PROTO registrations are open

Good Morning ! Gear all you folks who are interested to see the greatest initiative on the startups ecosystem happening here at Chennai! TA Da … PROTO is open . This edition has many impressive points as never before. A World class Venue. An already tested and proven template on mentoring sessions with world class experts. The entire event is managed on the ground by a core team working hands on with a professional event manager who also happens to be a volunteer from TKF. Above all TKF (The knowledge foundation) aims to bring an out of the world experience to all participating companies as well as to VC’s and Investors.For those companies who are interested to be a part of the event you can know more on the official blog of PROTO here

What will you find here at PROTO 2008 ?

Depends….

If you are a startup and that too a good one you might find a pile of cash.

If you are a VC then this is one heck of an event that you dont wanna miss. This is the SHEBANG of all such events that nurture startups to showcase their products and services on a common platform that is totally unbiased and powered by industry professionals with a just motive.

If you are a Techie then PROTO is a great place for technologist to find like minded people like little lily to forge partnerships on future ideas. We at TKF are just striving to create an ecosystem that is helpful for everyone here.

The main event is happening at Hotel Asiana (In hindi Asiana means dream home) which is on the IT super corridor and will be an exclusive 2 day premier event. All those who are interested please try to register early as there is a very impressive Early bird offer for the event. Like last time this offer is open for a very short period only so please try to take advantage of the offer. And another information for all you chennaiites is that this might be the last edition of PROTO that will be hosted in Chennai as after this edition we are planning to throw it open for other cities to host this event too. We aim to spread the spirit of PROTO across india where the wind takes it to and thus create a bigger community for mutual growth. All the participating companies will be hosted on stay and accomodation for the two days on Star City Service Apartments on the OMR so that they are at easy reach from the venue. All mentoring sessions and knowledge sharing sessions will be at the Asiana hotel on a

For your information PROTO is powered by The Knowledge Foundation , which is a not for profit society that creates similar platforms for focussed events and knowledge sharing. With PROTO Third Edition, the knowledge foundation has successfully completed 10 events in a span of 24 months.

PROTO 2008 registrations are open now . Pls catch the limited early bird offer now

http://www.proto.in/proto2008/registration_form.shtml

Photos from Barcamp Bangalore

BCB5

A Different Collective

What do bachelors think about the other gender.

It is very subjective.
You have felt it is a myth and you say it is just bcos of that it happened
Why are people taking an excuse saying that the person is married.
What has changed after marriage.
Ans: A new lease after marriage. The leash tightens after marriage.
Does the guy lose more or the girls lose?
Keshav got his tummy after marriage. He has not lost weight.
Keshav: I have to answer many questions.
Srini: Preparing for marriage is like planning a corporate strategy.
There need to be compromises from both the sides.
Rajeshwari: After marriage, ladies also have some responsilities change Change in the responsiblities with respect to home, children and so on. If both of them comprimise, things are taken care.
Srini: We need to plan a lot like setting a house, plan your retirement life. Every one need to have a vision. My vision is my wife will have a electric car to roam around, a new house, and a new plasma tv. Both of us will spend seperately.
Yamini: After marriage, lots of things change.
Rajarajeshwari: We need to leave house, parents, be a domestic godess.
General: Guys lose security and girls gain security.

Rajeshwari from Nokia

Brining the widgets to mobile such as Flash mobile. The processing speed of mobile phone devices. Example taken Nokia N95.

GuruGeeks.Net

Person behind GuruGeeks.net speaking on the initiative.

Registration Desk

The Registration Desk and the Name Badges

Why MYSQL Works

Raj is speaking on why MySQL Rocks?

Barcamp Starts

Currently the registration is going on

Photos from the STC Annual Conference 2007

Click here to view the photos from the STC Anual Conference 2007.

Barcamp Bangalore 5 - Its back again

Barcamp Bangalore is back. Its BarCamp Bangalore 5 - Winter Edition at IIM-B.

After the success of the Collectives in the last barcamp, this one too is made as a collective one. Registrations for the collectives is also open at this link :

http://barcampbangalore.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4

Me Receiving a Momento

Thatz me receiving an award.

