Dr.Ari at 80 - Make a wish !

This is where it all started...Kanatholuwa, in 1958.

I heard of him in my school days at Mahinda. I heard him as a great social worker. At that time 'Sarvodaya' did not ring any bells in me.

After university I worked in many places - then I quit. I thought I will not work any more in an organization. Then I landed in Sarvodaya - by accident. People told me many negative stories. They asked me not to go there. I reflected - I wanted to do something new, I decided to be awakened.

I saw something amazing inside Sarvodaya. Something that you can experience wholeheartedly. I cannot put that in to words. It is a direct experience, that changed my life.

We all call Dr.Ari affectionately as "Loku Sir". I meet him always, when I am in trouble.

I learnt from him...
How to take my own initiative, and make my own goal
How to be humble in achieving my goal
How to see the big picture
How to be patient when everything crumbles around you
How to be a proactive listener
How to empower my self, before empowering anybody...

Happy Brithday Loku Sir ! I wish you all the very best and good health, to bring sanity in these troubled times. 

Fusion created a web space to collect thoughts from all around the world.
In creating this space, and looking at these comments now flowing through, I realized the far reaching effect of his global foot print.

Please leave your wish here > http://fusion.lk/wishdrari/

It takes only 2 minutes. I promise, it is very user friendly.

India, Get Your Business Online !

Google has started giving free websites to Indian small and medium enterprises.

Context: 

India is the world’s 2nd biggest mobile phone market with about 870 million. Internet penetration is about 100 million, or less than a tenth of a country of 1.2 billion, still making it the world’s 3rd-biggest Internet user market. 8 million small and medium businesses, of which about 400,000 have a website and 100,000 have active online presence.

What the Indian enterprise gets...

• Free, easy-to-build, professional website
• Free .in domain name and hosting for one year
• Free email addresses
• Free 365 days support

To register, the enterprise need...

an identification document, either a permanent account number, or a tax deduction account number or a corporate identification number. 

After the first year, the enterprise would have to pay a nominal charge if they wish to renew their domain name.

I think this is a neat initiative. Of course Google would have a business plan behind, ranging for years to come. They do have the investment muscle, so why not? Opening internet up for small and medium enterprises is a clever move. Wish we also had this for Sri Lankan enterprises.

Cancer: Steve Jobs and my neighborhood

Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. He was one of the richest in the world. He left his empire, and loved ones - money could not make him live another day.

A 2 year old kid and a 50 year old lady in my neighborhood are diagnosed with cancer.
They are on treatment. I wish them good health.
While everyone in a state of shock, it reminds me, life is short - really short.

When you meet someone with cancer, do not try to share the pain. He’s already in pain. He does not need you also in pain. He needs to release his pain.

You can try to make him smile.

I remember the days, I used to visit my mother’s sister, who had just been amputated by diabetes. I meet her with all smiles and make her laugh. I did the same for other patients in the ward. Doctors did not like me first, but I made them laugh too.! Few days later, patients would share their funny stories with me. They were waiting for me to come - not for food - but for laughs.

As I said, life is short. It is the truth. You and I may never know - whether we may get cancer, or (I wish) not. But don’t live like you are bullet proof. Live each day as if it is your last.

Androids for village development

Kids at Maharatenna in Kandy, using an app in Google Nexus One phone

In January 2011, when Fusion was discussing with Tag ID, on our ambitious venture in to
"Smart Village" (using smart phones for village development in Sri Lanka), price of smart phones was a barrier at top of the list. Now in October, the project is moving forward with some refreshing learning's.

Read Tag ID post.

Read Fusion Blog.

Thanks to Android OS popularity, things have changed dramatically. Now android phones can be bought at Rs. 13,300 (roughly $ 120) in Sri Lanka. Amitha has done a good survey of models and prices below Rs. 35,000, in his blog post. Read Amitha's post.

Are you a android user? How do you think Androids can help meet challenges in rural Sri Lanka?

An inconvenient truth

I blog about building communities, because I enjoy it.
Your office is a community. Your family, relatives, and your neighborhood too.


We all like to contribute to our communities. Problem is - some may don't like what you do. Then you think they are either jealous or stupid, may be both. You harbor bad feelings. You crave for appreciation, but what you get is criticism and worse, sarcastic remarks. What can you do?


