Skillscamp or a Study Group?

One of the things I really wanted to do after Skillscamp is to start a study group in Pune, where some like minded people will come together and learn things together, be it a new technology, be it coding some problems or learning a new subject altogether. I want this to be a group where one can learn from peers and do things together and it should lead to some skill enhancement. It's very much like Skillscamp and we can call it that, but the idea is not to keep it that big and diverse, rather focus on certain predefined topics and meet regularly say every first Saturday of the month for 3 - 4 hours and indulge in some serious learning and sharing. The topics can be decided through wiki, (i will prefer it over mail group as new people interested can easily get a quick snapshot through wiki page) I will also like to document all the learnings and sharing through a blog that we can keep open for all the people attending the meetings.

When I discussed this idea with other people the most question I was asked most frequently was what will we discuss there, there are so many topics so many skills. Hmmm... for this purpose we will have the wiki and there people can add the topics they want to discuss at the next meeting and topics can be as diverse as possible, someone may want to discuss CSS and some may want to discuss Financial Markets. Depending on what group wants to focus on we can take up a topic. Everyone does the ground work and discuss at the meeting, which should lead to consolidation of topic for everyone. If it's a technical topic we can code some problems may be together, may be as assignments to be discussed online or in the next meet. If it's a non technical topic we can write about it, may be make some presentations with/to others in the group. Over a period of time we will have a lot topics covered and learned a lot. What say interested in being part of such a group and an open learning environment??

Cross Posted on iThink... (Tarun Chandel's Random Thoughts)

Invitation Email

I wanted to let you know about SkillsCamp - a training oriented unconference coming up at Symbiosis on August 18th.
http://barcamp.org/SkillsCampPune

It will be (un)organized just like the BarCamps we all know and love, but with a special emphasis on training sessions. This is your opportunity to share your knowledge and communicate your lightening intelligence to the community and the world by showing us how to use some tool, do some aspect of programming, or bend a spoon with the power of your mind.

We will record video and screencasts for all sessions which will be edited and made freely available on the internet under a cc license so all the world can appreciate your generosity, learn from your sage wisdom, and contact you when they decide it would be easier to contract your services than climb the same mountains of experience you have crested.

No skill is too small, no tool too humble to justify a training session at SkillsCamp. Remember, no matter how junior you feel, there are hundreds of millions of people on the internet who know less than you and will appreciate whatever small nuggets of wisdom you have to share.

Think of NEO and the Kung Fu program in The Matrix. It all starts here !!

August 18th
Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research,
7th Floor, Atur Centre, Gokhale Cross Road,
Model Colony, Pune -16.

register to attend and give a session on the Wiki.

http://barcamp.org/SkillsCampPune

The Idea

A number of ideas came together in the SkillsCamp concept. For sometime I have been supporting the digital studyhall project which is an effort to use video to scale the efforts of very good private primary school teachers out into rural and poor areas where quality teachers with deep knowledge of the required subjects are hard to find.

At the higher end, I feel the need for quality technical training may be one of the most important impediments to India's continued economic growth. I constantly hear from friends and read on misc. blogs how difficult it is for managers at technical companies to hire competent people. At the same time there are half a billion people in India under 25 many of whom would love to fill these jobs. The gap between these populations is training.

Traditional approaches to training clearly wont be adequate to fill this gap. The population is simply too large, and most people competent to teach are too busy earning good money in industry to spend time lecturing a small group of students in a classroom week in and week out.

The intelligence and the social concience of people working in the tech sector has been striking at the different barcamps I've been to. In the past couple years I have met many people with intense passion and knowledge of this technology who are both interested in how to use these skills to start-up and make money, as well as make the world a better place.

The DSH model (simlar to MIT open courseware) has some hope of scaling the focused efforts of a small group of people to affect change across a landscape as large as India. The barcamp community has the people with the skills to seed this content network with the right information to help would be geeks around the world get upto speed.

SkillsCamp is an attempt to bring these communities together to affect this change for the benefit of everyone everywhere. Really, its win win for everyone involved.

Let's get going

SkillsCamp is all set to rock Pune on the 18th of August 07 at Symbiosis (most probably, will keep you posted). The basic idea behind the SkillsCamp is to have people with knowledge to share give training sessions. Each session will have both the video and screencast recorded to be edited and made freely available on the Internet for all to benefit. Looking forward to meet all of you geeks and learn from you guys.

Freeman will give out the details and the origin of idea behind the SkillsCamp.

Do visit:
SkillsCamp wiki.