This month seems to be dedicated to e-book Readers. It all started because of the launch of Apple iPad last month. Apple launches cause such a wave that now everyone knows what a e-book reader is.

But who is the real pioneer of this revolution? It’s Amazon’s Kindle. I have talked about the latest Kindle DX just a while ago.

Now that there are ways to get yourself a Kindle in India, its price tag still makes it a lil out of reach for many at present. But worry not, you can still get your hands over one of them i.e. if you are in Bangalore.

Trivia: Are you aware that the technology of Kindle which has been an Amazon #1 Bestseller was actually developed in Chennai, India?

Facts like these and more can be known at the upcoming Amazon Chennai’s ‘Digital Conference’ in Bangalore. To know more and recieve invitation, keep on reading.

What is the conference about?

This technical conference is targeted to all techies, (what better place than Bangalore) where one can learn about Kindle, the product and the technology. That’s not all, you can get your hands over one of the Kindles, get a live demo, try it, drool over it and be amazed. The conference is known as “Kindle – From ink to e-INK” – how true!

When and where?

Date : Feb 12, 2010 (Friday).
Time : 6 pm onwards
Venue : Will be communicated to you via email upon receiving your RSVP.
City : Bangalore.

Who are invited?

This invitation is extended to all the techies and techbloggers out there. If you are interested in e-books and want to understand how the Kindle works, this is the place to be. Get an insight on how the technology was developed, sneek-peek into the development process and lot more. So do you fit the bill? Great, read on to know how you can get your invite.

Note – The conference is going to be purely technical, so by techbloggers it is meant who are interested in technical subjects and would like to learn the core. This may be a chance to be a part of the Kindle team too.

How to get an invite?

Blog, tweet, talk, facebook about the event. Let everyone you know, know about it.

Leave a comment in this blog if you are planning to attend the event. We can form a tech blogger group at the event.

This the most important step, if you really want the invite. Shoot an emil to sanbala@amazon.com by giving following details of the participant(s) –

a)     Number of participant(s) :

b)     Name of the participant(s) :

c)     Designation :

d)     Organization :

e)     Contact phone number:

f)      Email ID :

Some more information about the event

Amazon.com in Chennai plays a vital role in the Kindle reading experience.  We conceptualize and build digitization systems for content like books, newspapers, magazines, blogs etc… In addition, we also build several infrastructure web services that serve as building blocks for the Kindle content pipelines and for other Amazon teams worldwide.

In this talk, we present an introduction to the Kindle device, discuss the technical challenges of building automatic, scalable, fault tolerant systems that are pivotal to transforming content from Ink to E-Ink, and conclude with some lessons learnt in the last 3 years.

Profile of the speakers

Ashok Thangamani, Software Development Manager at Amazon.com

Ashok is responsible for managing the creation of critical software for the e-book business at Amazon.com. His day-to-day concerns revolve around the best ways to translate cutting-edge technology to a new, pleasant customer experience

Prior to joining Amazon.com, Ashok has worked several years managing the development of highly scalable industrial decision-making & control systems; he has also helped create rule-engine systems that can efficiently find valid configurations given constraints. Ashok has a degree in Aerospace Engineering (& Theoretical Computer Science) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Viswanath Sankaranarayanan, Senior Software Dev Engineer at Amazon.com

Viswa currently works in the conceptualization of algorithms and techniques for the automatic digitization of printed content at Amazon.com. Since joining Amazon, he has worked on designing and building fault tolerant, large scale distributed systems that are vital to the Kindle business. Prior to joining Amazon.com, Viswa worked on offline distributed systems, reliable data replication, and the Office application suite for several years at Microsoft Corporation. He hold a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in ECE from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore.

So hoping to catch up with all of you there. The invites are limited, so send an email now!! Go go gooooo…