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| Project manager profile in 2007. |
Engaged in diverse projects in diverse groups, the unifying environment across the board has been one of intense focus and dedication to improving and perfecting one's accomplishments, while acting a carefully tailored frame of mind. When you do things for a holy purpose and it reflects on your entire existential status, motivation for getting the job done properly and thoroughly is naturally available. Moreover, when you are meticulous with every emerging detail, things tend to get done very efficiently.
Here's how the net total reads when distilled into additions to my professional CV, and you are allowed to tell me to shove it because I'm so full of it. In my world, everything is in perpetual beta regardless. [People interested in networking can look me up with the full CV at LinkedIn.]
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| Form = Emptiness and the Meaning of Three Fingers |
I have a long and solid background in Hindu, Buddhist and Oriental studies and associated meditative and cultivation disciplines, along with parallel research into psychology and general-purpose applications of their diverse methodologies, also in business and technological environments.
On the creative and alternative side, I have a definite personal and professional interest in deep aesthetics, expressive photography and innovative media, ayurveda and natural medicine, activism for good causes, and a general love for symmetry fueled by all these years.
Language skills: Native fluency in Finnish and English, major French and English with minor Swedish at school, good modern/classical Bengali, practical Hindi, philosophical Sanskrit and Pali interpretation, working knowledge of several other Indic, Nordic and Romance languages and related writing systems.
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My early years with the Hare Krishnas, all the ding-ding notwithstanding, did provide me with a very useful and versatile environment for developing diverse skills and accumulating valuable experience on several fields. "Service is good for you", they say for karma-yoga. Even while the basic intention of the said service is of course to advance development of inner virtue, it's hard to escape the practical market realities in sales and missionary work.
ISKCON: Sales / Marketing / Communication / Technology
Religious Institutions industry, Marketing and Advertising industry
June 1995 – January 2000 (4 years 8 months)
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International: Book and CD sales, direct marketing. Sales team leader, trainer, manager and cashier (1999), sales accounting, . Personal rapid marketing to diverse age and industry target groups. implementation of innovative direct consumer cold lead sales strategies for fast sales results for groups and other high-yield audience connectivity scenarios.
Library and store bulk sales, event sales booth presentations, sales material arrangements and stock control. Customer follow-up and ethical sales development for customer post-sale satisfaction and returning business, internal law and organizational structures. Projections for on-road stocks with overhead for unexpected sales on the basis of past sales volume by season, location, team members, and revenue requirements.
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| Dramatic highlight from diverse more and less strange projects |
Poster/brochure design, prepress and promo material printing, e-communication, Internet, Telnet and BBS systems, textual research and language studies, personal web projects and other computer work. Communication and coordination across heavily hierarchical and often archaic multi-level managerial and advisory structures in national and global scope; success in a highly demanding environment.
Modeling and implementation of philosophical and operative formulas in practical contexts; mental training and discipline to sustain functionally desirable perspectives across environments. Deep philosophical research on practical and metaphysical causation, causal chains and causal combinatorics, and derived practical projections and mental projection models.
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The second related entry is a combination of web freelance work and involvement in the diverse aspects of Swami B.V. Narayana's international movement and related websites, publishing, propaganda, and congregational work.
Freelance / GVS: Developer / Designer / Promoter / Organizer
Information Technology and Services industry, Publishing industry
June 1999 – January 2002 (2 years 8 months)
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| International Ali Baba of Propaganda Work |
GVS: Desktop publishing, translation and editing, brochures and promotion, general prepress work and on-demand click-print mass publishing, community management, event organization, lectures and seminars, tutorials and study materials preparation and production, audio archival and associated online resources, e-book library compilation, organization and material production, promotional writing, miscellaneous research, resource sites and general propaganda strategy.
Collaboration and pioneer work with Gaudiya Vedanta Publications in editing, layout, custom fonts and general prepress, parallel with independent startup publishing, distribution and sales models and trials. International Gaudiya Vedanta Society congregational organization, engagement continuity cultivation, market expansion strategy and public representation. International networking and strategic think-tanking for exchange of ideas and effective outreach across mixed target groups.
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Here are the years I spent divided between Finland and India while digging deeper into the ancient traditions, producing associated services and resources, and providing diverse consultation, research papers, and community organizational support for a small global audience. Total 50 individual and indexed projects.
Sri Krishna Chaitanya Shastra Mandir: Editor / Translator / Research / Archival / Prepress / Project Manager
Publishing industry
February 2002 – August 2007 (5 years 7 months)
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| Radhakund CPP (Chief Production Professor) |
Author and producer for general digest e-books and websites [Gaudiya.com], translation [Sanskrit and Bengali to English and Finnish] and integrity verification, direct clarifications with original author, general proofreading, manuscript organization and archival work, historical and doctrinal research and exegesis, research papers and general queries, abstracted information storage and applications, synthesis and systematization of scattered source texts.
Desktop publishing, printing press contacts and production supervision, website design, copywriting and development, wiki logging and encyclopedic collaboration, cross-referenced multilingual databases and reference tools development, shared authoring models and workflow conceptualization, small-scale website networking and centralized search engine infrastructure.
