AWS Chennai: Amazon Web Services Meetup 13 Dec 07 – RailsFactory – Jaffarkhanpet

Do you build thermal power station to electrify your microwave oven? No? Similarly why do you have to worry about building server farms and data centers to run your sprawling Web Application? Yes, Utility computing makes everything needed to to run a Web Application in electric utility model – scalable, no minimum, no maximum( well practically), and post-paid metered billing. It is not a concept, with Amazon Web Services it is a compelling reality. With AWS, you can forget infrastructure hassles and focus on improving your Web Application and serving your customers. And of course save money doing so.

What is Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services is an attempt by Amazon.com to retail out the computing and backend infrastructure that powers the seamless operation of Amazon.com. The rationale for opening up the infrastructure to developers at large including competition stems from the realization of Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com that ‘The biggest cost is – is lack of utilization. It dominates all other costs’. It is also an attempt to beat the Internet tech leaders Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to beat them in their game by leaping ahead and gain entrenched incumbent status in utility computing.

Presently some ten services including limitless storage(S3), on demand server instance(EC2), orchestration( SQS) are part of AWS offering. Mechanical Turk(Mturk) a marketplace for fine grained Human Intelligence Task(HIT) with built in micro payment mechanism, Flexible Payment System(FPS) are very unique and interesting AWS offerings.

Why AWS is Interesting

If you are a startup, you can get started on your idea/concept without spending upfront on infrastructure. Without worry about growing and scaling infrastructure with growth. This eliminates risks( tech investments depreciate rapidly with ever decreasing half lives!) and reduces cost of failure.

The AWS building blocks offers enormous opportunity for ‘thin layers of value addition’ on top of AWS thereby unleashing entrepreneurial creativity.

AWS is a successful use case of Service Oriented Architecture(SOA). If architecture, infrastructure, capacity building and utilization interests you, AWS is a compelling case study.

AWS is powered by a thriving community of developers and entrepreneurs. The emerging era of opensource and social media makes AWS community worth taking a closer look.

AWS Chennai Meetup

Amazon Web Services Meetup is a place for present and prospective AWS users to network and exchange notes. On the Dec 13 meeting at RailsFactory, Jinesh Varia, AWS evangilist from Amazon will outline Amazon Web Services compelling propositions. It is an opportunity to network with other startups and developers with interest in the domain. Demos and 1:1 meeting opportunities are also part of the scheduled activities.

The program is scheduled for 5:00 pm. 1:1 meeting with Jinesh to discuss your specific requirement and your AWS feedback/wishlist are possible at the venue from 2:00pm onwards. The venue(RailsFactory) is just off the Jaffarkhanpet bridge near Kasi Theater junction.
More details and registration at the AWS Chennai Wiki. Demos and AWS user experience sharing in Speed Geeking fromat – check it out!

Join the fun. Rush, (unlike AWS )capacity is limited

Sat Morning idle cartooning

Amazon Kindle: Fake Jeff Bezos Anyone?

After giving Google, Yahoo, Microsoft(GYM) run for their money through Amazon Web Services, Jeff Bezos is now angling to disrupt Apple’s cart! Amazon Kindle( via C|net) is the new iTunes+iPod+iPhone for books sans PC, Phone, or back lit display.

Interestingly, Amazon Kindle is also a (top)blog reader, throw in Amazon Short into the equation – boom there is a new way to monetize written content. Another interesting combination will be access to Amazon Grocery + Amazon Prime + Amazon Kindle – save time grocery shopping and use the time to read a short! Amazon Kindle as a handle(end point) to Flexible Payment Service(FPS) has lot of disruptive potential.

It is just a matter of time to get games integrated into such a device and that will make it wholesome entertainment. Amazon Kindle is very strong on async communication( supports email, and no voice) – perhaps a good addition to the tapestry of digital culture.

PS: Fake Jeff Bezos spotted in SecondLife selling digital planet by the slice! Just kidding.

BarcamBangalore5, Here I Come!

I’m off to BarcamBangalore5.

I’ll be talking about SecondLife, and particularly about Treepu. I will be explaining Avatar Voodo a mashup of SecondLife with Amazon Mturk. And also publicize the AWS Chennai meetup.

Put your Social Media Savvy to Good Use – Work for Acumen

Yasmina Zaidman of Acumen Fund – Entrepreneurial Solutions to Global Poverty wants new media, blogging and social media maven to be part of their team. Seth Godin is part of the Advisory board and throwing his weight to hire the right candidate!

New media and non-profits makes a deadly combination. For instance, a SecondLife savvy non-profit can leverage the medium pretty well. Non-profits are looking for people with either time or money or better still both. SecondLife is a medium where people have the time, the tech savvy and of course the disposable cash. All that the non-profit needs to do is engage the Avatars to advance their cause!

Let us learn from Acumen…

AWS Chat:Edmund Earp(Lars Kotthoff) presenting S3 based backup in RL, SL event

Edmund Earp(Lars Kotthoff) presenting S3 based backup at Amazon Dev Island, SecondLife

Originally uploaded by labsji

Lars Kotthoff giving a presentation on a Ruby script he has developed for backup using Amazon S3 . The presentation in English was presented with the voice feature of SL.

The Second Life portion of the meeting took place in the Conference Center on the Amazon Developers 1 Island at 9 PM Second Life Time (that’s the same as Pacific Standard Time) onwards on Friday, November 9th.

The RL portion at Tokyo on November 10th at 14:00 JST at the following location:

Cerego Japan Offices
Ninomiya Bldg, 4F
18-4 Sakuragaoka-cho
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Avatars attended from across the globe from Japan, Seattle, Vancouver, Colorado, Chennai etc.

More phoots…
Too bad there was no Inworld streaming, The chat took place with just the voice feature of SL.

I was wondering if there will be Ikebana and Kiminos to wear. But there was only much secondlife fidgeting. Also wondering if doing unconference via specialized systems like SecondLife will make evangelism more sustainable or less.

Photo Snap Chennai from Afar with SecondLife

Not there in Chennai during Nov 3, 3:11pm Sanp Shot Evant? Now you can participate via SecondLife, With the unique method of spilling SecondLife Avatar Interaction to real life( Avatar Voodo), it can be made real!