Geek – Big Brother House?

On CBS Television in the United States there is a show called Big Brother and the premise of this reality show is that they have a bunch of people living together. They go through a series of situations which are staged and corny at best, and result in the residents of the Big Brother House voting to eliminate each other one at a time each week. It is tough even sharing a home with my family at times so I could not imagine living in this situation let alone enjoying an existence as a human piranha. So when I learned about CCVP training being offered in a home setting with the instructor shut in with 12 geeks I was intrigued.

When looking at all the possible scenarios to gain training I have seen few that have really raised an eye brow. I did hear of an experience recently though that did. Picture if you will, sharing your training experience with 11 others, not a real stretch since average training class sizes for those pursuing CCVP or CCIE certification are about that size. Suppose those 11 others are all then sharing a kitchen and bathroom with you; there again not stretch of the imagination since most training companies do not provide private facilities or toilets. Now imagine sharing a bedroom, living room, cleaning chores, cooking duties and this does begin to make you think we are talking about a Geek Big Brother House. Can you imagine 12 geeks stumbling over each other with no elimination rounds to thin out the ranks or even a grand prize to walk away with? No chance to beat each other over the head with your technological savvy in hopes of sending others home first! In India this is a method used by Faisal Khan of Voice Bootcamp. When he travels to India his classes are filled with devoted students willing to work straight through 2 weeks of hands on voice training for 12 to 14 hours every day!

Faisal recently rented a 3 bedroom 3 bath home furnished with bunk beds. Moving around the furniture in the living room he then setup IP Phones and training equipment in its place. Connecting back to his offices in Toronto he had all he needed to successfully navigate his students through the CCIE Voice curriculum to help them achieve CCVP certification. I have been advised in many instances about the differences in cultures I have been dealing with as a recruiter in the Cisco SRS program. I have learned that in many cultures collaborative learning is the norm. In the case of Faisal’s classes what resulted each time was a think tank of knowledge sharing technophiles ravenous for a chance to improve their chances at CCVP or CCIE Voice certification.

This experience begs to be explored further since as voyeurs we all will want to know about the hair pulling, eye gouging, ear biting, and pizza throwing geeks in a house. So I cornered Faisal Khan and asked him tell his story.

His experience began with his arrival from Canada in Bangalore early one morning around 1:30 AM. Since this was also his first day of class he needed to locate the house and get some rest for the 9:00 AM start of the first day. By the time he found transportation and arrived at Geek House it was already 3:00 AM. He discovered that the students were actually waiting up for his arrival with notes and questions ready to go!

In his words;
“I saw that students were actually up and were waiting for me for my arrival. Something I have never encountered teaching in the west. Within 5 to 10 minutes, I was learning about the 12 students’ backgrounds. I noticed that some had notes on what they wanted to cover in the next twelve days of training.”

That morning the instructor and students finally made it to bed at 4:00 AM. Morning wake-up call was 8:00 AM and the class had a surprise when they discovered that a chef was assigned to the bootcamp who ensured breakfast, lunch and dinner were prepared to each student’s satisfaction. More importantly that each was provided the right blends of tea and or coffee as their cultural backgrounds had made them accustomed to. It seemed like a fantastic setup, but it was brutal from Instructor’s perspective.

The Geek House living room was converted to a classroom, a partition was to be put in between the living room and the rest of the kitchen and other common area. The twelve students came from different parts of the country, by various means, bear in mind that in India, each city is like a mini-country with different languages, cultures and traditions. The fact that the students had waited up until 3:00 AM changed Faisal’s plan of how he was going to teach. He asked the students what they wanted the most out of this bootcamp. Their unanimous answer was “lab time”. No one in India teaches CCVP with full CCIE VOICE Lab gear so the students jumped at the opportunity to get all the hands on time they could.

In his words;
“We did our first “CCVP Plus” Bootcamp back in India in April 2007. Our goal was to provide real world experience on each topic as theory and then hit the lab right away after that. Each and every CCVP Candidate was taught a CCVP course based on CCIE Lab. I realized that after my departure, these students may not have access to such lab, so I wanted to give them as much exposure possible to the lab. So we always started the lecture with live demonstration of the lab followed by discussion and then hands on practice. So on any given day almost 8 hours of labs were included.”

Although the geeks were crammed into tight quarters every student was pretty much getting along with each other as if they knew each other for ages. There were students from Italy, London, Thailand and India. Unfortunately from my point of view there were no food fights, or competitions, no hair pulling or teeth grinding to write about, in fact they collaborated and shared their time in the labs very well. One student whose name was worth mentioning came from Italy, Bapi was a real card. He had actually quit his job in Italy to join the Geek House bootcamp. He knew that it was being planned for India and he was following Faisal’s schedule for almost a year to see where he could take the bootcamp at a price he could afford. Not only was Faisal amazed by his actions but this instructor felt like a celebrity and even more responsible for ensuring Bapi would benefit from his experience. He was the student who kept the entire bootcamp alive with jokes, funny comments, acting and added that mental break they needed after working such long hours.

A typical day’s agenda:
• 8:30 AM – Breakfast
• 9:00 AM to 11:30 – Lecture/Lab
• 12:00 Noon – Lunch
• 1:00 – 4:00 PM lecture/lab
• 4:01 – 5:30 PM – break, nap time, whatever. We usually went for a walk, get some snacks or drink etc.
• 5:30 PM t0 8:30 PM lecture/lab
• 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM - dinner
• 9:30 PM out for walk or a cup of tea in a local store

Upon returning from the 9:30 PM cup of caffeine some student would go to sleep while others would once again go back to accessing the racks and continue to work. Often while communicating with the office in Canada which was 10 hours behind the time in India this instructor would find the students asking questions and working after 2:00 AM.

In his words;
“So while I was taking calls and returning calls, in the living room students were still practicing. I often found myself lecturing the class again at midnight for up to 2:00 AM sometimes only to start all over again at 8:30 AM.”

Well the outcome from this visit to the Geek House was 3 CCIE Voice certifications and nine other happy students. Faisal’s Geek House has become a regular offering in India and a rousing success for those attending. So when you are feeling the strain after a long day in class think about how tired you would be if it lasted twelve or fourteen hours each day. Think how tired you would be if you were the instructor!