Category Archives: Events

What to expect at Barcamp Pune

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Update: Our hearts go out to the people of Mumbai, but our bodies continue their day-to-day activities in Pune. Barcamp Pune 5 will happen. It starts at 10am, at SICSR (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research), Model Colony, Atur Centre, Opp. Om Super Market, Pune (map).

Barcamp Pune 5 is this Saturday (29th November) and I am hoping that this time, a lot of people who are not familiar with the concept of barcamp will show up. Earlier, we wrote about what is barcamp, and why you should attend. For those still sitting on the fence, wondering whether to attend, let me try and give an idea of what to expect at BCP5.

The barcamp page shows 250+ registrations. So expect at least 150 people or more to show up.

Expect chaos. I mean that in a good way. Conferences are thoughtfully organized by committees of experts to include topics that you should know about. Barcamp is not a conference – it’s an unconference. No suits, no committees. What you will get is talks on topics that you want to know about.

Expect a tweet-up. At 5:30pm. A meeting of people who use and love twitter. If you are not a twitter-user yet, you should be. Attend the tweet-up to find out why.

Expect talks from a set of very wide-ranging topics (mostly tech): how to secure your home wireless network from hackers, PHP, how to build iPhone applications, the semantic web, using maps in your applications and websites, robotics, bootstrapping your startup. And many more. It’s an unconference, so can’t know in advance all the different presentations that will ultimately happen. And some of the presentations will actually happen with 4 people huddled around a laptop in a corner on the floor.

Expect enthusiasm. Expect to see lots of energy. People passionate about technology. Blogging. Web-2.0.

Expect to see people not just from Pune, but also Mumbai, Bangalore, Aurangabad, Hyderabad and other cities. Yes, barcamps are worth travelling 800km for.

Expect to see students, junior techies, people with 15+ years of experience, programmers, managers, designers, NGO volunteers, open source fanatics, .NET gurus, savvy businessmen and geeks.

Expect to make new friends. You’ll meet lots of interesting people. If you are thinking of a startup, you might meet your co-founder. If you are interested in Erlang, you might meet other Erlang enthusiasts. If you are a recruiter, you might meet your latest recruits. If you are single, you might meet your future partner (hey! it happens).

Expect to go off to dinner parties with strangers.

Expect to give and receive business cards – some old school habits die hard.

Expect people to take lots of photographs and upload them to flickr. Expect blog posts about barcamp to trickle in all through the next week. Expect wi-fi. Expect live-blogging. Expect twittering.

Expect struggling startups to demonstrate their work. Some of them would have been doing this for the nth time, because they’ve been going to every barcamp in the country to get visibility for their startup. In other cases, you’ll be the first people in the world to see the new product.

Expect the unexpected.

Expect to learn. To teach. To discuss. To argue. To agree. To disagree. To clap. To laugh. To giggle. To boo (yes, that happens too.)

Expect the boring people to stay at home, and only the interesting people to show up.

Expect those who wanted to come but could not to be profoundly unhappy.

Expect those who did not attend to have missed something great.

Open-source Code Camp last weekend – A report

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The Pune Linux Users Group (PLUG) had organized a code camp on Saturday, with the intention of getting a bunch of developers to get together and develop code, talk about code, answer each others’ coding questions on specific coding projects.

Aditya Godbole one of the PLUG members who attended, posted this overview of the event at the PLUG mailing list:

The following work was successfully done at the Code Camp –

  1. Abhijit Bhopatkar – Added some functionality to TeamGit. He was very excited about it and shot off a long mail to the list as soon as he finished it, so I’m not going to spend any more words on that. Refer to his earlier mail on the list.
  2. Guntapalli Karunakar – Started on something, but ended up spending most of the time in critical maintenance tasks of the Indlinux server!
  3. Ashish Bhujbal and Amit Karpe – Worked on an HCL prototype notebook. Tried to resolve some issues with the X display rotation and calibration of the touchscreen. Solved both issues. Were trying to finish solving a problem with hibernation before going into hibernation themselves.
  4. Aditya Godbole – Fixed 3 bugs in the lush-opencv package and added a utility function. One of the fix is already in the upstream cvs.

Of course, along with all this, we had a blast (which was the primary motive anyway).

