WikiToLearnConf India is a global event comprising WikiToLearn, Mediawiki and KDE developers from all over India and world.This was the first WikiToLearn conference which was held in LNMIIT-Jaipur as a part of their technical fest, Plinth on January 18-19, 2017.I am delightful for being the part of it as a speaker.
The topics were mostly around KDE, WikiToLearn and open source.I wasn’t sure about submitting for the call for proposal (CFP) when Srijan (one of the organiser and one of my friend introduced through GSoC) has messaged me about the event since I wasn’t directly related to the community and my topics for talk which I have previously presented in conferences were related to my projects.But normally, the open source communities are welcoming for new comers and thus the WikiToLearn. So I planned this time to submit a talk on the general topic “open source and opportunities” which was eventually got accepted.
The following were the speakers who were ready to share their knowledge and inspire others in the conference.Since my topic was general, it was scheduled on the first day (i.e January 18th, yeah! exactly one month back).
Finally after giving a break to my academic schedule (it took for me two weeks to finalise since it was really tight schedule with the classes :p), packed the bag and the brain with stuffs for the solo-journey to the conference.My flight was on 17th from Hyderabad to Jaipur through Mumbai.
That was my first journey to the pink-city, Jaipur..I would like to mention here that I met an interesting person in the flight (yeah, an advantage of being a solo-traveller) who made sure that I safely meet my other fellow speakers in the airport for the further journey.
We headed towards the venue which was away from the city.I was given accommodation in the Girl’s hostel. Some of the students assisted me and made sure that I was comfortable there (Thanks girls if you’re reading this!)Since my talk was on the next day, I made sure about my preparation.
The day has dawned for the conference.I had an early morning walk (yeah! it was freaking cold) around the campus with my newly met friend (a bunch of new friends added to my life) and got ready for the talk.
The conference hall was full of enthusiastic minds and met some of the fellow speakers including the founder of WikiToLearn. The conference was started with the talk of introducing the open source and KDE, followed by mine .After the Lunch, the founder has introduced about the WikiToLearn and encouraged the audience for contributing.The talks went well according to the schedule for two days.
I don’t want to personally comment on the talk of speakers because everyone was awesome on their own way of sharing their own knowledge and inspiring others.Regarding my talk, I was previously shivering not because of the stage fear but due to the cold and I wasn’t sure about talking confidently since my teeth were grinning.I felt like my heart and brain has frozen (because I came from a place where it wasn’t that cold).When my name was announced as a first female speaker, I got some courage to do well.I felt more confident when I got on the stage.My aim of the talk was to share my personal experience about how I got into the open source and introduce about the opportunities. I hope I inspired some through my talk.(since I got some good feedback after the talk from the audience :))I will share the abstract of my talk in the next blog.(stay tuned!)
Overall, it was an amazing experience of meeting new people, sharing and gaining knowledge, music concert and Agra trip.It was good to see the success in the first attempt and wish to see many more conferences of WTL soon around the world.Thank you all for making it.My take back from the conference is to start contributing for the WikiToLearn and encourage others also to do the same.
Knowledge only grows if shared!
jaminy 