Black Hat SEO

Black HAT Speaking on:

• Invisible Text (for example, same color text)
• Doorway Pages
• Cloaking
• Other techiniques
• Typo Spam (multiple versions of the same page for different keywords)
• Link Dumping (dumping links anywhere and everywhere)
• Fake Page Ranks
• Content Scrappers
• Google Bowling

Finally Ezhil, the Black HAT !!!!

PPC Management

Prashant Modi and Saravanan speaking on paper click management

• Keyword Segmentation
• Some of the ad text examples
• Example of ad copies
• URLs
• An example of a landing page
• Some questions on the landing page
• Bidding strategies
• Some adwords editor
• Resources
• Simplified version of Paid Search
• Bidding for profits
• Notes on Quality Scores
• How to grow your business?

Seshadri

Seshadri. The person behind the entertainment section on day 1.

Textual Ads

Vivek Bhargava is speaking on contextual text ads.

Analytical Options

Analytical options for SEO

They are speaking on Bidding.
- Initial Bid Calculation
- Historical Data
- Variable ROI
- Dynamic Bid Optimisation
- From posts to landing page creation

Q & A Session on

Day 2 of SearchCamp.in

The Day 2 is On.

Session from Mahesh Murthy

Mahesh is speaking on his experiences.

Currently speaking on Pay for Performance

Photos from SearchCamp

George Tai

George Tai is speaking on his experiences.

Prabudda S Raychaudhary

 

Notes from Prabudda S Raychaudhary

He is speaking on:

What is SEO?
Objectives of SEO Campaign
How to increase Web traffic?
Tracking Details
Price Quotes
Success Factors

Ist Session from SearchCamp

First session is from Prabudda S Raychaudhary CEO of SEOguru Technologies.

SearchCamp Starts

Hi all

The SearchCamp Starts with an introductory session from Kiruba

SearchCamp Starts

Hi all

The SearchCamp Starts with an introductory session from Kiruba

Photos from the Dakshin Chitra Trip

Dakshin Chitra Trip

Ganesh Chathurthi Processions

Photos taken at Ganesh Chathurthi Processions

Link for the video

Click here to view the video.

New Video Coming Up

Hi all

A new video that I took at Dakshin Chitra is coming up. This video displays how a person creates a miniature object using glass.

Link to follow.

Traffic Volunteer on a Vinayaka Chathurthi Day

Saw this person near the Choolaimedu signal (subway).

Photos from the CPC Meet1

Just coming home from CPC Meet

Just reached home from chennaifoto (CPC Meet) on taking photographs. We decided to have sessions on the first weekend of the month. To start with, we are having a session on 23rd September 2007. The venue and timings will be announced later.

Photos to be uploaded soon.

forwards

இது சொந்த சரக்கு அல்ல.. ஆனா, அதுவா முக்கியம் நமக்கு..

டீல் உங்க செல்லுக்கு என்னோட அட்ரஸ் அனுப்புறேன்.அதே மாதிரி, என் அட்ரஸுக்கு உங்க செல்ல அனுப்புறீங்களா?

- போட்டு வாங்குவோர் சங்கம்

சிக்குன் குனியாசிக்குன் குனியா மீண்டும் பரவுகிறது. அதனால் சிக்கன் சாப்பிடும்பொழுது யாரும் குனிய வேண்டாம் என்று கேட்டுக்கொள்ளப்படுகிறார்கள்!

- சிக்கன் சாப்பிட்டுக்கொண்டே யோசிப்போர் சங்கம்

கல்லூரிக் குறள்அறிவை மேலும் மேலும் கூர்மையாக்கும் கருவி அரியர்அரியர் வைத்தோர் அறிவுடையார் அறிவிலார்ஆல் கிளியர் செய்பவர்அரியர்வைத்து வாழ்வாரே வாழ்வார் மற்றெல்லாம்வாக்-இன் சென்றே சாவார்

