Community
B(I)LUG: A 25-year Retrospective
ReferenceAbstract
This talk will be a walk down memory lane - sort of an oral history that will trace the evolution and tell the story behind the Bangalore & India Linux User Groups. It will be told by someone who has been one of the earliest users of FOSS in India (starting ca 1995) and part of the community in its formative years. It will discuss the trails and tribulations and how people from diverse backgrounds came together to build one of the largest tech communities in India. The talk will seeks to identify the critical success factors in the development of the community and how similar communities can be formed now.
About the speaker
Sachin Garg
Dr. Sachin Garg is a hands-on technology leader with 25+ years of varied academic and industry experience. A PhD in Public Policy from the Schar School of Policy & Government, George Mason University, USA; ME (CS)(MNNIT, Allahabad) and BE (Electronics) (NIT, Rourkela); he started his career at C-DAC, holding leadership positions at multinationals like HP, Wipro, and Yahoo. A keen technologist, Sachin's knowledge spans domains and technologies: Unix/Linux, Cloud, Big Data, AI/ML, Opensource etc. Throughout his career, he has been involved in almost all aspects of the software development lifecycle. One of the earliest users of Linux in India (from the time when the OS was still in its infancy) he continues to mentor teams and individuals on various aspects of Information Technology, be they the engineering aspects of software development, understanding the FOSS ecosystem or providing training, developing curricula, and guiding Masters theses. At George Mason University, he utilised his rich technical expertise, practical experience, and project management skills while leading multiple technology projects around Big Data in various domains: health, fraud analytics, transportation etc. He has presented his research at various fora, including the International Data for Policy and World Bank Land and Poverty conferences.