Thanks to Manjusha for doing a bit of running around for organisation (in return for which we configured her ssh server 🙂 ). Thanks to Sudhanwa and Shantanoo for hanging around to give us company.

Abhijit Bhopatkar, whose work is mentioned in point #1 above, posted details of teamGit:

teamGit is a functional git gui written in qt, its ultimate aim is to add functionality
on top of git targeted at small closely nit teams.

After a succesfull codecamp session, I have tagged the repo with v0.0.8!!! You can now get the .deb from ubuntu intrepid ppa deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bain-devslashzero/ubuntu. intrepid main
package name is teamgit.

The main project website is http://www.devslashzero.com/teamgit

There are many small changes and feature adds you can take a look at repo here: http://gitorious.org/projects/teamgit/repos/mainline

The major feature add however is addition on **Advanced** menu.

This menu is constructed on the fly parsing output of ‘git help –all’ Then when you click on a menu item it issues git help , parses the manpage and presents its options in a guified form. It even display nice tooltips describing the option.

This is just a first stage of the planned feature. Ultimately this advanced menu will be just a ‘Admin’ feature. People will be able to save the selected options and parameters as ‘Receipies’ and can cook a nice receipes package particular to their needs/organisations.

The feature is not really complete yet, but you can issue simple commands using it. There _are_bugs_ but i couldn’t wait to showcase this nifty feature.

Check out the screenshot http://www.devslashzero.com/images/teamgitscreenshots/screenshot-teamgit22nov.png

Photos of the event have been posted on flickr (thanks G Karunakar).

PLUG also holds monthly meetings on the first saturday of every month from 4pm to 6pm at SICSR. You can keep track of these and other tech events in Pune by following the PuneTech calendar, or by generally subscribing to the PuneTech feed.

Data management and data quality in business intelligence

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I am liveblogging CSI Pune‘s lecture on Data Management and Data Quality in Business Intelligence, by Ashwin Deokar of SAS R&D Pune.

Huge amounts of data being generated these days. Different technologies (from databases, to RFID tags and GPS units), different platforms (PCs, servers, cellphones), different vendors. And all this data is often duplicated and inconsistent. All of this data needs to be collected in one place, and cleaned up?

Why? Three reasons:

  • Competitive business environment: With better, and more granular data, you can increase your profits, and reduce costs. For example, Walmart forcing RFID tags on all items that are supplied to them by suppliers – and tracking their locations for very accurate and up-to-date inventory control
  • Regulatory and Compliance requirements: e.g. US government has seriously strict data gathering and storage requirements for hospitals (HIPAA). If you can’t generate this data, you go to jail. That certainly reduces your ability to increase profits.
  • Adherence to Industry standards: If you can’t produce and consume data in the format that everybody else understands, you can’t play with the big boys

The key areas of study in this area are:

  • Data governance: Policies that govern the use of data in an organization. Done usually from the point of view of increasing data security (prevent hackers from getting in, prevent data from leaking out inadvertently), ensuring compliance with regulations, and optimal use of data for organizational growth.
  • Data architecture and design: Overall architecture – data storage, ETL process design, BI architecture, etc.
  • Database management: Since there are huge quantities of data, making a mistake here will pretty much doom the whole project to failure through overload. Which database? Optimizing the performance. Backup, recovery, integrity management, etc.
  • Data security: Who should have access? Which data needs to be kept private?
  • Data quality: Lots of work needed to ensure that there is a single version of the truth in the data warehouse. Especially difficult for non-transactional data (i.e. data that is not there in a database). e.g. Ashwin Deokar is the same as A.P. Deokar. Need fancy software that will do these transformations on the data.
  • Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence: What this component does is covered in a previous PuneTech article.

Data Quality. Why this is an important problem:

  • 96000 IRS tax refund cheques did not get delivered because of incorrect addresses.
  • An acquiring company, which acquired another company mainly for the customer base found that the acquisition was vastly overvalued – because the got 50% fewer customers than expected. Due to duplicates in the database.
  • A cable company lost $500,000 because a mislabeled shipment resulted in a cable being laid at a wrong location.
  • A man defrauded a CD company by taking their “introductory” offer (of free CDs) over 1600 times, by registering that many different accounts with different address. Since he did not really have that many different addresses, he managed to fool their computers by making slightly different address using minor changes like extra punctuation marks, fictitious apartment numbers, slightly different spellings, etc. Total damage: $250,000.

