Wah, akhirnya selesai juga acara roadshow ini, saya dapat lumayan banyak masukan, kritikan (halus), serta pengalaman bekerja sama dengan Microsoft Indonesia.
Reviewnya lumayan panjang, saya pisah jadi beberapa section:
Tentang Roadshow
The truth is, this is not purely Imagine Cup promotion event. Karena sudah mendekati deadline (less than two months) untuk Software Design, maka sebenarnya yang lebih ditekankan adalah teknis kompetisi lokal Indonesia. One thing for sure, the deadline is Senin, 23 Maret Mei 2004.
Dari roadshow ini juga sebenarnya saya mencari input dari peserta, bagaimana keadaan Student Developer di daerah Bandung. What do they expect, what do they want to hear about, what do they don't understand. I haven't read the evaluation forms, yet, tapi tadi sore ada usul yang bagus dari para GL (Kunarto and Dondy, credits are yours). Jadi rencananya kami (saya dan Umar) membuat 2-day event, Student Developer Days... tandingannya Dev Days buat yang sudah lebih senior. Waktunya direncanakan pertengahan Juni, sekitar minggu ke-2 atau ke-3. Konsep acaranya belum matang, detailnya mendatang.
Untuk acaranya sendiri, walaupun tidak full (90 out of 136 attendee) tetapi cukup lancar. Again, I have not read the evaluation forms, tapi dari diskusi informal over coffee di akhir acara, beberapa cukup puas dengan acaranya (which means, it was worth their time). Hopefully, this will be better in the future.
Tentang Student Ambassador
For all of you asking me about this topic, please read here! This is your starting point!
Di akhir acara, saya berkesempatan untuk berbicara sebagai Student Ambassador. Saya memperkenalkan diri, program Student Ambassador secara umum (including the benefits), dan membuka kesempatan untuk yang siap dicalonkan tahun depan.
Discussion over coffee, cukup banyak yang bertanya, butuh apa sih untuk jadi Student Ambassador? (Tapi tidak ada yang bertanya “Ngapain aja sih kerjaan SA?”)
Student Ambassador adalah orang-orang terpilih (oops, is this 100% correct?) untuk mewakili Microsoft di kampus masing-masing. Syarat utamanya adalah kontribusi dan aktifitas di community, in this case INDC. Kalau memang ada yang cukup baik untuk dicalonkan, why not? Tapi tahap awal dari semuanya adalah to introduce yourself to the community. Problem utama Microsoft Indonesia untuk memilih SA adalah keterbatasan kandidat. Mengapa Universitas Indonesia tidak memiliki SA? (answered: karena tidak ada kandidat yang cukup dipercaya untuk represent Microsoft)
So, I told them to join INDC mailing list, get a blog at INDC if you haven't got a blog yet (and write on it, of course!), and keep in touch with the rest of us. How to do this is at the end of this blog post.
Tentang Student Developer Days (dan kerja sama dengan Microsoft Indonesia)
Salah satu hambatan yang paling besar dalam mengadakan acara ini adalah birokrasi di Microsoft Indonesia dan ITB (but remember, bureaucracy is not always a bad thing). Tanpa menyebut nama (oops, this is NOT 100% correct), saya harus menjembatani antara Microsoft Indonesia, Departemen Teknik Informatika ITB, panitia acara, dan pembicara. That's a tough job done, but I made that one. Next time, I'll pick an organization with less bureaucracy, probably a lab not the department. Boleh kan Mas Risman? The good thing is, I know how Microsoft Indonesia finance department works. Apa saja prosedurnya, requirement, serta document formats.
Rencana Student Developer Days yang dua hari memang baru saja dimunculkan. Month of June because that is end-of-semester for many universities, and because no more Imagine Cup worries in June, except for the finalist team (which I desperately want to be!). Event ini khusus Student Developer, so far Bandung-area only, tetapi tidak menutup kemungkinan kalau dijadikan skala nasional! We just need to find a hotel big enough to accommodate all of them in one place. Two-day, maybe three kalau ada long weekend (update: no long weekend during June-July, sad).
So far, proposed topics are Visual Basic 6 Migration and Software Architecture. We are going to crush (of course, not literally) the current mindset of many Student Developers who code without knowing the architecture behind the code. “Why does a code have to be like this?” would be a common question for everyone.
Also so far, pembicara akan dari GL INDC, SA (short for Student Ambassadors AND Software Architects), and Developer Evangelist (Mas Risman, no plans on moving in the near future, right?).
Let's just see how this will wrap up.
Last but Not Least: How to Get Noticed in the Developer Community
1. Join (and ask/answer questions to) the INDC mailing list. Send blank e-mail to dotnet-subscribe@netindonesia.net.
2. Request for a blog account (and write about things you do, things you find out) in INDC (http://blogs.netindonesia.net) to webmaster@kunarto.com.
3. Keep in touch with the Microsoft and Student Ambassadors. Attend Microsoft/MSDN/INDC events and trainings, build up your own local student developer community and do some event, or just read our blogs to stay up-to-date (daftar lengkap ada di link sebelah kanan blog saya).
4. Good resources to start: INDC Student Developer page (http://www.netindonesia.net/Student+Developer+/default.aspx).
5. Remember, contribute to the community. They will give you back what you have given.