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Cloud Computing: Article

1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo: Cultural Observations

Are the Japanese simply better listeners that we are?

By Parand Darugar
Article Rating:
December 1, 2008 12:15 PM EST
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 32,606

Parand Darugar's Blog

I was at SYS-CON's 1st International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo last week preparing for my talk and observing my fellow attendees. Interesting stuff. The gentlemen seated on either side of me at the last talk were Japanese. As I fumbled around with my Blackberry and iPhone while trying to get Wifi to work on the laptop and reading email, I noticed the rapt attention paid by these gents to the speaker. Both listened attentively and took photos of every slide with their ever-present digital cameras. One took copious notes while the other not only took notes but also recorded the audio.



This has me wondering - are the Japanese simply better listeners that we are? Are they less afflicted with crackberry syndrome? Or does the fact that they had to fly half way around the world to attend a conference naturally orient them to paying more attention? Or, are they taking copious notes to share with their colleagues back home in order to justify their presumably expensive trip?

Culturally aware readers of this blog, I’d like to know: are the Japanese always this polite and attentive? Surely they’re not lacking in the number of attention grabbing gadgest available to them, so how do they manage to keep focus?

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Published December 1, 2008 – Reads 32,606
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More Stories By Parand Darugar

Parand Darugar is Director of Software Architecture, Yahoo! He is responsible for the adoption of scaling and grid technologies across the advertising business unit in Yahoo! In a prior role he managed the advertising platform groups, Yahoo! wide centers of expertise providing Java, Database, and other platform technologies across the company. He also served as a part of the core architecture team for Panama, a rebuild of Yahoo's major targeted advertising system.

Prior to Yahoo, Darugar was co-founder and Chief Architect of Blue Titan, a venture backed Web Services infrastructure software company. Blue Titan was sold to SOA Software in 2005. Before Blue Titan he was co-founder and Chief Architect of VelociGen Inc, a venture backed Web application acceleration and scaling software company.

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