1. Ask Questions
Very simple. Yet you forget to ask important questions at a crucial point cos you forget, because you are busy- and have no time to think. Later you fire fight a lot because you did not ask a question.
"Who has time to ask all those questions?"
I hope you may not ask that question.


2. Then listen
This is the hardest part. You just listen. No questions, no emotions. Just listen. Take down few notes.


3. Think fresh
Go to a quite place, alone. Go through the notes. Make a new plan.

Let's focus !

We live in the age of distraction. Internet is a necessary evil. It makes us efficient. 

Bad news is - it can make us efficient in doing wrong things. 

That's when we have to gauge the effectiveness of work we do.

Steve Jobs : A celebration of Life

Brief Bio:

Abandoned by his own parents, given up for adoption by foster parents, Jobs dropped out of school to follow his instincts. At age 21, he founded a powerful computer company called "Apple" in 1976 - eventually to be thrown out by his own board in 1985.

Shattered, he goes on to make another tech company called " NeXT" and a breakthrough animation company called " Pixar ". Fate has it, NeXT was taken over by Apple and Jobs returns as CEO of Apple in 1997. He stepped down as CEO in August 2011- in the way, making Apple the best tech company in the world, overall, ranking only behind Exxon, the oil giant.

Our future is CLOUDED !

Apple: 

In 1983, the Mac PC, named LISA, had a memory of 1.7 MB, roughly enough for one or two pictures. $ 10,000 was the price tag.  

When asked in 1998, what "i" stands for in iMAC, Steve Jobs said " 'i' stands for internet, individual, instruct, inform and inspire."

Steve Jobs has the midas touch. This year Apple announced iCloud. I get the feeling, that Apple is on to some thing big. Really big.

Recently Apple built one of the largest data centres in the world - the size of 9 football fields, costing $1 billion. "iCloud" will be the central role in this massive data centre, selling set of online services to people to access music, photos, files and software across devices. Jobs said,

"We are going to demote the PC and the Mac to be just devices, we will move your digital hub, your digital life right in to the cloud"

Google Wallet

Finally it's here on earth. Take 5 minutes and watch these 2 videos. This will save so much of your time on learning about Google wallet. Enjoy !

Videos and link below courtesy : Greg Kumparak through TechCrunch review.

GOING THROUGH THE APP

ACTUALLY DOING A PURCHASE

Related Links:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/19/techcrunch-review-google-wallet/

#WSO2con - a hash tag to follow

Today is the 3rd day of WSO2 conference 2011, titled WSO2con

WSO2 has done some serious stuff, and some big names are in their profile. The biggest of all is eBay. 
eBay uses Open Source WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) for more than 1 billion transactions per day ! That is roughly $2000 worth of transactions per each second.

“ Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice "
Anton Chekov

WSO2 got an idea for a conference when they did a workshop in 2009 targeting 50. It ended up with 150. Then in 2010 they had the first con attracting 250, for 2 days. This time it is bigger, global and grandeur.  The event spans a week including tutorial sessions. 

The conference has 5 themes: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform, Cloud, Enterprise solutions, eGovernment & Banking and Finance.

Techy as may it sound, but what I loved most about the con was the keynotes.

1. WSO2: Disrupting the middleware industry - Dr.Sanjiva Weerawarana, Chairman, Founder & CEO, WSO2
2. The Global technology outlook - Dr. C Mohan, IBM fellow
3. Service Orientation and why it's good for your business - Sastry Malladi, Distinguished Architect, eBay.

These keynotes addressed the technology frontiers that will shape the future of our planet.

Here are some startling facts and observations:

• There were 7 billion connected devices (mobiles, tablets, pads etc) in 2010. By 2020 there will be an amazing 50 billion !
• In the arena of customer retention, the big analytic is playing a huge role
• while it is convenient to connect everything, it also allows everyone to get in, making security a challenge.
• Wireless play a key role where infrastructure is not much developed
• Growing countries can learn from the Western societies and generate less garbage and better energy consumption

Recommended : Follow #wso2con hash tag to get the latest updates from the tweeps at the con.