February 27, 2007

PodCast With Jimmy Wales

I had a conversation with Jimbo during his stay at my home. The main topics that are discussed are:
What does he feel about unconferences?
What is the difference betwee Wikipedia and Wikia?
Why is wikipedia difficult to use for newbies? Why not a WYSIWYG editor?
Why is wikipedia turning down money from advertising but yet asking for donations?
What are his India plans for Wikia?

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February 26, 2007

Hosting Jimbo 'Wikipedia' Wales !

Jimmy's flight into Chennai was to land at 12:50 AM on Sunday morning. At 12:30 am, I was still with the team getting things organized at the Tidel Park auditorium. We had been there since 6:00, previous evening. Work was going at a very strong pace. In a few hours, India's first Wiki Unconference would start.

At a little past 12:30, I plugged myself out and rushed over to the airport. I had to also drop two of my co-organizers at their homes which took me a bit longer.

After reaching the airport, I came in for a mild surprise. There were no flights coming in from the USA, leave alone Florida. The only flights that were scheduled to land was from Paris, London and Dubai. It was then I realized, I didn't have any information about Jimmy's flight. I didn't know where he was flying in from. I didn't know what flight he was taking. The only information that I had was that he would be landing at 12:50 a.m. And the only flight scheduled at that time was a British Airways flight from London.

I didn't have his contact number. I wasn't sure if he had my number either. No choice but to patiently wait. After watching hundreds of folks walk through the arrival gate, the man finally walked out. My sigh of relief was evident in the wave I waved my hands out. Jimbo instantly recognized me.

The first thing that struck me was how light he was travelling. After having gotten used to seeing us Indians lug massive luggage by, it was strange to see him come with just two small bags. And one obviously filled with his Mac and his SLR camera.

We boarded my car and headed home. I stopped mid way, called my wife to let her know we were on our way. We reached home at 2:00 AM and was pleasantly surprised to see my little daughter wide awake and even more surprised to see the welcome message. I was half expecting my wife to take the traditional 'Aarathi' but she surprised us with this kolam..





Jimbo was quite impressed. The kolam above says 'Welcome Jimmy'.





Jimbo wasn't feeling well. The 20 hour flight from Florida, via London, to Chennai took a toll. He was suffering from a nagging cold and an ever worse cough. I knew it was best for him to hit the sack early. After all, there was only about 4 more hours to wake up again. I showed him the room where he would be staying. I was impressed as well. The room was tidied up well. The Air-conditioner was already switched on half hour ago. For Jimbo, it was a relief. A few customary snaps with my daughters later, he crashed.

I set my alarm at 5:30 am, knowing that we need to get ready and leave for Tidel Park early. When I woke up in the morning, I was shocked to see that not only was Jimbo awake, he had taken his bath, dressed up and hard at work. He is a true workaholic.



I had earlier planned to do a podcast with Jimbo for The Kiruba Show. I knew that once he reaches the venue, he would get mobbed. Even more important was the need for a quiet place. I wasn't letting go of this opportunity. Jimbo, of course, enthusiastically agreed. The conversation was free flowing and I had lots to ask Jimbo and he had lots to say too. ... which explains why we overshot the podcast duration by twice the time. I usually restrict all my podcasts to around 10 minutes but this podcast clocked at 22 minutes. It would have easily gone for an hour if I didn't consciously pull the plug.



The front page article by Karthik Subramaniam gave WikiCamp a lot of exposure. It made my day too. It's not too often that you get to see your name on the front page of a national newspaper. And that too, right besides Jimmy Wales. Karthik is one of the journalists that I hold in high esteem. We had a conversation a day earlier and he had come to know about WikiCamp only that day. He strongly felt that Wikipedia founder's visit deserved better exposure. Well, one can't do better than the front page.

After having breakfast (omlette and orange juice), we headed out to Tidel Park to attend India's first unconference on wikis.

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February 24, 2007

The Making of WikiCamp - The Slog Overs













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February 23, 2007

Announcing the Launch of a Book Project, Authored Entirely on a Wiki




This is probably the most challenging and definitely the most interesting project we have ever undertaken. And I can't tell you how thrilled we are to announce this.

So what is this book about? The book is about 'Unconferences'. Well, what is it? Think of BarCamps, FOOcamp, BlogCamps, BloggerCons and yeah, WikiCamp. Well, these events believe that the collective intelligence of the audience is far greater than that of the speaker. So, instead of just the speaker talking, the crowd is encouraged to participate in the discussion. Ask anyone who has attended any unconference and they'll tell you that its far more fun than any straight jacket conference.

