
We are very happy to announce our [Discord Channel](https://discord.gg/caW7JF98Qe) for public usage for folks in and around Virudhunagar (Sattur, Sivakasi, Tirumangalam, Aruppukkottai, Rajapalayam, Srivilliputhur etc). This can be used to participate in topics / areas that you care about in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Humanities, Math). This server has multiple channels, a few examples -

- Tech-related (tech-ai-ml-datascience, tech-civtech)
- Books (book-discussions)
- Education (edu-science-math)

Joining comes with a few responsibilities, so be aware of them before you join -

- Only fruitful and useful conversations - no forwards and no good mornings - it's not that they are not important, but lets keep them to a different platform
- No ads or other spam messages
- Be respectful to others - everyone here is a volunteer doing their best to improve our collective, community living

The whole purpose of having a region specific, geography-based, [Discord server](https://discord.gg/caW7JF98Qe) is to improve local community and living.
While most learning can be online, we hope interested group(s) can meet sometime at a physical location as well. _Cohort-based learning_ has shown to be the most effective. If you have trouble finishing that great MOOC course on Artificial Intelligence, the best bet is for you to learn it together with few of our community members to motivate each other to complete.

Another benefit when people with different backgrounds meet - no civic issue becomes too small to solve. We've listed a few ideas of community projects that we think will greatly improve the quality of life in our [Github repo](https://github.com/RusticWork/civtech-ideas#ideas-to-get-you-thinking). Some examples -

- What can be done to improve awareness about loud bike honking ? Tech & non-tech solutions can be suggested
- What can be done to improve schooling for kids who have now been studying online for close to a year ?
- Book recommendations for the year ? Anyone up for discussing a particular book ?

Many of us waste our time debating issues that we hardly have control over (Trump vs Biden, Thala vs Thalapathy) completely ignoring local civic issues that we can influence. This is your chance to become aware of pressing local issues and perhaps help out with your skills.

<a href="mentors"></a>

#### Looking for Mentors

We are looking for mentors to help us in our effort to create vibrant, tech-driven local communities. A lot of you are distinguished alumni from Virudhunagar who had to move out for work reasons before the advent of the modern Internet. Your contributions will go a long way in nurturing our society. Your experiences and expertise will inspire a lot of us. Even if you are not from Virudhunagar, but would like to mentor, please do reach out to us.

Your responsibilities include -

- Moderate discussions in channels of your choosing
- Create new channels if existing ones don't cover your area of expertise
- Answer questions that come up in channels
- Propose / Drive / Guide any of the [Github civtech projects](https://github.com/RusticWork/civtech-ideas)

If you are happen to be in Virudhunagar, nothing will please us more than you visiting the [RusticWork campus](https://g.page/rusticwork?share) and sharing your expertise as part of our weekend **RusticWork Minds** program. Of course, you can still participate virtually on the Discord channel.

Reach out to [us](mailto:info@rusticwork.in) in case you'd like to be a mentor.

#### That's all folks

We firmly believe in a person being the average of the people around them - this is our humble attempt to make it possible to surround yourself with people you can continuously learn from and improve yourself in the areas of your choice and in the process, improve the quality of life for you and everyone around you.


A forum to encourage fruitful and useful conversations in STEAM

Announcing the RusticWork-Vnr Discord Server


The technology to work from home has been available for quite some time. What has changed because of Covid-19 is every company's perception of working from home. There is widespread acknowledgement that for most IT companies, the productivity levels have not changed drastically. Many large companies also have now announced that they may not be going back to 100% office strength ever. Sridhar Vembu (CEO, Zoho Corp whose ideas and philosophy were the inspiration that got us to launch) has pushed the envelope even further stating that Zoho will have about 10 village offices in Tamil Nadu in a bid to encourage employees to work from their hometown. RusticWork is a logical extension of this idea - the hub and spoke office model is possible for larger companies but for smaller companies (employee count-wise), the spokes can be RusticWork offices.

Policy makers have also been willing to fund rural projects on a war footing recently.
The next big development push is going to come from urban folks returning back to rural/semi-urban areas to experience the the pristine environment (and give that back to their children). We hope RusticWork becomes the launchpad for a future that is much more equitable to all and kinder to the environment.

Some of the indirect benefits that we hope will materialise -

- Inspire thousands of new startups that will be razor-focused on solving local problems - be it bringing AI/ML know-how to your local coffee processing factory or marketing amazing local products like Golden Milk better using digital media and helping discover new markets

- More women will stay in the workforce - this elevates their status in rural areas and brings true gender equality

- Cross pollination of ideas from various fields

- More engagement of academia with industry - many rural colleges struggle to give exposure to their students because a working professional in a city does not want to travel on a weekend away from family

- Local language translation of some amazing Internet content that helps solidify basic learning

- More professionals will be willing to participate in social causes that are near them and that they can clearly identify with

- Better support and healthcare for ageing parents

- Stronger assimilation of local culture and values

Our survey is still open, we would be happy to hear from you on what you would need to work from a shared workspace in a rural setting. If this mission motivates you, please write back to us at info@rusticwork.in, we'd be happy to channelise your skills, passion and energy. As the saying goes, it takes a crowd. If this does work out, we would look back at this moment as the start of the Knowledge Diffusion project and the beginning of a new self reliant India which can house complex industrial knowledge and technical know-how in its hinterland.

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Knowledge Diffusion through local communities

Announcing the RusticWork-Vnr Discord Server

Why?