When Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg interacts with students
and faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi in a town hall on Wednesday, most
students will be sitting out.
Almost everyone of the over 8,000 strong student community at the IIT wants to meet and, if
possible, ask a question to Zuckerberg, a role model for many of them. But the venue where
the tech entrepreneur is holding the town hall is too small to accommodate all of them.
Only one in nine students will get an entry to the hall and they have been selected through a
lottery. The hall has a seating capacity for 1,100, but only 900 of the seats are reserved for
students.
The entire session is being handled by a Facebook team.
It started the process last
Thursday and the response so far has been huge.
When an invite was posted on the IIT website, 1,300 students filled up the application form
in the first two hours. Facebook discontinued the link after it got 3,500 applications.
"Town hall has always been popular, but not like this one," said a faculty at IIT Delhi. "Mark is a role model for most of the students as he
is easy to identify with. Also as the focus of both the institute and students is moving towards entrepreneurship and innovation, his visit
has created a lot of enthusiasm."
Zuckerberg is expected to speak for 15 minutes and spend the next hour answering questions from the audience.
Arshad Nasser, one of the lucky students selected to participate in the town hall, said there would be no direct questioning, though most town hall meetings allow that. "I wonder whether my question would be read out on Wednesday." Nasser, who is in his final year of Master's in Design, said he was not sure whether it was the question he had put in the application form for Zuckerberg or the lottery that got him through. His question was: "Will FB extend itself as a physical product so that it can interact with devices at home and also connect with social circle?"
Jyoti Meena, a final year B.Tech student, said many of her friends who could not make it to the list were upset. Still, she said the Facebook chief 's visit itself has created excitement on the campus. "Before any town hall, there are posters, banners, etc. but this time there was nothing but still the entire campus is abuzz with FB," she said. Her question for Zuckerberg is: "What was your Eureka moment that helped you decide that to pursue with FB?" Dhiritraj Das, a third year dual degree (Bio-Chemical engineering and Bio-technology) student, is one of the majority who could not make it to the list of students who received invites for the town hall. Das is already an entrepreneur and is busy bringing an e-commerce venture, called All Day Sports, to life. "I wanted to ask Zuckerberg a question on the Internet.org. As I would want to know what technology support will FB provide for this so that rural and backward areas in the country get access to the Internet?"
A Facebook spokesman said the upcoming event is a rare occasion for the company to have the media invited in any country. "It is mainly because India is one of the countries with largest users outside of the US for the company," he said. Zuckerberg in his earlier speeches at the company headquarters had shared his views on India. "India is personally very important to the history of our company here. This is a story that I have not told publicly and very few people know," he had said. During his visit, Zuckerberg is likely to be mostly in Delhi, said a source.
-- CA Kasliwal Ambar
Reference -
Arshad Nasser, one of the lucky students selected to participate in the town hall, said there would be no direct questioning, though most town hall meetings allow that. "I wonder whether my question would be read out on Wednesday." Nasser, who is in his final year of Master's in Design, said he was not sure whether it was the question he had put in the application form for Zuckerberg or the lottery that got him through. His question was: "Will FB extend itself as a physical product so that it can interact with devices at home and also connect with social circle?"
Jyoti Meena, a final year B.Tech student, said many of her friends who could not make it to the list were upset. Still, she said the Facebook chief 's visit itself has created excitement on the campus. "Before any town hall, there are posters, banners, etc. but this time there was nothing but still the entire campus is abuzz with FB," she said. Her question for Zuckerberg is: "What was your Eureka moment that helped you decide that to pursue with FB?" Dhiritraj Das, a third year dual degree (Bio-Chemical engineering and Bio-technology) student, is one of the majority who could not make it to the list of students who received invites for the town hall. Das is already an entrepreneur and is busy bringing an e-commerce venture, called All Day Sports, to life. "I wanted to ask Zuckerberg a question on the Internet.org. As I would want to know what technology support will FB provide for this so that rural and backward areas in the country get access to the Internet?"
A Facebook spokesman said the upcoming event is a rare occasion for the company to have the media invited in any country. "It is mainly because India is one of the countries with largest users outside of the US for the company," he said. Zuckerberg in his earlier speeches at the company headquarters had shared his views on India. "India is personally very important to the history of our company here. This is a story that I have not told publicly and very few people know," he had said. During his visit, Zuckerberg is likely to be mostly in Delhi, said a source.
-- CA Kasliwal Ambar
Reference -
