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.

Powerful Partnerships - Sarvodaya + Microsoft

" Since Microsoft-Sri Lanka inception in 2003, Sarvodaya had been a powerful partner, and we are looking for a greater future ahead "
Mr.Sriyan De Silva Wijeratne, Country Manager, Microsoft Sri Lanka.

Sarvodaya was one of the entities appreciated at the “Microsoft Annual Partner Conference  and Awards Night 2011” aptly titled “ Powerful Partnerships” on Sep 13, 2011 held at Hotel Galadari.

Microsoft’s philosophy stems from Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates’ desire to see as many people as possible have access to software across the world. We see this as a responsibility, stemming from that philosophy. As a result, when a need is there, Microsoft will stand behind that need. Our focus is very widely spread.

Mr.Sriyan calls this “ creative capitalism”. Taking the ICT benefits to rural Sri Lanka is Microsoft’s aspiration, and Sarvodaya-Fusion had been with them from its’ inception in 2003. He links this to Sri Lanka’s climb in global competitive index from 79 to 52 in 2 years. http://gcr.weforum.org/gcr2011/

Yet technology readiness is an issue. That’s where ‘knowledge creation’ is important. Microsoft plans to do this in coming years with indepth relationships with their partners in private, NGO, and public sector.

I wish them all the best for an active role for a visionary Sri Lanka.

P.S: I dedicate this ‘Fusion Education’ video to Microsoft for their whole heartedness in supporting rural IT education in Sri Lanka.

Why should I be on Twitter?

Research team headed by Prof. Athula Ginige from University of Western Sydney, interacting with community at Udubaddawa Nenasala (telecentre) and Sarvodaya-Fusion team

Last week of August, as I explained, had been a week of interaction and reflection on mobile for development. From meetings, seminars, events to field visits, in every instance, they fueled my imagination for a future with great possibilities.
I love meeting people from different walks of life, and I ask questions on their usage of mobile phones, internet and of course social media. Here I note Q&A from 3 youth I met.

Meet X, a 20 year old editor of an upcoming teen magazine on education and entertainment. She's studying IT at a leading private institute and excited about possibilities of 'android' and smart devices.

Q: Are you on Twitter?
A: No, it's confusing !

I promised to do a guest post on Twitter, for their upcoming edition.

Meet Y, a 18 year old, from a remote village in Kurunegala, aspires a career in bio technology, awaiting his A/L exams next year. He uses 2 mobile phones - one for internet browsing and one for voice/text, totaling 4 mobiles and 1 fixed line in his household of 4 (father, mother, younger sister and him). Not only the team of local and foreign professors, I too was in for a surprise.

Q: Do you use Twitter?
A: Yes, I use it to share my knowledge on technology. Also I follow 'Ada Derana' and registered my mobile number in Twitter. So I get SMS on news alerts for free on my mobile.

Q: How do you manage time on social media?
A: I manage my time consciously. I get good knowledge from wikipedia on my Science studies. As I face A/L exams next year, I have cut down my interaction on social media for a minimal.

I was very happy, to see this mark of responsibility and innovation from a student of 'Fusion Education'.

Meet Z, age 30, an artist making wood handicrafts at a remote village in Kandy.

Q: How can smart phones help you?
A: I know Fusion provided a smartphone to our Sarvodaya society, and our kids are using it for their education. I know the potential and benefit of using internet, facebook and other media. Also I know it is now much more easier to get on line with smart phones. But here's the problem. I know I can input my products and contact details on web. I am very busy, working and selling my craft to make a living. I have no time to be on internet. And even if I do, how do I know if I would ever get a response to my requests? If I get a quick response, I would definitely use it.

In the coming weeks, Sarvodaya-Fusion and a team of researchers will explore the possibilities on how internet/smartphones can cater for such focused requests and quick feedback. May be tweaking of existing social media or an fresh idea for a app (mobile application).

What do you think?
Please share your comments here to spark some imagination.