There is a process, combination of automated algorithms, and human assistance to help with improving data quality. And it is not just about duplicate data, or incorrect data. You also need to worry about missing data. And fetching it from the appropriate “other” sources.

What do you do?

  • Clean up your data by standardizing it using rules – have canonical spellings for names, addresses, e etc.
  • Use fancy algorithms to detect duplicates which are obvious by just looking at the strings. For example, “IBM” and “International Business Machines” do not look similar. But if they have the same address, same number of employees, etc., then you can say they are the same. (And you can have thresholds that adjust the sensitivity of this matching process.)
  • Use external data to clean up the data for de-duplication. For example, US Postal service publishes a CD of every valid address in the US. Businesses buy that CD and use that to convert all their address data to this standard format. That will result in major de-duplication.

SAS provides tools for all the steps in this process. And since it has all the pieces, it has the advantage of ensuring that there is a single meta-data repository for all the steps in this process – which is a huge advantage. SAS has the best ETL tools. It also exists in analytics, and BI. It has OLAP capabilities, but it really excels in business intelligence applications.

SAS R&D Pune has engineers working on various core products that are used in this area – meta-data, ETL, BI components. It also has a consulting group that helps companies deploy SAS products and use them – and that ends up working on all the parts of the data management / data quality process.

Upcoming conferences and tech events in Pune – Nov/Dec 2008

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IdeaCamp Pune (source: InsideSocialWeb.com)
Idea Camp Pune, 2008. Photo courtesy InsideSocialWeb.com

The next couple of months are going to rather active in Pune, with a host of really good conferences and events coming up. Some of these are free events, while others have a fee associated with them. We have written about some of them on PuneTech before, while some you’ll be hearing about for the first time. Some of them are for hardcore techies, while others are more tangential. In any case, there is something for everyone in here. Take this opportunity to improve your skills, or improve your business network.Except for power cuts, it is a great time to be a techie in Pune.

Nov 19 CSI Pune Lecture: Data Management for BI : Ashwin Deokar from SAS R&D Pune will talk about issues in data management in Business Intelligence. Free for members & students, Rs. 100 for others, Rs 50 for Persistent employees
Nov 22, 23 Code Camp: 24-hour code camp organized by Pune Linux Users Group. Free: anybody can attend.
Nov 22 Pune OpenCoffee Club Meeting – Pune Startup’s Pain Points : Get together with other startups in the Pune area and discuss solutions to common problems. Free, anybody can attend, no registration required.
Nov 25,26,27 IndicThreads Conference on Java Technologies: 3-day conference on Java; speakers from all over India. Fees range from Rs. 4000 to 8500 depending on various things.
Nov 27, 28 Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering: organized by Viswakarma Institute of Information Technology. Rs 3500 for professionals, Rs. 2000 for academics and Rs. 500 for students.
Nov 27, 28 Wi-Fi Security Training from AirTightNetworks: Airtight Networks has some of the best wi-fi security products in the world, and they have all been developed fully in Pune. Rs. 8000 before 21 Nov, Rs 10000 afterwards
Nov 27 World Usability Date, Pune 2008 (part of the Usability Conference: This event is a part of the Usability Engineering conference listed a couple of lines above; but this part of the conference (3pm to 6pm) is free and open to all.
Nov 29 Barcamp Pune 5: If you don’t know what a barcamp is read this to find out and figure out why you should attend.
Dec 4,5,6,7 Pune Design Festival 2008: Fees and registration details not yet available
Dec 06+ ClubHack – 2-day InfoTech Security Conference: One day of presentations on security, and one day of workshops. INR 1000 for talk sessions, INR 1000 for each workshop. On the spot registration INR 1500
Dec 12+ Society of Technical Communication – 2-day conference on technical writing: Fees and registration details not yet available
Dec 17 CSI Pune Lecture: Data Management for BI: next in the Business intelligence series by SAS R&S India. Fees most likely: Rs. 100 for others, Rs 50 for Persistent employees
Dec 20 OpenSocial Developer Garage: Conference for OpenSocial developers and enthusiasts. This is a free conference, but by invitation only – Register here to be considered for invitation.

