Blogging for social responsibility

Something that did catch my attention in the last session at BlogCamp were two attempts on blogging for social responsibilty.

First was Osama urging people to blog about our villages etc as we travel around. He has a point. There is a lot of inequity in India. On one hand we have farmers committing suicide. And on the other hand we have the super rich in cities. In addition, there are billions of dollars flowing into the country for the poor. The attention of both the super rich and the donations etc is dominated by the mainstream media which covers the rural India only if there are suicides, famines etc and that too at a superficial level. Why can't bloggers attarct a more a continual attentions to the conditions before they become as extreme as suicides?

I travel a lot and fall somewhat in the category Osama talked about. But my travels are limited to the metros. Still, I'm going to talk more about the children that one sees begging on the streets of India. Don't think it'll have any impact but that's a bad excuse for doing nothing.

Second was Scott carney talking about Open source journalism. He has good intentions but the message was not clear. For a niche medium to emerge, ONE blog has to take lead and build readership. then others will converge around. IMHO, asking people to contribute early on invites the sceptics more than the passionate and kills the idea.

Tag: BlogCamp