Hi all,

Yes, we have come to the end of yet another BarCampBangalore, and I guess I’ve done a lot less of live blogging for BCB6 than I did for BCB5 (reasons include lack of enthusiasm, lesser participation, less quality sessions and so on and so forth). I’m doubtful about how enriching it was. It was indeed a nice way to socialise, and meet up with many like minded people.

But I believe it could have been a lot better.

My apologies to non BCB readers, whom I’m going to confuse using BCB jargon.

Here’s my roll up of the event…

• Sessions weren’t as illuminative as in BCB5.
• Sessions were not at all productive.
• Audience was distributed, with quality additions being distracted by non-purposeful non-tech sessions.
• Participation was less, and though some opine that it is better, I believe that BCB6 participation was way below the quorum for such an event. A lot of brainage was missing.
• Everyone were less enthusiastic about the sessions and the event, leading to general lack of enthusiasm. Even the bloggers were bored (which means a lot!) and very many people were seen sitting idly staring into nothingless.
• Proper, would-be-productive sessions were effectively thwarted by lack of interested brains.
• This prompted the session proposers from not organising the sessions.
• General mood itself was extremely negative. The only people who felt sort-of good where the first timers. All of the not-first-timers agreed that BCB6 fell short of the usual BarCamp atmospheres, except for a few extremely optimist souls.
• Bad means of communication.
• Very many people were trying to be politically correct - which is not required in an unconference. If there’s something wrong, we need to SAY that there is something wrong, face it, and attempt to find a way to sort it. What happened in BCB6, even in the feedback session, is that everyone was trying to be politically correct - not realising that negative progressive feedback was extremely necessary!

So what could be improved upon? Here are a few thoughts to ponder upon -

• Did the more number of non-technical and light hearted sessions lead to a general degeneration of the usually techie-brainy-productive atmosphere? I was very much critical of this notion when it was presented in the first day’s feedback session, but I realise that this has some value. Session after session of light hearted content indeed thwarted the interest for techie-sessions. Nobody would want to attempt to think productively for a notion, when there’s another parallel light hearted “kamasutra” session going on. Not that I don’t support these light hearted sessions - I’m all for them - but do they need to be segregated, or at least their ratio reduced, to preserve the productive atmosphere?
• Should these light hearted sessions kept for the evening?
• Should the camp actually have a camp? Code/blog/discuss through the night?
• Do we try to go out of the traditional BarCamp way and try to increase participation by publicity? By inviting people to attend, publicising the concept in colleges, press publicity etc. Of course, with limited censorship - we don’t tell them about the freebies .
• Do we increase materialistic rewards aimed to increase enthusiasm? For example, more stickers, public ice breakers, sell/publicise yourself during idle times, small contests with non-directly-materialistic prizes (like publicity for the website through a projector) and mentions of effort takers through BarCamp media such as the mailing list, SMSes etc.
• Shouldn’t the forum be functioning? It acts as a better, and long lasting, method of communication.
• As someone has already suggested, a projection of the BarCampBangalore Twitter screen could tremendously help to choose sessions. A better SMS system, with more people SMSing in can also work wonders.
• If someone (bloggers :P) could do proper live-blogging (using tools like CoverItLive) is each session, it could prove as invaluable archives! And a person who missed the session can always catch up on what happened during the sessions. Someone suggested that we capture all sessions on video - but that’s like a lot of work, and I don’t think we’ll have many volunteers for that :P. It involves capturing, editing, rendering and uploading video. A huge process.
• The Collective idea could be brought back - in a better manner. During the wiki registrations, we can ask the people to register their name under the collective(s) they want to attend, and possible ideas they can contribute. Thus, the collective leader has an idea whether to go ahead with the collective or not. The organisers need not go after the collective leaders.

Yup thats it for now! And I guess this will be the last post under my BCB6 tag. Unless a flame war begins

Oh, and I guess I’ll put this up on the BCB6 wiki - because these were views I wanted to express in the feedback session, but since everyone was trying to be politically correct, the expression was rendered infeasible. And I was requested not to attend the “wash-up meeting” since I was not present in the organising team from the start (perfectly logical of course), thus I could not get these views out to the present organisers.

But dear organisers, I’m not undervaluing your work! No way! I fully appreciate the enormous amounts of work, dedication, effort, and emotion you’ve put in to this event! Thank you! You guys did a wonderful job! But naturally, it could have been tweaked to be performed better.

Technorati Tags: barcampbangalore6, barcampbangalore, barcamps

Yup. Its been pretty boring. Nothing much happening. Very non geeky. Extremely low attendance. All sessions are/were extremely boring, and interesting sessions (like Blogathon) never worked out.

