TweetupSL 2 - Yin Yang today !

pic credit: blog.gremln.com

 Small actions create big change. In the last decade social networking revolutionized the way people communicate online. On twitter, each second 600 tweets and 'tweeted'. It's an exponential growth.

Think of it. If we make use of these expanding communications and collaborations, imagine the difference we can make in our communities.

Most do not get what twitter is. Even some die hard social networkers I meet, have doubts on it. I also had doubts. I joined twitter in April 2009, and played around a little and disappeared for one year, until I realized its' potential. (see my moment of truth here)

I am a firm believer of Yin Yang.

It's a Chinese symbol synonymous with Kung fu which describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world.

In short, I believe in Offline and Online - Yin Yang.

It's true that lot of stuff is happening online. Yet offline face 2 face interaction is priceless.

80% of the followers / following in my profile @isura are online friends. I have not met them face 2 face. Today I have the chance to meet them. TweetupSL second edition is happening today at Dialog World at 5 PM.

The hype and the expectation of meeting 300 odd tweeps in Sri Lanka is creating frenzy on time lines of Sri Lankan tweeps. Last evening they were all online, trending #tweetupSL. I am sure they' ll be up today for some kick ass action.

Folks.....It's time to blend. Very much looking forward. !


Related Articles:

TweetupSL official site: http://www.tweetupsl.org/app/


Indi on first Edition on 26th Aug 2010:  http://indi.ca/2010/08/twitter-meetup-today-tweetupsl/

Amisampath on First edition: http://www.amisampath.com/2010/08/tweetupsl-first-ever-public-tweetup-in.html

Gihangamos video on first edition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ikHJ6jp6IYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ikHJ6jp6IY

Daily Mirror article on second edition; http://print.dailymirror.lk/life/132-life/54115.htmlhttp://print.dailymirror.lk/life/132-life/54115.html

Mission of my blog

 Photo Credit: John Lund /Digital vision/Getty Images

This is a very valid question. This was asked by many readers. Though there are only few comments on the blog, thanks to social media, emails and my increased face-to-face interactions lately, I was able to get first hand feedback on my writing and stuff.

FYI- This blog was started in January 2010, with this purpose: To tune my mind to live a meaningful life, each day, one step at a time. So they were just random posts on stuff that made meaning to my life.

Then with some encouragement from peer bloggers, I thought of writing as a routine. Like say, 2 times a week. Then it hit on me, that the more you write, the more focused you get on what is important to you. And while I was thinking on stuff that is important to me, I 've got comments from readers, which was a quite happy feeling. Incidentally  what readers want and what I wanted to write, was kind of the same. Then I re-read my own post on making a mission statement for life. And here I am tweaking the mission of my blog, right in-front of you all :)

Like many of the readers told me, I should write more on what I do at work - e-Empowerment of communities, and how ICT is accelerating the growth potential for social entrepreneurs. Yeah, it makes sense. This is my bread and butter, and it will come from the bottom of my heart, and yes, it will be tossed with happiness tips and fried with practical action suggestions. That creates my new menu at isura.biz !

Happiness tips for [ social entrepreneurs ] , [ building communities ] & [ ICT ]

A stupid question

Section of the Mech Engineering students at the "Social/community projects" lecture

Last week, on 10th August 2011, I presented Sarvodaya-Fusion's social enterprise work to second year students from Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Moratuwa. Dr.Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary, Sarvodaya, gave overall view of Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya. Suchith Abeywikrama & Manoj Silva presented on projects in 5R  (Relief, Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Reconciliation and Reawakening) and disaster management respectively.

This was part of a lecture on the latest module "Social/ Community projects".

Purpose of the orientation is to ‘recognize diverse needs of the society and fulfilling social responsibilities as engineers’ 

Needless to say, I am so happy to see this. I believe this will break the monotony of semester rat race of exams & assignments. As a person been through it all, I am so excited to be a part of this new wave.


Here is my presentation.  This is with few tweaks from the presentation I did for M.Sc students at University of Colombo a month back.
Overall, I am getting valuable feedback. Connecting with young minds is always refreshing.

Sarvodaya-Fusion at University of Moratuwa

View more presentations from isura silva

I started my presentation by sharing this story.

" Exactly 10 years back when I was in first year at the mechanical lab down there, we were given an orientation to the lab. We had this very curious friend, who would ask many many questions from the instructor. That instructor was very compassionate and answered every question my friend asked. My friend was obsessed with the 'power in' of every equipment he saw. So he was checking for 'power in' of every unit he laid his eyes on. Then he hit the bull's eye. He couldn't find power in at one equipment. He asked the instructor, again. Instructor was now having a faint smile in his face.

