kinshuk sunilit aint no, dessert if therez no caek

I have been working in that role and function now for almost 18 months, yet it will be a very difficult job for me to define it. Why am I attempting to define it? Well, all my friends (the Non-geeks) keep asking me – what the hell is your job profile. Guys! Read this carefully and read it Very carefully – I am going to sincerely pour out my heart for you all here – yes I am awesome!

When understanding something, I have always found it useful to begin with the language. The Word “Community Manager” literally means someone who manages the community. So, what is a community? A Community is a ‘social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage’

For a company, a community is the pool of its customers, partners, suppliers, users, and can include Similar stakeholders (government, society, really!). What is important is that these entities are brought together to co-habitat a specific region. The members also depend on the strategic objectives and direction the company wants to move.

So a community manager is someone who manages this community for a company. Savvy?

What that means is that a community manager is an interface between the company and the community. It is the community manager that gets all the conversations done. He uses the social media tools and platforms to pitch the company’s perspective to the community and brings back ideas and feedbacks from the community to the company. He represents the company in the community and the community in the company. He is the one who balances the community’s welfare with the strategic objectives of the company.

In the present day world, where technology is being abstracted within daily life at a very fast pace resulting in almost instantaneous conversations; a community manager can make all the difference between a successful company and a not so successful company (lets avoid all negative speak). He would be the one creating opportunities, brands, and customer loyalty.

In my (not the very) next post, I will talk about some specific activities almost every community manager undertakes.

Take that huh!

This post was originally published on Digimantra.com

Have you ever had one of those moments when you desperately need an answer but don’t know who to ask? Or that all those you could think of asking have no clue, but you do need an answer? Well, Aardvark is meant for you? Aardvark provides you with a platform to have realtime conversations with friends around topics that you have questions about. This can be way much more efficient and helpful than searching the net. Aardvark uses the latent knowledge people have, which cannot be caputred on a web page. All of this, without downloads. Just email Aardvark or send it an IM, and help is on its way.

This post was originally published on Digimantra.com

The OSScamp community announces another chapter of India’s biggest unconference on open source. This time the Chennai community takes the initiative.

OSScamp Chennai March 2009 is scheduled for March 13-14, 2009 at the Chennai Trade Center. It is being organised with the OSI Tech Days 2009.

With the growing trend to open source and a higher awareness and tenacity to open source, Open Source is now a reckoning in India. In our efforts to promote Open Source Implementation and Development, we now look at Chennai to take the initiative and take us a step forward.

The alignment with OSI Tech Days will result in a confluence of Geeks and the Demi-gods of Open Source in Chennai. OSScamp Chennai will bring these together in an informal, unconference environment.The camp will thus be a great place to share stuff you have been working at, challenges that you have faced or the innovations you are making. For the newbies, it will create an immense learning opportunity as they can learn and discuss open source tools and technologies with the front runners of the same.

Details about the camp: http://chennai.osscamp.in
Sign Up for the camp: http://osscamp.in/node/147/signup (You will need an OSScamp.in Accoutn First)
Add talks for the camp: http://osscamp.in/node/add/talk
Vote on Talks: http://osscamp.in/category/talk-camp/osscamp-chennai/march-2009
Twitter: http://twitter.com/osscamp

Help us spread the word: Blog about us, Tweet about us, Write about us.
Tag your posts with osscamp or #osscamp.

Come and Participate!

My existing company business cards suck bigtime (and thankfully I am out of stock). So I need new cards, and I tok the opportunity of getting a new design altogether. So I asked my dearest friend kitty aka yadu to design em some. Unfortunately for me he is out of ideas and time, but is trying his best to help me out. He infact designed quite an unconventional business card but that needed some tweaking. Inspired by it, I picked up GiMP 2.4.5 (these days I am running Fedora 9 Live) and set about the task of designing me a card.

Ideally, a designer should work on what is a very crucial conversation starter – one’s Business Card. But the heck! I have no designer. So i have to trust my logic and my understanding of stuff that is around to do so.Below is the card I finally made. Lets call it Draft 1.

Business Card - Draft 1 (Click for Full View)

Now, I’ll attempt to discuss its features and describe why I think it is good. Feel free to contradict me at any point (don’t forget to log it as a comment).

• For some reason, I have always believed that a business card should always be minimalistic. Carry only what is essential, do away with all the crap.
• It should be different. Business Cards are very strong conversation starters. Something different, something unconventional, something uncommon are great tools to break the ice.
• It should be YOU! Its your card isn’t it? And it talks about you – who are you, how to reach you; right?
• Don’t waste the backspace. A lot of cards don’t use the backspace. True! Most Cardholders don’t show the back space, but when you hand out the card, the person will look at the back too. Dont miss a chance to create an impression.

Go on now! Sort out that itch you have; post a comment…

OSScamps are organized on the lines of bar camps and serves as a dais for Tech professionals, geeks and geeks-to-be to discuss, debate, comment and share their knowledge through demos, presentations and interactions among the campers. It’s an endeavor to gather and collaborate on open source technologies and tools.

The OSScamp Pantnagar community, initiated at OSScamp Delhi September 2008, has announced their maiden unconferece at Pantnagar (Nainital) area. The unconference is scheduled for January 31st – February 1st 2009 in the scenic views of  GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, at the Department of Computer Engineering, College of Technology.

For more details:
event:  osscamp.in/event/osscamp-pantnagar-february-2009
talks: osscamp.in/category/talk-camp/osscamp-pantnagar-february-2009
regsiter: osscamp.in/node/103/signup