Colophon : About Us
The Open Source Weekend team started off when a bunch of students from a few leading schools in New Delhi, India came together to spread awareness about free / open source software amongst the global student community via ThinkQuest. These geeks have been passionate about FOSS, and wanted to awaken students and educational institutions across the globe of the benefits of using open source software.
To get a site of the magnitude of The Open Source Weekend takes an enormous amount of effort - in doing all the research, putting all the content together, and making it ready to be published on the Web. Most of the people here have been using free / open source software for quite some time - a few years, in some cases - and the experience of having used and interacted with people about the software helped a lot. Let's get to know the people behind the project...
Pallavi (Team Coach)
Ms Pallavi was the team coach for The Open Source Weekend website project. Being a teacher in the computer department of one of the leading schools in New Delhi, she has a lot of experience teaching some of the brightest kids in town. So when some students from the school's computer club requested her to lead the team, she couldn't turn them down. Using innovative techniques for teaching, and making students learn about new technologies - and the philosophy behind them is something she has done pretty well in her job as a school teacher. Indeed, her guidance and feedback helped us throughout the process of making the site; and we aren't just saying that just for the sake of saying it. Her experience as a dynamic teacher, and her feedback, helped us identify what exactly students would be wanting to read in a particular section, which articles had too much jargon in them (it may be easy for us, but not for all students), what things could be explained in an easier way, et al.
Anurag (Assistant Team Coach)
Anurag worked as the assistant coach for The Open Source Weekend website. He guided us and helped us with the technical aspects of our website, especially with the JavaScript resources. His help made us make the site more interactive for the end-user.
Ankur aka CEO - Chief Evangelist (Open Source)
Ankur is a 17-year-old guy on The Open Source Weekend team who is the most fanatical about free / open source software. He creates a ghostly atmosphere at team meetings with his constant bunny-like laughter, which can be triggered off at the smallest jokes. Ankur has been using Linux and associated open source software for a very long time, and thus is an invaluable addition to the team with his experience. His hobbies include blogging (which he is very passionate about), quizzing (which he is also very passionate about), and not studying too much at school (which he is most passionate about). The idea of this site was conceptualized by Ankur; and most of the content on this site was edited by him. Being passionate about quizzing (having won accolades in a few major quizzes too), he knew a lot of the background history, apart from the experience gained using FOSS for a long time.
Prashanth aka Jimi Hendrix
Talkative, proactive and witty, 17 year old Prashanth was one of The Open Source Weekend's lead content writers. Having done in-depth analysis of several open source options, he wasn't just the guy for a whole lot of the ideology part, but also for the videos on the site. He is a power user running two boots on his PC of Windows Vista, and his favorite, Ubuntu. Although he spends infinitesimally small amounts of time on the former platform, he keeps them installed just to show people what actually rules! Being associated with using Linux for quite a while, and fairly fascinated by the way things work in it, he was the man for some of the Linux-based tutorials, and a bit of ideology. Although not the most regular one the forums, and also not the one who punctually obeyed the deadlines, a hefty chunk of the site's content can be credited to him despite facing odd odds such as 'unreliable' Internet service from one of India's leading ISPs, wicked power cuts and of course, Indian examinations which always tend to happen around the spring months of India. He is into activities such as quizzing, speaking, singing and even blogging.
Varun aka Dmitri
Quick and efficient, 18-year-old Varun was on the lead designers on The Open Source Weekend team. A veteran in the field of web designing, he has won many accolades for his forte. Very few people have this edge of satisfying just about everyone on team with their about the site design, and at the same time maintain design principles and aesthetics. The desire to win ThinkQuest '08 surpassed almost other feelings. The sleepless nights he spent integrating content in are a testimony to his dedication to the site.
Arjun aka Lord Vader
Arjun is one of the quietest members on the team, but this unassuming 17-year-old guy's prowess at web designing is second to none. Arjun has been quite diligent with his work; constantly juggling his studies with work for The Open Source Weekend. He authored most of the web tutorials, and is also one of the chief designers of the website.
Vivek aka The Tech Nut
At 15 years old, Vivek is the youngest member of the team. Although being relatively inexperienced in using open source software, he has written most of the tutorials for the Windows software section. Vivek has a particular affinity with deadlines, and tries to beat the odds and meet them all. His hobbies include blogging, tearing apart his PC and putting it back together in his spare time.
Lars aka The Taj Mahal Lover
Creative, innovative but to much of an perfectionist , 18 year old Lars was called in on the programmers team, to help with the missing scripts and pictures. With many years of experience in languages like Java, Javascript and C, the programming language was a piece of cake, but due to the many difficulties on the Danish network, he was cut off in major periods of the project. Outside of the project Lars is at the moment in technical highschool, where his major is mathematics, physics, electric technology, Danish and regular technology, with programming and gymnastics as minor. After this school year, he’s off to graphical college where he’s planning on taking a bachelor followed by a master degree in graphical communications. Besides the school he, together with 3 friends, is running a minor firm called GLV, making lamps and other electronic devises with new and innovative designs, leaving the consumer able to customize their own product. And that’s the main thoughts behind Lars’ work. Everything should be up to the consumer, because we’re all so different.
Quote: “What would the world be without new-thinking, new-making and nuances?” translated from Danish “hvad ville verden være uden nytænkning, nyskabelse og nuance?”