So, why is this book so special? This book will be one of the world's first on this subject. No, I'm not kidding. If Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, O'Reilly, Powells, Oxford Book Store don't have it, its just not there. In fact, search for 'unconfernce book' on google and see what you get.

That's nothing. The most special feature is that this book will be authored collaboratively by people worldwide. These are people who have helped organize or attended unconferences around the world. And at last count, there were in excess of a hundred unconferences that took place worldwide.

The best part is that this book will be openly written on a wiki. It follows the same spirit of the unconference, where every one pitches in to help. This means that you can participate in this book. If you have attended either a normal conference or an unconference, you can chip in.

This is an open book. It's for all to see. You can actually witness the progress of the book week by week, day by day. Of course, there will be chaos out there. There will be confusion. Heck, It wouldn't be an unconference book without that. Unconferences thrive on chaos. But just like the successful events we have helped conduct, things magically fall into place. And guess what, its a far superior product and we all have good fun doing it.

I've always thought that book writing is a long, lonely, forlorn process. This is going to be diametrically opposite. Why do I sound so confident? Here's why. Yesterday night at about 9:00 in the night, a person came up with an idea of making a small booklet on Wiki for beginners to be handed out to the participants of Wikicamp. By 12 midnight, the contents were ready, by about 3:00 early morning, the booklet was edited, by 5:00 am the layout was ready, by 6:00 daybreak the book had hit the printers and by noon today, the booklet has been published. Yup, in a little over half a day, a wonderful 20 page booklet got done. And who made this happen? A team of about a dozen folks who collaborated, collated and contributed on this wiki.

If a booklet can be ready in half a day, then a book can certainly be gotten ready in 6 months time. Yup, the book will hit the book stands on September 8th, 2007.

Within just a few days of letting out the news of this book project, we have a editor who have volunteered to help with editing, we have designers who have volunteered to help design book covers, we have at least three consultants who have helped publish international books give us guidance, a book layout professional who wants to chip in with his contribution. My wife volunteered and helped design the entire site, customize the wikis and the blog. All these within just a few days of spreading the idea.

Everyone knows that this is a niche book and it will never get anywhere near a bestseller. This will never make any money. But the satisfaction of being part of a team, the joy of learning the book writing process and the pride of seeing one's name as a co-author is just so invaluable.

This is an open book. You can be part of this book writing process. You are welcome to add, edit, discuss, or plain simple criticize. You can write a chapter or just a para or just a line. It's completely up to you. If you aren't into writing, you can help with proof reading, editing, research, marketing... the opportunities are amazing. Everyone who contributes will have their name mentioned in the book. If you are interested, join up the mailing list.

Take a look at www.Unconference.info

This book project will be kickstarted by Jimmy Wales at WikiCamp on Sunday, 25th Feb. Yes, Jimmy is part of this project.

Remember. This is your book. This is our book. Let's go have fun.

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Why Rs.99 Extra for WiFi is an Awesome Investment

I'm writing this post, sitting on my bed, propped by three pillows. What's the word?.... hmm.. yeah, ensconced. It's just way more comfortable than sitting on a chair and typing into a desktop.

Last evening, my two pesky kids and their raucously noisy friends invaded my room promptly interrupting a business proposal that I was writing. What did I do? Went to the other room, locked myself in and continued with my work.

I love open air. There's something about the terrace that makes you feel fresh. I think better when I walk. So, if I have to brainstorm an idea I go to my terrace and do my bit of thinking. But then I also need to do a bit of googling to augment some of the ideas. No sweat. My laptop is on hand.

OK, enough case studies.

The decision to WiFi my home about two years ago is one of the best I've taken. It has unchained me from the desktop and given me the freedom of movement. You think, in a small house, that hardly matters. Oh, you are so wrong.

I'll be honest. The decision to WiFi my place was based on the 'coolness' factor. Nobody I know did it and felt good to be one of the first. Kinda makes you feel you are on the 'cutting edge'...errr.. whatever that means. But what started out as a 'fancy extra fitting' turned out to be one of the most practically useful additions. Now, I'd be heavily hamstrung without a laptop or the WiFi.

And how much does it cost me? Just 99 rupees extra every month. Yup, there's a small down payment for the router but that's refundable. And what's more, any problem that I have, all it takes is one phone call and a few hours wait to get it solved. The Airtel engineers have been pretty prompt.

