1. Bangalore
2. San Francisco
3. Pleasanton CA
4. San Jose
5. Seoul
6. Seattle
7. Boston
8. Vancouver
9. Oslo
10. Chennai (India)

World Usability Day, 2006 falls on 14th Nov this year!

The BANGALORE event will be hosted by Oracle.

Venue: Oracle India, Oracle Technology Park, #3, Bannerghata Road, (Near Dairy Circle), Bangalore, KA – 560 02
Time : 4pm – 8pm onwards.

World Usability Day in CHENNAI will be hosted by Satyam Computers.

Venue : Chennai Tidel Park Auditorium, No. 4, Canal Bank Road, Taramani, Chennai 600 113.
Time : 4 – 8 pm. Also check-out2005 World Usability Day celebrations in Chennai,

The HYDERABAD event will be organized by www.UsabilityMatters.org

Here are other interesting events.

Global Voices Summit in Delhi ‘06

BarCamp Bangalore is all set to rock this year! Its scheduled to be held on Dec 2nd and 3rd. Checkout last year’s event.

Free & Open Source Software : FOSS.in 2006 is happening in Bangalore from November 24th to 26th
Venue : National Science Symposium Center, IISc, Bangalore.
Sun Microsystems is planning to showcase OpenSolaris, Glassfish, Derby, Netbeans, OpenOffice, Grid Engine, BeleniX and Portal.

Tried selling this to my folks and her folks, but then, there weren’t any takers. What shoulda been a simple 1 hour event, morphed into a full 1½ day event. This meant that we had to wear 2 sets of new clothes, given a ritual. Thats Engagement+Morning vratham+Wedding+ Nalangu+ Reception+ Grihapravaesam entry thingy. Check out the Photos.

And then, there were these RITUALS. Thought i could do away with ‘em completely since this was a Love Marriage. But we ended-up following all the rituals, which were unique to her family AND mine. (Thanks! Additional 200% more MOOLAH got spent)

And then, there were these GIFTS which need to be given to each others’ folks, prior to the wedding. I was like… baby… can we cancel these out? You know… why blow up money on all these unnecessary things? You see, us Tamilian men, neva give up without a fight.
I backed-off (without showing my puraMudhugu) in 1 tenth of a mill second.

And I wanted to split the wedding cost in the ratio of almost 50:50 with her. (Now you know why i was keen on minimizing the expenditure!) Thought that this was a fair thing to do. What i didn’t realize was that, based on this decision of mine, we ended up spending additional 200% more!

Nalangu is one such ritual which helps the Bride and the Groom break ice (atleast, thats how it was, back in the medieval and ancient times). But i saw this as an opportunity to cash-in on all that lost dough.

A few silver items along with some valuables were placed in a vessel filled up with water. The Bride and the Groom are supposed to fight-it-out and grab as many valuables as possible. But even before i could make a move, she cleared it all out. I mean, not just 1 or 2 items… she took ‘em all! I told myself, that its ok to lose a battle here and there. What really matters is how you win the war.

And now its Deepavali time! The festival of lights is just around the corner! We just bought TV, Washing Machine, Refrigerator,Furniture and so on and so forth…. Good that we were able to cash-in on Diwali Sale in Bangalore. OH wait a minute… this means that we both have to send gifts to our respective In-Laws…… Besides that i just gave a 10 month rental security deposit to my landlord and not mention all the other expenditure. Just kidding!

You can call me old-fashioned or whateva, all these years I always used my Debit card to pay for my purchases. For the first time in my life, I am goin actively start using my credit card.

And all this while, i was thinking that, I get to take the call, on how much i wanted to spend for my wedding…. All you young punks out there, let this be some help to you…

Here’s the first cut

——-

Am gettin married to Ramya on Aug 31st at Chennai!
Here’s the invite that i designed. Do land up! Promise to upload the wedding photos sometime.

From FooCamp to BarCamp to DCamp, its time now for Blog Camp , India’s biggest Blog Unconference at Chennai on Sept. 10

Blog Camp Wiki

BarCamp Chennai held at Anna University did really rock! And How? Like a Hurricane!!!

Camp at Anna University :

Man, there’s something awesome about Chennai. Guess, its the PASSION with which the organizers, presenters and the audience interacted. Coupla demos did have some initial hangups, but hey what’s BarCamp without all these goof-ups.

The Ramanujam Center at Anna University was jam packed (about 80 geeks) with a majority of ‘em havin a laptop and connected to the net. A handful of bloggers were doin live bloggin and updating their blogs with photos. This is a new experience for me.

That’s moi talking about User eXperience Design at BarCamp Chennai

This is not my first presentation at Anna University. Last year, i did give a similar presentation on Usability on World Usability Day at Anna University. The audience were very tech savvy. Questions were flying like arrows!

Fun on the Beach

Later in the evening, we all drove down the awesome East Coast Road ( ECR) to Casurina Bay to chill out at the beach!

After sendin down some fresh juice ( man, i got my leg royally pulled here again) by these Chennai blogger gang. ( Sathish from SAP Labs, Adel from Transindia, Shyam, Kiruba from www.sulekha.com , Rupya Ganesh etc…) Also had great conversations with Amit Ranjan from www.uzanto.com , Arjun Ram from www.taazaa.com, Arun, Charles from Zoho AdventNet, Atul Chitnis, Ranjit and lotsa other interesting people!

BarCamp Bangalore is on April 22nd. I am one of the organizers and have loads insights /ideas learnt by participating in the Chennai Camp.

Download doc (25Kb) for more details – http://ouchmytoe.com/advertisements/Training_Head_Profile.doc

For further details about the position please contact jv.rajan@gmail.com
———————–

EXCELLENT LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY IN TRAINING

One of the leading global players in software services is looking for a Training Head for its User Experience Management division

POSITION: Training Head

Reporting Structure: Reporting to the group’s competency head

Job Description:

The User Experience Management group is amongst the largest such specialized competency practices in Asia-Pacific. With clients and business presence across several countries and regions, the group is looking for a suitable candidate to spearhead its global training initiatives. These initiatives include internal training as well as training as a service offering to clients.

The Training Head will:

Candidate Profile:
Around 10 years of experience in various aspects of training (preferably with formal qualification in training)
Experience in building and running successful training units
Self-motivated, ready to take challenges and work in an unstructured environment
Prior experience in the IT industry is desirable but not mandatory

Your candidature would be kept strictly confidential.

For further details about the position please contact jv.rajan@gmail.com

Date : 8th & 9th April
Url : http://barcamp.org/BarCampChennai

Just marked my calendar and about to book tickets to Chennai to attend this BarCamp. Apart from meeting some like minded people, am hoping to meet some totally “unlike” minded people here. Lets see if this meet is of any use.

The first Bar Camp in India, happenned in Delhi, last week.
http://barcamp.org/BarCampDelhi

Wondering when the Bar Camp in Bangalore is gonna start. The blokes here dont get together as group often here or what?
Yea, i know, Bangalore is where the action is and everyone is busy working on their dream projects.
http://barcamp.org/BarCampBangalore

Via Kribs : BarCamp promotes the kind of exchange that happens at the best conferences during breaks and late into the night, plus plenty of time for fun. BarCamp is a gathering of those people, many of whom you won’t have met before.

BarCamp is about passionate sharing of knowledge, camaraderie, and sheer learning of what the other guys are doing on the WEB 2.0 scene. One head is never as good as a 100 intelligent heads. If you are are into any web technologies, this is the place you want to be.