Hey there !
DISCLIAMER :
Hey folks, i am just expressing my view of awesome 4CCON conference that i experienced by being a part of the conference volunteer and workshop speaker. I neither endorse nor express any objective view. The following incidents were totally of my fun and stuff that happened in the national meetup.
INTRO :
So, being around with communities like FSFTN, FSMK, FSHM atleast for a few years and having a huge set of awesome peers and friends, i know to a certain extent how these dudes work during a public event like this. Atleast, i have been part in some other events, which was organized locally in some districts of TamilNadu, Karnataka. The volunteers who worked in 4CCON, behind the banner designs, who worked behind catering food, who involved in accomodation of huge volunteer density, who involved in arranging technical workshops(even in chaos), who took pain in coinvincing university staff that requires tight and right at the edge planning & execution, who designed & coded the awesome website, who involved in handling the workshops, who helped take videos the conference, arrange live updates, creating news cast... and most of the other folks who run here and there without ever knowing why they even actually running and doing things...
and by the way, there are folks like me, who go there, eat food, free load stuff, observe people, involve in discussion, hang around people, raise questions.... you know doing stuff the humans do in a group... :) in short we are the psychedelics of the conference, who keep the groups relaxed, tensed, fun, and so on...
Did i mentioned ? the conference is not only about propagating free/open source software & hardware, policies, philosophies, practicies, tools & sharing knowledge stuff... this time it has marked a significant step towards a social progression, through active civic participation & democratic policy intervention which as a social movement people tirelessly involved since its inception 6 years ago !
@ /.\ ----+------------------------+/ \ | Dude, Enough... ! | | what r u doing there ? | +------------------------+ +---------------------+-- ( me ) | yo, dont do this ! | +---------------------+@ /.\ ----+------------------------+/ \ | afaik, you are a good | | procrastinator | +------------------------+ +------------------------+------- ( me ) | i handled GIS workshop | +------------------------+@ /.\ ----+------------------------------+/ \ | LMFAO, u handling a workshop | | is like saying... | | "i invented double helix" | +------------------------------+
MY PLANNING :
I have registered for the conference to handle a workshop on GIS, to share my learning and experiences, workflow with peers who are interested and liked to share similar stuff. I have registered atleast a month early. That gave me a pretty much wider bandwidth to think about the workshop, and accomodated stuff into a LaTeX based presentation from my notes, block diagrams, screenshots, drawings... u know. In the process i assumed that the workshop would be scheduled for 4 days, and so i have been mentally preparing and organizing the content and content delivery. (U know assumptions are the seed of all fuckups !)
One fine day, one of the organizer, from FSFTN telephoned me regarding something which i dont remember about, and in the conversation, he informed that the workshop will all be held in one day...! That is all, enough for me to put my congnition regarding conference in jeopardy.... and have decided to cramp all the 70+ slides within a day.... ! Lets see how it goes....
Basically my planning was resetted and i have to go adhoc !, which will be interesting to handle.... :D
ME TRAVELLING :
This is during while almost all youth and people were confused about, thinking, contemplating, critically processing their decisions, emotionally acting, democratically protesting for Jallikattu. Just a day or two before starting my journey for the cornference, two delegates from FSMK were travelling from Bangalore, to Chennai, by train via Katpadi, which is when political intervention resulted in their train held up without any further announcement. One of my friend telephoned me, when i fortunately picked and asked me to help them out...
Even with all commotion happening in chennai, people from other districts, other states have accumulated in
Chennai, and volunteering seriously for atleast a month afaik.
It is a photo pic, showing some of the core volunteers discussing about the even management stuff.... :) Don't even think... i was not there when this happened...
We had good time, during their stay over in my home... and helped them travel to Chennai next day morning via bus. Then comes my turn, and after finishing some of the works in home, and taking leave from my home duty, i travelled to Chennai from Vellore 25th morning, helped arranging some stuff, getting to know new people, starting having fun, travelled via train to the station along with other coooool peers and finally reached destination - our venue.
OUR VENUE :
Our venue is renowned B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Tambaram, Chennai. We locals know it as Crescent Engineering College. And the venue is situated near Vandaloor Zoo, which is very near and adjacent to the Vandaloor hill. So the elevation is typically high than in other areas of Chennai on average. However, the most important thing not many of us are aware of is, that the whole area is renowned for its bird diversity and density... So naturally, sometimes, i mean sometimes - but not often - if i can exaggerate - shit shower might occur ....
ha ha ha :). Yes you heard me right !
If one is ready to listen and observe closely, i am sure, u can appreaciate the biodiversity, and health of forest and venue mulched with bird droppings. It is a great place to hang around, and the university is situated right in center with broad, tall, huge, departmental buildings which i have never witnessed in my school or college days ! Coooool.
WHO AM I ?
As usual, i was helping around with some of other peers in volunteer group. Yet i still do not know whether i am a volunteer, a speaker for workshop or a delegate or a individual..... I was literally in confusion how should i react to people's expectation. Then as i usually would do, mixed with the flow and became part of the group :). By the time, volunteers who were organizing accomodation for huge inflow of volunteers and delegates from FSMK, FSHM, Swecha, DAKF, folks from westbengal, and other states, - were under huge pressure to organize rooms in university hostel, including arranging beds and stuff. Literally, people were contacting nearby colleges to accomodate huge barrier breaking influx of people.... and believe me this stuff is tough to do !!!... i never even dared to try...
@ /.\ ----+-----------------------------------+/ \ | yo... i know... u attended | | the conference, jus to write this | | blog post... am i right ? | +-----------------------------------+ +----------+ | pass ! | +----------+---- ( me )@ /.\ ----+-----------------------------------+/ \ | bro, i am ur conscience, and | | this is not fucking crorepati | | interview !... you self servient | | imbecile... | +-----------------------------------+ +--------------+ | ignore him | +--------------+--------- ( me )