auto *presence = new DigitalPresence();

I’d been submitting patches in anonymity for a while to various open source projects without commenting too much.  I was content to be a passive participant, but over time I’ve come to realize that technology and research projects are fundamentally social activities.  Not being part of the give-and-take in the community means missing out on a lot of meaningful interactions (including the occasionally necessary heated debates and flames) with other intelligent developers.  Moreover, with the presence of services like github which encourage “social coding”, it became harder not to pulled into the mix.

Technology is great, but love for it tends to be nurtured by the often interesting, diverse, and dedicated people who take part it its creation — these are the people I am ultimately thankful to and whose efforts I am thankful for.  I didn’t want to start writing anything technical before giving any sort of credit to the people who’ve assisted me along the way.

With that having been said …. First post!

-Pavan Tumati