Yashwant Singh: India's best blogger
Yashwant Singh, who runs
Bhadas4media, a blog which recently celebrated
4 years of existence, is in my opinion the best Indian blogger, in the true blogger sense - blogging on an issue he is passionate about,
the right/plight of Indian journalists, highlighting any example of media-industrial complex on a regular basis, which all the Twitteratis and pseudo-bloggers (English language) have mostly failed to do so far.
From a wide sampling of Yashwant's writing, which is in Hindi, first you have to read
this, which is the most frank personal story of any Indian blogger I have read so far.
It is a
passionate blogger's philosophy, a manifesto for carrying on no matter what. This blogger thought
he would be dead by 38. No chance, so far.
Yashwant receives threats for his blogging all the time, and he often responds by giving the caller the address of his home.
Read Yashwant's post about
high salaries of media organization CEOs, and this one
about huge salaries of new channel/newspaper editors while stringers go unpaid.
Also read these:
Chetan Kunte, Blogging Hero
A simple guide to the biggest moments in Indian blogging historyLabels: blogging, hindi, india
Why most tech blogs are useless: Many followers, Zero experience (and why Techmeme is dead)
Rob May, a well-known tech company founder(Backupify) says he tells his employees not to read tech blogs as most tech bloggers are '
23-year-olds who haven’t built a real company yet, despite a lot of hype and followers'. Moreover, there is just
too much noise and distraction in tech blogging. I think you should give up reading Techmeme altogether (more on this sometime later) - there is simply no insight to be found in that vast echo-chamber of a wasteland, just a lot of me-too bloggers testing who can write the best pro-Apple story. Techmeme is dead.
From a list of
insights from May, here are the ones I like:
2. The Web has made us all alike.
7. Build a product first, then a platform.
8. Tools make more money than apps.
9. Seed funding is still tough to get for many companies.
Labels: blogging, tip
The world's greatest invention? Try writing
In a delightful short post on The Economist's
More Intelligent Life website, Tom Standage says that
civilization's best invention is writing. And I agree. Writing makes you think better. Writing makes you question things. Writing...okay, okay, over to Tom:
It is not just one of the foundations of civilisation: it underpins the steady accumulation of intellectual achievement. By capturing ideas in physical form, it allows them to travel across space and time without distortion, and thus slip the bonds of human memory and oral transmission, not to mention the whims of tyrants and the vicissitudes of history.
Read more
Note: If are interested, There is a useful Success Manual Guide, called '
Writing Skills To Pay The Bills'.
Labels: blogging, idea
Blogging reduces stress in teens
The American Psychological Association reports that
writing in a public blog can help teens
tackle social anxiety better than keeping a private diary. It also says that offering commenting and discussion space on the blog brings in support and diverse (and often positive) statements from readers.
Study
found atLabels: blogging, study
Felix Salmon's 5 ways Blogging has changed Journalism for better
Highlights from a interview of Felix Salmon, who is a journalist for Reuters, who explains the
positive effect blogging has had on journalists:
1. I have a more conversational voice on the blog.
I think of any given post as being part of a much broader conversation between bloggers and between me and my readers. Nearly all of my posts are reactions to something elsewhere online, and I try to be as generous as I can with links.
2. The main impact I think is the way that blog reporting can iterate.
In traditional media, you report the story and then you publish it; with blogs, you can start with something much less fully formed and then come back at it over time in many ways and from many angles.
3. Blogs can also geek out in a way that traditional journalists can’t.
There’s no space constraint online, and so if I want to spend 5,000 words writing about vulture funds, or a reporter at HuffPo wants to spend 4,000 words getting into the weeds of regulatory reform, they can.
4. Blogging has clearly given readers a much wider range of news sources to choose from.
(and) it’s great that readers are no longer confined to getting their news from a handful of outlets.
5. How Blogging is better than Twitter.
Professional journalists should always be beholden to high standards of professionalism, ethics, and accuracy. Random people with a Twitter account, not so much.
Labels: blogging, online journalism
If your government shuts down blogging, shut down your government
The above graphic became popular during the uprisings in the Arab world, in Egypt and elsewhere. The image of Pharaoh is modified to look like the eponymous 'V' of the famous '
V for Vendetta' movie, which many see '
an allegory of oppression by government'. Others see as '
a statement against government intervention into the lives of the citizens'.
During the best of times, the concept of Free Speech in our country is a 'tolerated' idea rather than a fundamental right. The Government of India reportedly plans to bring in something called 'Blogger Control Act", which will enable the authorities to work with Internet Access providers, filtering the content and blocking your blog temporarily/permanently if they find it 'objectionable'.
How can a few people decide what we view online?
The blocking of a blogging website, even if only for a short period, raises the disturbing question of curbs imposed on free speech in India through executive fiat. There is a clear pattern of Internet censorship that is inconsistent with constitutional guarantees on freedom of expression. It is also at odds with citizen aspirations in the age of new media. [...]
In this mighty age of user-generated content, will they require the whole country to register themselves?
One positive thing I can think about this news is that Blogging is not dead. In fact, blogging has become so powerful that governments fear it. Take that, Twitter.
Essential Reading on the topic:
On This Blog:
Labels: blogging, online rights
Faulkner's advice for writers: Reading is the best training for writers
From an
interview with the great William Faulkner:
Q: How do you find time to write?
WF: You can always find time to write. Anybody who says he can't is living under false pretenses. To that extent depend on inspiration. Don't wait. When you have an inspiration put it down. Don't wait until later and when you have more time and then try to recapture the mood and add flourishes. You can never recapture the mood with the vividness of its first impression.
Q: What is the best training for writing? Courses in writing? Or what?
WF: Read, read, read! Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad; see how they do it. When a carpenter learns his trade, he does so by observing. Read! You'll absorb it. Write. If it is good you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.
There is an anecdote about a famous writer giving a class in creative writing, where he says, "
Just go home and start writing."
Labels: blogging, writing
Blogging lessons from Heather Armstrong: I am glad Facebook wasn't around when I started
Heather Armstrong, who runs the famous (and highly profitable) Dooce blog, discusses about blogging and the impact of social sites such as Facebook on blogging, in this
New York Times article :
...a lot of people don't blog even, they use Facebook. Facebook wasn't around when I launched my site. I'm kind of glad it wasn't or else I wouldn't be where I am today.
On whether Twitter and Facebook will replace blogging:
...people use Facebook to keep in touch and people use blogs to tell stories. There are times on Twitter when I find someone and I want to find what else they write, I'm looking around to see if they have a Tumblr or a blog.
On reasons for her huge success at blogging:
I think my success has been a combination of several factors: one of the big ones is that I've been around for a long time, I've stuck with it, I've had a lot of life events that made the trajectory interesting...My suggestion has always been that you should find an existing community who you would like to have reading your site and hang out with them.
On the challenges of blogging:
I'm not sure that what I've been doing is easily replicable...It's a lot of work. I think anybody who has started [blogging] and stopped in the last 10 years knows that; many people stopped because it was too much work. Curating and posting 140 characters is a lot easier.
Labels: blogging, tip
Teaching blogging in schools
Anyone can be a blogger. There are no significant barriers to entry and the software is free. You can host on
Blogger.com/Wordpress.com/Posterous.com to avoid spending money on hosting.
Anyone can be a blogger. This is also the biggest obstacle to succeeding as a professional blogger.
Read this blog post on the
difficulties facing an aspiring professional blogger. The main points:
1, Any career that has minimal barriers to entry is not going to be accepted by those that are more conservative.
Their belief is that you should have to go to school, receive training, and at least do something to earn the right or the experience/knowledge needed to become a blogger.
2. (Regular) Schools do not teach blogging
If they can teach creative writing and journalism, why not blogging, which incorporates both disciplines and does more.
Blogging is a relatively new field. School and colleges are usually ten years behind the real world in terms of determining what training is vital to the workforce. Many colleges only recently began offering degrees in Web Design. I work at a high school in New York. I have yet to see any teacher complete or attempt any lesson plans related to blogging.
3. What makes successful bloggers stand apart?
There are many guides on the topic online. Just Google it.
The short version: You must cover a niche like anything, like nobody has ever done ever before.
...most successful bloggers are far more sophisticated in their blogging activities than those that fail. While some folks are superb writers and luck into the right niche, the successful bloggers I know are constantly testing, reviewing, and planning how to best construct their blogs. The blog is treated as a business at all times. Anyone can start a business, not many are successful.
Three Indian bloggers who are doing okay as professional bloggers: Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration Blog), Aashish Sinha (Pluggd.in) and Nikhil Pahwa (Medianama)
Labels: blogging
Why blogging still rules Part 2: We owe it to our ideas to give them a fixed home
Anil Dash says, "
If you didn't blog it, it didn't happen."
Prof. Jay Rosen: '
We owe it to our ideas to give them a fixed home'.
Anil Dash again:
According to a survey, the most popular blog posts today are longer posts, 1,600 words on average.
Instant Opinions aren't necessarily useful insights.
What is your fixed home online?
Twitter? Great.
Also read:
Labels: blogging, twitter
Why Blogging Still Rules (and why reports about blogging having peaked are wrong)
The
latest Pew survey shows that people of all demographics are using the internet more than ever. Nothing surprising, you will say. But, the survey also reports that less people are blogging.
1. Only half as many online teens work on their own blog as did in 2006, and Millennial generation adults ages 18-33 have also seen a modest decline-a development that may be related to the quickly-growing popularity of social network sites.
2. ...blogging's popularity increased among most older generations, and as a result the rate of blogging for all online adults rose slightly overall from 11% in late 2008 to 14% in 2010.
Some observations:
They have experienced life. Writing brings catharsis. We want to share.
2. Nothing beats blogging your experience.
If you have less to say on a topic, use Twitter, which is
the new blog for some. Otherwise, nothing beats blogging. (Unless you are someone like Jay Rosen, the master of Mindcasting.)
"Writing is an effective way of processing and coming to terms with challenging and potentially traumatic events," he says. "But blogging is more than the mere act of writing. It also fosters senses of both control and social connection, each of which is crucial for psychological wellbeing."
3. Twittering is not about cool.
Earlier, it used to be that blogging was cool. Nerds used to blog.
People like Jason Kottke, Dave Winer, David Weinberger, Jeff Jarvis, Rebecca Blood, Andrew Sullivan, Robert Scoble, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Om Malik and even Michael Arrington made their names as breakthrough bloggers, people who could construct good pieces on writing on a regular basis about their chosen domains, generating a sizeable following and positive brand value along the way.
People created bonafied publishing empires out of blogging. Major news brands have teams of writers blogging for them. It is another matter that for various business considerations, the premier blogging empire Gawker is adopting a magazine-type look.
Other than Jay Rosen, and some funny one-liner specialists, I don't see any Twitter superstar. Correct me if I am wrong.
4. Blogging is still the only way of building your brand in your industry.
I agree that curating news links on Twitter is useful but nothing beats being able to structure your analysis about an important industry issue through a blog. Nothing beats a detailed interview about how your industry works, via a blog post. Nothing beats a weekly roundup of major news stories about your industry. Nothing beats writing about the truths about your industry. If you don't, you are chicken.
Labels: blogging, twitter
A Simple Guide to the Best of Gawker
Gawker is the New York Times of blog-based news sites. Whereas the Times goes after stories with a solemn and sincere outlook, Gawker attacks stories with a vengeful, righteous and irreverent vigor. Critics - envious reporters and bloggers, straightjacketed in their self-imposed roles of striving to maintain the status quo, routinely slam Gawker and its sister blogs for being 'flippant' and 'controversy mongers'.
This brief timeline of controversies related to Gawker and its sister blogs will show you how Nick Denton has carefully cultivated an image 'snarky irreverence', while all this while, his guys have really set the standard for blogging excellence - asking the 'right questions', exposing uncomfortable truths and going all out on this culture of celebrity.
Gawker is what many journalists and bloggers secretly aim to be. But, they missed the class on 'Dead Poets' Society', that’s all. They might check Gawker obsessively on daily basis, but are afraid to admit in public that the Gawker sites actually do some serious shit.
Gawker may appear as the Johnny Knoxville of news blogging to '
serious' people, but few people know that the Jackass star also produced a great documentary film about Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White and his notorious family, titled '
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia'. Appearances distract.
Some already say that Gawker is
no more a blog. I totally agree. Gawker is turning into a quite a reporting powerhouse. Yes folks, it is true.
The Gawker Controversy Timeline:
Gawker.com
The "Gawker Stalker" feature (2005- ): Gawker seeks users to post details of celebrity sightings.
Gawker vs. Wyclef Jean (2010): Gawker reports about the
shady operations of a pop singer's charity.
Gawker's True Blood Promo site controversy: It pushes the so-called, mostly non-existing boundary between advertising and editorial content, when HBO gets Gawker to host a site on Tru Blood, which looked like a Gawker media site. Later, an editor at Gawker actually owns up and publishes a post titled, "
About that Vampire blog thing" .
Gawker vs. 4Chan (2010) - 4Chan users launched an
attack on Gawker Media's servers, angry over Gawker's story on how they coordinated the harassment of an 11-year-old girl.
[Note: Later, Gawker did a positive coverage of 4Chan too, when the site's users rallied to
cheer up an old World War 2 veteran on his birthday. ]
Gawker vs. Christine O'Donnell (2010): Gawker publishes an
anonymous account of a young man from Philadelphia who had a naked sleepover with Delaware GOP senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell.
I have mentioned how cleverly Gawker disguises its genuine intentions with all that inane and banal celebrity coverage. Hidden behind all that you will also helpful guides like these:
Gizmodo.com
Checkbook Journalism - Part 1 - The Lost iPhone (2010) -
Gizmodo vs. Apple: Gizmodo publishes details about the next iPhone, which was
found lost in a bar. It paid $5,000 for the iPhone prototype. In retaliation, Apple got the authorities to Gizmodo Editor's Home, confesticate his computer, and for a while, it appeared that the controversy would bankrupt Gawker.
Gizmodo's Comdex 2008 tricks: Gizmodo writers use the TV-B-Gone hoodie, which was on show, to
shut off displays in booths and in the middle of major product presentations. The idea:
To take it out on the supposed seriousness of reporting from trade shows. The iPhone 4 Retina Display Controversy: Gizmodo get an expert to
debunk Apple's claim about the iPhone 4's display: "
The pixel density is so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels."
Gizmodo vs. the 'PR-fed world of gadget writing': Joel Johnson, a former Gizmodo editor, writes about the rise and dangers of current state of gadget/technology journalism. He actually accuses Gizmodo readers of
ignoring stories about how technology made a difference, and instead reading about "
new chromed robot turd to put in your pocket and impress your friends." That's not all, Joel goes on to say,
"And you guys just ate it up. Kept buying shitty phones and broken media devices green and dripping with DRM. "
The best part of this story is that Gizmodo, where Joel used to work previously, publishes his
opinion piece.
Valleywag.com
Now just a sub-domain on Gawker.com, Valleywag got under the skin of quite many Silicon Valley types. It took on 'Press Releasy' technology news sites, over-hyped Internet startups and of course the egos of self-important Valley personalities. As a result, it was habitually hated by who mattered.
After Nick Denton fired Nick Douglas from Valleywag, for going beyond the
"take-people-down" brief, this is what he said in an
internal memo:
We don’t report stories to “finally get sued.” We report stories because we think they deserve to be out there.
Can you spot the difference from other technology blogs?
In contrast, a Techcrunch story on MerchantCircle goes like this: MerchantCircle Adds Mayorships For Small Businesses.
Most tech reporting is so sad, I don't even want to link to Techcrunch for this one. My apologies.
Consumerist.com
Gawker sold Consumerist to Consumer Reports. It made a name for itself by going after anti-consumer companies.
Jezebel.com
A site dedicated to women issues, Jezebel starts with this manifesto of sorts, which attacks what's wrong with women's magazines:
Jezebel vs. Jon Stewart (2010): Jezebel takes on the Daily Show's Jon Stewart , criticizing the show for its 'sexist' hiring policies
here and
here.
Jezebel exposes Redbook (2007): Jezebel caches the
Photoshop trickery of the Redbook women's magazine.
Jalopnik.com
Checkbook Journalism - Part 2 - Jalopnik Puts Up $5000 Bounty For Top Gear USA Pilot (2010): The car blog from Gawker media puts up a
$5000 bounty to the first person to provide them with a copy of a Top Gear America pilot episode that was filmed, but never released episode.
Io9.com
This blog on all things sci-fi is probably the best niche blog there is.
In 2009, while almost all were singing high praises of James Cameron's
"Avatar", io9.com publishes this story about whether Cameron
ripped off the story called
"Call Me Joe" by Paul Anderson.
Related readings:
Labels: blogging, timeline
The Only Blogging Manifesto You Need
In The New York Times, David Carr writes about
The Awl, a promising, small blogging outfit run by Choire Sicha, Alex Balk, and David Cho. Here, Choire voices the pressures we bloggers face and
how he deals with it:
“My friends keep talking to me about how they want to start a Web site, but they need to get some backing, and I look at them and ask them what they are waiting for,” Mr. Sicha said. “All it takes is some WordPress and a lot of typing. Sure, I went broke trying to start it, it trashed my life and I work all the time, but other than that, it wasn’t that hard to figure out.”
Labels: blogging, manifesto
The Top Rule of Local Blogging
Rule #1 of local blogging: If you hear fire trucks in the night, in the morning you should be able to find out where the fire was.
Labels: blogging, local news
A timeline of blog acquisitions
So, Michael Arrington sold his popular Techcrunch blog for
$25 million. Blogging will make you millions, you say. Hold on. You can count the number of big-ticket blog (
and blog networks & aggregators) acquisitions on your fingertips. Blogs have boomed in this decade. But what about blogs worth buying? This Google
search reveals there isn't much action. Of course, I am not talking about small-size blog sales on sites such as Sitepoint.
Let us look at the important blog purchases in these past 6 years:
2005 - AOL bought pioneering Blog Network Weblogs, Inc. for around $25 million. (In the same month that year, October, Instablogs blog network was launched with myself as Managing Editor) Founder Jason Calacanis stayed at AOL until 2006, where he tried to implement the Digg model by having an army of paid bookmarkers for AOL's Propeller.com site. Results were mixed at best. Some blogs under the Weblogs Inc network, such as Engadget continue to lead the gadget-blogging field, as the writing talent stayed with the blog.
2006 - Conde Nast's Wired Digital bought
online news aggregator Reddit.com for an undisclosed sum. According to some reports, the people at Digg (the founders have since left) want the site
out of Conde Nast's hands. It helps that
traffic at Redit is surging while Digg is busy digging its grave, sort of. Did you know, in 2006, Digg.com, the original all-purpose news aggregator, had a value of
$250 million?
Did you also know that Reddit is managed by just four people?
2007 - Discovery Communications bought TreeHugger (Founder Graham Hill) for $10M.Treehugger continues to lead the environment news blog field, but the new owners have plastered ads wherever they could.
2007 - MSNBC.com bought social news site Newsvine in an undisclosed, all-cash deal. (Some reports pegged the deal at $15 million)
2008 - BankRate bought Bankaholic (Founder: Johns Wu; Topic: Bank Deposit Rates) for up to $15 Million.
2008 - Cablevision bought New York-based Local blog Network Gothamist for $5M-$6M.
2008 - Nick Denton of Gawker sold the Consumerist blog to nonprofit Consumers Union. Price undisclosed. The same year, Denton also sold music blog Idolator to Buzznet and travel blog Gridskipper to the Curbed network.
2008 - The Guardian bought Digital media news site Paidcontent (Founder: Rafat Ali) for $30 million. Raft will reportedly leave Paidcontent sometime this year.
2009 - MSNBC.com bought local news aggregator site Everyblock (Founder: Adrian holovaty)
2010 - The New York Times bought Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight Blog (Topic: polls)
2010 - AOL bought Michael Arrington's Silicon Valley tech news blog Techcrunch for a reported $25 million price.
Which brings me to the question some Indians bloggers may be asking:
If you look at the short list blog acquisitions above, two types of blogs have been bought - Niche blogs and All-purpose, newspaper-like Blog Networks.
The most notable niche in India seems to Media/Digital Media news blog area: Nikhil Pahwa's Medianama, Rajiv Dhingra' Watblog, and Aashish Sinha's Plugg.in. Together these three amount to Paidcontent-meets-Techcrunch for the Indian Digital media space.
Then there is Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration, who is single handedly making his money from tech tips & tricks blog. But I do not know how much he makes per month, how much traffic is dependent upon Google , and most important of all, how much brand awareness his blog has, compared to Lifehacker.com.
I was the founding Managing Editor of Instablogs blog network. I left in late 2006. I was glad to hear it received funding, first from Vishal Gondal (Indiagames) in 2008 and this year, Instablogs received $4 million from Times Internet. I think Instablogs and its army of citizen reporters can turn out to be ideal fit for a mainstream news behemoth such as the Times of India.
That brings me to the perhaps the most important criteria for
creating a 'buyable' blog:
FIT. All the blogs in the above
'bought' list were a FIT in the buyer's bigger scheme of things. I will give you an example. I like to read two excellent media criticism blogs,
Wearethebest and
Churimuri, but I am not sure of any Indian media brand buying these blogs (if the blogger is willing to sell, that is).
The New York Times might buy the snarky Gawker, but the Indian media boss is not ready for frank opinion.
Another question one may ask: Does blogging pay in the end?
Or, are we better off looking at other Digital opportunities?
Case in point: Minecraft. Swedish programmer Markus Persson single-handedly developed the game, which is selling at $14 a pop, making Markus
$350,000 a Day.
Related Readings:
Labels: Blog networks, blogging
Somebody please settle the blogging 'dead or alive' question
As a blogger I am fine with blogging. But, these damn so-called social media consultants will continue to confuse their corporate clients and keep themselves employed.
In one corner, you have PR guy Steve Rubel arguing '
blogging is over' and urging everyone to
post once and then repost everywhere.
Somebody is sure due for a serious spanking for
shameless spamming and
walled-garden whoring.
In the opposite corner, you have some saner folks, John Bell and Taly Weiss. Taly Weiss has a fashionable trend guidebook out,
trends in 140 characters.
Item no. 37 Says,
"Blogs will continue to flourish as people realize that micro-blogging needs a "home base"."
No wonder many top Twitters are either big bloggers or news website owners.
John Bell
concurs,
"Blogs are not passe. Quite the opposite. They will become a valuable "get more" destination that corporate Twitter handles and Facebook "walls" can point people to. "
You know which
luchador I am going to support.
Labels: blogging, social media
State of Internet Business in India: Same ol, Same ol
Rajesh Jain, the only man who made it big in the Internet scene in India in the past 10 years, and one of the few who understand, care and freely share about the realities of the internet in this country of Freeloaders, Yappers and Snake Oil sellers, paints a true picture of the
sorry state of Internet business in India:
Internet: 50 million (growing 10+ million/year), with 6 million broadband (256 Kbps) connections. About 50% access from cybercafes
Ads: Rs 700 cr ($150 million; 3% of media spend)
Transaction drivers: Tickets, Trades, Matrimony
The Times of India must be making more through Ads than the whole internet scene does in India. Among the so-called transaction drivers, railway ticketing takes a bulk of the sorry-looking cake.
Really, few Internet companies are making any money out here. And no, I am not counting in the SEO/Spam/Rewriting Service providers. Among the 50,000 or so active Indian bloggers, Amit Agarwal, a tech blogger, stands out as the lone happy blogging/publishing success story.
All in all, considering the Indian userbase, heavy on chat/email/job hunt, low on contributions, monetary or intellectual, you forgive that most Indian startups are made-to-flip types. Rajesh says,
Top 4 Indian portals losing about Rs 150 cr a year.
Cheaper and ubiquitous broadband may help in faster Internet adoption but how do you make consumers out of users? Perhaps all those so-called social media gurus must have the answer, if only they could turn their attention away from gullible, stupid corporate types.
Last one to go, please switch off the lights.
Labels: blogging, india
Where do Indian bloggers go from here?
So, we are in the 10th year of the blog. The Mint business newspaper has done a couple of nice stories on blogging in India and concludes
"A decade on, Indian blogs remain mostly urban, niche". That is to say
9 out of 10 Indian users are not interested in blogging. The Mint story quotes the India Online 2008 report and I am using data from the comments:
Interactive blogging is the least popular social interactivity activity online with only 10% internet users commenting on blogs and only 8% internet users owning a blog site.
Where is my revolution that I was promised?Yes, some people are blogging, but as the Mint article says and my experiences suggest the same,
most of the top bloggers have writing/reporting backgrounds or they have paying gigs that doesn't involve writing.What do these people write on? -
Cricket, movies, humor, if it is not their latest culinary or travel adventure. Barring a few, a pretty mundane and bland offering.
I like to compare Indian blogging to the wave of
'Me, My family, My Ancestors and my Hometown' kind of books that Indian authors have grown famous for in the past 10 years.
Sure, there have been some fine momonts as well
- the IIPM scandal, the Tsunami reportage... sadly, nothing like a disaster to wake the Indian blogging lion.
Blogging has given voice to the marginalized but by and large, the masses have yet to use its power to raise voices, channelize their collective force and bring much-needed change in their lives.
In the 5 years that I have been blogging, almost all of the people I knew who blogged have sort of given up on it and taken to other jobs.
Some Indian bloggers have had success in
using blogging as a tool for getting better jobs. But, one can count these successes on one's fingers.
Not surprisingly, most Indian bloggers want to make money from blogging. So far,
Amit Agarwal, who studied at the IIT and blogs about tips and tools, towers over everyone in minting money from digital words, but I am not sure how much IIT has got to do with it.
However, I am most disappointed by the approach of influential and powerful Indians. Barring your average bollywood type, who mostly writes for self-promotion purposes, most Indian teacher & professors, top lawyers, doctors, bureaucrats, cops and people in other responsible positions do not blog.
Which is a pity. One of the most popular blogs in the United States,
Marginal Revolution is written by an Economist, Tyler Cowen.
I wish if we had blogs by good doctors. That would help demystify the Swine flu pandemic. Besides, blogging might help bring trasparency in the Indian government system, at the Center as well as at the local level.
Indian that I am, I could go on and on about where do Indian bloggers go from here - suffice to say I wish
'roti (food), kapdaa (clothing), makaan (house) and blogging' becomes a universal necessity.
Related Must Reads on the State of Indian BloggingThe top Indian bloggers across various categories - a subjective but useful list
A simple guide to the best moments in Indian Blogging History - the best and the worst moments in these 10 years
A simple guide to the satte of Indian blogosphere - about vested interests among bloggers
The State of Citizen Journalism in India - a story in three parts
The Indian Elections and the reality of India Online - On lack of quality inputs by digital citizens
Ending it with the legal fineprint
A simple guide to legal issues for Indian JournalistA simple guide to the Internet and cyber laws in IndiaLabels: blogging, india, report
Blogger 1 Twitter 0
Touted as the '
first draft of history', Twitter is also a tower of babel built on 140 characters at a time. Twitter might be a useful tool to break stories, it is useless to make sense as the story develops, because the activity on Twitter deteriorates into tweets, retweets, rants and it becomes a virtual dust-storm of sorts.
It takes human intervention to guide users through that storm of data, through careful curation. In context of the election controversy in Iran, The Economist magazine
praises the work of select bloggers who monitored the internet and helped readers make sense of what is happening in Iran.
The Economist writes,
Much more impressive were the desk-bound bloggers. Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic and Robert Mackey of the New York Times waded into a morass of information and pulled out the most useful bits. Their websites turned into a mish-mash of tweets, psephological studies, videos and links to newspaper and television reports. It was not pretty, and some of it turned out to be inaccurate. But it was by far the most comprehensive coverage available in English.
So much so for the demise of blogging, we were being forced to believe.
Labels: blogging, social media, twitter
The coming age of booklogs
In short, booklogs are excerpts from books posted as blog articles and readers rate them, add comments a nd so on, sort of Youtube for books. Again, copyright issues will be sent for a toss but I think writers of controversial and racy paragraphs will find it easy to develop a following.
Booklogs will be fueled by Amazon's e-book reader Kindle, which is still in its early days. Steven Johnson writes about
booklogs in the Wall Street Journal:
As the writer and futurist Kevin Kelly says, "In the new world of books, every bit informs another; every page reads all the other pages."
Labels: blogging, blooks, booklogs, trends