And there are some great events in January too.

Did we miss any? Please add them to the common tech events calendar of Pune. Or, send us a mail with details of the event, and we’ll add it.

Pune OpenCoffee Club meeting: Pune startup’s pain points

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What: Pune OpenCoffee Club get-together. Solving the pain points of Pune’s startups

When: Saturday, 22nd November, 4pm – 7pm

Where: SICSR, Model Colony. Here is the map.

Registration and Fees: This event is free for everyone – no registration required

Details:

The

Are you a Pune startup struggling with issues that you shouldn’t need to struggle with? Electricity. Access to good service providers: CA, STPI registration, Website design, hosting? Difficulty with hiring? Need an SEO expert, but no idea who is realiable/worth it? Looking for someone to help you with facilities/furniture? Looking for Masters/PhD in mathematics/statistics to consult and don’t know where to look? Its very likely that your peers have faced the same problems and some have found solutions the hard way. Let’s discuss in a group and look for specific suggestions from those who’ve been there, done that. We’ll try to moderate the discussion aggressively to ensure relevance, and prevent tangents and rambling, or pointless bitching. We’ll try to collect and tabulate the most useful answers and post them on the web for the benefit of others. If you are unable to attend the meeting, but do have a question that you would like to raise, you can email them to me (navin@punetech.com) and I’ll try to get them asked/answered.

Also, if you are a Pune startup and would like to demo your product to or present it to the community at this get-together, please get in touch with us.

The Pune OpenCoffee Club meets on the third Saturday of every month from 4 to 7 pm at SICSR. (This time, we moved it to the 4th Saturday due to a phantom conflict with Barcamp Pune.) In addition, there is Startup Cinema – information about with you can find on the POCC mailing list. Often, there are also other ad hoc meetings organized by members of POCC. See the PuneTech calendar for a comprehensive list of all upcoming tech events in Pune.

CSI Lecture: Data Management for Business Intelligence

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Computer Society of India – Pune Chapter presents the second lecture in a series on Data warehousing. The first lecture gave an overview of BI and DW. The second lecture was about how these techniques are used by businesses. This is the third in the series:

What: Data Management for Business Intelligence by Ashwin Deokar of SAS R&D India.

When: Wednesday, November 19th, 2008, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Where: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems, Senapati Bapat Road
Entry: Free for CSI Members, Rs. 100 for others. Register here.

Details – Data Management for Business Intelligence

This lecture will cover the various issues in Data Management of Business Intelligence solutions: Why is Data management and data quality important, What is Data management, Components of Data management, Factors affecting Data management, Key Challenges in Data management, Data Quality, Data Quality process

It is not necessary to have attended the previous lecture.

For more information about other lectures in this series, and in general other tech events in Pune, see the PuneTech events calendar.

About the speaker – Ashwin Deokar

Ashwin is working as a business unit head with SAS R&D Pune. Heading the OnDemand Solution group. Ashwin has over 10 year of experience in ERP, DW, BI & Analytics across multiple domains like manufacturing, CPG, Retail, Banking & Insurance. He has been with SAS for 6 years under various roles like Project Manager, Senior Consultant, Business Unit head.

MahaBio – A 2-day bio-technology conference at UoP – 14/15 Nov

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Event Name: MahaBio 2008 – 2-day conference on bio-technology
When: Nov 14, 15 all day.
Venue: Chandrashekhar Auditorium, IUCAA
Registraion and Fees: Details are sketchy, but I think this will be free for anyone to attend. Those interested should see the MahaBio 2008 website, and make contact at the email address provided

Details:

The event titled ‘Mahabio 2008’ will take place in Pune on November 14 and 15. Various political figures will be in attendance:  Inauguration by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Presentations by Ashok Kolaskar, former vice-chancellor of UoP, A S Ninawe, vice-chancellor of Maharashtra Animal and Fisheries University, Nagpur and Dilip Deobagkar, vice-chancellor of Goa University among others.

But, Dr R A Mashelkar, chairman, Maharashtra Biotechnology Commission will address the inaugural ceremony, and also there will be actual academic papers being presented. Also, an exhibition of biotechnology will be held at Jaykar library in UoP where, about 20 industries, related to biotechnology, shall put their stalls.

