Chat
Topic : Community interaction Hour - “Microsoft India Evangelism
Plans for the Community” Chat Expert : Vineet Gupta, Manik Ahuja, Pradipta Sharma
and Ravi Sankar
August
09, 2005
abhishek[CPM]
(Moderator):
Today we will be talking about various initiatives that MS India is
undertaking for enabling the community to be empowered with knowledge
and resources to ensure your success in technical field of Microsoft
Technologies abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Please feel free to post your questions at this time! abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
We have Manik, Vineet and Pradipta as experts today! abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Manik is the IT Pro Evangelist and is responsible for readiness around
Windows Server Technologies. You have seen him at MSDN Events and
TechED India 2005 covering the Linux Session abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Vineet is the evangelist who has expertise in both IT Pro and Developer
related areas. Vineet works out of Delhi office and will be leading
the discussion today! abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Pradipta is the Mobile and Embedded Evangelist who supports the Embedded
and mobile device partners and community in India. Please welcome
Pradipta who will enlighten us on details on MED plans for India. Manik (Moderator):
Hi Everyone, this is Manik from Microsoft Bangalore, I am here to
answer any question around our Community programs Vineet Gupta (Expert):
Hi Guys! I basically wanted to share with you our plans on the broad
evangelism in the country and take your feedback Pradipta MS (Expert):
thanks for the intro, Abhi! Let's first take the questions fielded
by the guests, & if we have time after that, we can elaborate
on the specific initiativesbeing planned around MED space ... Vineet Gupta (Expert):
Broadly the way we are looking to do broad evangelism is as follows:
a) Do bigger, better, fewer events. You will see this in the forthcoming
set of events we will do in Aug and Sep
b) Provide forums for interaction with the community online - There
is an online entity planned to be launched in a couple of months which
will act as a centerpoint for our online work
c) Help you guys develop deeper expertise in your chosen areas of
technology by building Special Interest Groups on specific technologies Vineet Gupta (Expert):
Karthik you asked about IT chapters in the country .... well I do
not know about what you mean by IT Chapters, but we think about community
from two perspective - one how do we bring people close together by
virtue of their interest in technology. That's where Special Interest
Groups (SIGs) come in. More on SIGs in a minute. The second perspective
is: how do you get people in the same city together, and the answer
to that is User Groups. Vineet Gupta (Expert): Q: Please elaborate on the Special Interest Groups A: Think of a Special Interest Group as an virtual
group (online) which brings together people based on their interest
on a specific technology. These groups would have their presence on
the online entity which I mentioned a minute back. Each SIG would
be nation-wide (obviously - you are online!) and have a SIG owner
- an evangelist who is a specialist in that technology. There maybe
local chapters of a SIG and you could think of them as "SQL UG",
".Net UG", "Core Windows UG", etc. abhishek[CPM] (Moderator): Q: Hi everyone, What is happening to the Community
Star program? A: Community Star Program is soon to be relaunched
as ACE - Award for Customer Excellence. you will see much more professionalised
service around Community Star. At this time, we can't tell you the
specific date for the launch but for sure tell you that it is going
to be launched before Oct 2005 Manik (Moderator):
Hi Karthik, the Community Star program in undergoing a revamp and
would be re-launched soon, I believe Abhishek has more information
about the same and maybe he would like to comment on the same too. Vineet Gupta (Expert): Q: Are the events coming up in Aug and Sep 2005 specific
to IT pros ? A: No the events in Aug and Sep are targeted at both
IT Pros and Developers. This is the same MSDN / TechNet set of events
we used to do. The differences are as follows:
1. In each city, we do a two day event - sessions on day one and HOLs
on day two. There are two tracks - IT Pro and Developer and we do
four sessions (two hours duration each) / track on day one. We then
do four HOLs (two hours duration each) on day two. Vineet Gupta (Expert):
Correction. We are doing 4 tracks / city. Architect and MED besides
Dev and IT Pro. Manik (Moderator):
Hi Anand, please have a look at the following url http://www.microsoft.com/india/events/allevents.aspx Manik (Moderator):
that link has all the details for the events, registration, dates
and session topics Vineet Gupta (Expert): Q: What is Microsoft India doing to build communities
and foster students efforts in non-metro locations (i.e. students
from locations other than Bangalore, Hyd, Mumbai, etc) ? A: There are two parts to the question. I can answer
the first part on non-metros.
