition is social networking and collaboration. This event is free for anyone to attend. Please contact i5TalksHelpdesk@techmahindra.com to register. The event is at Tech Mahindra’s Hinjewadi corporate office: Plot no 1, Phase III, Hinjewadi.

Here is the description of the event from the website:

i5 Talks is a platform for the innovators and organizations dealing with technology to participate and share ideas. The Talks will draw in the best speakers and demonstrations from customers, partners, employees, scholars and other industry leaders. Theme will revolve around different topics each quarter and will be conducted at various centers of Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra, across the country. Each talk, of around 15 minutes, will also be recorded and made available on the i5 Talks website.

We have 8 speakers from diverse backgrounds who shall each talk to us about their experiences in this area and of that one compelling idea or inspiration that motivated them in this field.

The speakers are:

  • Anirban Pal: SME, Emerging Trends & Technologies, MahindraSatyam
  • Atul Shah: Founder, Consumyze
  • Kiruba Shankar: CEO, Business Blogging Pvt Ltd
  • Mandar Tengse: Principal Architect, Oracle
  • Rohit Pandarkar: Deputy CTO, CanvasM
  • Shashank Srivastava: Manager, WW Industry Marketing, TIBCO
  • Suresh Babu: Founder, Web Marketing Academy
  • Vineet Jawa: CEO, Gaboli

For more details about the speakers see the speakers page. For more details about the event see the i5 Talks website.

As indicated earlier, the event is free, it is on Tuesday, 31 Jan, 2pm-5pm, Tech Mahindra, Hinjewadi. Please contact i5TalksHelpdesk@techmahindra.com to register.

ACM India Annual Event – at Pune, 25 Jan

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This year, The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) (one of the top associations of computer science academics and professionals), will hold its annual India event on 25th January, in Pune with the help of ACM Pune, the local chapter. The event will be at the ‘O’ Hotel, Koregaon Park, Pune, from 9:30am to 5:30pm. This annual meet is attended by ACM Turing Award winners, ACM Office Bearers, ACM India members, and Researchers.

Note: this event is different from the ACM Compute 2012 Conference, which is also being organised by ACM Pune, in Pune, on 23/24 Jan.

Agenda for the Event

  • 0930 Welcome Alain Chesnais, John White, Anand Deshpande
  • 1000 Keynote by N R Narayana Murthy, Infosys
  • 1100 Tea break
  • 1130 Talk by Frans Kaashoek, MIT
  • 1220 Ramesh Mengawade, Opus Software
  • 1300 Lunch
  • 1400 Talk by Ravi Kannan, Microsoft Research
  • 1450 Talk by Wendy Hall, University of Southampton
  • 1540 Tea break
  • 1600 Capstone talk by Narendra Jadhav, Planning Commision
  • 1700 Concluding session, Vote of Thanks, Anand Deshpande, P J Narayanan
  • 1730 Closing

About ACM Pune

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society for the Computer Science/IT community, delivering resources that advance computing as a science and a profession for the past 70 years. The ACM India council was formed 2 years ago with a mandate of playing an active role in the science and profession of computing, with a special emphasis on India.

ACM Pune is the Pune chapter of ACM.

Fees and Registration

This event open for anybody to attend – the fees are Rs. 300 for ACM members and Rs. 800 for non-members. Please register here

ACM Compute 2012 academic conference in Pune – 23/24 Jan

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ACM Pune, the local chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) one of the top associations of computer science academics and professionals, is holding Compute 2012, the first edition of its annual conference, on 23 and 24 January 2012. The theme for this conference is Intelligent and Scalable Computing Systems. Prof. R. K. Shyamsunder, TIFR, Mumbai and Dr. Lokendra Shastri, Infosys Ltd are general co-chairs for COMPUTE 2012.

Agenda

Keynote speakers:

  • Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Deputy Director General of Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI)
  • Dr. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Professor, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT-Bombay

Other speakers include Dr Aditya Abhyankar, HoD, Department of Technology, Pune University, IITB, Dr Deepak Khemani, Professor IIT Mandi, Dr Abhay Jere, Persistent Systems Ltd, and Dr Girish Palshikar, Tata Research Design and Development Centre.

