In a bid to open up a platform for techies working on the concept of knowledge sharing, an ‘Unconference’ (where all participants could interact freely in an informal session) on wikis brought to light a new wave of opportunity for internet-based professionals.
Nearly 300 techies participated in the event and the highlight was the presence of Wikipedia (online encyclopedia) founder-chairman Jimmy Wales during the sessions. The crux of the event was in harnessing the wisdom of crowds on the power of wikis and joint collaboration, said Kiruba Shankar, the chief organizer and one of the earliest bloggers in the country.
A resident of Virugambakkam, he says Wiki, a powerful e-tool, was not fully understood by the public. ’The focus was clearly on learning and knowledge sharing at the Unconference,’ he said. On the concept of Wiki camp, he said last year he and his fellow techie had a meeting with Jimmy Wales in Bangalore. During that interaction, the idea of a Wiki-camp got crystallized and Jimmy readily accepted to participate in it.
Kiruba explained that a concept of extrabed – being popularized through the site: www.extrabed.in – has yielded positive results for those people who were on the move and bitten by the travel bug.
One could easily stay in a stranger’s place for a short visit to an unknown or unfamiliar place, he said, and added Jimmy Wales preferred to stay in his house at Virugambakkam last week. Elaborating on this concept, he said it was a lifetime opportunity for him to share rooms with Jimmy during the latter’s stay at this house.
Kiruba’s family readily backed him and offered tasty menu to the foreign guest.
On his future plans, Kiruba said they have plans to publish Asia’s first authored book on Unconference by September this year. Within three days of the lunch on Unconference, over 39 people across the world have registered for it, informed Kiruba.
Kiruba is born to Sivaraman (agriculturist) and Kasthuri (homemaker) and he is married to Sujani who runs a web development firm – F5ive Technologies. The couple has daughters.
Kiruba Shankar may be contacted at Phone number: 9841597744.