Is the problem with the structure? Is it with the enthusiasm levels? Why are the enthusiasm levels low? Even the IIMB dog is bored and angry. The "geeks paradise" is now filled with poetry and guitar music, and idle people drinking coffee.

The earlier active BCB has now turned into an idle eat-eat-and eat event.

Ladies and gentlemen! Get active!

Yeah, all further updates are screwed because of this collective inactiveness.

Technorati Tags: barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6

Hi all,

Welcome to the dawn, or rather, the afternoon of yet another bright day at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The BarCamp Bangalore is rocking on, though not as rocking as the last editions.

The sessions lined up today include MySpace Development Platform sessions, Blogathon-Blogging events, Child deaths, SEO, RIA, Mozilla addons development, Mobile Apps and so on.

A few errors in my previous post on Panchatantra and Kamasutra, as Mr Shashi has pointed out.

Cheers, and more updates coming up soon…

Technorati Tags: barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6

These are snippets from Mr Sashi’s session… Please note that the first sentence is the translation from the original Sanskrit text, and the rest present day meanings. I don’t agree with all of this, but certain points do seem illuminating.

• Shower everyday, get a body massage every alternate day, use soap every third day(otherwise your skin will go dry)
• Use talcum powder on in armpits after a bath. Don’t use deodorants - because the close our sweat pores - very bad for our body.
• There 64 such arts to be popular in a gathering
• According to the Kamasutra - a girl child should be fed and taken care of for the first five years, for the next ten years, the child should be disciplined, after 15 years of age, he/she has a distinct unique personality, and let him/her be. The parents should realise that. The girl should wait for three more years for her parents to find her a match. After the 3 years, she’s free to find her own groom
• For marriage, the physical match and mental match are important. But physical match is slightly more important. Doesn’t mean that mental age is not important. A girl of marriageable age should be sent with friends, in carnivals, festivals etc. (i.e. in public) in the traditional dress. But she should be able to handle herself, and control her urges.
• After marriage, 1st 3 nights, the husband and wife should sleep on the ground and do not involve in sexual activities(should follow brahmacharya). Should not eat stimulating food. For a week, they should go to social events together. This if for the couple to get to know each other(if they don’t know each other before marriage). The guy should gain the full confidence of his wife, before they, uh, start…
• To court a girl / after marriage to win confidence methods (warning - highly guy centric) :
• While playing board games, argue with her with something, and hold her hand and protest. (i.e. get close to her, and show your affection)
• While going swimming, go away from her, go underwater and appear suddenly before her. (i.e. impress her - do unique things)
• During events (in public) sit next to her, and touch her for some reason. (i.e. get rid of the shyness)
• When you’re drinking water, take some in the hand and spray it on her face (i.e. break the ice)
• Gossip/small talk with her to gain her faith.
• Don’t expect her to endure pain or leave her house. i.e. She’s wiser and she wants the boy to figure out wiser plans.
• Saying : To gain a women’s love, show affection to her children. If she doesn’t yet have children, then show affection to the children in front of her. To show that you are "father-material".

Mr Shashi made a very thought provoking comment about the so called ‘womens lib’. I need to dwell on it to reach a conclusion. But what he said is this : Indian women have always been respected and given and equal place in the society. The husband tells her "please take care of the laundry" doesn’t mean she should wash them. She can give it to the dhobi. Is this discrimination against women? The women’s lib is the effect of the west on the east. In the west, a women will have to dress and look like a man to gain respect. She dresses in suits and pants to disguise her womanhood, looks like a man, and calls herself liberated. Is this women’s equality? Or is equality the Indian version of respecting women as they are?

Very interesting thought. I don’t think I agree with him totally, I will have to think on it though

There’s a lot more, but unfortunately my battery is down, and I have to stop now. ta ta, and catch you a bit later after charging…

Technorati Tags: barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6, kamasutra, panchatantra, tips, dating, tips to win girls

Hi,

I attended the voting in Bangalore session, and found it quite boring, and nothing new. Thus, I am now sitting outside the building, listening to the words of Mr Sashi, on Panchatantra and Kamasutra.

He’s reading out from an old book, and about twenty of us are huddled around him, like kids around a grandfather.

He’s talking about Panchatantra right now, reading out slogas and explaining meanings. He is right now talking about Arts and how they are useful for a person. Arts as in not painting and drawing, but more like the art of understanding others, inquiring about others’ problems etc.

Looks interesting… Will continue to update.

Technorati Tags: kamasutra, panchatantra, barcampbangalore, barcampbangalore6