since internet was better in AIMS, Kochi, i took all the content in a floppy drive along with all collected email ids, worked through out night, and sent it out on april 1st. {read the blog<\/a>}<\/p>\n\n\n\n
then we, myself priyan and remya packed up content, photos, and left for ettimadai. because there was better internet there, plus some computer-savvy support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
building the first version<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
i called a meeting with some staff. told them my vision. they were ready to help. gave them a deadline \u2014 \u201ci want the website online by april 15.\u201d they agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
every evening after college classes, they came. someone wrote html code. someone scanned photos. another did photoshop layouts. someone else typed content and proofread it. we worked late. sometimes till sunrise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
with the converted digital content, we started creating webpages. it was in pure html and css.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
we had around 20 index pages to create for different sections \u2014 each with a different layout and design. so much was amma’s work. it was impossible to contain them in few pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
some nights, the staffs were too tired due to the work of their class rooms. but they all worked enthusiastically. i got a special tea and snacks arranged for them.
one guy was very lazy. he would promise, but rarely show up \u2014 i used to go to his house, wake him up, and drag him to the computer lab. one day, i had to go to his house. knocked on the door. his wife opened the door. despited repeatedly calling him, i had to pour water on him, lifting his blanket. it was fun. then he woud work through out the night. no one had laptops back then. we had to work in the computer lab after college hours, make use of the facility and get our work done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the date was approaching\u2026 i was pressurising them to finish the pages. web pages were not ready yet. i had another meeeting with them. reminded about the dead line. all of them were of the opininon it cant be finished before april 15th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“no” i said, “i want this to go onlline\u2026 on april 15th.”
what to do now?
“with the available index pages we will create 20 pages and announce the website. let us keep updating the posts.” i suggested. all agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by that time we got a domain registred, www.amritapuri.org. nowadays this happens in minutes. but it was not like that back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
another problem was to get a feseable server to host. negotiation was going on. unfortunately it would not be available before april 15!
what to do? i want the site to be up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sreevalsan came with an idea to create a folder amritpauri and temporarily host it on the university server. i agreed. we pointed the dns to this folder. on 15 april 2000, vishu day, \u2014 the site was up and live. first target achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
back to amritapuri \u2014 the real test<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
three days later, we moved to an independent server. the design and content updates continued daily. this went on for about three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
then me, priyan and remya came back to amritapuri. and now the real work began. in ettimadai, i had support staff. in amritapuri, i had to do it all by myself. it was very tough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
i started learning everything \u2014 html, css, basic photoshop, image compression, ftp, ssh and more. over time, i learned over 20 different programs at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
internet was still painfully slow. i have to make sure that every image had to be less than 5kb. the upload was happening. navigating via the terminal window to upload to the correct folder was always a headache. if you uploaded to the wrong folder, the image wouldn\u2019t show on the html pages. that too after hours of internet tapas. frustration was constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“thought of the moment”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
i\u2019d like to share an interesting moment from those days. so i started testing. uploaded quote after quote. refreshed the page hundreds of times. we had no test server at that time. everything was live. dangerous. and the net was painfully slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n after a full week of testing, i finally figured out the exact number of characters that would fit. i uploaded the final version. refreshed the page with satisfaction. and do you know what quote appeared?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201chuman calculation fails in the case of god\u2019s grace \u2013 amma.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n my tests couldn\u2019t have been more perfect than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n i started using an html editor called hotmetal pro. few weeks later i found dreamweaver \u2014 and it really helped. dreams started taking shape on those pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n later, i switched from html to php pages. learned how to create templates. but each design change meant copy-pasting everything again. 100s of pages and they are increasing day by day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n upgrades started to happen regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n while creating the news for the web, i needed pics that supported the writeups. the ashram photographers weren\u2019t providing news worthy photos. i explained what i needed \u2014 but they didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n the digital camers had just hit the market. a devotee named lakshman gifted me a camera sony cyber-shot. i could take photos by myself. now another problem. i only knew what i wanted. i didnt know about photogrphy. so started asking pro photographers. their answers didn\u2019t help much. all of them were analog photographers. they knew very little about digital photography. it was time for a majour upgrade. the cms, content management system was getting popular. i had to learn about databases, mysql, backups backend stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n that\u2019s when wordpress came. it was a blessing. in less than five minutes, one can set up a site and it will be live!! i learned about server load balancing, streaming, backups. for amma\u2019s 50th birthday, we streamed her darshan live for 4 full days. can you believe it? it was in 2003. we set up our own streaming server, rented a server in singapore to broadcast and we made it happen. today it\u2019s a tap on a phone. then came the google explosion. google changed everything about the way we use the web \u2014 search, seo, rss, indexing, ranking. then came social media \u2014 facebook, twitter, youtube. more integration. more learning. more work of integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n in 2012, we launched the amma app \u2014 a mobile app to connect all amma-related activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
one feature i wanted on the ‘mother page’ was called \u201cthought of the moment.\u201d<\/em> each time someone refreshed the page, a new quote from amma would appear. but there was a technical limitation \u2014 if the quote was too long, it would break the html layout. once in a while the desin would fall apart. already a few hundred quotes were in the collection. what is causing the problem? what is the character limit? i need to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\nupgrades and experiments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
so again \u2014 i just started figuring it out by trial and error method. youtube tutorials were not availabe at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\ncms and wordpress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
now i need to copy all few hundred pages into the database. we migrated all content to the new system. i had already copy pasted more than 20 times by now. so this is not a big challege, i thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\nwebcast in 2003<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
back then, it was a massive effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/dhyanji.in\/pics\/av50-718.jpg\")
the rise of google and social media<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
mobile first<\/h2>\n\n\n\n