Weekend log

It was a busy weekend, last one. On Saturday morning I had to dust curtains, vacuum the floor of the entire house as my sister had called up and said she would be moving in for couple of days to be with mother. She wouldn't like it if it isn't clean and things aren't organized! And then Murali was here to discuss about Tech Sampada, which is a new initiative on Sampada that we're coming up with (with an ambitious plan of getting people to write about technology, and developments surrounding technology in Kannada). Interviews we had recorded with Prof. U R Rao, Prof. C N R Rao (in Kannada) would be featured during the launch of the portal. But of course, Saturday evening was the program where Professor Eben Moglen was to give a talk. I was listed as a guest on that program despite me insisting strongly that I would rather just join in like everyone else. Professor's talk was enlightening. The clarity with which he spoke was so good that people listening to him seemed overwhelmed and filled with admiration. Not many among that audience, I bet, would have known much about the Professor before. The event was arranged by Avadhi originally for Kannada bloggers, but I couldn't see many familiar faces in the audience. Many of those who participated were from the Free Software Users Group. And I felt that there wasn't much Kannada audience too. Hence, when my turn came for the talk (and since I was supposed to talk in Kannada), I just kept it to the basics and spoke for 10 minutes or so. On Sunday, it was Wikipedia time. Many from the old Wikipedian crew had turned up for lunch with Jimmy Wales. It was nice meeting all of them after such a long time. And yes, Wikimedia India Chapter seems to be finally on the roll. Talked to Su Gardner, the executive director of Wikimedia Foundation and several other folks who attended. More about Professor Eben Moglen's talk and Wikimedia India efforts sometime later this week.