BarCampMumbai4

The two day BarCampMumbai4 concluded last Sunday. I had the pleasure to be present for the unconference on both days. Besides the knowledge that I gained, it was great meeting my twolks (twitter folks, for those who can't figure that out) and new people.

It started on twitter, with people discussing about the BCM4 days ahead of the actual event. I wanted to attend BCM3, which took place last year, but unfortunately I couldn't. So this year, in spite of unending college assignments, I firmly decided that I will be attending BCM4. Unlike earlier BarCamps, BCM4 required participation from all those who attended it - you either present a session, or volunteer for other activities. After remaining awake for two nights and filling up pages with stuff that teachers never really check, I reached the venue - SJM SOM, at IIT Bombay on Saturday morning, for day 1.

The day began with registrations and we received a geeky t-shirt from the platinum sponsor for the event - Directi. (I always wanted a t-shirt like that, as much as I want a tattoo like this one.) We later proceeded to the SOM Well and had our breakfast (credits to Vipul Mathur for the attractive picture). Then after a short introduction session by Abhishek Thakkar, began the sessions. Most of the sessions were focussed on startups. Established people talked about their success stories and gave some valuable tips. There were a few product demoes which invited lively discussions and feedbacks. I won't get into details of the sessions as a list of those can be found here, on the BarCampMumbai's website.

More interesting than the sessions was meeting my twolks (ok, I wasn't following all of them earlier, but now I am). I met Preshit, Shadez, Aalaap, Unitechy, DanishKhan1, Asfaq, aDeSe, dhempe, PunkPolkaDots, Netra, UrmiRaj14, Maharana, VipulMathur, santoshp, and Shwetank at the tweetup that we had near the coffee shack at IITB. (If I'm missing out someone, please let me know).

Day 2 was more interesting, we had a small introduction session, wherein everyone present at BCM4 had to introduce themselves in a 20 second time span. Later we had an interesting session by Appu and Vipul Mathur, both photography enthusiasts and excellent photographers on Photography Communities and why should we be sharing our photos.

While listening to the sessions, a bunch of us, including me started a community effort that we code named Houston Wayfinder Mission ;) As DanishKhan1 described it, it is a top secret, and any disclosures might lead to serious complications. Preshit proved that one can be famous on twitter without even having an account there. The Houston Wayfinder Mission is still continuing on twitter, with Wayfinder updating Houstons on the current status regarding the subject. Well, this might not have made sense to you if you are not one of the 5 Houstons or Wayfinder himself (oOps, itself, I mean ;) )

With all that fun, and after-BCM4 Minute Maid sponsored by Preshit, BCM4 had a happy ending. I'll be a regular at BCM from now onwards and hope to present a session sometime.

Photographs from BCM4 have been uploaded on Flickr and can be found here.

Of Twitter, Tumblr and 512 kbps

Honestly speaking, I'm writing this entry so that my blog doesn't feel lonely. It has been more than a while that I last updated here. But I have an excuse for this hiatus - My exams are fast approaching, and nothing that could make my writing skills feel that desire to wake up, has happened.

The schedule these days has become void of any thing that would bring a bright smile to my face. Everything seems to be monotonous these days. Get up, study, eat, study again, eat again, sleep and then everything would repeat itself in cycles of infinity. The only interesting things that I do at times, to deviate from the humdrum life is a little Twitter-ing and Tumblr-ing.

These two Web 2.0 applications have been giving me a dose of the much needed F5 for my life. Twitter, as defined on its home page, is

a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

On the other hand, Tumblr, is correctly described as a scrapbook. The entries on Tumblr are called tumblelogs. The help section has a better analogy to understand it.

To make a simple analogy: If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

You can also look at tumblelogs as slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create.

I have developed a liking for these two places. I twitter here and my tumblelog which i have named Dew Drops (all spelled in the lower case actually) is here. I like the simplicity of their concepts. Tumblr allows you to collect stuff from the web and tumblelog it in quick and easy steps, whereas Twitter lets your tweople [a tweatiful twerm supposedly coined by my fellow tweeter - Preshit] know what are you up to.

And what else could beautify the pleasure of doing all this and more, than 512 kbps. I recently got my speeds upgraded to 512 kbps. It seems to be working great - pages open faster, files download at twice of what they used to and the internet has even stopped playing its favorite, hide-n-seek with me.

And when all seems to be gleeful, its time to realize that exams begin from 9th this month and I still have a lot to study. The  piled up books lying around me waiting to be opened and thoroughly scanned, leave me with no option but sign out and study..

Till then..