Tag Archives: Events

WikiPuneri Meetup – Lots of visitors from out of town – 4 June

External Visitors,

There’s a Wikipedia meeting in Pune tomorrow (4th June, at 6pm, at SICSR, Model Colony), and anyone interested in becoming either a campus ambassador or generally contributing to Wikipedia (specially things like adding/editing pages about India or Pune, contributing to Marathi or Hindi Wikipedia, etc) should attend. A lot of visitors from other places in India, and abroad are visiting, so this is a unique opportunity to meet and ask questions to people who are prominent in the Wikipedia movement.

This meeting is free for anybody to attend, but registration is necessary. Send your confirmation to: ashwin.baindur@gmail.com with subject: Attending Pune meetup.

More details:

Ashwin Baindur writes:

Hello friends,

There is a lot happening in Pune next week. We have a lot of visitors in town who would especially like to interact with the Pune Community. Our help and cooperation has been sought for the Campus Ambassador training event next weekend. Our MEETUP DATE IS NOW CHANGED FROM 11 JUN TO 04 JUN 2011 (Saturday) at 1800 hours at SICSR, Atur Centre, Model Colony. Room No 704. 7th floor. Hisham Mundol, National Program Coordinator, who is leading the Campus Ambassador programme, will be in Pune for a week for masterminding the event. Bishakha Datta, Trustee, will be gracing the event on Saturday. Tinu Cherian, the quintessential Indian outreach activist, will also be coming for and participating in the meet – a rare treat for us. I spoke to Arjuna Rao Chawala and he has promised to confirm attendance by an Indian Chapter representative soon.

We have a number of people visiting us from abroad. Frank Schulenburg, Head of Public Outreach and Annie Lin, who leads the Ambassador Program are visiting Pune for the Campus Ambassador training event on 04-05 Jun 2011. We also have P.J. Tabit coming down to India between June 1st and August 21st to support the launch of the Wikipedia India Education Program. PJ is a Campus Ambassador in the US and is on the Ambassador Steering Committee for Wikipedia. We, the Pune community, welcome Frank, Annie & PJ to Pune and hope they have a wonderful stay. We also welcome any members of the Wikimedian community in India from outside Pune who are going to be with us for this event. Do let us know if we can help you in any way.

Broadly speaking, the campus ambassadors will be trained on 4th and 5th Jun by the outreach team comprising lndian and foreign Wikipedians. In the evening on Saturday, the campus ambassadors and the outreach team will be present for our meetup. After the meetup, the Outreach Team has invited the Pune Wikipedia community for a SOCIAL EVENING WITH DINNER. Venue for social evening will be indicated at the meetup.

Coming to another issue, the Campus Ambassadors themselves.

The first batch of Campus Ambassadors has been selected. To those selected, we say – heartiest congratulations, you will shortly be learning to edit and to evangelise Wikipedia. It is a most challenging task and we assure you of the community’s support. We invite you to be part of our community and we promise to help you, guide you and partner you in this extraordinary journey you will undertake. We also know that some other aspirants have not been selected this time round. In most cases, this is due to their lack of Wikipedia skills. To all of them we say – there will be another round of selection coming up in a few months, so have a great heart and wait. The fact that all of you stood tall and came forth means you already belong to the select batch of people who are doers and achievers. We, the Pune community, invite you to join us for this meetup and become part of us. We will help you get the skills to make you ready for the next round of selections.

Many of you all who are interested in becoming Wikipedians are requested to join all of the above :

Also please join the following groups on Facebook:

IMPORTANT: All those attending the meetup from Pune (excepting those selected for the Campus Ambassador program or those organising the event or visiting from outside Pune) need to confirm attendance so that we can plan accordingly. Send your confirmation to : ashwin.baindur@gmail.com with subject: Attending Pune meetup. Those not attending need not respond. So till then, Au revoir & Namaste, Khuda Hafez and Sat Sri Akal,

Jai Hind
Ashwin Baindur

Event Report: GeekNight with Ola Bini – JRuby for the win

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(This is a report of the GeekNight with Ola Bini written by Sandeep Mukhopadhyay)

ThoughtWorks Pune had invited all developers to their GeekNight held on May 25, 2011. GeekNight is a series of talks about cutting edge technology, where you also get to meet like minded geeks. This GeekNight featured a talk “JRuby for the win” by JRuby Core Developer Ola Bini.

