BarCamps @ Pune

Barcamp Pune 5: Venue hunting

2008-09-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

We at Barcamp Pune are excited that we are coming back with the fifth edition of Barcamp Pune. We are looking for a venue to host the BCP5. In a venue we are looking for:

Good spacious rooms, 3 -4 (for sessions)
Big open space or what some may call the real camping space (for networking, lunch)
Wifi connectivity
Decent parking area (campers do come on their bikes and cars)
Big enough to host 300+ campers (or even more, you never know)
Rest of things you can add yourself (it's an unconf do your bit :))
Should be within the city (comfortable for most, though not high on priority ;))

If you have such a place in mind (your company, friend's company, your institute, friend's institute...) do let us know. As with our last 4 editions of Barcamp Pune, we are keen to try out a new venue. Btw, how many of you are coming to the phpcamp? Participants count is already touching 800 (and I am yet to add my name), I hope we don't run into logistical nightmare. But 800 participants, is it the biggest unconf of India? (that will be cool :))

Tarun Chandel
Get involved in the BCP5

Barcamp Pune is back!

2008-08-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Barcamp Pune is back with the 5th Edition of Barcamp in Pune.
Date: ~~25th October 2008 (Saturday)~~ (Diwali Weekend we need a new date :))
Keep an eye on our wiki while we set the preparations in motion.

Tarun Chandel
Excited!

Bloggers Lunch Pune

2008-06-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

The beautiful city of Pune makes me wonder why am I not staying there? Everytime I visit that place I find more reasons to love it. This time there were 15 more reasons, the 15 amazing bloggers I met at the Bloggers Lunch Pune. I knew I had to be in Pune this weekend so, I called up Rohit and asked him if we can meet over lunch and rest of the bloggers friends as well. The geek that he is, put up a wiki and set the scene. We decided that we should not spam whole of pune but tell about the lunch only to close friends and the bloggers that we met at the last meet. Priyank arranged the venue and we were all set.

The lunch was good and the high point was meeting everyone. Among them were some of the best bloggers of Pune. Though I got bit late, but was there on time for the lunch (gave another chance to Rohit for saying "Tarun is never late for the lunch").

Lets follow the rest of the events in the pics. As they say picture is worth thousand words and I have added few more.

Meetu, Sumit and Prasoon.

Jasleen and Bhavya

The bunch of bloggers at the lunch for bloggers.

It was pleasure to meet Rohit (partner in this crime like most other), Priyank (arranged for the venue and lunch, always enthusiastic about implementing the ideas), Meetu (great movie reviewer and always fun to talk to... Meetu remember that you have promised me a tea for the next time), Bhavya (great girl, loves to do a lot of things. Got to know that she is an excellent driver just like most other girls :)), Sumit (the best photographer and loves sharing his wisdom with others for example remove the lens cover before shooting.), Prasoon (got to meet him for the first time, nice guy), Sachin (met him for the first time but sounded like a very resourceful guy. If you are looking to go out for lunch or dinner contact him he can book a place for you anywhere is Pune), Pramila (met her first at the blogcamp pune last year she was with Purplenova then, now she is with ITVidya. Always a pleasure to meet her.), Harsha (this dude is amazing, walked for 40 mins to come to the meet not only talks but lives a green life. This was probably our last meeting in Pune as he will be leaving Pune soon.), Krishna (met him for the first time, nice guy), Amit (he is a php pro. It is always a pleasure to meet him), Ramana (one of the latest person to join the blogging bandwagon. Very enthusiastic and keen to learn, wish you good luck for your blog journey sir), Jasleen (works for Great foundation) , Krity (is the one who designed the blogcamp mumbai style logo, she is always ready to help us with designs. Very nice girl.) and Isha (met her for the first time, she is Krity's sister). Looking forward to more such fun meetings.

For rest of the pics please visit my picasa album.
Visit Priyank's blog for details about the meet.

Tarun Chandel
Barcamp Pune Team

Cross posted on iThink...

Barcamp Pune 4: The better barcamp

2008-02-16T23:51:00.000-08:00

Barcamp Pune 4 is over!!! The event went very well, thanks to all the geeks who turned up, the volunteers from the Symbiosis family and the warm hearted people of Thoughtworks. We are proud to have conducted the fourth edition of Barcamp in Pune. We have had very interesting and quality barcamps in past and were hoping that this one will be keeping the trend alive. When I look at the Barcamp wiki I see more than one camp taking place every month in India but Barcamp Pune has successfully been able to make a distinction among all these camps. We have had the most techie focussed camps in past and this one followed the same trail. And we all are proud of the same aren't we? Pune has a big community of techies and people working on the bleeding edge of technology the good thing is that Barcamp Pune has been able to pull these guys together and provide them a platform where they share their knowledge with others.

