Why I started a local deep learning community?

This is my story about how I created a local Deep Learning community. I am sure you can learn from the steps I took or the mistakes I made and then you can start your own awesome local community.

You might want to start a local community for all sorts of reasons. But I will list down why I took the initiative to start a local group —

1. Vision — Having a vision is really important when it comes to start the community because that is what resonates amongst the members of that community. Not everyone is going to be excited about your vision and that is fine! You have to make sure that you are doing justice to your vision and keeping it clean. Now, I may come across as too ambitious but I started my local deep learning communities because of one single vision I had “make India actively involved in AI”. APJ Adbul Kalam gave us a vision of India 2020. India means us, the citizens. I really feel that the first world countries are taking lead in the race of AI and the research which are being conducted is not of much help to other countries. If AI is the new electricity, I want India to be one the leaders in it.
2. Networking — Being honest, networking was one of the another reason after vision, why i started the meetup groups. I am not an engineering graduate. I have studied pure mathematics and statistics in college. I have a Bachelor of Science. In my college there was not even an engineering branch. I wanted to pursue engineering, do a phD in it but why I chose Bsc Mathematics from Fergusson College Pune that is a story in itself. So now you know that I didn’t have network! Fascinated with cutting edge engineering I always wanted to do the core work but for that I need like minded people. In the process of conducting meetups and providing quality time to my attendees, i have met a lot of interesting people and established authenticity that I know what I am talking about.
3. Contributing it back to society — Obvious.
4. Improves my knowledge — I always have loved to teach. Teaching is a very transparent process. You cannot fake that you know stuff. Someone cross questions you and you are exposed! So in order to teach I have to constantly make sure that I read and am up to date. It is a tough thing to do, come back from job and then study. But I never said building a community was simple!
5. Sense of Belonging — When you conduct face to face, in person meetups and not webinars that brings a sense of belonging to the members. For example, a newbie who wants to learn deep learning will come and see that there are many people who are on similar level or started from the same level where he is right now. So keep a mix of in person meetups and webinars. I don’t discourage webinars, because using that you can create communities in other cities as well.

How I did it?

1. Meetup.com — The first thing which I did was to create a meetup group on “meetup.com”. I found the website to be authentic and that is why I recommend it.
2. Slack Channel — I created a slack group for my channel and that has allowed member to connect with me and each other easily. I keep sharing research papers, articles, meetup news etc on that.
3. Newsletter — Somehow the idea of sending a newsletter, biweekly curated content for my audience was novel for me. Open up the mail which I have sent and then you can easily read the important stuff. I used “wix shoutout” for it. Here is a newsletter which I sent recently — http://shoutout.wix.com/so/6MGEQaXL
   You too can sign up for my newsletter, I write mostly about computer vision with deep learning but sometimes I poke around in NLP too. Fill this form to subscribe — https://goo.gl/forms/wSaOLuD9qTu20Ftw2

Take Aways —

1. Never, I repeat never create a community to sell stuff. Even if you want to push your product, do it in such a way that the vision of the community is not hurt.
2. Be honest with your community members.
3. Keep flat hierarchy in the community. If you started the community that doesn’t mean that you are superior in any way. The members exists that there is a community.
4. Keep engaging with members. Ask them for topics, read for them, help them.
5. “When you really have something to offer to the world, then you can become truly humble. A tree when it has no fruit to offer, remains erect. But when the tree is laden with fruit, it bends down. If you are all pride and ego, then nobody will be able to get anything worthwhile from you. When you have genuine humility, it is a sign that you have something to offer to mankind.”

The groups which I manage —

Mumbai Deep Learning Group

Machine Learning Foundation: Pune

Bangalore Deep Learning Club

If you are interested in learning Deep Learning, check this out — http://deeplearningclass.com/