With all such advantages, I'm surprised that so many folks who have broadband and laptops at home just aren't taking that one small step to WiFi their home.

Its just Rs.99. If you haven't considered it before, I strongly urge you to give it a go.

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February 21, 2007

Wikicamp is just two days away.



I can already get the feelers that its going to be a great event. As expected, the event is already sold out. We've got participants from 15 different cities and towns. It's awesome to see the diversity in the crowd and I'm personally looking forward to meeting up with some really cool people. WikiCamp takes place this Sunday, Feb 25th.

We've got very interesting topics and more will come out on the day of the event. Actually, this is a sad part for me. The downside of being active on the organizing means that I miss out on some cool sessions and not spending quality time meeting up with people I want to meet with. Guess, that's a small compromise one will have to do.

This event is an unconference and will thrive on chaos. I prefer calling it organized chaos. It's almost magical how things fall into place.

It's also very heartening to note that many Chennai folks have opened up their homes for outstation participants to come crash at their place. It really goes well with the spirit of the unconference.

Jimmy Wales will be crashing at my place for two nights. My parents and wife, ofcourse, are thrilled. No, not because he is a celebrity. Heck, they didn't even know he is the founder of Wikipedia. They are thrilled because they know I will clean up the bedrooms. The last time NDTV came home to do a coverage, I cleaned up the hall. Now, they know the rooms will get taken care of.

Oh well!

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February 20, 2007

Got Questions on WiMax?

Tomorrow, I'm meeting up with Bhaskar Sayyaparaju, the CTO of Sify, to do a podcast interview with him for my show. The topic is going to be on WiMax. The timing is perfect because, yesterday, Sify launched WiMax services in 200 cities across India.

If you have any questions you would like to ask about WiMax, Sify's CTO is one of the best to ask. Please drop your questions in the comments box or mail me at kiruba @ kiruba.com. I'll ask him on your behalf. Make sure to leave your name. Thanks.

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February 19, 2007

Visiting Prabhu at the Hospital

After his operation, I finally got to visit Prabhu at the hospital this evening. The hospital staff would let in only two people in the morning and two in the evening during the half hour 'visitor hours' time. I had to wait my turn after all the relatives are done.



When I went in, Prabhu was awake and in good conscious state. Usually, he would be in a drowsy state because of all the medications.

I was not sure whether photography within the critical care unit was allowed and so checked with the 'sister'. I told her that there are many people who have helped financially and there are many more who are interested in seeing Prabhu. She immediately gave permission. That's her checking Prabhu when he complained that he has chest pain while talking.



Prabhu's left cheek had been scraped from the fall but is healing fast. He is still not able to freely turn around because of injury to his neck and the spinal cord. During operation, the doctors have strengthened the spinal cord with a steel rod to give it support.

I leaned toward Prabhu's ears and told him of all the financial support that we were able to collect to meet his hospital expenses. He wanted to convey his thanks to all (and as he spoke these words, his eyes began to well up). The 'sister', seeing his tears immediately asked me to step aside and told me that if be begins to cry or weep, he might develop cold and cough. And if he coughs, it would be terribly hurting for him. I didn't bring up the topic again.



Prabhu's legs have heavy bandage around his knees. He still has no sensation below his hips. After about four to five days, he may be shifted to CMC Vellore for further treatment on doctor's recommendation. I'm told that the physiotherapy dept is one of the best around.

Prabhu's room has been changed to Room# 23 in the critical care unit of Apollo Hospital.

I will continue the update on Prabhu's health at the wiki.

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The Amazing Act of Kindness of SRM College Students

The students of SRM Engineering college have helped collect over one lakh rupees towards Prabhu's hospital expenses. Towards the end of this post, I'll tell you why this act of kindness is so special.



In this picture, Shailendra, a student representative from SRM Engg college hands over the contributions cheque to Prabhu's parents. Let me hasten to add that it was very awkward for me to ask request them for a photograph. I had to do it. It was important to let others know of the tremendous help that students are doing.



And here's why this help is so very special. None of the students from SRM know about Prabhu. They have never seem him much like most of you. Prabhu is a student of Mohd.Sadak Engineering college. The SRM guys will only know how Prabhu looks like when I mail them the photographs.