Let me go back around 20 years and take a look at the life of a developer. It was simpler than your life isn't it? He just had to learn one or two languages and the career was rolling (you don't believe me ask any of your bosses). Let me come back to you. I am sure you all know at-least 3 languages in which you can produce code for living. But how many of you are confident that you will be able to make a career like the guys did 20 years back?? The reality is that the innovation is happening at an unbelievable rate today, oh sorry I cant fool you guys you are insiders and as insiders we know that the splurge of various technologies, languages, platforms is because of the work that people have been doing for a long time. For an outsider there are too many things happening suddenly but for an insider this is not a surprise but a time when all the things are peeking and coming together perfectly. To be successful at this time we have to make sure that we are riding on the top of the tide. It is easier said than done. It takes a lot of time and effort to be just aware of all that is happening in the technology space. A developer needs to be aware of so many things at once and not only that he should be ready to work with newer things as early as they happen. It is not easy to keep pace with the speed of innovation and ever changing world of technology, how much time do you guys get out of your project work? The pressure is enormous to deliver, where is the time for other things?

Barcamp Pune or similar events are the place that gives you a present snapshot of the world around you (or let me put it this way gives you a heavy dose of all the technology related things that you missed or are still missing). There is a learning curve in all the places so is there a leaning curve in Barcamp Pune as well. You come here and get excited about new things technologies, you go back and whenever you get time, say the code repository server is down or your manger has fallen ill you can read in details about what you learned here. You come back for the next time and you attend a workshop on the same got to learn how to code or use the technology. You go back home and run some code get your hands dirty learn few new things. You again come here and this time you share with other campers what you have learned and they will share what they learned and you will improve yourself. Isn't that great!!! I read somewhere that you retain 95% of what you share with others.

We have a very experienced Barcamp crowd in Pune but just for those who were there for the first time, let me repeat what I said at the starting session of the event that, the onus of getting best out of camp lies with you. There is a famous rule of Barcamp "Law of 2 feet" that is, you will have to use your 2 feet to walk to a place where you can learn, if you are not learning walk out of that place (no one will mind) and go to a place where you can learn or share. Meet as many people as you can and network and use this gathering of intelligent people wisely.

Barcamp Pune is greatly thankful to the people who made this camp possible first of all I would like to thank TW for their support, it is the second time that they have sponsored barcamp Pune and our experience has been really wonderful with these guys, they understand the concept and they support it whole heartedly. I hope they feel the same about us. Seriously guys it has been a very good association and we hope to continue the same in future. Our other sponsor SUN, this is the first time that they are at the Barcamp Pune, I whole heartily welcome you. I hope you will had a good day and you must have noticed that Barcamp Pune is little different than other camps in India, we are more technology oriented bunch. I hope that we will continue to see you around in future camps as well. We have another sponsor Clubhack and the guys behind this have been with us from start. We can take pride that though we don't focus on Start ups or Entrepreneurship we still are able to produce startups like Clubhack. I would also like to express my deep hearted thanks to my teammates who made the Barcamp a reality all those who are here and even those who were there with us in past camps. In the end I would like to thank the most important person without whom this would not have been possible and that is "you". I thank you warm heartily to make Barcamp Pune what it is and I hope you will continue to be with us.

Cross posted on iThink... Tarun Chandel's thoughts

Barcamp Pune "I am at BarcampPune4" videos

2008-02-16T02:31:00.000-08:00

Great group of Volunteers

2008-02-16T01:56:00.000-08:00

Volunteer @ BarCampPune4

Information & Broadcasting cell

TW pantry just got hacked into
And the freebies too ;)
Ok, the hacker is here in this Pic, the kitchen & freebies hacker

Live photo uploading @ BarCampPune4

2008-02-15T23:33:00.005-08:00

OK so here is an interesting stuff we are doing today
We are using a special SD card in my camera called as EYE-FI (http://eye.fi/) to click snaps.
This card is configured with the local WiFi and is uploading photos in real time on flickr
Check out our flickr @ http://flickr.com/photos/barcamppune/

UPDATE: Many people asked me how to get hold of such cards

So here is the link : http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Fi-Card-Wireless-GB-Memory/dp/B000X27XDC/club01-20

Volunteers

2008-02-15T23:33:00.003-08:00

Pics

wiki + blogs

Not a voluteer but it is barcamp afterall.