To build communities in non-metros, we are doing a set of events
atleast twice in an year in the following cities: Trivandrum, Chandigarh,
Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Colombo. Now the idea behind these events is
not only to talk technology but also to get these people online and
participate in activities. abhishek[CPM] (Moderator): Q: which are those cities A: All details are available on the following URL
http://www.microsoft.com/india/events/allevents.aspx.
For the Aug and Sept events, we are doing events in Kolkatta, Trivandrum,
Ahmedabad and Chandigarh Vineet Gupta (Expert): Q: I repeat, what is Microsoft India doing to build
communities and foster students efforts in non-metro locations (i.e.
students from locations other than Bangalore, Hyd, Mumbai, etc) ? A: Sorry - I was late in answering your question.
The first part I have already answered. For the second part, there
is a lot of work which our academic team is doing to foster student
efforts in non-metros. But I am not well versed enough on the plans
to be able to talk about them. However, we do want your feedback on
our non-metro strategy. What else do you think we should do about
this? abhishek[CPM] (Moderator): A: another take at it : Microsoft encourages creation of
User Group communities within campuses. there UG communities are run
by Student champs and Student ambassadors. Apart from the campus UGs,
we have Imagine Cup 2005 and the one of a kind Student Project Program
in India. to further connect Indian students with students worldwide,
a community portal exists at: www.thespoke.net.
you can get more details about student initiatives in India at: http://www.microsoft.com/india/msdn/academia/ kaushal (Expert): Q: I repeat, what is Microsoft India doing to build
communities and foster students efforts in non-metro locations (i.e.
students from locations other than Bangalore,Hyd, Mumbai, etc) ? A: Anindo, we will be playing host to Imagine Cup
'06, where students from all over India will be participating. Ravi Sankar (Expert): Q: How it differs from news groups existing today
? A: The SIGs are going to be owned by evangelists
and they make sure that the queries are answsered. Also they will be
posting contents on various technology areas that they own Vineet Gupta (Expert):
To add to what Ravi said, a SIG is way more than a newsgroup discussion
forum. It is a one-stop shop for all info you need on the topic. Think
of it this way:
You login on the online site and you have indicated your main area
of interest. You visit the area and you see the following:
a) A discussion forum
b) A news feed
c) Links to experts blogs on that area - your local friends in India
d) Links to all significant MS content on the area
e) Calendar of events, activities, UG meetings on that area
f) Links to articles, workspaces, tools by members of the SIG
g) Links to chats, webcasts on the SIG done by the SIG members.
There is more, but that about captures it. kaushal (Expert): Q: Kaushal, how would the students in the interior
locations even know about the contest ? [BTW its Anando] A: the Imagine Cup Finals in India will be promoted
extensively- online , perhaps also via mass media - TV & press. abhishek[CPM] (Moderator): Q: Kaushal, how would the students in the interior
locations even know about the contest ? [BTW its Anando] A: and we would be greatly interested in listening
to any suggestions that you might have. you have the unique perspective
on non-metro students yourself being from Dehradun. abhishek[CPM] (Moderator): Q: how many IT chapters do we have in the country
now & what is the vision for its growth? A: we have many locally run communities in India.
we are aware of some and not aware of others. you can find the list
of the more active IT Pro communities that we are aware of at: http://www.microsoft.com/india/communities/usergroups/default.aspx.
this list is ever growing and if you are interested in starting one
in your city (if it already doesn't exist) we request that you get
in touch with us at: indiaug@microsoft.com Ravi Sankar (Expert): Q: how many IT chapters do we have in the country
now & what is the vision for its growth? A: We have currently around 10 IT Pro chapters working
in India which includes cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune
and Delhi.. Vineet Gupta (Expert): Q: The imagine cup being a competition, is anything
being done to make the students aware of the MS technologies that
exist, and the various student friendly opportunities that they can
utilise? eg. MSDNAA A: Invites are sent to computer science HODs in all
institutions across India. We also promote this thru our online entities.
We also evangelise about this thru our faculty and student champ programs Vineet
Gupta (Expert): Q: What are the timelines for the commencement of
the SIG? A: Sep-Oct timeframe. We may launch the beta sooner.