- படிப்பவரை கண்டால் வயிரெறிபவர் சங்கம்

பாஸ்ஜிரிசல்ட் நாளு தெரிஞ்சு போச்சுன்னா லீவு நாளு நரகமாயிரும்.. சந்தோசம்தாங்க முக்கியம்- பரிட்சை சரியா எழுதாம டயலாக் பேசி சமாளிப்போர் சங்கம்சங்கத்துல உட்கார்ந்து இதையெல்லாம் கவனிச்சவர், வேல்ராஜ்

SEO - Workshop in Chennai

SearchCamp is a two day event aimed to bring together the best minds from the Search Engine Marketing space to talk about search engine advertising, including optimization and marketing issues. This event is the first of its kind in India and will feature workshops, debates and keynotes on the present state and evolution of Search Engine Marketing.

Visit here for registering to the site.

Moving to a New Campus

We are moving to a new campus in electronic city itself. Will be missing the natural scenaries in the old campus.

Babajob.com

Sean Oli Blagsvedt was speaking about his new social networking site. www.babajob.com.

He was speaking about how the whole system works and so on. The site is really good.

Session Details on SMS

The Session Details were available in SMS. This was one of the initiatives from the organizers. As the sessions spanned multiple conference rooms, it was difficult for the attendees to check the rooms and its corresponding sessions. This initiative was helpful for all the attendees who had registered for the messages. If you do not believe, I received almost 80 messages on the first day of the barcamp.

Mahendran Balan

Mahendran Balan works with a private bank in chennai. He took photographs mostly in bcb4. Hope he uploads the photographs soon.

Photography Collective

Though most of the collectives happened in the rooms, this is one of the collectives that happened in the lawns of IIMB. Sukumar from the Chennai Team, was giving his thoughts on photography, how to use the camera, and so on. The session was good. Guess, when this happened? This started immediately after the breakfast was over and before the actual sessions started. With Sukuamar are ramesh from chennai, myself, mahendran balan from chennai and others also.

Session on Photoblogging

Hi

Arun took a session on photoblogging at the recently concluded bcb4. Arun was speaking about the tool that he uses for photoblogging. This tool, he downloaded in his mobile and uploads it daily to his photoblog everytime. There was a mention about other photoblogs. Mine and Samjukta's. Both serve different purposes. Mine, I cover all the events. The photo blog is all about the events that I attended. It gives a photo by photo description of the events.

Making your Session Popular

Now the session is on making your blog popular from Umesh Gopinath.

Photos taken at my session on podcast

The photos taken during my session on podcasting at the Bloggers' Collective.

Session on babalife.com

Sean Oli Blagsvedt on babajob

Session on Photo Blogging

Session from Arun on photo blogging.

• Challenges on Photo Blogging
• Photo blogs that people follow
• Description about Photo Blogging from various people
• How Arun terms a photo blog
• What Arun writes in his photo blog
• Issues while posting blog entries (scheduling posts)
• Service Providers that allow you to schedule posts
• Other works done to bring traffic for the site
  

Searchable Blogs - KISS

Hi all

The current session that was over was Searchable Blogs - Kiss by Thejesh.

Does the Metro Blogging Work

This is a post lunch session. The talk is on whether the metro blogging works in bangalore.

Sessions on Blogging

This morning, I'm attending the sessions on blogs:

• First was my session on podcasts. Tools that can be used while doing a podcast on mobiles.
• Mobile Blogging
• Corporate Blogging
• Examples of Corporate Blogs
  

Podcasts from Barcamp

Hi all

Some of the music entertainments that we had today in the evening at barcamp are uploaded in my podcast blog. Click here to visit my podcast blog.

Session on Buffer Overflows

The next session is on buffer overflows:

Equities

Some takeaways from the post lunch session on equities:

• What is an equity?
• What is an IPO?
• When to hold some shares?
• Some monetary and non-monetary benifits on investing in equities.
• Risks in investing in equities.
• Types of risks
• How to overcome these risks?
• Investing in different formats.
• Necessary papers for Mutual Funds and Demat Accounts.
• When to buy mutual funds
• How to select funds
  

Session on Equities

This is a post lunch session. The session is on equities.

