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July 25th Meeting Minutes
Posted by: servelots Member of Group STM
Updated: 2004-10-11 20:43:32
Category: IT and Society > Meetings > Minutes
 
Meeting Minutes
Date 25-07-2004
Minute Taker (s) Madhavi, Dinesh
Minutes Minutes of meeting on July 25th, 2004 at Fireflies
-- most of it by Madhavi

Discussion with Indu Krishnan about the film:

[.. some comments are missing ..]

[Madhavi] IT has not made a difference. Middleclass urban sentiment existed long before IT.

[Shivaprasad] Banks were major employers earlier.

[Ram] Infosys might try to bring in American ways but cannot; for example, keeping a gym open will be abused, utilities like pens will be stolen. Why is responsibility not included among people, even at Infosys?

[Person from Canada] Even in Canada, where I work, the Gym is closed during office hours and pens are locked, lawns heavily watered even when there is shortage of water, etc..

[Shivaprasad] Four years ago, there were personality and soft-skill development training done to employees. How to look at a woman, and about the use of deodorants.

[Ram] There is more openess in Infosys than many US companies. Critical survey results were published internally so the employees can see them. In open forums, mikes were given to challenge it. There are more than 200 people enrolled in Infosys for voluntary activity.

[Indu] Her story: H4 leads to isolation and hardship. No services are available for them. Lots of abuse and domestic violence.

[Siddharta] How aware are IT professionals in what India is about? "We are so focused on what we are doing, we don't have time to understand that"

[Ram] So are the others. Actually, it appears like there are more IT people interested in service these days. There is an guilt/ambiguity-of-self: India is religious but aspire to be material.

[Siddharta] Swamped in the dream, our critical thinking and constructive criticism needs to be encouraged. Premji's statement over road quality near Wipro, without referring to other roads in Bangalore is an example (of a narrow vision of Bangalore).


[?] What were the challenges in making this film?

[Indu] In this case, funding was not a problem. Some of the more difficult aspects were: keeping one's distance from the subject; getting all the key moments; condensing 120 hours of film into a 40 minute documentary; being involved in what made the final cut. The film was made for a US audience.

[Leo] It will be interesting to see a similar film on Indians in the Gulf.

[Indu] Getting access to the work-place may be a problem there.


Introduction to Fireflies:

Fireflies is an ashram without a traditional guru. The earth is the only guru here. We have lost a sense of the sacred. The search for meaning leads to the American Dream that is like a lit-up shopping mall seducing people to go in. One of the biggest issues today is the water crisis. In this ashram, 15 years ago, the water table was at 150 ft. Now it's at 500 ft. We ignore such issues and ostrich-like immerse ourselves in the sands of the American Dream. Many students from the US have trained at Fireflies. The US has power and resources but no leadership. Perhaps if Mr. Bush had more personal experience in India or a similar place, things would have been different [said partly in jest].

Religion has been hijacked by manipulators. We have to re-interpret symbols and use religion rather than push it away. Fundamentalism rises to fill the gaps people feel in their lives. In the local village, to address water shortage, they wanted to do a pooja for rain. We instead had a discusssion with them on responsibility. Each family took an oath to plant two trees.

The current trend of globalization is not sustainable. Fifty percent of the earth's population would have to be eliminated if everyone were to live a US lifestyle.



General comments:

[Isabelle] Some of my personal impressions after spending a week in Bangalore - people seem more Westernized, more rushed and less friendly. People in other Indian cities rave about Bangalore but I feel it is like a bubble that does not represent India.



Purpose of the group:

[?] Why limit it to IT ? Will it give people the idea that the target audience is IT professionals ?

[Several people] The group has to focus on some aspect - it cannot be too broad. There are several groups dealing with issues related to the environment, etc.

[Ram] There is so much hype surrounding IT. We need to examine what are the real positive and negative effects.

[Dinesh] The idea is to critically evaluate IT's effects on society.

[Indu] We can build a database of people working in this area and their findings.

[Camy] Do you plan to include IT projects to improve the situation ?

[Dinesh] Yes, where relevant. For e.g. IISc students can be provided with locally relevant topics for their projects.

[Leo] Shaadi.com of IT space


Possible names for the group:

IT For People (it was pointed out that IT for Change already exists)
Open Space
Open IT
IT And People's Issues
Connecting with IT issues

(It was decided to give this some more thought and send ideas to Dinesh.)


Future topics for discussion:

Personal stories
"Relevant" IT projects
Impact of IT on social interactions/values
Impact of IT on infrastructure /public policy
IT & development alternatives (people's empowerment)
e-governance
IT & development of Bangalore - potentials and limitations
IT & diversity
IT & education
De-mystifying IT (examining the hype around IT)



Next meeting:
Date: August 14th, 2004
Venue: Center of town (Ashirvad?)
Topic: Boomi and e-governance.
 
 
 


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