Shaastra 2010 and Core works

Funda:
Briefly, at the later half of my fourth sem, I was selected as one of the core group members for Shaastra 2010. Cores are popularly referred to as the "bosses" (:P) of Shaastra and I was made the core for the Web Operations dept apart from my co-core. Together, we also had to take care of the Mobile Operations as well.


Following will be a time-based break up of the things I remember and the things that I did.


March and Early April:
Happiness knew no bounds when I was elected the core in March. Had some core meetings which were kinda "brain-storm" for Shaastra(but I mostly slept through huge portions of those meetings-being rudely awoken for the web related ones). We maintained the applications portal(the 2005 coded version still worked!) for aspiring coordinators to apply. We also put a full weekend+two evenings to conduct interviews in selecting our coordinators. We did select a team of 12 for Web Operations and a team of 4 for Mobile Operations. We also had the additional baggage of the QMS coordinator. So, in all our team comprised of 19 members(including us). And looking back, I have no regrets about the selection of the team--we did well.


Late April and Early May:
After the end sems ended, we had a rush of inter-departmental meetings for finalizing the requirements. We also had a couple of meetings with the design team in getting on board the customized design of the Shaastra site and with our own team before we parted for the vacations. During vacations, I realized how hard it was to coordinate work. And the situation became worse once I joined TVS as I was almost cut-off from internet connectivity for a major chunk of day time. Whatever time I got, in addition to the restrictions on sites, I used it to push through work. Meanwhile, the events team was reluctant in its pace to fill up write-ups on the site and the PR team took care of the blog. Hence we waited and used the time gained there to fix up the design of our main site. All the while, the cover provided by the temporary landing page helped. Work was also a little compartmentalized and streamlined in the sense, the account management across the main site and the mail server was done uniformly. We were also helped by the fact that the evolve team decided to make (a mess of :P) the symposium site and the AGSTVC site.


May-June-Early July:
I had always set 2009 web operations as the yardstick when it came to deadlines and I wanted to make sure that the deadlines were met with earlier. So after a great push of last minute work, we made the beta version of the main site public on July 5 at 09:00 hrs. It was a remarkable feeling to put the main site up. But the design got a few negative feedbacks partly because of the crowded header and the dodgy right menu. Once the main site was up, work was split to getting the Userportal up, the Smriti site and the Coords portal up and running. Meanwhile, all the while the mobile guys and the QMS coordinators hardly worked :'(


Late July-August:
Late July always reminds me of franatic night outs close to the beginning of the semester to get the Userportal(portal used for registration of participants) and the Helpdesk up and running. It also reminded me of pushing through work in getting the Smriti site up and running(which was done a week after the sem opened). The beginning of the sem in August again marked a return of meetings(within web ops and inter departmental). The website needed a revamp of designs desperately and we did bring out a fresh looking website by the second week of August. The hits and the feedback also improved because of this, thanks to the design team. The first all core meet was marred by a 2 hr delay in Pizza arrival! Work was devoted to the coords portal in a full-fledged manner(despite which infinite password change requests were given later) and the portal was up and running by the third week of August. So that left with the Hospi portal to be done. Meanwhile userportal had been giving us the bugs all through out. August 2010 also set the record for the best bandwidth of all Augusts put together in Shaastra site's history and was second best in number of unique visitors by a small margin. August ended with the Chairman Committee Meeting and the Steering Committee Meeting(SCM). Its a nice memory to have gone on to the 5th floor of the Admin block(might be the first and last time I have got there) where the top bosses of IITM generally have their meetings. We also obtained the confirmation of our main sponsor during the meeting which was swiftly followed by a treat at an Adyar restaurant.


September:
Early September marked the deadline for registrations for Shaastra. Userportal had its issues of mass mailing and memory usage (due to zipping of files!!) which resulted in a "lockdown" of the site. It involved days of panicking emails and meetings to set the issue to rest. September 3 also recorded the best ever bandwidth in the history of the Shaastra site(at a staggering 8GB). Once the registrations got over-the only thing remaining were the Hospi portal and the Landing pages. Meanwhile the mobile application was put up sometime in the middle of September. The Landing pages(both the Home page and the official landing page) were taken care of by my co-core while I handled the Hospi part. Despite advance planning and execution, the Hospi portal, true to its nature, stretched till almost to the brink of Shaastra. We also had a small treat at the campus CCD to appreciate our coordinators of the work done so far. The Shaastra All Coords Meet also happened and it was good to address a gathering(albeit for a short while). The end of the month marked an amazing one-hour photoshoot session for the cores! The month of September recorded the highest ever hits and unique users in any given month in the history of the Shaastra site.


October:
The only thing that was threatening a peaceful Shaastra was the Hospi portal--which was stretching on and on with changes and modifications. Finally, we could get it up and running by the midnight of Sept 29(day 0 of Shaastra) and all the bugs were fixed up by day 1 of Shaastra (Sept 30). This was the first time ever that the Hospi portal was used in Shaastra(kudos to my team and the hospi coord who helped in coordination). Shaastra 2010 this time around was more majestic and bigger than the 2009 edition, though, on sheer footfall did not match the 2008 edition. Shaastra had some cool exhibitions and some good lectures and VCs. Personally, this Shaastra was a little let down in terms of events, coz I didnt make a single final or a semi-final (the best performance being a 4th round finish in the 5 round Pentathlon event on day 3 of Shaastra). Time was mostly spent on grub stalls(thanks to the large number of grub coupons) and walking through different events. Despite all the fight I had put in preparing for the Hackfest event, I packed it out of sheer fatigue and non-willingness to put 3 night outs together. The Laser show was good but the fire show turned out to be horrible. The RC car show was a different attempt which could have been better. The Air show wasnt as great as the previous edition and I missed out on the Planetorium. Overall, this Shaastra was the most peaceful Shaastra ever and I enjoyed every moment of it.


Shaastra was quickly followed by a core-treat at the Residency. Looking back, the core ship, in its entirety was an awesome experience. Six months of nerve-wracking work(with the last two months being so tiring) and the whole thing about leadership and working alongside a pack was superb. I would always remember this experience not only because of its high-points but also because of the subsequent burn out that it caused(from which recovery was extremely difficult). We had also failed in a few objectives we started off with, including making the Shaastra games event wide and well recognized, but those were minor objectives. Anyways, one duty still remains-that of selecting the next core, which will happen in March 2011.


My only wish is that the 2010 site is never dismantled or broken apart. It has taken quite a bit of work, and hopefully I can still see it standing 4/5 years down the line. An awesome coreship and an awesome experience.


PS: Sorry about the long post--just so many memories made in those 6 months.


cheers,