Some by the way pics

2008-02-15T23:23:00.001-08:00

My creation :)

B in the Barcamp Pune 4

The best guy around. He got me food to eat and juices to drink.

Rohit trying to click.

Nigel is confused as usual :)

Hacking session

2008-02-15T22:04:00.000-08:00

Very interesting but scary video, watch it at your own risk. YOU MAY STOP USING EMAILS.

The live Hi videos

2008-02-15T21:05:00.000-08:00

The Hi Video one

The Hi video two

Campers are in and we are rolling

2008-02-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

5 words intro

Black listed volunteers :) guys you are the real heros!

Intros

Wiki crazy campers :)

Sessions have already started where are you???

Good morning people we are up

2008-02-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

Registration desk is up

Thanks to the volunteers for letting go their saturday sleep :)
Rohit dude is posing!!

This is a pain point people have to get a visitor pass. I know its like registering twice but we are sorry for the freaky security check.

By the way where are do come around to say hi!!!

Still at Thoughtworks

2008-02-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

Call us crazy or whatever, but we are still at Thoughtworks, trying hard to get the place up and running for the Barcamp Pune 4. Our posters and banners have just arrived and we are still not able to decide where to put them. Rohit and Niranjan are trying to get things up.

Tarun (that is me) trying to keep you guys posted about what is going on here.

Rohit putting up the poster and a smile :)

Rohit trying his hand at paper wiki

Niranjan our first volunteer getting the wiki up.

By the way Ketan is flying from Banglore and is supposed to reach here by mid night. He with Sidu will be setting up the wifi for us. If things are not working well in the morning be patient and remember that we guys are slogging hard here. Hopefully things will be running smoothly in when you come here. For now let me get back to some work Rohit, Sidu and Niranjan are shouting ;) See you soon...

Here is the branding stuff and sneak preview of the venue

2008-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Our Sticker

Our Poster (tilt your head... aah you can see it tomorrow)

This is the venue

Looks so calm and quiet... wait and see it tomorrow.

Waiting for all you guys to join us!!!

Here is our Tshirt

2008-02-15T02:56:00.000-08:00

Barcamp Pune 4 T shirt (Model is Aditya, he is not free ;))

Thoughtworks freebies for Barcamp. There are others as well ;)

I am at Barcamp Pune 4

2008-02-15T02:45:00.000-08:00

I am currently sitting in the Thoughtworks office currently. Since I am not able to access the internet I will be posting this little later (now I am able to access internet from TW). I am here for the Barcamp Pune4. The event is tomorrow and I am expecting it to be an interesting day. I started around 8 in the morning from Mumbai and reached Pune around quarter to 12. One suggestion to campers coming from Mumbai, start early I would suggest before 6 in the morning. Thoughtworks office is around 20 mins away from the Pune railway station. I took an auto and paid him flat 50 bucks but when I reached Thoughtworks the meter reading was only 4.6kms and it is not Mumbai so the actual cost should be 30 - 35 bucks. The ride from Pune station to Thoughtworks is bumpy but nice, don't curse the roads as these are the better roads of Pune (believe me I have stayed here). Thoughtworks office is in Pancsheel park (you can ask auto guy to take you to IBM office) it is a colorless campus as there is only glass and steel but looks good. Thoughtworks office is not that big but perfect for an unconference like Barcamp Pune. Looking forward to meet all you campers tomorrow.

Tarun Chandel
Cross posted on iThink...

Venue details

2008-02-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

Be there at 9 in the morning

2008-02-15T02:18:00.000-08:00

Barcamp Pune 4 You are invited!!!

2008-02-15T00:22:00.000-08:00

Looking forward to meet you there.

Geeks meet this weekend

2008-02-14T00:16:00.000-08:00

Then at Barcamp Pune 4

Make way for geeks

2008-02-14T00:15:00.001-08:00

Be there if you are a geek else get aside.

Geeks ki rally

2008-02-14T00:15:00.000-08:00

Apke sahyog se isey safal banaye.

Everyone is at Barcamp Pune 4

2008-02-14T00:07:00.000-08:00

Where are you???

Bubbles 2.0

2008-02-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

No 2.0s and no 101s. It is Barcamp Pune just for Geeks!!!