BITS Mozilla Club Organizes its first Event!!!!!!!

13th April 2010 was surely a red-letter day for the BITS Mozilla Club for it was the day when we conducted our VERY FIRST EVENT.It was a Technical Projects' Presentation and the driving force behind it was the vision of our founders.Our place being filled with creative and innovative 'Geeks' they new that the students in BITS can come up with excellent ideas to contribute richly to the Open Source World of Mozilla.The challenge was to turn them into reality.Not only this , but also that the juniors in the campus should get an experience before-hand of what kind of work they can do in their senior years.This whole concept led to this Technical Projects' Presentation.

The idea is straight.Project Managers/Mentors will come and explain their Project Idea .Interested students will decide to work under the respective Manager/Mentor on the Project they liked.
The result-A successfully completed Project, a satisfied Manager/Mentor and junior with enriched knowledge in the respective domain.All this to make our Firefox bigger and better!!!!!!

So, the actual event.The theme was ' IMPROVING FIREFOX FUNCTIONALITY THROUGH ADD-ON DEVELOPMENT AND DEBUGGING'.It started with our founders Shashank Todwal and Nitish Varma giving us a brief introduction to the Club-Purpose of founding, activities, club management and so on and also explaining us what the event actually was, respectively.One of our senior faculty from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Information Systems , Mr. Mangesh Bedekar was also present.After the introduction , each Manager/Mentor explained his idea via a PowerPoint Presentation.The audience then shot questions which he/she answered in a most convincing way.The Managers/Mentors were from the Technical Projects' portfolio of our club.It was heartening to see two people from the audience too presenting their Project Ideas after the members of the Club had presented theirs.And rightly so, they were presented with Mozilla Swag!!!!!!!

After every speaker had given his/her presentation feedback forms were distributed seeking the audience to input any Project they would like to be a part of along with a few suggestions they have for the club like the span of our activities, the overall feel of the event and so on.Dheeraj Bhaskar from Club Management then concluded the event after explaining the future prospects of the Club and by proposing the vote of thanks.

It was extremely fulfilling to have an overwhelming response for our very first event and get a very encouraging response from Mr.Mangesh Bedekar who thoroughly loved the concept and the vision.Notices have been put up in our hostels where students can browse through the various Project Ideas and decide on which one to work on.We hope to complete these Projects soon.

I have to mention a few names without whom this event could not have taken place.(I'm just going to do this once.Sure I can't praise you guys everytime an event takes place ...right?..Joking!!!)
Our Founders Shashank Todwal and Nitish Varma, Dheeraj Bhaskar and Srishti Gulati from Club Management, Pritesh Gudge and Yuvraj Aneja from Event Management , Gaurav Jha from Publicity and Marketing , and of course , the Technical Project Leads or the Project Managers/Mentors.(I wasn't out there doing nothing ....I did the compering.....and I am writing this blog!!!)

Well ,this is just the start.Our club plans to do a lot of stuff in the months to come all directed towards the unified cause of "Contributing to the Open Source World of Mozilla and make web browsing a bigger and better experience"


Following are the presentations given by the respective Project Managers/Mentors -

Web search personalisation by Shashank Gupta

Project Abstract-
Personalise your search using browser on client side, predict intentions of user from history and display results based on these intentions.

Web search personalisation by Shashank Gupta

Anywhere bookmark by Akshat Goyal

Project Abstract-
Create a bookmark link to a specific location on a long web-page to avoid scrolling.

Anywhere bookmark by Akshat Goyal

View more presentations from mrinmaykulkarni.

Image video processing and canvas element by Abhay Rao

Project Abstract-
Canvas Element allows fixed element control and enables analysis of Image/Video algorithms as a part of OpenCV will be studied and implemented in JAVA Script

Image video processing and canvas element by Abhay Rao

View more presentations from mrinmaykulkarni.

Advanced Bookmark Manager by Kusum Kumar Madarasu

Project Abstract-
Working with bookmark manager and
looking at add-on development and packaging

Advanced Bookmark Manager by Kusum Kumar Madarasu

View more presentations from mrinmaykulkarni.

Webshot Add On For Firefox By D. Ashitosh

Project Abstract-
Developing a Web Shot add-on for
Mozilla Firefox

Webshot Add On For Firefox By D Ashitosh

View more presentations from mrinmaykulkarni.

Your comments are most welcome!!!!!!

BITS-Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is one of the campuses of the BITS-Pilani university located on the banks of the Zuari in Goa.We are actually an engineering college but the place is filled with various clubs such the aerodynamics , robotics , automobile clubs and so on. A recent addition this list is THE BITS GOA MOZILLA CLUB.Well this isn’t a sudden impulsive thing but the outcome of the tech talks delivered to us by the delegates of Mozilla Foundation during our technical festival QUARK 2010.

Check out our Inductions and Mozilla @ QUARK 2010 here -
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/campusreps/success0910

The tech talks were undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights of QUARK 2010.Moreover, after being convinced that Mozilla clearly had the edge over its contemporary rivals in the market today , Mr.Vineel Reddy , Community Head , South India for Mozilla Corporation enlightened us on the various ways in which we can market Mozilla on a community level.Taking a leaf out of his book , we too have started our own Mozilla Community.

It basically aims at promoting open source , especially Mozilla and build a long term relationship with Mozilla Corporation , CA , USA.So , what’s in store for the members?A lot, like coding and reporting bugs for Firefox, Live Guest Lectures by delegates from Mozilla Corporation , contests (poster making, T-shirt designing ) to just name a few.

So , why promote open source?The answer is simple. We believe that the Internet is an integral component of modern life, and is therefore a public resource that must be open to all. And we believe that Free and Open Source software developed and promoted through transparent, community processes is the best way to realize this vision.

Ok, fine .But why Mozilla then?See, Mozilla does not have the advertising budget of a major corporation, and the hundreds of millions of users of Mozilla software have, (in almost all cases) found out about it by word-of-mouth, through their friends and acquaintances. In other words, it is the community that has made Mozilla what it is, by developing, testing and localizing software and documentation, and by marketing this software to the world.

Hence it is absolutely vital that we market Mozilla effectively and it is for this reason that we are on the lookout for individuals who can conceptualize, publicize and execute these community activities and maintain corporate relations with Mozilla Corp.The club will provide you a platform to pursue your passion and find individuals who share their likings with you and work together for an effective cause.And what’s more , the club may even encourage Mozilla Corp to recruit students from the club!

So , if you think that you can promote Mozilla which has been trying to make web browsing a delightfully pleasant experience , that too, through open source(so that you don’t have to loosen your purse strings at all) then Mozilla Club is the place you belong to.So , come join us, who knows you might discover an interest you would like to dedicate your whole career to!
Regards,
Mrinmay Kulkarni

Hello Open World!

Hey!
This is a test post on the Blog for the Official Mozilla Campus Club @ BITS-Pilani, K. K. Birla - Goa Campus. More updates soon to come.

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RaSh