Bangalore with Mahiti

Dear Plone Board, Greetings ! This is Sreekanth S Rameshaiah. I represent Mahiti.org. We are based in Bangalore, India. I have attached a one-pager about mahiti.org to this proposal. First of all I would like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to submit proposal for the Plone-Conference 2005. Proposal: Mahiti would like to organise the Plone Conference 2005 in Bangalore, India for 3 days. Mahiti has successfully organised following International events in the past. * OneWorld South Asia partner training programme for participants from 4 south asian countries . * Media workshop for South Asian Women journalists for 6 days. * Workshop on use of ICT in SME (in collaboration with University of Manchester) * AsiaSource 2005 ( 140 People from 40 countries from around the world participated in this event) Preferred Time: any time between September - November will be ideal. If possible we suggest that the conference be used as event to launch the some major release of Plone/ Plone products. Some of the silent features of the City of Bangalore that may add-up to the value of the event include: # Bangalore is directly connected to Many international destinations through direct flights. Bangalore is extremely well connected to Train and National Highways! Flights are only expensive in December - January as its a tourist season. India is a commonwealth state known for its non-aggressive foreign policy. People from 40 different countries visited India for AsiaSource including some from Pakistan and Afganistan. # Currently USD 1.00 = 44 Rupees. 1 Euro = 60 Rupees. People from almost every country will find Bangalore quite affordable. We can get hotel rooms for rent starting from $5.00 to $500.00. Many hotels has websites and accept on-line booking. Average meal for 2 in a good restaurant costs Euro 2.00. Mug of beer costs Euro 50 cents or less. # Proposed venues have many of the equipment needed for the event and provide the same on rental basis to the organisers of the event. Also there are many vendors who specialise in equipment rentals for events. Mahiti has some equipment available in-house as we conduct events regularly. # We propose a participation fee of $20 for people in south asia ( we are open to expanding this list to include other countries having low dollar conversion rates in consultation with the PF ) and $50 for participants from rest of the world. # Proposed Venues: * JRD Tata Auditorium ( support 5 parallel tracks of 750, 250, 120, 90, 60 people each ) * Ambedkar Bhavan ( Supports 4 tracks of 1200, 500,250, 250 each) * There are at least 10 5-star hotels with conference facilities to support multiple tracks. # The conference expense includes cost of Lunch ,tea + snacks everyday and one gala dinner on the final day of the event. # We will get sponsorship for the event. One of the key focus will be to get big IT companies in India to come forward and sponsor the event. # In consultation with plone foundation we will setup a media desk and facilitate Press-Releases and Media coverage for the event. Mahiti has contacts in both India and International media to enable this during the event. # Bangalore if known a PUB-City of India and has plenty of night-life for those interested # Bangalore is close to many major tourist destinations of India Also Mahiti will conduct this event in a not-for-profit basis and any additional money thats unspent will be given back to PF along with the copy of the book-of-account of the event. About Mahiti MAHITI aims to provide affordable and appropriate Information Technology services. We specialise in the areas of web / Intranet / kiosk / multimedia applications, consultancy and training. We design and execute projects in the areas of resource mobilisation, collaboration, advocacy, e-governance, e-commerce, process automation, supply chain management, content management systems and knowledge sharing. We specialize in implementation of Free & Open Source Software. SOFTWARE SERVICES:- Over the last 6 years we have serviced more than 500 clients directly. And around 3000 clients indirectly. Our clients are spread across south Asia, UK, USA, south America. They include Ashoka.org, Indian Foundation for the Arts, Institute for Bio-Informatics, Explocity Pvt. Ltd., Geopost UK, Cristain AID, University of Manchester, One-World, CCF, National Law School of India University, IIMB, IISc, I2 Technologies, Datacons, Datamations, Eximsoft, Mindtree Consulting and Aztec. MANAGEMENT SERVICES:- MAHITI is also institutional CTO for Tarahaat.com [Rural ICT Project], ICICIcommunities.org [Donation Portal for the Indian voluntary sector funded by ICICI Bank] and Explocity.com [City Centric Portal funded by NewsCorp]. As institutional CTO we play a wide range of roles from envisioning the technological road map right through to design, development, deployment and withdrawal. DESIGN SERVICES:- MAHITI provides user interface, information architecture and multimedia design and production services. For example a reporting system for I2 Technologies, a study of application servers for Datamations, an automobile dealers MIS for Datacons and a grant recipients portal for the World Bank, interactive courseware CDs for Development alternatives, project simulation for sustainable urban design. PRODUCTS:- MAHITI is working on a fund-raising software to be developed in collaboration with MCC and supported by Ford Foundation. This is only meant for small and medium organization as it can handle on 10,000 addresses. It is very similar to a customer management system. With features such as profiling, case handling and mass personalized email. This product will be licensed under General Public License. NETWORKS:- MAHITI is also a founder member of Bangalore Cares - an online and print directory of over 780 voluntary organizations in Karnataka. In addition to being a core group member of the Credibility Alliance a consortium of voluntary sector networks that represent over 15,000 organizations in India. The Credibility Alliance is working towards enhancing the credibility of the sector by evolving and establishing standards and encouraging public disclosure of information. MAHITI is also founder member technical forums such as the Indian Zope and Python User Group and Indic Computing. MAHITI team members are also members of Plone Foundation. Training:- MAHITI conducts customised training/ workshops. In the last couple of years we have conducted workshops & trainings for University od Manchester, OneWorld, HIVOS, GKP, IIMB, Open Society, UNDP, UNICEF, CristianAid, Sarai, Center for Knowledge Society, Mindtree Consulting, Gandiva Infotech, Basic Needs, Voices, Community Radio Network, Sristi, VIIT, Azim Premji Foundation, Khoj International artist workshop to name a few. We have tied up with Murray Culshaw Consulting to design and deliver technical modules as part of their training ciruculum. PARTNERS:- MAHITI has many partners both non-profit and for-profit for different types of collaborative projects. Murray Culshaw Advisory Services [fundraising-india.org] for communication and fund-raising consultancy. Together we constantly update and maintain a database of 7,500 voluntary agencies. Mithi Technologies [Mithi.com] for multilingual technologies. Deep Root Linux [Deeproot.co.in] for advanced server appliances. VXL Instruments [Vxl.co.in] for thin clients and diskless nodes. Vishwa Infotech for rural information and communication technology strategies. Pantoto for community platforms. Alternative Law Forum for legal and intellectual property issues. Free and Open Source Software(FOSS) advocacy: We have trained more than 300 IAS officers from different parts of India on use of FOSS for e-governance. We have conducted advocacy workshops in different parts of south asia in collaboration with OneWorld ( 200 partner NGOs), GKP (journalists from south Asian countries), community radio networks of south Asia, UNDP - APDIP, Open Society. TEAM:- MAHITI has a 25 member team located in Bangalore, South India. MAHITI is headed by Sunil Abraham, an Ashoka Fellow.