I'm on the Google blog !!!

Well, I'm on the Google opensource blog again.

My article can be seen here,
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2012/02/road-not-taken-adventures-of-post.html?spref=fb

This is the second time I was featured in this blog, and I consider it a rare privilege to have made it here.

My first appearance on the Google blog was right after my visit to last years OpenMRS implementer meeting.
The second (and latest) item chronicles what I've gone on to do since that time.

The aim of this item is to encourage more students to continue with their mentoring organizations once the GSOC summer is over. Hopefully, my article will (in its own little way) encourage more student participation.

Of course, all the credit should go to my dear old supporters, Dr. Burke, Glen McCallum, Ben Wolfe and of course Michael Downey, who introduced me to GSOC Program manager Carol Smith and Stephanie Taylor (also of Google) in the first place.

Thanks everyone, I wouldn't have been able to make it this far without you !!!

I'm in the latest edition of the FOSS USER LK magazine !!!

The title of this post says it all. :-)

An article I wrote on FOSS and community involvement has made it to the latest
FOSS user mag edition.

To download it, go here,
to read it online, go here,

In this article, I argued the following viewpoints,

1. Most Asian students consider GSOC as a 'get rich quick' scheme.
2. When a majority of Asian students say that they are involved in FOSS, they
really mean that they have taken part in GSOC.
3. Many Asian students consider FOSS as a 'seasonal' event which revolves around
the GSOC Summer period
4. vary few GSOC students actually continue with their projects once the summer
is over
5. Some Asian students will keep on doing GSOC projects year in and year out,
and wont care to take up a bigger community role no matter how experienced they
become.

I feel that these are major faults of many of our students. I highlighted them
in my article to our own Sri Lankan students.
I hope that my message will help improve their own involvement, and encourage
them to take up more community responsibility :-)

Making Progress !

Its been almost six months since I started writing this blog, and I feel that I've made much much progress during this time.

To start off, my knowledge base has really improved. There used to be times when I didn't understand most of the conversations the big guys were having. Things have changed very much for the better since then.

Right now I can not only understand what being said, but I can also provide some sort of contribution to these conversations as well.

I can also say that attending all these conferences have greatly improved my professionalism. I'm not a newbie anymore. Of course, some people out there think that conferences are an excuse for free food, travel and naps while someone else does the talking.

However I've learnt that conferences are one of the MOST important things that help you gap the bridge from amateur to professional.

I'm not trying to say that i'm the total professional now (still a long way to go before I can say that). But I feel that I've made tremendous progress. I'm no longer shy around people, and I've built up the knack of paying constant attention to the speakers. I've also become quite good at asking meaningful questions. In fact, I was one of the most prominent question guys at the last two conferences.

Back at the home front, I also seem to have made some progress in the work I've been involved in. For starters, I've become more involved in implementations (AMPATH) and of course, my favorite, patientmatching.

There are some more projects in the pipeline, but I wont talk about them until they get moving.

And also, I've just realized that I had stopped being the smallest guy at OpenMRS some time ago. There are more new people coming in, so I'ts beginning to look like i'm not a newbie anymore :-)

One more interesting fact. I was talking to Joaquin a few days back, and we were joking about conferences and papers etc. etc.

I told Joaquin that I was catching up with him. He has published about 100 or so papers, so with my two already published, I only need 98 more to beat him  ! :-D