Indian Eye

Cerebrate - How it was born

Back in early February 2008, Me and my social media partner Kiruba were brainstorming about our next social media initiative. A lot of ideas and concepts were passed back and forth, but none seemed interesting, and most of them were clichés .

And then, it dawned on us, why don’t we have a forum where achievers convene and discuss on a variety of topics. Freewheeling intellectual conversations between individuals who have achieved something significant in their professional sphere, and share it with the rest of the group.

A forum where everyone speaks, everyone learns and everyone benefits. We however didn’t think it was a good idea to let it go the conventional route of a conference, and we felt that the event should be an unconference. Or briefly put, an unconference where achievers convene and discuss or ideate.

That done, the next step was to find an appropriate name for the event. One that had the right tone and meaning which conveyed the essence of the event. Two, the name of the event should have the .in domain name available.

After nearly an hour of shuffling between an array of names, we realized that the names fell short of one parameter or the other. And then in a moment of revelation, we came across the word “Cerebrate’, and we were unanimous in our consent. Fortunately enough us, the .in domain was also available, and as a bonus the name had a ring of “celebrate” to it, which made it the perfect choice. That done, it was now time to book the domain and select the appropriate audience/participants for the event. But thats a different episode in itself!

You may also want to read how the Cerebrate logo was designed. Next up : Learnings from the Cerebrate event and the Topics discussed.

Tags: 2008, Cerebrate

Posted in Blogging, Cerebrate, Internet, Opinions, Unconference | No Comments »

Blog featured in Goethe.de

I was part of a small conference held at the Goethe institute, Chennai, where the discussion was on human rights and different perspectives on the same from the attending group. I had written an article on the Mumbai fracas in an earlier post, and this is now featured in the institutes blog.

Click here for the blog post.

Tags: Blog, Featured

Posted in Blogging, Opinions, Politics | No Comments »

The Cancer Within - Corruption Aided Terrorism

I saw an investigative report on the television channel CNN IBN titled Citizen X, that outlined how easy it is for a terrorist to operate in India.

According to the report, all it required was less than Rs. 50,000 for the investigative reporting team to acquire all of these - an Indian driving license, a proof of residence, an MTNL phone, a birth certificate, a PAN card, a ration card and shockingly the Indian passport and Voter id!. And all this in less than 20 days. Incidentally, if you were to go about legitimately acquiring a passport or a ration card the period could exceed 45 days!

With corrupt government officials, politicians and policemen in collaboration, all you need is an interface, a tout who gets the work done and passes on the commissions to everyone involved in the pecking order.

And the strangest part of all, the individual for whom these documents were made didn’t even exist, so you can officially exist and become a citizen of India without even existing!

These are facts well known to terrorists across the border, and infiltration and setting up base in India is only a matter of a few weeks and a few thousand $.

As an Indian citizen I’m more worried, because this problem is widespread and has spread like a cancer throughout the administration and offices of national integrity.
The greater enemy is within, and the roots are running deeper within our system like a parasite.

If the integrity of our nation is at the mercy of touts and corrupt officials, I wonder how long before the heinous grip of corruption reaches out for the throat of our nation.

Tags: Corruption, India, Opinions

Posted in Blogging, India, Opinions | No Comments »

At the Proto.in 18-19th Jan, 2008

For anyone not familiar with Proto, here is what the website says “Proto is a premier event to showcase new products, technologies and companies to a selected gathering. The products presented at Proto are most likely to have a significant impact on the market trends in the coming year and in return Proto aims at providing these innovators a space to attract mindshare, finances, and the attention of the VCs.

Each product will be carefully screened and selected by the Proto Team, an avid trend spotter in the technology product industry. The event would comprise of live, on-stage demos, in-depth product reviews and thought-provoking analysis by industry experts.”

 Got a complimentary invitation to the event, thanks to Kiruba

Speakers to the event include Atul Chitnis(Geodesic), Vishal Gondal(Indiagames), Alok Kejriwal(Games2Win). There are two tracks or schedules - business and technology. I was spent most of the time in the business sessions. The techology speakers, atleast the ones I’ve attended weren’t too impressive.

Of the business topics, the one given by Vishal Gondal(Indiagames) was interesting. For a start he debunked all conventional start-up gyan and gave a humorous twist to the whole thing.

As I write, there is a session on Copyrights and Legal Agreements for start-up companies by Roopa Doraswamy.

Tags: Business, Proto.in

Posted in Blogging, Business, Conference | 1 Comment »

Ban on Blogs in Pakistan

After the chaos over the election dates, General Pervez Musharraf imposed certain restrictions on the media. Now, after the assination of Mrs. Bhutto, fingers are pointing towards the Musharraf administration for the manner in which the whole situation was handled. These are not good times for the General, with public sentiment and international media not in his favour. Musharraf knows the repurcussions of a bad media image, and he wants to keep a tab on it, much like ally China.
Imposing and controlling traditional media is easy, after all what you see is what you get.
With the traditional media under censorship, the outflow of public opinions and views proliferated on the internet - predominantly through blogs. Blogs are an effective medium of communication, and its democratic nature makes it very powerful too. Musharrag probably realised the damaging effects and decided to put a ban on blogs against the establishment.

Unfortunately for Musharraf, the Internet is a complex unorganised medium, and even with the most effective filter and bans in place, word will still get through.

This just demonstrates the power of the Internet, blogs in particular and how helpless a dictator would feel trying to control a medium that cannot be controlled.

Tags: Ban, Blogging, Pakistan

Posted in Blogging | No Comments »