By Vidya Pradhan

For most of us, ‘Checkbook Charity’ is the way we assuage our conscience. It is painless, effortless and gives a rush of good feeling with the stroke of a pen. Few of us go beyond that first step to examine the impact our donation has had on the recipient.

Doctor Nilima Sabharwal’s foray into philanthrophy started with the same first step. A physician at Kaiser Permanente, she was approached by a friend about 10 years ago to help out an orphanage in Chennai called ‘The Children’s Home of Hope.’ She wrote a check and forgot all about it. Come tax time, she was reminded of her good deed and decided to go one step further and organize a small fundraiser in the Bay Area. What prompted her decision she can only ascribe to a ‘higher calling’, a phrase that kept popping up during the course of my interview with her. More »

By Rohini Mohan

We are mighty cheery people, going about our daily business, living as we do in a highly seismic area in close proximity to several of the major faults – San Andreas, Hayward, Rodgers Creek, San Gregorio, Calaveras, Concord and Green Valley. With the area ripe for another big one, are we planning to cross the bridge when we come to it? Or are we prepared and waiting with a bring it on attitude? What does earthquake preparedness really mean? WNI did some quick research on the do’s and don’ts. More »

By Vidya Pradhan

An interesting article in the New York Times talks about how comments are becoming the new social currency on the web. “There are those who have blogs,” goes the article, “and then there are those who leave comments on other people’s blogs.” While the 2 groups may intersect once in a while, there is still a large population of comment writers who roam the web communities leaving their virtual footprints behind.

It is to recognize the impact of these unsung participants that Jitendra Gupta and his team developed SezWho, a “distributed context, rating and reputation system for social media sites like blogs, forums, wikis, video/picture sharing sites, discussion boards and anywhere else where people collaborate on the web.”

With the proliferation of social media sites, the quantity and democratization of user-generated content often makes it difficult for the lay reader to determine where to find the best quality. Who is adding value to the community and who is just venting? More »

By Rohini Mohan

With all the buzz about the en masse US outsourcing effort to India, it’s high time someone made a movie about it. ‘Outsourced’, directed and co-written by John Jeffcoat with George Wing is a warm, funny, feel good romantic comedy set in India and Seattle. Starring Josh Hamilton, a prolific Broadway and TV actor and talented Ayesha Dharker, it is being touted as the next ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ type film to hit the theatres. More »