So, I think, if you are interested in biotechnology, and are willing to put in a little effort to separate the wheat from the chaff, I think it will be worth visiting, at least the exhibition, if nothing else. A little more information is provided by an Indian Express article on this topic. I have sent an email to the organizers, and will update this article later today if I get a response.

Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering, Nov 27/28

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What: A 3-hour, free event for World Usability Day, and a 2-day, paid conference on usability engineering, both featuring the who’s who of Usability in Pune, and some experts from outside too.

When: World Usability Day event is from 3pm to 6pm on Nov 27th; The Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering is on Nov 27th and 28th, full day.

Where: Sumant Mulgaonkar Auditorium, ICC towers, 403-A, Senapati Bapat Road. Map.

Registration and fees: The World Usability Day event is free for all to attend, and no registration is required. The full conference fees are Rs. 3500 for professionals, Rs. 2000 for academics, and Rs. 500 for students. Details here.

Details – World Usability Day Event

A gathering of usability practitioners is organized with many participatory community events to encourage informal discussion, knowledge sharing and networking. Usability professionals, user experience designers, design teachers, IT professionals, managers, software developers, students etc. are welcome to attend.

This event will consist of the following:

Photo Essay Competition on ‘Usability in Transportation’

The participants of this competition are expected to highlight usability problems and difficulties faced by people using a series of photographs and apt description of possible solutions. The photographs have to be focusing on any of the usability problems pertaining to transportation in terms of design of vehicles, transportation systems, traffic signals, road signage systems and communication, journey booking systems, etc. It should also touch upon design, engineering, social, cultural and ergonomic issues related to transportation.

Jury members for Photo Essay Competition

Dr. Sanjay Tripathi, Senior Consultant (Usability), TechMahindra Ltd, Pune -Chairman
Bhakti Khandekar, Principal Designer-User Interface , Infosys Technologies, Pune -Member
Taral Kulkarni, Senior Usability Engineer, Persistent Systems Ltd., Pune -Member
Kedar Kadam, Usability Engineer , Persistent Systems Ltd., Pune -Member

Usability Quiz

It is going to be a fun quiz contest to test our know-how of usability. The quiz will cover questions related to web-usability, user centered design process, human factors, user experience design etc. The best answer for each question will be awarded! So come prepared for the Usability Quiz!

Quiz Coordinators

Ganesh Gaikwad, Principal Human Factors Engineer, Symantec, Pune
Atul Manohar, Lead User Experience Management Practice , Satyam Computer Services , Ltd. Pune
Nagesh Susarla, Manager / Principal UI Designer, Symantec Pune
Shashank Deshpande, Director , Clarice Technologies , Pune.

Panel Discussion on ‘Multi-disciplinary Perspectives of Usability’

Whose property is it anyway? Engineering, Design, Management, Psychology, Ergonomics ?
It is an interactive deliberation between panelists and participants to understand the difficulties faced by those who aspire to practice usability. Following panelists will represent different domain perspectives of usability.

Panel Moderator :
Dr. Dinesh Katre, Group Head- Human Centred Design and Computing, C-DAC, Pune

Panelists :
Dr. Pradeep Yammiyavar, DoD, IIT, Guwahati – Psychology
Dr. Neela Rajhans, Professor, College of Engineering, Pune -Ergonomics
Prof. Pradeep Pendse, Dean IT/Business Design , Welingkar Institute, Mumbai. -Management
Prof. Aniruddha Joshi , Associate Professor , IDC , IIT , Mumbai. -Design
Mr. Sameer Chabukswar, Head, Usability Engineering, Persistent Systems Ltd. Pune -Engineering

Details – Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering

Normally, we at PuneTech do not feature information about paid workshops, trainings, or conferences. But every once in a while, an event comes along which appear to have exceptional technical content, which in our subjective opinion makes it worth the money. The Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering, 2008, hosted by Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, is one such event, where the impressive list of speakers, and the detailed schedule makes us feel that this could be a good event to attend. (Please note: PuneTech is a purely non-commercial website and does not take any considerations (monetary or otherwise) for any of the content on the site. Decision to feature content on the site is made by the editors purely on the basis of interestingness and technical content.)