I will have more concrete information by the end of this week abhishek[CPM]
(Moderator): Q: The imagine cup being a competition, is anything
being done to make the students aware of the MS technologies that
exist, and the various student friendly opportunities that they can
utilise? eg. MSDNAA A: correct. there are 2 sides to creating interest
in the student community. the MSDNAA and content repository exists
as a push mechanism to enable students to be technically ready the
Imagine Cup is a pull mechanism that challenges the technical readiness
of the student community. any activity focussed on MS technologies
for students i believe is a step towards fostering student technologies.
we don't want to leave any avenue unexplored so that enough info is
available to students if they try and look for the same. abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Would also like to highlight the new initiative we have for companies
who want to foster communities within themselves. we are going to
support these companies by an initiative called "Community Alliance" abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
the details of the Community Alliance program are located at:http://www.microsoft.com/india/communities/introalliance.aspx Pradipta MS (Expert):
ok, i know how interested you guys are in the mobile & embedded
space ... :) so, here's an overall outline of SME activities being
planned around these technology areas for the coming year: Pradipta
MS (Expert):
... continuing from the earlier mishap: 1) Events like MEDC (Feb)
& MED Roadshows (Quarterly) are planned to across the year; 2)
the SIG that Vineet talked about (around MED tech); 3) MED Technology
Competency Centers (in the T-1 Cities to start wit); 4) Quarterly
MED-in-a-Box; 5) Win MED Labs at most T-1 & T-2 cities (in all
probability in partnership with a training org); 6) Community-initiated
& Microsoft-supported Quarterly projects; etc. abhishek[CPM]
(Moderator):
Thanks for the suggestion! We will pass it on to the academia team
as well. As an info nugget, we launched the Partners in Learning (PIL)
program in India to address the high school space. More details at:
http://www.microsoft.com/india/education/pil/
One of the initiatives has been Project Shiksha under which we have
opened an IT Training school in Uttaranchal as well Vineet
Gupta (Expert):
Though this hasn't been asked, I wanted to share what else we are
doing in the year. This is obviously still tentative:
Aug: 4 x Non-metro cities tour (Trivandrum, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Ahmedabad)
Sep: 6 x Tier 1 city tour (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Chennai), Architecture Workshops
Oct: TechEd Colombo, Security Workshops
Nov: Web Platform tour, Security Workshops with ISVs
Dec: Whidbey, Yukon Launch
Jan: Architecture Workshops, SAF, Windows Conference
Feb: 6 x Tier 1 city tour (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Chennai),
Mar: 4 x Non-metro cities tour (Trivandrum, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Ahmedabad)
Apr: Architecture Workshops
Jun: TechEd abhishek[CPM] (Moderator): Q: Yes. Personally, I was not aware of any MS community
efforts when i was in Dehradun. That was back in 2003-2003, and i
am sure its much better now. I think more students in the high-school
level should be targeted. Thansks for the answers. A: Thanks for the suggestion! We will pass it on
to the academia team as well. As an info nugget, we launched the Partners
in Learning (PIL) program in India to address the high school space.
More details at: http://www.microsoft.com/india/education/pil/
One of the initiatives has been Project Shiksha under which we have
opened an IT Training school in Uttaranchal as well Vineet
Gupta (Expert):
The last thing I wanted to share was who should you ping at MS for
a specific technology:
Architecture, Patterns: Ramkumar Kothandaraman
CLR, WinFX, compact framework: Gaurav Khanna
VB, Web Platform, Web Services: Janakiram M S V
Windows Core: Ravi Sankarand Manik Ahuja
Management Technologies: Manik
Exchange and Collaboration: Ravi Sankar
Database and Integration: Vineet Gupta
Pradipta is responsible for the overall mobility initiative.
So these are the people who will be owning the SIGs once it gets launched.
They will be responsible for mentoring the community on their technologies. Vineet Gupta (Expert):
So what do you guys think? Does the plan sound good? Are we doing
enough? Are we doing the right things? What else would you like to
see us do? abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Please provide your feedback to the team at commind@microsoft.com.
We will be posting the chat transcript at the chat site shortly Vineet Gupta (Expert):
Thanks for taking out time to chat with us. Please do let us know
if you have any feedback or questions on the plans. abhishek[CPM]
(Moderator):
Thank you guys for coming to the chat today and posting your queries.
We conduct the Community Interaction Hour Every month on second Tuesday.
The next one is scheduled for Sept 13 2005. The agenda for the same
will be available closer to the chat date at: http://www.microsoft.com/india/communities/chat/default.aspx abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
We solicit your co-operation in providing this information to your
communities so that more people from the community can benefit from
these interactions. abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
Thanks to all the experts who took time off their busy schedules to
update us on the plans for the year. I hope this information was helpful
to you and we actively look for your feedback at: commind@microsoft.com abhishek[CPM] (Moderator):
We are closing the chat now. Thanks for your participation.