Ola Bini is a core JRuby developer and is the author of the book “Practical JRuby on Rails”. He works for ThoughtWorks in Chicago. Ola’s wide technical experience ranges from Java, Ruby and LISP to several open source projects. He likes implementing languages, writing regular expression engines, YAML parsers, blogging, and other similar things that exist at the cutting edge of computer science.

This is a first hand report by Sandeep Mukhopadhyay:

The GeekNight Event kicked off officially with Ola Bini giving an overview of JRuby. JRuby is a 100% Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. It is Ruby for the JVM. A number of companies use JRuby, including Thoughtworks, as it is most compatible version of Ruby as coded in Java.

Ola also displayed a sample Application which showcased integration of Java APIs with JRuby. Using a combination of Explicit Extension API and OO internals in JRuby, integration bridges can be built with Legacy systems. Ola showed how to use Java and Ruby interchangeably in same program, and this feature was quite popular among those present.

Understandably, JRuby seems to be popular among many developers as it gives a free hand to use the best possible features of Java and Ruby in same ecosystem. Ola also discussed integration with different language like Erlang and Clojure just by adding jars into classpath and also talked about build tools for JRuby i.e. (Ant+Rake).

Just like in other technology events, the technical crowd soon started discussing issues like threading, Unicode, Performance, Memory Usage and Garbage Collector. Ola also brought up issues with threading as it runs on Native threads or Green Threads and briefly discussed as how to check memory usage of applications in JRuby using JConsole and other Java tools.

Gautam Rege (Co-founder Josh Software) and whose company extensively uses Ruby on Rails also discussed a few production issues.

Last but not the least, Ola and group also discussed issues about support at the Cloud level by Engine Yard as well as using Ruby Frameworks (Cucumber and JtestR) for testing.

It was a productive GeekNight

Times Animage – 2 day conference on Animation/Gaming

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Times Animage is a two-day exhibition and conference on animation, gaming, visual effects, design, and comics. It is organized by the Times Group in association with DSK Supinfocomm (the animation college in Pune). It is co-sponsored by the Government of Maharashtra and BIG Animation.

It is expected to feature latest trend and emerging opportunities in the Indian gaming and animation industry.

Some of the people expected at the event include:

  • Ashish S.Kulkarni, CEO BIG Animation (I) Pvt.Ltd,
  • Michael Zauner, graphic design and after effects trainer, in charge of visual communication studies, DSK Supinfocom International Campus Pune-India,
  • K Rajesh Rao, CEO Gametantra,
  • Dhimant Vyas, animation film designer, nga Games India,
  • Vaibhav Kumaresh, The Animation Society of India,
  • Anup Tapadia and Vivek Mehta from Touch Magix Media,
  • Nishith Takia, co-founder & director of Krayon Pictures Pvt. Ltd, Pune-India,
  • Chetan Sharma, Animagic India Pvt Ltd Mumbai-India,
  • Saraswathi Balgam director, Rhythm & Hues Studios India,
  • Dheeraj Verma and Anand Gurnani, Animation Xpress India Private Ltd

See more details from ToI

Fees and Registration

The event will be held on 27th and 28th May, from 10am to 6pm, at Pride Hotel. The event is free and open for anybody to attend. To register contact Janaki 98230 55525 or Subh 98811 98988.