Broad themes of the conference:

Offshore Usability
Cross-cultural aspects, remote usability methods and tools, challenges in user requirements research, etc.

Usability to Bridge the Digital Divide
Designing ICT products and applications for rural users, such as e-governance, e-learning, localization of user interface.

Usability Engineering
Institutionalisation, processes & practices, multidisciplinary dimensions, best usability practice, impact of adaptation of user centred design approach in SDLC process and project management, agile process, interaction design and client architecture, internationalisation of user interface, etc.

User Experience Design for New Media
Web, Mobile, PDA, Touch-screen, new interaction models, interaction design for development, etc.

User Experience Research
Tying user experience to strategic business innovation objectives, UX methods and research approaches for emerging markets with unique technology adoption curves, user experience innovations for Indian consumer and enterprise products, next generation user-driven technologies, etc.

Multidisciplinary Challenges of HCI in Education
Fusion of diverse disciplines in the syllabus of Human-Computer Interaction, user experience design thinking into the design / engineering / management curriculum, etc.

If you are not familiar with Usability, or not convinced as to why it is such a vitally important field of study, check out past PuneTech articles on usability.

What is barcamp, and why you should attend barcamp Pune (Nov 29)

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What: Barcamp Pune 5

When: 29th November, all day

Where:  SICSR, Model Colony. Here is the map.

Registration and fees: Are you kidding? (Actually, register at the barcamp homepage.)

What is barcamp?

A barcamp is a conference that is the opposite of conference. Conferences are arranged by people in suits who have expert committees to decide agendas, and scheduled printed on glossy paper 3 months in advance. By contrast, a barcamp is organized (or unorganized, actually) by the T-shirt and jeans types. There is no agenda, no schedule. You just show up, and anybody can announce a talk, and preferably it shouldn’t be pre-prepared. For a more formal introduction to barcamp, check out the wikipedia entry for barcamp. (Encyclopedia Britannica doesn’t have an entry for barcamp!)

So anyway, a barcamp sounds like chaos, right? Surprisingly, it works very well. A barcamp is one of the best places to go to get a feel for the pulse of the tech community. You’ll meet interesting people and get introduced to interesting new technologies. Tarun Chandel, the grand old man of barcamps in Pune, said this after Barcamp Pune 4:

Let me go back around 20 years and take a look at the life of a developer. It was simpler than your life isn’t it? He just had to learn one or two languages and the career was rolling (you don’t believe me ask any of your bosses). Let me come back to you. I am sure you all know at-least 3 languages in which you can produce code for living. But how many of you are confident that you will be able to make a career like the guys did 20 years back?? The reality is that the innovation is happening at an unbelievable rate today, oh sorry I cant fool you guys you are insiders and as insiders we know that the splurge of various technologies, languages, platforms is because of the work that people have been doing for a long time. For an outsider there are too many things happening suddenly but for an insider this is not a surprise but a time when all the things are peeking and coming together perfectly. To be successful at this time we have to make sure that we are riding on the top of the tide. It is easier said than done. It takes a lot of time and effort to be just aware of all that is happening in the technology space. A developer needs to be aware of so many things at once and not only that he should be ready to work with newer things as early as they happen. It is not easy to keep pace with the speed of innovation and ever changing world of technology, how much time do you guys get out of your project work? The pressure is enormous to deliver, where is the time for other things?

Barcamp Pune or similar events are the place that gives you a present snapshot of the world around you (or let me put it this way gives you a heavy dose of all the technology related things that you missed or are still missing). There is a learning curve in all the places so is there a leaning curve in Barcamp Pune as well. You come here and get excited about new things technologies, you go back and whenever you get time, say the code repository server is down or your manger has fallen ill you can read in details about what you learned here. You come back for the next time and you attend a workshop on the same got to learn how to code or use the technology. You go back home and run some code get your hands dirty learn few new things. You again come here and this time you share with other campers what you have learned and they will share what they learned and you will improve yourself. Isn’t that great!!! I read somewhere that you retain 95% of what you share with others.