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| Lots of this in sorting the head into good order. |
Founder of associated Lake of Flowers Productions providing 100+ GB of free multimedia online. Former president and executive project manager for Gaudiya Kutir, a budding non-profit organization with audience and contributions from people in the Americas, Europe, and India, working towards syndicating and organizing dozens of related projects and agendas.
Freelance / SKCSM: Madhavananda Project Index
Published URL: http://md.gaudiya.com/
The MPI is an exhaustive personal project index covering a total of six years of research and 50 individual projects undertaken
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| Collecting and archiving audio/video at events. |
Among others: Archival work, book publishing and prepress, printing and e-books, multi-project environment management, construction and rural property development, dozens of networked website projects, classes and seminars, language tools and localization, local and virtual community management, community think-tanks and study groups, promotion and study materials, tutorials and manuals, standards research and establishment, resource networking and project support, lecture podcasting and media production, 10000+ organized photos, server administration, software development, etc.
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The following initiatives grew out of this abundant pool of projects and enthusiasm. While the limited amount of available project participants and material resources limited the expansion of operations to an unfortunate degree, two out of the following three major initiatives are still alive and well, continuing to serve a global audience with diverse informative, cultural, religious and academic resources.
Lake of Flowers Productions: Director / A/V Recorder and Producer / Systems and Infrastructure
Publishing industry
March 2002 – Present (8 years 8 months)
The storage and online file serving solution was provided with support from the Internet Archive (Archive.org) and their petabyte project, as free availability of high-quality media and cultural history was a shared agenda. In-house developed tools for connecting with the Internet Archive server networks made the operation silk smooth. Footage from the archives has been featured on Comedy Central's The Daily Show and in numerous independent productions.
Areas of work: A/V recording, equipment screening, testing and purchase, A/V editing and post-processing, codec, compression and storage solutions, scripted processing, online infrastructure, networked resources, peer-to-peer media distribution models, scripted image and metadata archiving, A/V versioning and archiving, web development, online archive scripts and tools, DVD authoring and production, general design, prepress and print, newsfeeds and podcasting, open-source audio/video tools
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Gaudiya Grantha Mandira: Developer / Digitizer / Systems Provider
Libraries industry
February 2002 – Present (8 years 9 months)
The current library hosts almost 600 previously unavailable texts in diverse formats for both academic research and seekers of wisdom, provides an additional platform for collaboration, and a well-rounded set of free tools for converting text between all common transliteration schemes and associated Indic scripts.
Some initiatives, like a semantic markup language for automated text processing, cross-referencing and miscellaneous notation, an abstracted data storage system for bibliographies and metadata cross-referencing of categorized shorter texts, and an advanced full-text library search engine, are still in the air pending more resources and volunteer participation.
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Gaudiya Kutir: President / Project Director / PR / Networking / Systems and Infrastructure
Non-Profit Organization Management industry
June 2005 – June 2007 (2 years 1 month)
The organization sought to pool volunteer resources and ongoing projects under one roof, providing synergy, contacts and additional resources to efforts with parallel interests and potential. With over a dozen major internal projects and assistance for numerous independent initiatives, it successfully disseminated information and provided resources to a small but growing global audience. In absence of sufficient supporting interest and funding, the project was gradually frozen, and contingencies were shaped for the initiatives to continue independently.
Activities: project organization, human and material resource management, volunteer management, local and virtual community development, lectures and seminars, educational initiatives, copywriting and press releases, promotional materials, server infrastructure, material and resource development, event organization, social media and networking, networked websites, software development, project consultation, audience activation initiatives, translation and interpretation
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Finally, below is the conclusion of the diverse business work I somehow managed to somehow accomplish in between the cracks to keep bread and butter on the table, parallel to all the religious, cultural, internal and mystical ventures oriented for broadening my overall perspectives.
CodeWallah: Developer / Designer / Project Organizer
Internet industry
October 2004 – February 2009 (4 years 5 months)
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| Fixing things up for people in need.. |
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| Wandering with native and foreign holy men of many denominations |
Somewhere down the line I first grasped that strange unifying light atop the yonder mountain peaks after muttering too many mantras, studying too many books, casting too many spells, hoping too many hopes, dreaming too many dreams, and walking way too many miles both physically as well as far far down the rabbit hole and back again.
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kaccin nobhaya-vibhraṣṭaś chinnābhram iva naśyati |
apratiṣṭho mahā-bāho vimūḍho brahmaṇaḥ pathi || BG 6.38
apratiṣṭho mahā-bāho vimūḍho brahmaṇaḥ pathi || BG 6.38
Arjuna: "O Mighty-Armed One, would one not fall from both spiritual and material, as a torn cloud perishes without any foundation, if he is bewildered on the path to transcendence?"
pārtha naiveha nāmutra vināśas tasya vidyate |
na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatiṁ tāta gacchati || BG 6.40
na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatiṁ tāta gacchati || BG 6.40
Krishna: "O son of Pritha, whether in this or the yonder worlds, he is not destroyed; for one who is a doer of good will never attain a foul destination."