A couple of student voluneteers from Mohd.Sadak had gone to SRM and requested their friends out there to help. A few compassionate students from SRM took up this task and spread the word around the campus and helped collect Rs.1.03 lakhs. Notice carefully that the cheque has been drawn in the name of Apollo Hospitals to make sure that the money goes only for the hospital expenses. They also gave Rs.5000 in cash knowing that the parents might need cash for other expenses.

I had goosebumps. I was amazed at the maturity of the students.

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February 18, 2007

Turning Adversity into an Advantage

We all have a lot to learn from Alexis Leon. He's the guy who has grabbed life from the jaws of death.

In 1993, Alexis, who was then working as systems analyst at TCS, met with a road accident that left him crippled for life. Doctors told him that he can't walk in his life. This accident happened three weeks before his marriage and a month before he was to fly to Switzerland.

Today, he is a popular author of 41 technical books and runs his own successful consulting firm. He turned a life crippling disaster into an advantage.

Alexis explains his whole story in his own words. A moving and an inspiring story. I strongly recommend you go read it.

Eight years ago, I met him in person at his home to seek his help in authoring a book. I picked up his phone number from one of his books I was browing at Higginbothams, called him up and fixed an appointment to meet him. When I went to his home, I was shocked to see a wheel chair bound person in front of me. We spent a long time discussing about a book that I never got to publish.

Time passed by and I completely forgot about him until a person left a comment pointing to his website. I got to read his life story and was really moved.

I'm going to read out Alexis' story to Prabhu, the boy who met with a near similar life crippling fate. Alexis has shown that when adversity stares at you, the best way to do is show your middle finger and live life to the fullest.

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February 16, 2007

We Have Made a Difference

Together, we have helped collect Rs.1.9 lakhs for a boy who really needed help. That's 839% more than what we originally planned to collect. Its a major help for the boy's parents who faced a financial black hole. We have helped cover one fifth of the estimated hospital expenses. A true help in need.

The fund raiser has ended and the money has already helped meet some of the hospital expenses. Updates on Prabhu's health will continue at the wiki.

On behalf of Prabhu's family, a heartfelt thanks to each one of you who have stepped forward to help. Thank you for offering hope.

Thank you to those who helped spread the word by posting on your blogs, sending out emails and telling your friends.

Thank you to those who left initial comments and emails to help. You made this simple blog post change into a powerful fundraiser.

Thank you for bestowing trust in humanity. You didn't know Prabhu. You didn't know his parents. And most of you didn't know me. That's why this help is so special.

Thank you. From our hearts.

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Prabhu's Operation a Failure

(If you are new here, please click here and scroll down to read about Prabhu and how we are trying to help him)

Prabhu's operation got over at 2:30 pm this afternoon. After a three and half hour operation, the doctors have given up. They were unable to repair the nerves that were severely squashed by the compression of the spinal chord bones. The doctors didn't mince any words. Prabhu will be wheel chair bound for the rest of his life.

On the brighter side, he won't be a living vegetable. His brain is active. The internal bleeding will soon subside. As part of post-operative procedure, the hospital will provide him physiotherapy and psychotherapy. For a 18 year old boy to know that he can't walk for the rest of his life can be difficult to swallow. Thankfully, there are professionals to help.

I was meaning to visit the hospital today evening but the hospital staff won't allow any visitors for today. Tomorrow will be doubtful too. Many of you have mailed in to see photos of Prabhu. That's very understandable. I will try my best to get one. At the Critical Care Unit, there are restrictions but will try to get one when I get there.

I have been updating the HelpPrabhu Wiki on the progress of Prabhu's health. I will continue to update the wiki as I slowly move away to other topics on this blog. There are many who have graciously offered support and its my duty to keep all informed about the person they helped.




The fund raising will close tomorrow morning. That'll help in withdrawing the money and handing it over to the person who has helped loan the money to the parents. The parents still stare at a hefty hospital bill which is beyond their means. Prabhu's collegemates have helped collect Rs. 1.46 lakhs. We have helped raise Rs. 1.13 lakhs. Prabhu's relatives have helped collect around Rs.2 lakhs. In total, that's a collection of Rs.4.6 lakhs. That's still around another Rs.4 lakhs needed to meet the hospital expenditure of Rs.8.5 lakhs. We may never fill in the gap but atleast we can try reducing it a little. Any small help will be appreciated.

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February 15, 2007

'Thank You' Just Doesn't Do

To everyone who had helped with money and sent in words of support, thank you very much. It's a help in need.

