[Ilugc] Re: Another storm
- From: ksriram@xxxxxxx (Sriram Krishnan)
- Date: Thu Nov 25 23:43:39 2004
let ms try and enter colleges .. we'll give them a piece of
our minds !
Hmm..then get those pieces lined up. Since I'm a part of this, let me point
you to some stuff
The MSDNAA (www.msdnaa.net) - Provide software to colleges and students for
huge discounts. Around 250+ colleges in Tamil Nadu itself in the short time
since it was launched.
www.microsft.com/india/academia - Check out their student champ programs.
Also, their faculty training programs (which most colleges want and a lot of
colleges are getting). At last count, over 300 student champs (each
representing a college) and several hundreds more trying to get in. I know
'coz I take care of part of the approval process in Chennai.
www.studentprojectprogram.com - Thousands of students ( I think some 45,000
the last time I checked ) from around the country doing projects with
Microsoft's help, guidance and software. First reviews are happening in
Decemeber. From the posts I have seen in the various forums, there is
tremendous response for this..and the poor chaps at Microsoft India handling
this are getting run over by the sheer numbers.
www.cnugstudent.net,
http://groups.msn.com/dnughydstudent, etc - The first
group I run - it has over 1000 members in less than a year and is growing
every day. The second link is the Hyderabad group which has close to 1500
and I can show you similar groups from all over the country. Thousands of
students *voluntarily* using Microsoft software and tools - no one is trying
to lock them in.Also, these groups hold events throughout the year. The
Bangalore group just held something called "Date with .NET" which had over
1500 people attending. The Hyderabad group held '.NET Explored' which I
heard had close to 2000 attendees. I'm involved in the planning of one such
event in Chennai.
www.thespoke.net - Students from all over the world( a lot from India)
interacting and doing a lot of cool stuff together. The Imagine Cup
(Microsoft's annual competition for students) is being run from here.Check
the numbers there. Last year, over 900 teams of 4-5 members each
participated from India for the software design alone.Hundreds more
participated in the Algorithmic and other events. This year, the number is
expected to be more than double that.
www.teched.com - See the link for TechEd Academia. I was there when it
happened in Bangalore (though I missed it in other cities). I have never
seen 1000+ faculty (the people who count - HODs,Principals,senior profs,
people like that) in one single hall. The Bangalore event was held at IISc -
I heard similar numbers were achieved by the Chennai event as well. This was
also held in other cities across the country. The previous year
MSDN Academic Yatra (www.microsoft.com/india/events) - Faculty members and
student champs now can get attend free training sessions on the latest
Microsoft technologies. In Chennai, this happens at Le Meridien. Last month,
this was so packed that people couldn't get in.
Project Shiksha - this is being launched now - the link to this sparked off
this thread.
Microsoft Research (
http://research.microsoft.com) has tie-ups with some of
the IITs and IISc in Bangalore. I think Anna Univ is involved too though I'm
not sure - maybe Sridhar can clarify. A lot of people doing some pretty cool
research.
There are a lot more programs waiting in the wings...and I think missed a
few in this list.
Do you want more? Seems to me that a lot of students like this 'Microsoft
entering their colleges' instead of being tempted to part with a piece of
their minds. Either that or the 1000 people in my group are nuts. Do try and
understand that because you don't like Microsoft personally doesn't mean
that all other students subscribe to your view. People are entitled to their
own opinions -and a lot of them choose to exercise that right.
Sriram
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