8 comments:
And did I mention excellent skills in self-promotion? =))
that's a very impressive resume.
However, with such a skill set I am surprised you haven't figured out how to work the Google ads on some web sites and make buckets of money.
There is lots of money in Google ads for the taking if you know how to work it.
If you need some help figuring it out I can send you an e-mail explaining how the "system" works free of charge in token of my appreciation for all your hard work for Mahaprabhu's mission.
You could be making $10,000 a month easily with your web design skills and some web sites. If you were willing to do what it takes to make the Google money.
Lots of people are doing it, but there is a secret to success and I found it.
* Lake of Flowers Productions Addendum *
* First Published: May 21, 2005
Featuring diverse views into the cultural and religious landscapes of Bengal and North India, the project hosts a total of over 45 hours of video in formats up to DVD quality, and almost 40 hours of audio up to raw FLAC quality. With a total of a quarter million media downloads and 500,000 images viewed, it's easily the most popular site of the genre, and in many ways unique in both content and technical implementation.
Serving 100.8 GB of high-quality audio/video multimedia with 27 TB downloads to date, with assistance and resources from the Internet Archive. The project has not been actively developed since 2007, and is maintained in archival mode with sustained traffic. With a long term storage solution and minimal running costs, the strategy allows continued media availability into the indefinite future.
# Production archive: http://www.lakeofflowers.com/pool/productions
# The Daily Show feature: http://www.lakeofflowers.com/pool/news
* Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Addendum *
* First Published: Jan 13, 2001
* First Solutions: During 2002
A non-profit academic and enthusiast library initiative for digitizing, transliterating and eventually translating a vast body of ancient and medieval Sanskrit and Bengali texts of various genres covering philosophy, history, epics, aesthetics, biography, drama, poetry, rituals, hymns, grammar and yoga.
Founded by Dr. Jan Brzezinski and Dr. Neal Delmonico in 2001, the freely available corpus of texts has grown largely with the efforts of a dedicated core of volunteers, who have tirelessly hunted source texts, transcribed old manuscripts, edited and provided alternative readings, provided technical solutions and a collaborative platform, and sought to network volunteers and raise funds to expedite the endeavor.
The site has gone through three incarnations with solutions I have provided, from static HTML to customized CMS scripts, and finally into its current form on a new tailored platform. When new resources become available, the project will continue to be upscaled and enhanced to meet its full potential.
# Classified Library Index: http://granthamandira.com/index.php?show=library
# diCrunch Indic Script and Transliteration tool: http://granthamandira.com/diCrunch/diCrunch.php
# Structured Multi-level BBS for collaboration: http://granthamandira.com/forum/
I have now added in the missing separate entries for Lake of Flowers Productions, Gaudiya Grantha Mandira, and Gaudiya Kutir Inc. along with the publication addendums above.
When I look at all of the above, it's clear that it would have been worth a shitload of money if done as a private business venture. The sheer volunteer working hours, logged at a modest rate, add up to hundreds of thousands of $$$, even a fragment of which could have made a good deal of difference along the way. It's a shame the audience to which I sought to provide all these services was variably enthusiastic; there clearly was little sense of the potential these initiatives could have reached.
As you know, much of the resulting technical know-how is now being pooled under the banner of Wiccle Limited, providing a publishing platform for people from all walks of life with their diverse needs. I am in fact capitalizing on all this since my return from India and new material beginnings, not to worry. I do not intend to keep pouring my skills and inspirations into black holes that leech time and energy while giving minimal returns — whether as personal monetary gain or in way of collective benefits.
Also to note, the activist non-profit side of me is well and happy too, although a whole lot more reserved in terms of undesired entanglements or jumping into vague and uncharted possibilities. There have been way too many of them to date, and I have absolutely no desire or interest in bouncing against walls when I'm on the roll. When things flow, they need to be let flow and adequately supported; that's when things really begin to happen, and until then it's all about fiddling with pebbles.
I have seen all too many scenarios where my skills and input are either abused, or otherwise hampered or neglected due to adequate lack of understanding of the potentials. I don't want to be involved with people who go "ding-ding-ding — this guy can do it all for free or spare peanuts". People have to either be seriously committed (non-profit), or willing to pay in proportion (business). There have been far too many sore situations that have left me disgruntled, whether by zealots or profiteers looking to advance their own agendas.
I guess if you wait a few more days your Christmas theme template will get you through another Xmas?
What happened to Thanksgiving or Halloween?
Is the snowflake the only image that you can appreciate now?
I've been snowed under with work for the better part of the last two years, so it keeps the spirits up. I'll let you know when the winter is over.
People interested in my full professional background — the stuff I did half of the time outside what's listed above to keep bread and butter on the table — are welcome to look up my IT profile and full CV or connect through my LinkedIn profile.
In listing all this, credit is also due to Malati, my ex-wife of many years, who kept supporting my efforts, and vice versa, keeping track of many running practicalities along with extensive diaries that helped provide thoughts and story structure to Vraja Journal among other things.
And of course, credit for the passage into the future that began in late 2008, leading me back to Europe and deeper both my material and inner roots goes, to Lady Wyrd and our happy den of animals!
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