You also put me to shame. The day after the accident happened, I consciously told myself that I will not post on my blog asking for donations. Why? Because I did not want to sound like a deposed Nigerian Army General or the Ugandan millionaire. Those scam mails have taken the trust out of Internet.

To me, helping with donating blood, making the customary visits to hospital and offering moral support sounded good enough. Until the comments and email came in with offers to help that truly made me put my face down in shame. And I admit that in front of you. I could have done much more than I did. Thank you for correcting my narrow mindedness.

When this fund raising initiative was started, I told the boy's sister not to mention about this to the parents. Why? Because, I wasn't sure we will collect enough. I didn't want them to have an expectation and then let them down.

When I woke up this morning and opened up this page, I was astonished to see the generosity of people. Thank you for lending your support to a boy you don't even know. To see more than Rs.1 lakh collected in less than a day is a humbling gesture of kindness.

The money lies in Prema's (the boy's cousin sister) PayPal account. Since it takes about 20 days for the money to be withdrawn in India, one of the person known to Prema has offered to loan out the money until the paypal money reaches India.

The money couldn't have come in at a better time. Prabhu's operation has been fixed for today afternoon. The doctors have said the operation might take upto four hours. I will update the progress of his health and all fund raising initiatives at the wiki ( http://HelpPrabhu.pbwiki.com )



People have sent in requests to keep the ChipIn account open. They have taken the effort to mail their office colleagues, friends in their clubs and alumni network. Amazing.

The total hospital expenditure will run to Rs.8.5 lakhs ($19,000). We have collected over Rs.1 lakh ($2120). If you can, please chipin a little. Evey small amount we collect will help the boy and his parents.

Thanks once again to everyone who generously helped with money, sent in words of support, offered prayers and helped spread the word around. You proved that there is hope in times of darkness.

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February 14, 2007

The Kindness Towards an Absolute Stranger

I'm amazed and I'm touched by the compassion and kindness that people show towards someone who they have never seen, never met and never spoken to.

When I wrote about my neighbour's tragic accident, many nice people left words of comfort and offers to help.

I'll say it again. I'm amazed and I'm touched.

Thank you guys. You have no idea what difference you made to the morale of the boy's parents, friends and relatives . You think you just left a comment or sent an email, but it truly made a differenece to folks here. At a time when the parents and friends were so down psychologically, this act of kindness from people whom they don't even know, offered them solace.

And, you didn't even know the boy's name. Yet, you offered to help.

The boy's name is Prabhu. Prabhakaran is his full name. I went to Apollo Hospital to take a look at him. He has been shifted from Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to Critical Care Unit (CCU), the highest care unit. While walking in, I met a familiar person... a distant relative of mine is in charge of CCU as anaesthetist. She told me about the Prabhu's condition. The fall from the 3rd floor building has crushed his spinal cord. This has squashed his nerves which has made him limp from waist below. They need to perform an operation but they can't.

His ribs have cracked and the broken rib bones have punctured both his lungs. Because of this, blood has started accumulating in his lungs. This is a heart-wrenchingly gruesome scene. They use a mechanized motor to suck out blood from his lungs and it keeps filling up a large can below. Only when this bleeding stops can they perform the operation.

There's bright side to this. His hands and legs have not got fractured as we originally thought to be. He has bruises but no fractures. And even better news is that he has gained consciousness and started to speak slowly.

Funnily, the first thing he asked after he gained consciousness was to meet his class teacher and college principal so that he can ask for notes of the classes he has missed. Little did he know that it would take him a year to recover.

And even if he recovers, the doctors have said he may never be able to walk again. For the rest of his life.

That's tragic. Relatives and friends haven't told this to his mother yet. She would get even more hysterical.

I saw extreme acts of kindness. His college friends have gone around and collected nearly Rs. 1 lakh, all personal contributions from college mates. Sudhakar, a childhood friend, had contact his own circle of friends and arranged for eight units of O+ve blood which would be needed for the operation.

I also saw dark side of things. The ugly business world of hospitals. As soon as the accident happened, the students rushed Prabhu and his other injured friend to Govt General Hospital. They said that there is a waiting period of 10 days because of pending operations. 10 days?!! This boy didn't look like he would survive 10 hours.