Call for Speakers: IndicThreads Conference on Mobile App Development – 2011

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Regular readers of PuneTech will know that we believe IndicThreads conducts the best vendor-neutral tech conferences in Pune, and hence we’re usually glad to promote the CFP for their conferences. Currently, the CFP for their Mobile Applications Development Conference (to be held in Pune on 19, 20 August 2011) is open and we would like to encourage our readers to submit proposals.

Since IndicThreads is a paid conference, PuneTech does not promote the conference itself on the PuneTech home page, but we’re happy to promote the call-for-speakers, since that is free, and it allows the selected speakers to attend the conference without having to pay. There are of course other benefits to being a speaker at one of these conferences – including increasing your visibility, becoming known as a domain expert, etc.

This CFP is soliciting speakers in the areas of mobile applications, mobile application platforms, frameworks, tools, testing, performance, security and in general anything interesting related to mobile applications.

The last date for submitting the proposal is 15th June, and right now, you only have to submit a short abstract of what you will be speaking about. So, it is as easy as just clicking here and writing one paragraph about whatever work you’ve been doing in the area of mobile app development recently. Just do it.

TiE Pune “My Story” Session with Kailash Katkar, CEO of Quickheal – 5 May

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TiE Pune presents a “My Story” session with Kailash Katkar, CEO and Founder of Quickheal, one of Pune’s major success stories in software products on 5th May, 6pm, at MCCIA, ICC Towers, SB Road.

About the speaker – Kailash Katkar

Kailash Katkar is the founder and CEO of Quickheal Technologies, India’s leading provider of Internet Security tools and is a leader in Anti-Virus Technology in India. Starting his career as a radio repair technician, Sanjay created Quickheal, a highly successful software prduct company from our very own Pune that had 09-10 revenue in excess of Rs 100 Cr.

In addition to hearing the jingles of Quickheal on FM radio, we have read about Quickheal recently when Sequoia Capital, leading VC investd Rs60 cr in Quick Heal some six months ago. Quick Heal Technologies has established Quick Heal product family as industry benchmark for computer security.

Quick Heal, an award winning security product is installed in corporate, small business and consumers’ homes protecting their computers from viruses and other malicious threats. Serving millions of users worldwide, Quick Heal Technologies employs more than 350 people in eighteen branch offices and is headquartered at Pune, India.

Quick Heal Technologies has firmly established its position in India and also operates through a network of dealers and channel partners in more than 50 countries worldwide.

About TiE Pune My Story

“My Story – Inspiring Journey of an Entrepreneur” This program is created to celebrate entrepreneurship and bring stories from successful entrepreneurs in their own words. The invited speakers will share their entrepreneurial journeys and talk about lessons learned, mistakes they wish they avoided, and key decisions that helped make their venture successful.

Fees and Registration

The event is on 5th May, from 6pm to 8pm, on the 5th Floor, MCCIA, ICC Towers, SB Road. This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here

Indian Product Managers Association Pune – First Meeting 29 April

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  • Are you a passionate Product Manager or Techie who wants to build great products?
  • Are you a Product Manager who wants to network with other professionals?
  • Are you looking to switch over into the exciting world of Product Management? Or simply want to learn the basics of the discipline of Product Management?

The Indian Tech world is full of people who understand services, and even product outsourcing. But the one big thing missing from the IT ecosystem here is the ability to visualize and build great products. And, if things go well for the Indian IT industry, then the most important trend of the next 10 years will be the rise of product companies out of India, and with that, the field of Product Management.

So, if you have any interest in this area, then the Pune Chapter of the Indian Product Managers Association, which is being launched this Friday is the place for you to be.

IPMA Pune Inaugural Event – Details

Vishwas Mahajan, Co-founder and Former CEO of Compulink and member of Senior Management at Glodyne, will inaugurate IPMA Pune Chapter and kick start the Monthly Speaker Series.