He replied " Ah.. malli (brother), this is a unit where you don't get power in, it only gives power out. This is a generator !"

We used to kid our friend on this for a long time, but his insatiable urge to query never stopped. That's why he's now doing well as an Electrical Engineer outside Sri Lanka!

[ There is no stupid question. Every question has its' unique context and purpose. ]

In my presentation, not surprisingly, students asked only 3 questions. This was the case from our times too (I studied at this same uni from 2001 to 2004). We were afraid to ask questions, fearing humiliation.

Well, this coming week, it will be my turn to ask stupid questions. 16 groups of 3 students each, will pitch their  ‘problem definition’ in pursuit of making their idea to see day light as a social/community project.

Why I should ask stupid questions? I need to know exactly what they mean by the words they say, and to assess if what they say is realistic to kick of a project. This is kinda BBC's Dragon's Den (a series in which budding entrepreneurs get three minutes to pitch their business ideas to five multi-millionaires willing to invest their own cash). Love it !

5 reasons for why you should be at 'Refresh Colombo'

It's been 9 months since I've been exposed to Refresh Colombo. I presented Sarvodaya-Fusion's work at December 2010 meet up (presentation here).
Many thanks to Gihan for introducing me to Aloka, Nazly, Milad, and Milinda who were behind the scenes of Refresh Colombo from its' inception, and for capturing me on video.

Here are 5 reasons why you also should be there.

1. To connect

It's exciting to connect with youth, the buzzing geek energy a.k.a Generation Y. So simply showing up at the meet up is a good starting point. You may not get it at first, but do stay on. It's refreshing to bump in to happy new faces once a month.

2. To connect, virtually

Once I connect face2face, I keep in touch with them on twitter. It gives me access to their timelines, and vice versa, until I meet them offline again in next meet up. I learn a lot on twitter. Trust me on this.

3. To learn and to be open

I've learnt atleast twenty new trends by listening to some awesome presentations, which are very interactive. I like the Q & A setup. It's an open forum. Each of us knows little, but if you are open about it, you'll learn more. It gets better each month.

4. To be happy

I go there to be happy about the future of this country. So many talents of youth in Sri Lanka go unnoticed, because they don't get a platform. Search for talent is a global war. So they migrate. I don't blame them.
To see Sri Lankan youth pitch it out there and get whacked by an energetic audience is a sight worth a million.

5. It's growing

I missed the last (July) meet up. It was the biggest so far with 120 + on board. I did my pitch in December for a mere 30. Though I missed the latest party, I studied the whole session, thanks to some bloggers who took time to share what they saw.

Indi said,

Why I’m so happy is that groups like Refresh Colombo are growing and that there are kids on Kottu and all over who are interested in Linux or Android or obscure databases and bits of javascript. That’s cool. That’s how it should be. I pray that kids in the north and east will get the same chance. 

 Chamindra notes,

To sum up, the whole meet up was a success and the 120 odd people who came to the meet up got some valuable knowledge on all the topics that were discussed during the evening. Personally, I was really happy that I made it this time and meeting up with all those tweeps was simply great. I wish the team at Refresh Colombo all the very best for the future and hope they will grow from strength to strength to enable awesome talents of Sri Lanka to share their knowledge with their peers and help Sri Lanka to glow at the world stage.

What do you think? Is there any more reasons to why we all should be at Refresh? Do drop a comment here.

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Here are 4 related links to dig more in to July meet up.

Indi's blog: http://indi.ca/2011/07/refresh-colombo-refreshing/

Chamindra's blog: http://chamindrah.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/review-refresh-colombo-july-meetup-2011/

Ada Derana report on the July meet up : http://adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=14304

Malinthe's photo assignment for July meet up is here.
(Picture credit for all pictures appearing in this blog except for Refresh Colombo logo is attributed to Malinthe)

Cups of energy

I was walking down an aisle of a big supermarket. This was after a draining day at work and some 20 kilometers of traffic. Mind was urging the comfort of a peaceful place to unwind. I was itching to get back home soon.

Then these cups took my attention. They filled me with energy. It helped me to focus and inspired me to review my day. The effect was wonderful. Energy can come from very unlikely places. Hope these cups will fill your day too :)

TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More
We can't spell SUCCESS with out U

If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
Success is 10% inspiration, 90% last minute changes

Coming together is a beginning, beginning together is progress, progressing together is success
A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd