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
Saturday, September 09, 2006
What's going on!
The post lunch session at Blogcamp is either short on content and heavy on unrelated conversation or I'm just plain sleepy. Most of the stuff just didn't connect. Unrelated, insufficient depth etc. Bad enough for me to feel like taking a flight back ASAP!
For the time being, I'll plead mea culpa and get some coffee.
Tag: BlogCamp
For the time being, I'll plead mea culpa and get some coffee.
Tag: BlogCamp
Blogger Beta
The wordpress demo was followed by a blogger beta demo. Seems like most of the gaps between blogger and wordpress are addressed. So now I am trying both blogger beta and wordpress.
Trying the newbie section on BlogCamp was a good idea.
Tag: BlogCamp
Trying the newbie section on BlogCamp was a good idea.
Tag: BlogCamp
Hindi Blog!
I have seen quite a few Tamil blogs but just learnt of a hindi Blog: Rajesh. He says there are several tools for hindi bloggers. Way to go. Hope he puts up a post on the Blogcamp wiki on how to do it.
The blog itself looks a little unlike the hindi typeface. But just the idea of hindi blogging is mindblowing!
Tag: BlogCamp
The blog itself looks a little unlike the hindi typeface. But just the idea of hindi blogging is mindblowing!
Tag: BlogCamp
ICICI Bank - Moving with the times
Another personal anecdote from BlogCamp:
Two bloggers were contacted by ICICI bank after they cribbed about the bank's service on their blogs. The anecdotes invited laughter. However, I was left wondering about my own employer. Don't think we are that media savvy. Yet.
Kudos to ICICI bank certainly.
Tag: BlogCamp
Two bloggers were contacted by ICICI bank after they cribbed about the bank's service on their blogs. The anecdotes invited laughter. However, I was left wondering about my own employer. Don't think we are that media savvy. Yet.
Kudos to ICICI bank certainly.
Tag: BlogCamp
blogging for women
From personal anecdotes at Blogcamp:
Neha started blogging because she hated her boss and needed an additional medium to crib! Interesting remark of "blogging is difficult for women as the personal life is online".
Tag: BlogCamp
Neha started blogging because she hated her boss and needed an additional medium to crib! Interesting remark of "blogging is difficult for women as the personal life is online".
Tag: BlogCamp
Monday, August 28, 2006
MoMo Bangalore
It was great fun to attend the MoMo Bangalore. Rishit had an excellent presentation on VAS. He covered the intricacies of the VAS space with respect to GSM, reliance and others. It was great because he covered things in great details and had data to to share. The key take away was that big opportunity lies in reaching the B&W low cost handsets that comprise the rural/semi-urban users. I know its not a great insight but the detailed discussion made it an inescapable fact.
The greater fun was the interaction. This is how a unconference should be. We had a conversation!
The mixing post the talk was good too. It was a lot better than Delhi as there were entrepreneurs everywhere. And there was huge qualitative difference. The entrepreneurs here had feet on ground and knew the stuff they were talking about rather than just unending optimism. Gives me a lot of confidence about India spawning start-ups and about us building a silicon valley like ecosystem here.
The greater fun was the interaction. This is how a unconference should be. We had a conversation!
The mixing post the talk was good too. It was a lot better than Delhi as there were entrepreneurs everywhere. And there was huge qualitative difference. The entrepreneurs here had feet on ground and knew the stuff they were talking about rather than just unending optimism. Gives me a lot of confidence about India spawning start-ups and about us building a silicon valley like ecosystem here.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
MMS (Mobile Monday Saturday!)
The first MoMo Delhi was held last Saturday. It was an interesting mix of people and companies.
There were two mobile based social networking start-ups: Linksurf and Yaari.com. Neither were exciting and the homework seemed incomplete. Yaari.com is perhaps the better one. If one sets aside the mobile aspect which probably won't work, they may well create an Indian community on the web and set themselves up for sale to say MySpace who would want to catch up with Orkut. But its a very iffy proposition given the biz models in social networking are still scaling up and that its very difficult to transfer a community and to integrate two different look n feels. It'll be interesting to see how the look n feel of yaari.com shapes up.
Another company was webaroo which allows for for offline browsing and search on a mobile device. I agree with the need for offline browsing but its easily met otherwise. For example, if I want to browse stuff offline I just open it in new tabs in Firefox and read them later, typically in a flight. I've never had heavier needs but I do remember leeching software from my student days that could download an entire site. Webaroo is better with its compression and web-packs for organisation of content. But will someone pay for it? Probably not and I guess Webaroo knows it and hence the software is for free. They intend to earn revenue through ads. That would kick in only when they have volumes which seems to be far off. But they seem to be ready for the long haul.
The gyan sessions were boring. Its the same things recycled again and again! I haven't kept close tabs over the mobile world and if I found the content recycled I wonder what the others thought.
The last was a panel discussion. I almost skipped it. Panels are usually insipid for me. However, I couldn't leave for some other reasons. In the end, it was great that I didn't. Manoj from Airtel was just awesome. He came out strongly in defence of operators with statistics and ground level realities that only an Ops guy can. One of the panelists Alok Mittal has captured this well, so I'll not repeat.
At the end of the day, I was:
1. Excited by the enthusiasm of the people in start-ups/looking to start one
2. Disappointed by lack of maturity among entrepreneurs. There is a need for education on the kind of plans that can get funded. Instead, there was frustration about some plans not getting funded without any realisation that the plan may be bad.
3. Disappointed by the plans/businesses that I heard. Except for one (and he didn't present), all were tweaks trying to ride the wave of web/mobile 2.0. But I guess its a good enough hit rate.
4. Happy with connections revived and new ones made.
Looking forward to more of these. Would attend the MoMo Bangalore at the end of this month.
There were two mobile based social networking start-ups: Linksurf and Yaari.com. Neither were exciting and the homework seemed incomplete. Yaari.com is perhaps the better one. If one sets aside the mobile aspect which probably won't work, they may well create an Indian community on the web and set themselves up for sale to say MySpace who would want to catch up with Orkut. But its a very iffy proposition given the biz models in social networking are still scaling up and that its very difficult to transfer a community and to integrate two different look n feels. It'll be interesting to see how the look n feel of yaari.com shapes up.
Another company was webaroo which allows for for offline browsing and search on a mobile device. I agree with the need for offline browsing but its easily met otherwise. For example, if I want to browse stuff offline I just open it in new tabs in Firefox and read them later, typically in a flight. I've never had heavier needs but I do remember leeching software from my student days that could download an entire site. Webaroo is better with its compression and web-packs for organisation of content. But will someone pay for it? Probably not and I guess Webaroo knows it and hence the software is for free. They intend to earn revenue through ads. That would kick in only when they have volumes which seems to be far off. But they seem to be ready for the long haul.
The gyan sessions were boring. Its the same things recycled again and again! I haven't kept close tabs over the mobile world and if I found the content recycled I wonder what the others thought.
The last was a panel discussion. I almost skipped it. Panels are usually insipid for me. However, I couldn't leave for some other reasons. In the end, it was great that I didn't. Manoj from Airtel was just awesome. He came out strongly in defence of operators with statistics and ground level realities that only an Ops guy can. One of the panelists Alok Mittal has captured this well, so I'll not repeat.
At the end of the day, I was:
1. Excited by the enthusiasm of the people in start-ups/looking to start one
2. Disappointed by lack of maturity among entrepreneurs. There is a need for education on the kind of plans that can get funded. Instead, there was frustration about some plans not getting funded without any realisation that the plan may be bad.
3. Disappointed by the plans/businesses that I heard. Except for one (and he didn't present), all were tweaks trying to ride the wave of web/mobile 2.0. But I guess its a good enough hit rate.
4. Happy with connections revived and new ones made.
Looking forward to more of these. Would attend the MoMo Bangalore at the end of this month.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Mumbai landmark
I have a confession to make and also want to expose the evil called landmark. I am a bibliophile. And the newly opened Landmark is to me what a pub is to a recalcitrant tippler.
For those who do not know, landmark is a book shop that started out of Chennai and is now spreading across metros. The most recent one opened at Infiniti Mall at Andheri Lokhandwala. It is small by landmark standards but already beats any other large Mumbai book store in its collection. And these people say that the collection is just starting out!
Let me paint a picture of Mumbai Book shops. There is the venerable Strand in the fort. Great books become available here ahead of any other store and that too at great prices. Its the smallest book shop amongst all the shops I keep visiting but it inspires awe with its collection and its dedication to book lovers. The only comparison I can draw is with Midlands in Delhi. But then, which other man has won a Padma Vibhushan for selling books than Mr Shanbhag! They have the best Indian collection that I have seen on fine arts and on chess. But they really are famous for creating trends. A freakonomics/world is flat etc are released at Strand simultaneously with the rest of the world while the other shops wait for market reaction and then follow. Strand knows what its readers want and goes out and gets it ahead of others.
Crossword is the large chain that everyone knows of. There are many branches and affiliates but only two are any good: kemps corner where the original Mahalaxmi one moved and the Powai one. Some are actually examples of how not to run a book store: Juhu one. This is the place where most ppl go first and caters to the mainstream. But there has been a stagnation in the Sriram recommends category and the emphasis is on the predictable few authors/books. Crossword has nice decor and allows browsing but where are the books!! The only one I'd recommend to a serious reader is the Powai one.
Granth is a new comer and they made a good start with their Juhu shop. Nice collection in a small space. Really challenged its Juhu rival: crossword. Nice ambience and very helpful people. Didn't have a loyalty program but quickly corrected it. The goregaon one is avoidable. The juhu one would have done very well over time but for the arrival of Landmark.
In this setting came landmark. Anyone who has been to the Chennai one would attest to it being amazing. I've been to the usual suspects in Delhi, Mumbai, bangalore and Chennai and have had the help of bibliophiles in each city. So, trust me when I say that the best book shop in India is Chennai landmark. Where a cross word has a shelf on a topic, the Chennai landmark has a few racks and no cheap tricks of multiple copies of the same book. The variety brings me the the only word that describes it: Amazing.
The Mumbai landmark follows the same principal. Huge collection.
Strand has now no chance is the science section. Its a section it used to lead with good competition from the Juhu Granth. Landmark even has a section on Maths though its not very well stocked right now.
Literature: I once looked by Jorge Loius Borges in Mumbai. Found 2 books in Powai crossword. Others had not heard of it. landmark has many of them and two complete anthologies of fiction and non-fiction. It will be ages before anyone catches up here.
History: Crossword has nothing here. Granth led but now landmark blows them away with the sheer collection
Business & management: Huge surprise. landmark is worse than all except perhaps the Juhu crossword! Need to bring it to the level of chennai one.
Indian languages: Crossword kemps corner has a section but no one else. Its a pity that indian literature is not offered in India! Landmark had made a start with Hindi, Gujrati and marathi volumes. But the selection is not as extensive as its own other sections and lags behind the Delhi stores in the Hindi collection.
The landmark however has a huge disadvantage: no place to sit and browse. One can tolerate the narrow aisles where you have to brush against others as you pass but no place to sit and browse is a big pain. there is a small divan but its too little for the amount of traffic and frankly I like some personal space when reading.
But on the whole, landmark is the name of a increasing hole in my pocket.
For those who do not know, landmark is a book shop that started out of Chennai and is now spreading across metros. The most recent one opened at Infiniti Mall at Andheri Lokhandwala. It is small by landmark standards but already beats any other large Mumbai book store in its collection. And these people say that the collection is just starting out!
Let me paint a picture of Mumbai Book shops. There is the venerable Strand in the fort. Great books become available here ahead of any other store and that too at great prices. Its the smallest book shop amongst all the shops I keep visiting but it inspires awe with its collection and its dedication to book lovers. The only comparison I can draw is with Midlands in Delhi. But then, which other man has won a Padma Vibhushan for selling books than Mr Shanbhag! They have the best Indian collection that I have seen on fine arts and on chess. But they really are famous for creating trends. A freakonomics/world is flat etc are released at Strand simultaneously with the rest of the world while the other shops wait for market reaction and then follow. Strand knows what its readers want and goes out and gets it ahead of others.
Crossword is the large chain that everyone knows of. There are many branches and affiliates but only two are any good: kemps corner where the original Mahalaxmi one moved and the Powai one. Some are actually examples of how not to run a book store: Juhu one. This is the place where most ppl go first and caters to the mainstream. But there has been a stagnation in the Sriram recommends category and the emphasis is on the predictable few authors/books. Crossword has nice decor and allows browsing but where are the books!! The only one I'd recommend to a serious reader is the Powai one.
Granth is a new comer and they made a good start with their Juhu shop. Nice collection in a small space. Really challenged its Juhu rival: crossword. Nice ambience and very helpful people. Didn't have a loyalty program but quickly corrected it. The goregaon one is avoidable. The juhu one would have done very well over time but for the arrival of Landmark.
In this setting came landmark. Anyone who has been to the Chennai one would attest to it being amazing. I've been to the usual suspects in Delhi, Mumbai, bangalore and Chennai and have had the help of bibliophiles in each city. So, trust me when I say that the best book shop in India is Chennai landmark. Where a cross word has a shelf on a topic, the Chennai landmark has a few racks and no cheap tricks of multiple copies of the same book. The variety brings me the the only word that describes it: Amazing.
The Mumbai landmark follows the same principal. Huge collection.
Strand has now no chance is the science section. Its a section it used to lead with good competition from the Juhu Granth. Landmark even has a section on Maths though its not very well stocked right now.
Literature: I once looked by Jorge Loius Borges in Mumbai. Found 2 books in Powai crossword. Others had not heard of it. landmark has many of them and two complete anthologies of fiction and non-fiction. It will be ages before anyone catches up here.
History: Crossword has nothing here. Granth led but now landmark blows them away with the sheer collection
Business & management: Huge surprise. landmark is worse than all except perhaps the Juhu crossword! Need to bring it to the level of chennai one.
Indian languages: Crossword kemps corner has a section but no one else. Its a pity that indian literature is not offered in India! Landmark had made a start with Hindi, Gujrati and marathi volumes. But the selection is not as extensive as its own other sections and lags behind the Delhi stores in the Hindi collection.
The landmark however has a huge disadvantage: no place to sit and browse. One can tolerate the narrow aisles where you have to brush against others as you pass but no place to sit and browse is a big pain. there is a small divan but its too little for the amount of traffic and frankly I like some personal space when reading.
But on the whole, landmark is the name of a increasing hole in my pocket.
Re-org:New Blogs
I haven't really blogged but I would start now and start big! There is a new blog on my culinary adventures . I expect this to be my most frequently updated blog. There will soon be another blog on my musings on the technology world. Vanity... will continue to be my center point for random musings.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Gypsy's trail back
Its certainly been LONG since I posted last! A no of things have changed since then not least of which is my job but what I want to focus on here is what I have learnt about blogging.
Blogging certainly is big. The close match between demand and supply of content provided by Blogs is unmatched. What is also very interesting is the creation of communities and the thought leaders. Some people have been publishing very regularly to make sure that they reach and retain the Guru position in their communities. But there is seldom one guru. So it leads to an interesting situation where one has to keep tabs on what others are saying and to respond to it in a simple yes/no or give an interesting perspective on it. This crunches the cycle time for any new thing to reach a height/rejection. Examples: AJAX, Web 2.0, Long tail etc. It probably also reduces the time for a new thing to cross over to mainstream as "mainstream" takes cognizance of noise being made by "those in the know". Its also very interesting how some other topics do not get that much attention from the community as a whole. Maybe because
Blogging certainly is big. The close match between demand and supply of content provided by Blogs is unmatched. What is also very interesting is the creation of communities and the thought leaders. Some people have been publishing very regularly to make sure that they reach and retain the Guru position in their communities. But there is seldom one guru. So it leads to an interesting situation where one has to keep tabs on what others are saying and to respond to it in a simple yes/no or give an interesting perspective on it. This crunches the cycle time for any new thing to reach a height/rejection. Examples: AJAX, Web 2.0, Long tail etc. It probably also reduces the time for a new thing to cross over to mainstream as "mainstream" takes cognizance of noise being made by "those in the know". Its also very interesting how some other topics do not get that much attention from the community as a whole. Maybe because
- the traditional methods of marketing still dominate?
- the audience is not in the blogosphere?
- Subject too complicated for a unanimous opinion to be reached?
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Starship Why-Name: Tyro's Blog 1
I don't know why anyone would want to write a blog. The simple and perhaps simplistic answer is that its for one's vanity. I start off in hopes of a better answer.
The first experiences are weird.
I don't need a pseudonym. I am perfectly happy with my own name. I don't have proclivities that induce people to adopt assumed names so as to prevent embarrasment or social censure in real life. Still, I don't have my own name on this blog. Because, someone already owns it. In fact, all variants of it that I have tolerated over 25 years. Its weird because yahoo allows some of these variants. So, is blogging bigger than yahoo already? I put a question to the Human Machine Interface in frustration and voila, I have a new net identity! In my rage I even forgot the question-mark!!
Why should I give ONE name to a log which is to contain all my thoughts? Why should I limit my thoughts to just one subject? But a name has to be given to this experiment. Hence, the hypothesis which I suspect to be wrong has become the name.
Should I expect this blog to continue beyond this day? I have attempted writing a diary in past. Mostly because many great people are supposed to have kept one. However, my shots at greatness never lasted for more than a few days at a time. Why should this be any different? I am similarly recording my thoughts. Style remains the same: disjointed. Still, I feel some responsibility towards my blog which I never did for a diary. I never expected anyone to read my diary in my lifetime but a blog can be read immediately after I hit "Publish". I am actually reviewing and revising my sentences more carefully than the reports that i send to my boss! Let me see when I return to this page.
The first experiences are weird.
I don't need a pseudonym. I am perfectly happy with my own name. I don't have proclivities that induce people to adopt assumed names so as to prevent embarrasment or social censure in real life. Still, I don't have my own name on this blog. Because, someone already owns it. In fact, all variants of it that I have tolerated over 25 years. Its weird because yahoo allows some of these variants. So, is blogging bigger than yahoo already? I put a question to the Human Machine Interface in frustration and voila, I have a new net identity! In my rage I even forgot the question-mark!!
Why should I give ONE name to a log which is to contain all my thoughts? Why should I limit my thoughts to just one subject? But a name has to be given to this experiment. Hence, the hypothesis which I suspect to be wrong has become the name.
Should I expect this blog to continue beyond this day? I have attempted writing a diary in past. Mostly because many great people are supposed to have kept one. However, my shots at greatness never lasted for more than a few days at a time. Why should this be any different? I am similarly recording my thoughts. Style remains the same: disjointed. Still, I feel some responsibility towards my blog which I never did for a diary. I never expected anyone to read my diary in my lifetime but a blog can be read immediately after I hit "Publish". I am actually reviewing and revising my sentences more carefully than the reports that i send to my boss! Let me see when I return to this page.
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