These are the papers that have been selected for presentation at Compute 2012:

  • Scalable Lock-Free FIFO Queues using Efficient Elimination Techniques
  • A Robust Neural Network Classifier to Model the Compressive Strength of High Performance Concrete Using Feature Selection
  • Mining Research Abstracts for Exploration of Research Communities
  • A Generic Topology Discovery Approach for Huge Social Networks
  • Multimodal Biometric System Based on Hand geometry, Palmprint and Signature
  • A Review of Path Planning and Mapping Technologies for Autonomous Mobile Robot Systems
  • A Knowledge-based Formalization of UBL Processes using Hybrid programs
  • GPU implementation of a novel hybrid lattice Boltzmann method for non-isothermal flows
  • Texture Edge Statistics for Efficient Retrieval of Biomedical Images Recognition and Classifier
  • Enabling High Performance Computing using Microsoft HPC Server
  • RobExT: A tool to customize microarray data for Cell Designer and Cytoscape
  • FIRA – A novel method for benchmarking the cache hierarchy.
  • Insertion and Querying Mechanism For A Distributed XML Database System
  • Parallel Algorithm to Evaluate Contextual Features for Term Weighting
  • Reconstructing the Software Environment of an Experiment with Kameleon

For selected posters, the program committee, and other details of the conference, see the conference website

Registration and Fees

The conference is open to anybody. Fees are Rs. 3500(2500) for professionals, Rs. 2500(2000) for academics, and Rs. 2000(1500) for students. (Numbers in parenthesis indicate rates for ACM Members). Register here.

The conference will be at YASHADA, on Baner Road, near University Circle.

Demo Space for Pune Startups

ACM Pune also invites technology startups in Pune to exhibit their products to the ACM audience for a fee of Rs. 5000 for one day. Selected startups will be provided with one table and a standee for the exhibition. This is a chance for a startup to reach out to a very select audience of computer science professionals from all over the country. For more details, watch for an announcement on the Pune Startups mailing list.

About ACM Pune

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society for the Computer Science/IT community, delivering resources that advance computing as a science and a profession for the past 70 years. The ACM India council was formed 2 years ago with a mandate of playing an active role in the science and profession of computing, with a special emphasis on India.

ACM Pune is the Pune chapter of ACM.

Call for Speakers: JSFoo JavaScript Conference Pune

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HasGeek, the folks who brought us high quality tech conferences like DocType Html5 and DroidCon, are organizing [JSFoo] a JavaScript conference in Pune on 21st January. Considering that JavaScript is one of the most important programming languages in the world today, anyone who is interested in technology should consider attending this conference, and if you have done some work in JavaScript, they you should definitely speak at the conference.

More details below.

About JSFoo

JSFoo is a one day conference on building full size apps in JavaScript. Come over for a full day with the smartest geeks from across India who have figured it out and will show you how. We have sessions covering the range from pure JavaScript apps in Node.js to real-time streaming of data to building entirely in the client side with Backbone.js.

This is an event for serious JavaScript programmers who want to learn from their peers.

The JSFoo conference series began with a Bangalore edition on October 1, 2011, followed by [Pune][http://jsfoo.in/pune2012/] and Chennai (upcoming).

Call for Speakers

Why be a speaker at a conference. First, you get a free ticket. Second, you instantly establish yourself as a expert in your area. Finally, this is a great way to meet the most interesting people working in this area. All you need to do is talk about some experience you’ve had with building JavaScript apps, or a tool, or a platform. The talk is expected to be 30 minutes, with additional 10 minutes for Q&A. At this point, all you need to do is submit the title of your talk at the JSFoo Speaker Submission Page

Schedule and Tickets

JSFoo is a paid conference. Regular tickets cost Rs. 800 and you can register here.

To get an idea of the talks and speakers lined up see this page. Note, this is still a partial list and more will get added based on further speaker submissions.

Other Details

The event is on 21st January, all day, at 7th floor, SICSR, (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Market, Model Colony). Register here

There is also a JavaScript Hacknight on 14th January (one week before the actual conference) which gives 30 of the attendees a chance to spend an entire night hacking on interesting JavaScript projects. See hacknight videos from JSFoo Bangalore to get an idea of what a hacknight is. Hacknight is open to all registered participants of JSFoo Pune, but requires separate registration because the venue (Office of http://amiworks.co.in) has limited space.