Photos from Barcamp Bangalore 2007

Updates from the session on blogging and podcasting

The first session was on podcasting:

• Creating podcasts
• Uploading podcasts
• Modifying podcasts using different tools
• Creating Blogs
• Creating blogs using Wordpress
• Questions about moving URLs to a new web address
• Moving blog to a new domain
  

Barcamp Starts

The Barcamp BAngalore 2007 starts...

Attending a session on blogging and podcasting.

STC India Career Day

* Meet with top employers
* Participate in salary survey, resume writing, and career path discussions
* Network with fellow technical writing professionals

Did I miss mentioning the sumptuous lunch at Taj? Don't miss this event. It is happening in Bangalore in 2 days. The STC volunteers have been working hard to ensure that the event is very useful to you.
For more info, see: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/220768/

Rush your registration request to achepuri AT gmail DOT com.

There is lot of excitement. This event has been covered already in Indian Express, Bangalore Mirror, and a few other popular newspapers. Link to a report:

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE120070717022745&Page=1&Title=Bangalore&Topic=0&

Popular event listing websites for Bangalore have picked up the event - Yahoo, eventsinindia, and metroblogs. STC's exclusive career fair for technical writers is happening after 2 years in Bangalore.
Don't miss all the excitement and fun.

Just for the price of one weekend movie ticket.

Barcamp Bangalore on 28th and 29th July 2007

What is Barcamp?BarCamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

பார்கேம்ப் என்றால் என்ன?பார்கேம்ப் என்பது முன்னறிவிப்பின்றி ஏற்படும் பொதுக்கூட்டமாகும். அங்கு பல தரப்பட்ட மக்கள் கூடி, தொழில்நுட்பம், இணையம், காட்டற்ற மென்பொருள், வலைப்பதிவுகள் என பலதரப்பட்ட தலைப்புகளில் கலந்துரையாடுவார்கள். யார் வேண்டுமானாலும் கலந்து கொண்டு தங்களது கருத்துக்களை பரிமாறிக்கொள்வர்.
நானும் நாளை அங்கு தான் செல்லவுள்ளேன். உங்கள் அனைவரையும் அழைக்கின்றேன். பார்கேம்பில் பார்க்கலாம்.

Creating Styles in MSWORD

1. Open MSWORD.
2. From the Format menu, select Styles and Formatting.
3. Click New Style. The New Style dialog opens.
4. Enter the name of the style in Name.
5. Select a Style Type.
6. Select the Font Style, Size in Formatting pane.
7. Click Format --> . You can select different options such as Font, Paragraph, and Numbering.
8. Click OK. The new style is created.

To apply the syles:

1. Open MSWORD.
2. Select the text to which the format has to be applied.
3. From the Format menu, select Styles and Formatting.
4. Click the style that needs to be applied. The selected style is applied.

Tharoor's Podcast Published

Hi

Click here to view Tharoor's Podcast.

Next Podcast Coming Up

Hi all

The next podcast is coming up. Though this was taken long back, I took sometime to post this.

Tharoor speaks about the current tech writing scenario from his point of view.

Visit my podcast blog for the podcast.

Creating Tables in MSWORD

To create tables in MSWORD:

1. Open MSWORD.
2. From the Tables menu, select Insert --> Table. The Insert Table dialog opens.
3. Enter the Number of columns.
4. Enter the Number of rows.
5. Click OK.

To create a table from an existing content:

1. Open MSWORD.
2. Enter the content with a tab difference.
3. From the Tables menu, select Convert --> Text to Table. The Convert Text to Table dialog opens.
4. Enter the Number of Columns or Number of Rows.
5. Select one option from Seperate text at.
6. Click OK.

Applying Bullets and Numbering

To apply bullet style for your content:

1. Open MS Word.
2. Enter the required text.
3. Select the text for which the bullet style needs to be applied.
4. From the Format menu, select Bullets and Numbering.
5. Select the Bulleted tab.
6. Select the bullet style that needs to be applied.
7. Click OK. The selected bullet style is applied for the content.