We have a very experienced Barcamp crowd in Pune but just for those who were there for the first time, let me repeat what I said at the starting session of the event that, the onus of getting best out of camp lies with you. There is a famous rule of Barcamp “Law of 2 feet” that is, you will have to use your 2 feet to walk to a place where you can learn, if you are not learning walk out of that place (no one will mind) and go to a place where you can learn or share. Meet as many people as you can and network and use this gathering of intelligent people wisely.

So mark your calendars, and head to SICSR for a Saturday of unorganized tech fun.

And check the PuneTech calendar for other exciting tech events that have been planned for you in the next few months (for example, I bet you did not know about the Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering?)

In the downturn, get involved with the tech community

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The next few months are going to be a thrilling time to be a techie in Pune. On the one hand, the financial meltdown is suddenly making its presense felt uncomfortably close to home – multiple companies are firing 5% of their employees, and ASSOCHAM promises more (retracted under pressure); bonuses are being cancelled; salaries are being reduced (yup! negative increments). The word “thrilling” goes both ways.

On the other hand, there are some really great tech events that are coming up and what better to do during a downturn than network with a bunch of people who are passionate about technology that you are interested in! (I know that a lot of you techies really dislike networking – I was like that once. One of these days, I am going to write an article for engineers on how to do networking without feeling like a cheap salesman.)

This is your chance to get involved with the tech community. It means increased exposure to interesting work that is going on elsewhere in Pune. It means improving your tech skills by becoming aware of latest trends and techniques. It means making friends with some really passionate people who share your interests. It means greatly increasing your chances of getting lucky.

With that in mind, I am listing the major tech events that are coming up soon. Many of them (but not all of them) are volunteer driven, so they need your help. Please get involved. Help the community, help Pune, and help yourself all in one shot.

Barcamp Pune 5 aka BCP5. The big daddy of volunteer-driven tech events in Pune. This will be the fifth installment. A must visit, if you want to see energy and enthusiasm. And it is in a bit of trouble as the date keeps getting postponed due to lack of a venue. Get involved, make it happen and become famous, and earn the gratitude of the community who are keenly looking forward to the barcamp. Date not yet fixed – tentatively November 15th (but almost certain to be postponed now).

The IndicThreads conference on Java Technologies. Not a volunteer driven event, but a big event for all Java lovers. If you work in Java, it would be difficult to justify why you are not attending, and Java people from all over India will be attending. Dates: 25 to 27 November.

ClubHack, a group of volunteers interested in educating the public on security issues, is organizing the ClubHack 2008 conference which will feature presentations and workshops on security issues that you must worry about in this big bad world of viruses, trojans, phishing, and all sorts of dangerous threats that are lurking around the corner waiting to pounce upon your computer and your bank account as soon as you let down your guard. Better to be prepared than to be sorry. Dates: 6 & 7 December.

The OpenSocial Developer Garage. A volunteer-driven get-together of OpenSocial developers from all over India. They are looking for a venue, for sponsors, for speakers, and for volunteers. Check out the OSD mailing list. Date: 20 December.

The TCS Excellence in Computer Science Week will feature lectures by experts from all over the world on the topic of de-centralized and co-operative computing. The last day to apply is today, so hurry. A world-class event is happening in your backyard, and is free – why wouldn’t you go? Date: 5 to 9 January.

Other, smaller, but more regular events:

The Pune GNU/Linux Users Group meets on the first Saturday of every month, but this time they postponed it by a day due to Diwali vacations. They are meeting tomorrow (Saturday, 8th November) at 4pm. Getting involved with the open source community is a great way to sharpen your skills, improve your resume and get to know some of the most passionate techies. They also have a Code Camp coming up on November 21st.

The Pune OpenCoffee Club, a group of Pune-based entrepreneurs and expectant entrepreneurs meets regularly and informally. Just yesterday they got together for a movie courtesy Entrip.com. The POCC monthly meeting, normally on the third Saturday of every month, might happen on the 4th Saturday (22 November) this month so as to not clash with the barcamp. Keep checking the PuneTech calendar – the event will be announced there soon.

The Pune Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI-Pune), is a very active organization, and their regular monthly meetings happen on the second Saturday every month. That luckily happens to be tomorrow, and this time will feature three talks, one on “Six Sigma for organizational excellence”, another talk giving information on the “Right to Information” (and you have a right to have that information), and finally one on “Trends in Project Management”.

So get out there, and start networking, start volunteering. Please.