Mr. Mahajan will be speaking on: “Made in India .. for Global Markets”

About IPMA

India Product Management Association (IPMA) is a not for profit, grassroots organization. IPMA’s mission is to Foster product design and innovation and Catalyze product management talent in India. IPMA organizes monthly speaker series, workshops and more for professionals interested in product management and marketing. For more information about upcoming events, visit http://indiapma.org

Membership of the IPMA is free at this time.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend, but registration is required. The event will be on 29th April, from 4pm to 6pm, at BMC Software, Tower A, ICC Tech Park, SB Road.

TechWeekend #9 (#tw9): Game Development

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If you like programming, then you cannot miss TechWeekend. This month (actually, 10am tomorrow), we have TechWeekend 9 (#tw9) which will focus on Game Development.

A Programmers’ introduction to Game Development

By Girish Dhakephalkar, http://shoonyagames.com

An introduction to various elements involved in game development with a focus on programming. This talk would explain the structure of a game development team and how the roles fit into the overall plan. It will also explain the basic ideas and concepts related to game programming, including an overview of a game engine and its working. Lastly, it will highlight the kind of skill-sets required by someone who wants to make it as a game programmer.

Game Development using XNA

By Dhaval Faria.

Microsoft XNA is the game development framework (tools and runtime) used for building games for Xbox 360.

Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates computer game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing “repetitive boilerplate code” and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system.

2-D Game Development for WinPhone7 using Sliverlight

By Mayur Tendulkar.

Mini-Barcamp

We will have about 90 minutes for a session on whatever topics people in the audience feel like talking about. Ideally, we would like you to give a 10 minute lightning talk on a tech topic you’re really interested in (not necessarily game development). It would work best if you’ve prepared beforehand, but that is not a requirement.

About Techweekend

TechWeekend Pune is a volunteer run activity. TechWeekend talks are held on the 3rd Saturday of every month from 10am to 2pm at Sumant Moolgaonkar Auditorium, Ground Floor, ICC Trade Center, SB Road. Each TechWeekend event features 3 or 4 talks on advanced technical topics. These events are free for all to attend. See PuneTech articles about past techweekends to get an idea of the events.

Join the techweekend mailing list to keep in touch with the latest TechWeekend activities.

About the Sponsor – Microsoft

Many thanks to Microsoft for sponsoring the venue for Techweekend. Microsoft wants to get more closely involved with the tech community in Pune, and particularly the open source enthusiasts – with the intention of making everybody aware that their cloud technologies (like Azure) actually play well with open source, and that you can deploy your php applications, your drupal/joomla installs on Azure.

Fees and Registration

TechWeekend #9 happens tomorrow, Saturday 10am-2pm, at Sumant Moolgaokar Auditorium, Ground Floor, Wing A, MCCIA Trade Towers, ICC Complex, SB Road.

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

PuneChips Event: Advanced System Verilog Tips with Cliff Cummings – 19th April

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Abhijit Athavale writes:

SystemVerilog Guru Cliff Cummings is back in town and he will be holding another seminar on April 19th at MCCIA’s Sumant Moolgaokar Auditorium, ICC Towers, Senapati Bapat Road from 4:00pm to 7:30pm. Most recently, Cliff was here in November 2009 and this seminar gives a great opportunity for engineers to re-engage with him.

The topics covered will include:

  • New UVM 1.0 overview and comparison to OVM
  • Important OVM and UVM phasing
  • Secrets in mastering OVM and UVM
  • Graceful termination of tests in OVM and UVM with emphasis on the objection mechanism
  • Some of Cliff’s favorite SystemVerilog tips and tricks
  • Some early UVM techniques and best practices

This event is co-sponsored by Qlogic and Cadence who I must thank profusely on behalf of the PuneChips community. It is not very often that internationally renowned experts visit our city and hold free seminars, but QLogic and Cadence have made it possible. So, I encourage everyone who has any interest in SystemVerilog to attend and participate.

This event is completely free, but registration is required. Please visit this link to register and view the agenda.