To apply Numbering style for your content:

1. Open MS Word.
2. Enter the required text.
3. Select the text for which the number style needs to be applied.
4. From the Format menu, select Bullets and Numbering.
5. Select the Numbered tab.
6. Select the number format that needs to be applied.
7. Click OK. The selected number style is applied for the content.

Creating a new word document

To create a new word document:

1. From the File menu, select New. The New dialog box opens.
2. Select the General tab.
3. Select Blank Document.
4. Select Document from the Create New pane.
5. Click OK. A new document is created.

To save the created document:

1. Enter the required text in MS WORD.
2. From the File menu, select Save. The Save As dialog box opens.
3. Select the location where the document needs to be saved.
4. Enter the name of the file in File name.
5. Select Word Document from the Save as Type list.
6. Click Save to save the document.

Tips on MS Word

Hi all

From now on, I will be posting using MS Word. This will go from basics.

Coverage of PodWorks in Hindu

Hi

The first day's session of the PodWorks has been covered in the today's edition in chennai. Click here to view the coverage.

My First Podcasts

Hi all

I have moved my podcasts to a new hyperlink. It is http:\\blog.mrmwrites.info

Audio Podcast

Video Podcast

Use of a Phone

Hi

In one of the sessions in today's PodWorks, one speaker mentioned that the latest mobile phones are available for recording audios and videos. You can use them for podcasts. Thatz true. I had used my Nokia 7610 today and the podcast came up well. Thanks to Sunil Gupta and his daughter Nandhika, I was able to record their conversation in my mobile. Will upload the link for the Audio podcast tomorrow.

Takeaway from sessions

Well.. We have taken a discourse from the discussion and asking people what they want from the sessions.. here are some points gathered :)

1. Kiruba, as he has been telling all along wants to learn how to transfer data from the huge stack of mini dvd's that he has
2. How to rip the mini DVD's
3. Body language and voice modulations
4. Server side software
5. Controlling noise
6. do's and donts
7. How to do video conversions - a few techie topics
8. Different Podcasting platforms available
9. Thumb rules, if any for choosing content
10. Integrating iTunes with RSS feeds
11. What is the infrastructure that is needed
12. as always, Kiruba again threw up a googly. I had shared an article on Monster.com where they have this option of uploading a video resume. He says that one of his friends uploaded a video, but sadly none of the guys that contacted him due to the quality of the video. So, the question at the baseline is "Is podcasting really a good thing to do? " Wow. This is going to be interesting if someone ever takes up this debate.. :)
13. Code of ethics for Bloggers and podcasters
14. Easiest way to shoot a video podcast

Photos from PodWorks

Podworks Starts

Hi all

The PodWorks unconference is on.

Opening Session is from Kiruba. His session speaks the basics of Podcasting.

More to follow.

Tasks and Task Owners

Here's are the tasks and the task owners (and their contact details)

PARTICIPANTS DIRECTORY - Jaidev ( 9940017074)

BEACH PARTY - Mahendran (98415 55505)

CATERING - Syed

VIDEO PROMOS - Dinesh

STAGE BACKDROP DESIGN - Adel & Dinesh

TSHIRTS - Ram ( 99400 92399)

COMPETITIONS - Kartik Kannan (98400 40068)

FREEWARE CDs - Swaminathan (9900108598)

SPONSORSHIP - Vicky & Sharanya

MEDIA & PR - Veena Vinod

CONTENT - Kiruba

Each of the task owners will send constant updates on the progress in their respective areas.

Once this was done and many types of coffees were downed, we headed out to face the cameras. Dinesh started on this responsibility of doing a video promo for the event and recorded sound bytes of the participants on what and whys of PodWorks.

The meeting took place for about one and half hours and the most productive Podworks meeting ever.

Thanks to the MOM mail from Kiruba.

3rd Podworks Meeting : Minutes

Hi,

The 3rd Organizers meet took place today at IIT CCD. For those from our team, who couldn't make it, here's the minutes.

The main focus of today's meeting was on the structure of the event. We were all clear on one point. That this is a workshop and we will make it more hands on rather than a talking heads event. But there were challenges. Not everyone will come with laptops, voice recorders and video cameras. How will we then conduct a hands on workshop if the tools aren't there.

