Monday, February 18, 2008

Barcamp Kolkata : Why Kolkata still doesn't have a Barcamp

Why Kolkata still doesn't have a Barcamp

October 2007, I went to Kolkata for a conference called WebOSS '07 and I can probably make out why there's no way Kolkata can have a barcamp in near future. I tried to carry out a Barcamp in Kolkata. My sympathies to the wonderful city where I grew up.



1. What is BarCamp? A 'Drinking Bar' may be...I'm not interested.
2. People don't know what a WIKI is. They don't know how to edit it despite the instructions.
3. No one willing to take the effort. They have all the time to sleep.
4. The so called 'open source' community sucks big time. The so called HEAD of LUG group look out for publicity more than helping to get a job done. I am not afraid to take the name of Krishnendu Paul who promised and suddenly disappeared.
5. The student community is suppressed by the colleges.
6. The colleges are more interested in Placements rather than knowledge sharing.
7. College professors are trying to get some freelance projects all the time.
8. Big shots like IBM, TCS etc. are least bothered to even have a look.
9. Free T-shirts = Bring in all your friends and leave in next 1 hour.
10. Free food = hog as much as you want.
11. The IT dept of the government want to just hold on conferences and publicity stunts to make their place in the newspaper. I am again not afraid to blame the minister for not checking his Mailbox which is always full. And also to be not available to common people without a PROTOCOL!
11. What is sponsorship? What will I gain. How many people are going to come? This is the question which all news/publicity media ask!
12. Lastly, Who's wanting to spoil their weekend!

Way to go Kolkata, I don't see a Barcamp Kolkata until some revolutionary thing happen!
Dear City of Joy, I left you some time back and I don't feel like returning!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

:-( Right said dude!

Unknown said...

Kolkata has no future in IT in near future. The attitude of IT guys here is a clear evidence. I am jealous that I am not able to attend a barcamp. May be shifting to bangalore or hyd will only help.

100rabh™ said...

Not sure of what you said...but then I am not sure if you are wrong too...I wonder if Kochin to Kashmir can have a barcamp whats that really stops Calcutta from achieving the same...Is it that intellectuals of Calcutta are extinct in Kolkata?

Sudhi Ranjan Das said...

well it was nice to read your post...well I am from Kolkata & into online marketing & WEB 2.0.. well I think ur allegations are quite right.. most of ppl here infact [some my friends[ are hardly interested in startups or anything tech..here internet mostly means just doing juggling SEO work for your client after office hrs ..no time for this times when ur getting some extra money..as a bengali too i feel we have to go a long way to organise barcamps or thngs!!

Ardra said...

Hello Hussain,

It would possibly please you to know that Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur is planning to conduct BarCamp Kolkata on 3rd Jan 2009. You can check out the deatils at http://barcampkolkata.org/
The organisation is underway. Hope Kolkata doesn't fail us. :)

Ardra Venugopal

Hussain said...

Hey guys, please leave your email ids for me to come upto you again!