Startup Strategy Discussions with Sramana Mitra – 17th April

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Sramana Mitra, a serial entrepreneur with 2 successful exits, consultant with over 80 companies, and the founder of the 1M/1M is in town this weekend and, in association with Persistent Systems, will hold an event that every entrepreneur should probably visit.

The 1M/1M initiative, was started with the goal of helping one million entrepreneurs reach $1 million in revenues and beyond. The event on Sunday will have Sramana Mitra’s keynote address discussing the 1M/1M Methodology: Bootstrapping, Positioning and Lean Startups, followed by the opportunity to ask questions. Then entrepreneurs can participate in a public strategy roundtable with Sramana to receive some real time coaching and answers to questions about their startup ventures. Up to seven entrepreneurs will be able to pitch their businesses to Sramana Mitra during this session.

The schedule for this program is as follows:

  • 2:00 -2:30 pm : Dr. Anand Deshpande introduces Sramana Mitra.
  • 2:30 -3:00 pm : Keynote Address by Sramana Mitra, topics : bootstrapping, positioning, lean startups.
  • 3:00 – 3:30 pm : Q&A on the keynote address.
  • 3:30 – 4:30 pm : Live Strategy Roundtable with Pune startups.
  • 4:30 – 5:00 pm : Q&A with audience/Sramana discussing the EJ Methodology
  • 5:00 – 6:00 pm : Networking

If you’d like to pitch, send Maureen (maureen@sramanamitra.com) an email.

1M/1M will be working with Microsoft in helping entrepreneurs prepare for the Microsoft Bizspark’s India Startup Challenge. Girish Joshi from Microsoft will be attending the roundtable and scouting companies with Sramana Mitra for the challenge.You can find more about the challenge here

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

Event: Knowledge Camp – 9th April

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There are 6 different tech/startup related events happening in Pune this Saturday (see PuneTech Calendar for details). Yesterday, we wrote about DevCamp which is being held in Thoughtworks. Today, we bring you information about Knowledge Camp, which is being held in I2IT. They are both very similar events, with the difference that DevCamp is more likely to be interesting to hard-core developers, while Knowledge Camp will be interesting to a more general audience.

Knowledge Kamp is the variant of BarCamp, which is a free event, and it is all about learning, knowledge and experience sharing. Knowledge Kamp is going to be a semi-organized un-conference where participants would discuss and share knowledge / ideas / suggestions about Emerging Technology, Software, Networking, Management, Innovation, Web, Opensource, Entrepreneurship, Social Cause etc. (just anything which gives knowledge…) by giving sessions, personal interaction and there will be pre-scheduled sessions by experts across industry.

Why?

  • To offer a platform to individuals for Sharing Knowledge / Ideas
  • Bridging the gap between student and industry (Interaction among students, industry professionals & professors)
  • Open Networking
  • Open Learning Experience
  • Building Community

Who can participate?

Anyone with something to Share or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to this Knowledge Kamp

Partial List of Speakers:

  • Self awareness a need for young minds – by Mr. Girish Kelkar , President , PMI pune chapter
  • Mind Programming – by Mr. Vikas Dikshit , NLP-Huna Expert
  • Session on Tips and tricks for interview by Mr. Rajeev Joshi , Delivery Manager, Tech Mahindra
  • Leadership and what it takes to a human being – by Dr. Mahesh Deshmukh , Certified Master Coach
  • Session on Cloud Computing by Mr. Dhirender Nirwani, IBM
  • Security In Social Networks – by Mr. Niranjan Reddy, Cyber Crime Expert – Pune Police
  • Session on LTE (4G) by Mr. Tridib Bhattacharjee, Chief Mentor, Astramind Consulting
  • Session on SAP by Mr. Madhu Iyer
  • Session on SOA & SM by Dr. Atanu Rakshit, I2IT

Details

Knowledge Camp will be on Saturday, 9th April 2011, from 9:00am to 5:30pm at International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT), Phase I, Hinjewadi.

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

For more details contact: Saumil 9579624150 or drop a mail to knowledgekamp@isquareit.ac.in