Back In Time
Thursday, June 01, 2006
There are some colleges which exude an old world charm. Sprawling campus, lots of greenery, dilapidated buildings and nerds all around. My own college, the erstwhile R. E. C. Silchar was one of them. As soon as I stepped into the MIT Campus I was back to the surroundings that I had grown up in and missed ever since. It was like going back into time.
But along with that apprehension swelled. It was early in the morning, so not a soul was in sight. Is there really a camp happening here? Am I at the wrong place? Am I the only one in the camp? No boards, no signs, no welcoming committee. Locating the AU-KBC center was a hard work in inself. A world apart from the TiE networking events held in the Five Star hotels in Bangalore.
But in the end they all turned out to be misplaced. The first day turned out to be great. There are around 12 people in this camp. An ecelectic mix of professionals, students and activists. The only common thread between us is the belief in FOSS and entrepreneurship, which in turn is again is an interesting mix! All of us have different expectations and hopes from this camp. But there is also this feeling of being involved in something big. Startup camps are very rare in India, and this is the first one about FOSS.
The first day belonged to Abhas Abhinav, the founder of Deeproot Linux who has been into the Free Software Business (FSB) for around six years now. He drew upon his wealth of experience and gave us some valuable insights into the concepts and challenges involved in such a business. An FSF member himself, most of his focus was on the "Free" as in Freedom part of the business. All his sessoins were interactive with everybody pitching in with their own experiences.
Today we'll be having the session on evaluating the concepts each of us are working upon. I will present mine there. I am looking forward to it.
The best lesson learnt; the biggest value proposition of FSB is the freedom.
PS: I also noticed that the website of R. E. C. Silchar has been shifted to the Joomla CMS. Way to go Guys! Now I can brag about this in today's session. :)
Tags: Startup Entrepreneurship FOSS FSB AU Chennai India
But along with that apprehension swelled. It was early in the morning, so not a soul was in sight. Is there really a camp happening here? Am I at the wrong place? Am I the only one in the camp? No boards, no signs, no welcoming committee. Locating the AU-KBC center was a hard work in inself. A world apart from the TiE networking events held in the Five Star hotels in Bangalore.
But in the end they all turned out to be misplaced. The first day turned out to be great. There are around 12 people in this camp. An ecelectic mix of professionals, students and activists. The only common thread between us is the belief in FOSS and entrepreneurship, which in turn is again is an interesting mix! All of us have different expectations and hopes from this camp. But there is also this feeling of being involved in something big. Startup camps are very rare in India, and this is the first one about FOSS.
The first day belonged to Abhas Abhinav, the founder of Deeproot Linux who has been into the Free Software Business (FSB) for around six years now. He drew upon his wealth of experience and gave us some valuable insights into the concepts and challenges involved in such a business. An FSF member himself, most of his focus was on the "Free" as in Freedom part of the business. All his sessoins were interactive with everybody pitching in with their own experiences.
Today we'll be having the session on evaluating the concepts each of us are working upon. I will present mine there. I am looking forward to it.
The best lesson learnt; the biggest value proposition of FSB is the freedom.
PS: I also noticed that the website of R. E. C. Silchar has been shifted to the Joomla CMS. Way to go Guys! Now I can brag about this in today's session. :)
Tags: Startup Entrepreneurship FOSS FSB AU Chennai India
2 Comments:
Said 
Anonymous, 10:58 PM
Anonymous, 10:58 PM
Very fun.
