Humble Beginnings
23rd JULY 2002
23rd JULY 2002
Hello members,
This is the very first post in the IITMAA-Global group and I pray and
hope I have picked an auspicious time to write so that this group
will grow as anticipated in years to come and form the true platform
for all alumni of IIT Madras totalling about 23000 at present as well
as future graduates.
I had this vague desire that we needed a truly global group to form a
technical forum in lines with some of the forums of MIT and
others. This desire of mine was furthered when I took time to read all
messages in the moderators forum and struck a message posted by Shyam
Raghunandan 1997 batch, pointing out that after a while the banter in
our batch egroups ends up as a forum for some jokes or some recycled
stories or who is going to India and when messages. There was an
imminent need for a global forum. Thanks Shyam. this prompted me to
post a message "Where do we go from here ??" last week to the
moderators group as well as the 1969 and 1970 egroups.
The response was very promising, with most suggesting that we give it
a shot, what do we have to lose approach.
I have taken the initiative to set this Global Group up in such a way
that admission is only after verification and approval. Also all
members can post messages but will have to be checked and approved by
moderators to control the quality and quantity of messages.
This will be necessary to "keep out" discussions on politics, religion,
jokes and other unsavoury posts. It might be even prudent to avoid
one line replies that will clutter the mail boxes.
My sincere suggestion would be that all members elect to have yahoo-
addresses with the no mail option and read their messages from the
IITMAA-Global@yahoogroups.com web site.
While all membership is by request with proper identification I have
taken the liberty to "autosubscribe" all proactive members of the
1969, 1970, AUSNZ and the moderators group whose email addresses I
have to form a core group made of very proactive members that will
help this group grow and give it direction.
My thanks to Dominic of the 1964 batch in clarifying some
misconceived ideas I had about some of the egroups that assumed were
part of the IIT Alumni. I have also taken ideas from the IITMAA-Bay
area egroup that was set up only in December last year and already
boasts of 450 members. This gives me great hope.
In my next message I will detail the backgrounds of all preselected
members and their unique capabilities and how they will help this
Global adventure.
Let us use this forum for very constructive networking fellows and
please do your best to get as many of your friends in different
groups to subscribe and participate.
Trust and hope that this will get raj-Varadarajan's blessings and he
will help all batches connect by promoting this group to all alumni
batches.
Regards
Ram Krishnaswamy
aka Ramboaus
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It started off as an IIT Madras Global group. One of the first articles posted on 14th August 2002 here was "A Day in the Life of a Village Kiosk Operator" by Elizabeth Alexander. This was all about Internet Kiosks initiated by Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras and TeNet Groups Founder. Ashok being an IIT Kanpur Alumnus suggested that the group be opened up to Alumni from all IITs. This idea was backed by my IIT friends in Sydney. IIT Madras Global thus became IIT Global. Ashok also introduced me to Ex President of IITKAA Ravi Challu who assisted me with membership from IIT Kanpur alumni.
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24th September 2002
HI,
Today is a very special day as the IIT-Global membership hit a landmark of 500 members. In fact it is 508. Special Thanks to my friend Daljit Dave Singh- B.Tech 1970 IITM, owner/moderator of INTERIIT group for his support in this effort. Some pundits said the group will die a natural death..........
IIT-Global was founded exactly on 23rd July 2002.
That is just two months ago folks when the idea came to mind, when I was sitting and twiddling my fingers inbetween Wimbledon matches and One day International Cricket while on a vacation in UK.
Thanks to all members from all IIT's for your encouragement and support.
With Alumni from all IIT's now joining I would like to see the membership grow to 2000 in a couple of months. The greater the membership the better the quality of articles that we can expect from fellow members, do you not agree ???
Here is a scenario:
If every member adds one more to the group we can have 1000.
if 50% add two members we still can have 1000
if 25% add four members we can still have 1000
If you are an IITian and do not know four other IITian to introduce then what can I say....
I am commnunicating with yahoo with suggestions on improving the yahoogroups as a product. If they make some changes, then no one will ever have to leave this group as they cannot handle the number of messages in the "Inbox". I belong to a forum that has 45000 members and no one leaves as no messages ever go to their 'inboxes".
So hang in there folks and stay tuned. We will try and keep everyone pleased.
If any of you have any comments please write to ramrajah@optushome.com.au.
There is nothing like feedback to improve any effort.
K.RamChander B.Tech 1970-IITM, Sydney Australia.
Ramboaus
Owner/Moderator
IIT Global initiative has survived for over a decade now and growing strong by the day. The Secret to its survival is that "This is a No Strings attached initiative" by an individual supported voluntarily by like minded alumni from all IITs