One of the GH doctors gave reference to Apollo hospital and said it might cost 1 lakh rupees. His friends contacted Apollo and asked for an estimated costs. Based on oral description of the case, the hospital gave an estimate of Rs. 3 lakhs. This was steep money for the family but they didn't have a choice really. The rushed him over and admitted him. Three days later, the estimate was increased to Rs.7 lakhs. Yesterday, the estimate was again revised to Rs.8.5 lakhs. I have a strong suspicion it may not end here. For his parents, who run an STD booth to survive, this is a double blow. Now, they don't know which to worry more about. Their son (who may never walk again) or this huge financial shock.

I'm not blaming the hospital. I have very high regards for Apollo. The hospital has saved my cousin and uncle from the grasp of death. Their care and treatment is undoubtedly high class. Unfortunately, so is their cost.

I went up to Prabhu's cousin sister and told her about your offer to help financially. She broached the topic with Prabhu's parents. For them, this is an awkward situation. They have never really had to take in money from others before. The fact is they are extremely stretched financially. They will be grateful for any help they can get at this stage.

For those of you who have offered to help, please do help the parents out. Thanks to Nag's suggestion, I have created a donation page at ChipIn.com . Please note that while I'm helping set up the account, all funds go directly to Prema, the boy's cousin sister's account.



For those in India who might want to donate in Indian rupees, here is the Prabhu's Mother's bank account.

Name: A.Indira Gandhi
Account No: 500061191
Bank: Indian Bank
Branch: Tirupattur

Please note that this is purely voluntary. Do not feel obligated to help. Help only if you can. Any small help is appreciated.

Prabhu is at CCU Bed # 46 at Apollo Hospital. His mobile phone is currently with his parents or with the person who is taking the shift to stay at the hospital. The number is 94862 39694. The boy's father's name is Ravi Chandran and mother's name is Indra. His cousin sister Prema's mobile number is 98417 37722.

I have helped collect funds before, during the Tsunami but never for an individual. Personally, I'm not so much for collecting funds via my blog. But after seeing so much requests to help, I would be doing an injustice to both Prabhu and his parents if I did not help.

If you have helped raise funds before, please offer your advise and suggestions. Thank you.

P.S: I have set up a Wiki to update the progress on Prabhu's health. It's at http://HelpPrabhu.pbwiki.com There isn't much right now but will add info on it soon.

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February 13, 2007

Creating Buzz in the Blogosphere

I received a call from Reliance asking for suggestions on how to create a buzz about a product that they have just launched. I told him I'd reply back via email and I'm producing that out here. Why? Because I definitely think its not complete. Not all may be right. And the only way to know is to throw it in the open and hear from you guys.

Here are my views.

1) Make the blogger feel special. Give him/her access to areas where others haven't gotten yet. For example, Microsoft gave the usergroup members access to the pre-release alpha release of Vista nearly 6 months ago. They felt special. They even contributed by giving feedback about the product which helped.

2) Make a personal contact with the bloggers. See if you can organize a meet in each city where you get to meet up with the bloggers in person. Nothing like a personal handshake.

3) Never, I repeat, NEVER, make the blogger feel he is being used as a marketing tool for your product launch. At most times, it backfires. With bad consequences. I know that this entire exercise is a marketing effort but please do not make it look explicit. Stike up a honest conversation shorn of any sweet talk.

4) Disclaimer and transparency is important. If bloggers do write about your product, expect them to add disclaimer that you have contacted them. Transparency is good.

5) Remember that bloggers will be critical. They will write their honest opinion. This means both good and bad. You must take them equally. Do not expect bloggers to write only the good stuff.

Now, what suggestions would you give if a company got in touch with you?

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February 11, 2007

The Diversity at WikiCamp

As I type this, we have over a hundred participants registered for WikiCamp. I'm not surprised. All, yes, ALL the events that we have organized earlier (BarCampChennai, BlogCamp, Proto.in) have had excellent participation. And in all the events, we had to close the registration because we hit maximum capacity. With 12 days to go, WikiCamp looks headed the same way too.

What really surprised me is the diversity fo the participants. I had expected a very geeky crowd but take a look at the type of people we have.. Cardiac Surgeon, Student, Marketing Head, CEO, Advertising Executive, Software engineer, Entrepreneur, Writer, Wikipedian, Public Relations Executive, Sales Head, Motivational Trainer, Academic Researcher...

It's this diversity that adds richness to the event.

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Seen Life Crashing Down?

It's cruel how life can completely change. Here's the true life incident of my neighbour that took place on Saturday. Imagine this, there's this bright bubbly guy who just got into engineering college. His lower middle class parents have scraped the bottom of their life savings to fund his education. It looked like any other guy's story, the boy would pass out of college, get a job in a software company and support his parents and help close out all the loans. Unfortunately, life took a different path.