JSFoo: http://jsfoo.in/

JSFoo/HasGeek’s JavaScript HackNight Pune – Jan 14

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No matter what programming language and platform you work on today, it is almost certain that at least one of the user interfaces to your software product/service is written using JavaScript. JavaScript is easily the language that is available on far, far more computing devices in the world than any other language, considering it is present by default on all desktop browsers and most mobile phone browsers. Thus, if your in the software space, is no alternative but to accept JavaScript – it is the default.

A JavaScript hack night – i.e. a night of hacking on JavaScript with 30 others from Pune and elsewhere in India has been organized on Saturday, 14th January, at AmiWorks office (SB Road, Pune), in conjunction with the [JSFoo] JavaScript in conference which will also be held in Pune a week later. (To clarify, the JavaScript Hacknight is on 14th Jan, night, and the [JSFoo] conference is on 21st January, daytime.)

The hacknight is open for any registered participant of the [JSFoo] conference, but since space is limited at the venue, you will need to register separately for it. All you need to do is get your laptop, and get ready for lots of JavaScript programming, learning, and discussions. To get an idea of what a JSFoo hacknight is like, check out these videos from JSFoo Hacknight Bangalore.

SEAP Book Club Meet: The Steve Jobs Way with Suhas Kelkar

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Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) has a Book Club that meets on the first Saturday of every month, where one of the senior executives from the Software Industry in Pune gives a presentation based on a popular book.

This month, Suhas Kelkar, CTO Asia-Pacific, and Senior Director (Incubation Team) at BMC Software, will talk about “The Steve Jobs Way” by Jay Elliot.

Update: Here is the presentation Suhas used for the event:

SEAP Book Review on Prezi

If you cannot see a presentation above click here to be taken to the presentation page.

More details about the book:

The former Senior Vice President of Apple Computer and close colleague of Steve Jobs’s throughout his tenure, Jay Elliot takes readers on a remarkable tour through Jobs’s astonishing career. From the inception of game-changing products like the Apple II and the Macintosh, to his stunning fall from grace, and on to his rebirth at the helm of Apple, his involvement with Pixar, and the development of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and much more, The Steve Jobs Way presents real-life examples of Jobs’s leadership challenges and triumphs, showing readers how to apply these principles to their own lives and careers.

The meeting will be on Saturday 7th Jan, from 10am to 11:30am, at SunGard’s Aundh office (Westend Center One, in the same building as Reliance Mart). This event is free and open for all SEAP members and their friends. Register by sending a mail to rsvp@softexpune.org.

POCC Meet: WTF is going on with SMS – Panel Discussion & Product Pitches – 7 Jan

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The next Pune Open Coffee Club meet (Sat, 7 Jan, 5pm, SICSR) will be on discussing and understanding the mess that is SMS and its impact on startups. If you’re a technologist who is working on, or plans to work on any software offering for the India market, you definitely need to understand this area. If your product has been impacted by the recent TRAI regulations, please come to share your experiences. If you are a startup that is offering SMS based services (either to your customers, or to other startups/businesses), you can actually pitch your products at this meet (see details below).

The importance of SMS for the Indian Technology Market

In the last few years, SMS was emerging as one of the most important “technologies” in the Indian tech and startup space. With 10x the number of users compared to the internet, SMS was the preferred choice for many startups and businesses to communicate with their customers. However, with the recent TRAI anti-spam regulations, things are looking very murky. Most businesses are not allowed to send SMS via gateways. But some businesses (like social networks, travel ticketing services, and financial institutions) are allowed. Others can’t send even to willing customers. But sending via international routes is allowed. And sending via individual SIM cards is allowed, but up to a maximum of 200 per day.

What is allowed? What is not allowed? What is the theory, and what are the ground realities? What is the effect on companies that had built a business with SMS as an important component, and how are they dealing with this? What to expect in the next few years?

These are the questions we hope to tackle in the next Pune Open Coffee Club Meeting, on Sat, 7 Jan, 5pm, 7th floor, SICSR, (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Market, Model Colony).

We will have a panel discussion where these issues will be discussed by people who have expertise in this area. This will be followed by short (5-minute) pitches by Pune startups that are either offering SMS based services, or are doing a business where SMS is an important part of their offering.

Please register to attend

If you are a startup who wants to pitch, please send a mail to navin@reliscore.com, or santosh@tinkeron.com

We already have a few experts lined up for the panel discussion, however, we can accomodate one or two more, so if you can suggest someone with practical experience/expertise in this area, please let us know.