Wednesday 30 July 2014

My experience at Fsmk was fabulous! I came to know about this camp only last sem , from
 my seniors
 Poojitha, Abhijith, Anup and few batchmates Darshan and Karthik Nayak and others who had been to the camp shared their views about the camp , they all gave an good remark about the camp,My classmate Vaishnavi and me,  thought we should go and experience the same too and learn something useful, and as we decided,the camp did turn out to be splendid and worthwhile:)



 There was a strength of 200 students this time, and on the first day of our camp they gathered us all together and split us into groups of 20 people,  and further into groups of 5 people, as the project group of creating a web portal for sunday schools held by Fsmk, and the volunteers explained the schedule of 9 days to us, where we got to know that the classes would be held from 9am to 7pm everyday, with lunch and tea breaks in between. At first most of participants were kind of disheartened as we we had to work with a new set of people whom we were meeting for the first time, but by that evening itself, it all changed,  the volunteers and other core members made our learning fun and we all  mingled very well  with our new pals,  and  soon we could see co-ordination among all the teams as well. The basics of one software was taught everyday and assignments had been given to us on that very topic, which had to be submitted the next day, we guys would return to our rooms after the classes and complete these assignments .We also had to complete our project by the last day and submit it. First 7 days we had long sessions on topics such as Html5, Css, Javascript, Nodejs, Mongodb(pronounced as Mango Db in the camp for fun :P) , basically everything needed to create a website was taught to us. We were also introduced to Git apart from this , on the 8th day we had a session on Cryptoparty, where Vignesh sir taught us to encrypt and decrypt our data and also our mails using few add-ons on Mozilla firefox,  Also a volunteer from Mozilla firefox came to our camp and helped us know how to use few tools such as app maker,  Xray Goggles. We also had a few sessions by Jnapti on  javascript and where they enlightened us about various websites which could help us on the long run and also a session on importance of women in  IT field by Priyanka Nag :)

 We also had these fun activities in between as a part of our leisure time, where we had games like making an 8 around the ground with 10 people in a line with everyone's legs tied with a tag ,  four cities and so on, where we enjoyed a lot. We also had an cultural day , where the participants were allowed to showcase their talents ,and many took part in dance , solo singing,  playing instruments and finally the "Harlem shake" where most of d audience also rushed to the stage and started dancing randomly :P The cultural day was like a break for us from the classes and project and we all enjoyed with a lot of photo sessions on the next day with volunteers as well,  where we captured a fabulous group picture! :) On the last day,  we submitted all the slides of the websites we had prepared and also had an session on Osm.  This camp indulged us in a fun and productive way of learning,  and thats what makes it unique. All the volunteers and core members had worked a lot for about 3 months and had organised  it very well.  The camp was very pleasing and has certainly been an Eye Opener for all of us and  inspired to us to learn a lot after getting back and also promote glug in our respective colleges and make others realise the importance and advantages of using Free Software. We loved each and every bit of the camp and didn't want to be done  with it.At the end of the camp,   the 40 volunteers and other members who were very sweet and approachable very not just volunteers to us,  but turned out to become the best of  friends to all the participants :) They along with our new friends had a very big attachment at the end of the camp,  and wished we could spend few more days learning together , but there we had an end to the FSMK SUMMER CAMP 2K14.Ofcourse ,it was an end , but not the end of our learning together ,  we all will attend the sunday  schools held by FSMK at Bangalore and certainly try to learn and spread more:) Our parents were also convinced the camp held by Fsmk is safe and worth attending:) . I suggest everyone interested in technical stuff and free softwares to be a part of Fsmk and attend Fsmk summer camps held every year.

PS: Thanks to all the volunteers and other members of Fsmk and my new friends for making my lovely 9 days at  the camp , I will surely cherish these marvellous moments throught my life :)

13 comments:

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    1. Great job n this blog explains what FSMK camp is all about esp for the ones who are yet to experience it

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    2. yup! that's d whole point of d blog. thnx anup :)

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  2. Good first post Swathi! Do continue writing, and doing Free Software :)
    Cheers

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    1. Will surely do sir:) thanks a lot for noticing my blog out of ur busy schedule:) cheers :)

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