The boy and his friends were on their hostel terrace, three floors high. While playing around, one of his friends tripped over the side wall, and while trying to hold on to anything to keep him from falling, he unfortunatley grabbed his friend's shirt. So, both the boys crashed to the ground below. Luckily, both the guys survived but with terrible consquences. Half my neighbour's ribs are broken, heavy internal bleeding, hands and legs fractured and he's become limp waist down. I hear the other kid is serious too.

What really tugged my heart strings were his parent's reaction when the doctor said that the hospital expenses would amount to Rs.7 lakhs, twice what they had paid for his engineering. Without blinking an eyelid, they decided to sell of their modest house. For them, their only son is everything.

And, today is the boy's birthday. Life.... can be cruel.

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February 08, 2007

How Does Wikipedia Survive Financially?

Now, that's the question that I'm definitely going to ask Jimmy Wales when he comes down to Chennai to attend WikiCamp. Especially after Robert Scoble pointed to this rather shocking speech by Florence, Chairwoman of the Wikimedia foundation. I quote Florence..

"At this point, Wikipedia has the financial ressources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear"

And I thought Wikipedia just raised a million dollars in donation for its 6th birthday. I recently saw a video of Jimmy Wales talking at TED conference where he says the cost of running servers is about $5000 a month.

Now, the mathematics does not add up.

Jimmy Wales is the best person to answer.

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February 06, 2007

Is This Really The Land of The Free?

What? Since when did consensual sex become a crime in the US? Since when did a blowjob become "an inappropriate sexual act"? According to a law in the state of Georgia, teenagers having oral sex can get one year of imprisonment. Before July 1st 2006, it entitled 11 years of imprisonment.. Eleven years!! Unbelievable.

I pity this poor chap.

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"I hacked ur password"



Sometimes, you need mild shocks like the message above to remind you to constantly change your passwords. Yeah, all my scraps are gone but the account is intact. Thankfully, he is a good acquaintance and didn't mean harm.

There's a lesson in here. If my Orkut account can get hacked, so could yours. So, go around and rejig your passwords. Not just at Orkut. Your emails. Your online bank accounts. The works.

Update: This is slightly embarrasing to admit. I got pulled. It's a prank. Apparently, a very old one at that! Sigh! Ok, for those wanting to know, this is how it works. Enter a scrap with the dreaded message and keep pressing 'enter' button until you get a page full of nothing. Voila! The trap is set. Neat, actually!

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February 05, 2007

5 Things That You Did Not Know About Me

Amongst all the memes floating around, I find this the most interesting. I've been tagged and so here goes.

1) I took up fencing classes three years ago. Was fascinated with this sport. Bought the expensive sabre, metal masks, clothing, special shoes. Paid for the classes. And, promptly didn't attend.

2) I volunteered as a waiter for 6 months at a restaurant called 'Annalakshmi'. I also washed dishes, swabbed floors and polished cutlery. I worked for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. I did not get paid but I earned much more. I learnt what dignity of labour meant.

3) I would walk 5 kms from office to home everyday for the first 5 years. For the next 5 years, I cycled 20 kms from home to office and back.

4) I have fallen into the Adyar river, which is as dirty as the Coovum. It wasn't during rowing, though. We jumped into the river at a celebratory event the day after we won the 5th consecutive rowing championship. In case you wanted to know, the water tasted a bit salty.

5) I wanted to know what it is to live without money in the city. So, I took bath at Central station, survived on prasadam at Kapaleshwarar temple at Mylapore and slept the night on the pavement of Whites Road at Royapettah. Wanted to do this for two days but gave up after the first day.

It'd be nice if the meme continued. Please consider yourself tagged.

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WikiCamp Moves Into a New Space

The new abode is http://www.WikiCamp.in

You can register for the event here.

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February 03, 2007

www.KirubaShow.com

I just completed 25 episodes for 'The Kiruba Show'. Not bad. That's a quarter of a century.

So, in a sort of a mini-celebration, I gifted it its own domain name. Actually, that's just half the truth. The actual URL of the show is way too long. Try remembering this.. http://www.podtech.net/indiatech/author/kirubas/ . Yeoww, thatsanunforgivablybloodylongone.