There were a lot of ideas floating around. Infact, a bit too many. At one stage, all of were more confused than before we came to the meet. Finally, after a bit of brainstorming we finally nailed it. Day 1 will focus on Audio Podcasting. Day 2 will focus on Video Podcasting.

The First Floor seminar room will be exclusively used for workshop for folks who have the equipments. (Only those with equipments will be allowed for this hands on workshop).

The Ground Floor Auditorium will be for those who don't have the equipments. However, it will be a workshop model here as well where the workshop leader will explain things by doing. The audience will keenly watch what's happening and learn.

Once this was nailed, the focus shifted towards the many pending works that needed to be done. An easy way to get owners for the task was done using the napkins. All the key tasks were written down on napkins and folks picked up tasks that they were confident of doing. Someone came up with the idea of taking photographs of the napkin along with napkin task owners.

You can take a look at all these at Mahendran's photo stream.

Tasks and Task Owners in the next post.

PodWorks

PodWorks, India's biggest podcasting event would be underway. It takes place at Chennai on June 9th & 10th. The event's website www.PodWorks.in is now online.

Registration for the event is now open. As with all the events we have conducted, this one will surely be a sell out. So, play safe and register early.

PodWorks will attract the best minds in podcasting and new media. It will be a great opportunity to network, share and learn new ideas & techniques.

PodWorks will have a strong workshop tilt. Hence the name (Podcasting Workshop) . The event will continue to follow the successful unconference model, but presenters are encouraged to demonstrate and not just talk. More of show'n'tell and less of powerpoint.

It's going to be a good event. The two days of sessions will be live webcast and all the sessions will be recorded. Hey, this is a podcasting event, right?! It would be a good idea for you to sign up to the mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podworks and subscribe to the blog feed. These are good ways to get updated on the event's progress.

Use of a camera mobile phone

Hi

I have been using a mobile phone with camera for the last 1 year or so. It has come handy at many places. Whether it is a family trip or attending conferences (See Wikicamp photos), it has become so handy that the buzz word capture and post is felt.

After changing the mobiles in this pattern Nokia 6020 --> Sony W 550i --> Motorola V3i, now I have settled in Nokia 7610. This mobile is so handy. For the photographs taken, visit all the photos in my blog. They were taken using Nokia 7610.

Farewell Kavidhai

Thirumanjeri Goupram

Hi all

This is the photo taken at thirumanjeri. It is the gopuram at the entrance of the temple.

Trip to Rameswaram

Very recently, I made a trip to rameswaram. Here is my trip report.

My trip started on a saturday. I reached chennai from blr on saturday morning around 5 AM. Immediately had a bath and started our trip. The travellers were myself, my parents and my younger brother.

When we started, we headed towards Kumbakonam first so that we can visit some of the Navagraha temples around kumbakonam. We ended our trip with a visit to the Thirunallar temple near Karaikkal. We returned back to Kumbakonam that night for our night stay.

After visiting some other temples near kumbakonam, we started on sunday to rameswaram. We reached there around 8PM on sunday.

The next day which is monday, we had our bath in the sea and the 22 wells in the temple. After the bath, we had our darshan.

To come out of the temple after darshan, it took us 12 noon. Around 2 PM, we started back to chennai. By the time we reached chennai, it was around 1 AM on tuesday.

Thus my trip to rameswaram was over.

I reached blr on wednesday morning after a stay in chennai on tuesday.

Another 1 from Seshadri

Idaiveli

Another one from Seshadri.

Manampool

Ninaivu kavidhai

Ninaivu Kavidhai from Seshadri.

Kavidhais

Hi

Henceforth, I will be posting Kavidhai's from my friend Seshadri Rajagopalan. Click here to email him.

Back to B'lore

Hi all

I'm back to b'lore from Chennai.

Latest Photos

Latest Photos from the unconference.

Latest Photos

Well

The latest photos from the unconference. Over to Lunch.

Latest Photos

Latest Photos from unconference