For those of you new here, 'The Kiruba Show' is where I get to interview key people in the Indian IT industry from the Software, Mobile, Internet and the Venture Capital space. Most of the folks I interview are CEOs or top management folks.

If you know of someone interesting who deserves to be interviewed, please do let me know at Kiruba[@]Kiruba.com or leave a comment below.

Here's a request. When you get the time, could you please listen to a few shows and let me know your frank opinion. I'm particularly interested in what you did not like and areas that need improvement. You can be brutally honest.

Here are a couple of recent interviews I'll recommend. Listen to Sridhar Iyengar, ex-chairman and CEO of KPMG India. He's been with them for 34 long years, mainly incharge of starting new businesses. He's now an investor and sits on the boards of Infosys, ICICI, OnMobile and Rediff!

And there's Pravin Gandhi who founded one of India's first software companies, Hinditron. He successfully sold this to Digital Eqiupment Corp (which was later bought by Hewlett Packard) and made an enviable amount of money. He now plays the role of angel investor and has co-founded SeedFund. Recently, it got infusion of funds from the likes of Google and Sierra Ventures. Listen to Pravin Gandhi.

These will give you an inkling of what the show is about. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

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Figuring Out a Logo for WikiCamp

We wanted a logo for Wikicamp. It quickly struck us that this is a collaborative event and so asked folks to help us out. Sure enough, some real nice guys posted their creatives on the wiki. You can find more at the logos page.







Logo designs by Siddhi, Dinesh, Adel and Paras

If you are interested in helping out with a design, that'd be great. You can add them directly to the wiki. Thanks in advance.

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February 01, 2007

Announcing WikiCamp - India's First Unconference on Wikis

The event will take place at Tidel Park, Chennai on Feb 25th. Yup, in another three weeks time.

The main crux of the event is in harnessing the wisom of crowds about the power of wikis and collective collaboration. Wiki is an extremely powerful tool but highly under-utilized and worse,less understood.

This event aims to bring the best minds in technology to come share their knowledge on Wikis. This is an unconference... this means even you can come present and share your learnings. The focus is clearly on learning and knowledge sharing.

A quick note about an unconference. There is no passive audience. Every one is a participant. This means that you will have to speak or help with organizing the event or live blog, photo blog or video blog the event. This is OUR event and everyone chips in.

If you are game, do add your name to the wiki participants list. We have limited seats and with our experience with other unconferences earlier, they tend to fill up very fast. To help meet the expenses of venue, lunch and other logistics, everyone chips in with a door donation of Rs.200.

So, how did the idea for a WikiCamp come about?



Well, the seeds were sown in August 2006 when a bunch of us had a meeting with Jimmy Wales in Bangalore. You can read my account here. During the meet, I told Jimbo (that's how he is affectionately called) of the fantastic unconference events we have had in India and how the tech community is very active. We bounced an idea of having a wikicamp and Jimbo immediately latched on to it. He said that he'd definitely be interested in attending and sure enough, he has kept his word. He will be attending WikiCamp. That's like having Infosys' Narayanmurthy at an entrepreneurship conference.

Who is organizing this event? Well, everyone is. Unconference, remember?! However, there's always the core group that makes it happen. And that group is The Knowledge Foundation, a non-profit group that has passionate and enthusistic folks who earlier helped organize BarCamp Chennai, BlogCamp and Proto.in.

If you are interested, please add yourself to this wiki http://wikicampindia.pbwiki.com .

Here's more photos of the Wikipedian meet with Jimmy Wales. Ram Krsna's photos and Kalyan Varma's photos.

Update: The blogosphere is already abuzz. Read Vijay Anand's and Ravi's blog.

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Podcast with Kanwal Rekhi, The Founding Father of TiE



While at the TIE Entrepreneurial Summit, the guy who sat next to me was the venerable Kanwal Rekhi. Out there, he was treated like a cult hero. You know the kind who just just steps on the stage and the crowd goes boisterous with applause. Kanwal is the venerage sage of entrepreneurship. He made a fortune selling his startup to Novell and went on to become its VP and CTO. Now he helps guide startups and has become an ambassador for Indian entrepreneurship.

He has a very fascinating story. You should definitely read this very nicely written bio of his. Fascinating.

We plugged off from the event briefly and holed up at the media room to record a podcast. He talks about the birth of TiE and how it grew to become the biggest organization for entrepreneurship.

Listen in.

P.S: Just like YouTube, you can embed this podcast on your blog too. Click on the 'share' button.

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