Creative Chaos - Dina Mehta’s Weblog 
MapMyName is a project started by a couple of students, who are aiming to assess how many people use the internet all over the world. They hope to achieve this within a month by spreading the mapmyname meme. Brave attempt!!
Currently, I’m the only user from Mumbai listed on there - and I think the only one from India too.
Spread the word by clicking here to map your name! Link via Euan who tweeted about it on Twitter.
Sachi and Lee LeFever are doing a series of “paperworks” educational videos. From Lee’s email:
“In my opinion,
RSS has been too geeky for too long. I have friends who use the web as much as I do and have no clue about RSS. It’s a minor travesty. To help remedy this situation, Sachi and I created a video called “RSS in Plain English” that is
aimed at turning-on the non-geeks of the world. It’s in a format we
call “paperwork” - I think you’ll see what that means. We’re just
getting started and hoping that you can help spread the word (it just
went live couple of hours ago). Obviously, there is room for
improvement - any feedback is welcome. We’re planning to do more
paperwork videos as part of The Common Craft Show.”
And it is! Even my mum would get it. Watch it here.
I’d love to see
something similar on ROI of blogging - its a concept I find most
difficult to communicate to organizations and I do believe a Paperworks
demo will be great!
According to a report by Accenture, the media and entertainment industry feels user-generated content is the top threat to their businesses:
“NEW YORK; April 16, 2007 -Media and
entertainment executives see the growing ability and eagerness of
individuals to create their own content as one of the biggest threats
to their business, according to results of a survey released today by
Accenture (NYSE: ACN).
In
its annual survey of senior executives in the media and entertainment
industry, Accenture examined the growth strategies of companies across
the landscape of advertising, film, music, publishing, radio, the
Internet, videogames and television.
More
than half (57 percent) of the respondents identified the rapid growth
of user-generated content - which includes amateur digital videos,
podcasts, mobile phone photography, wikis and social-media blogs — as
one of the top three challenges they face today. In addition, more
than two-thirds (70 percent) of respondents said they believe that
social media, one of the largest segments of user-generated content,
will continue to grow, compared with only 3 percent of respondents who
said they view social media as a fad.
“This
is just the beginning for a rapidly changing landscape where the media
content environment grows more fractious and the user gains more
control and power,” said Gavin Mann, digital media lead for Accenture’s
Media & Entertainment practice. “Traditional,
established content providers will have to adapt and develop new
business and monetization models in order to keep revenue streams
flowing. The key to success will be identifying new forms of content that can complement their traditional strengths.”
The
new landscape offers opportunities as well as challenges, according to
the study, as two-thirds (68 percent) of the respondents said they
believe that within three years their businesses will be making money
on user-generated content. Sixty-two percent said they believe their
companies will make money through advertising and sponsorships of
social media. Other sources of profits cited were subscriptions (21
percent) and pay-per-play offerings (18 percent). However, a quarter
(24 percent) of respondents said they do not yet know how their
businesses will profit from user-generated content.
The
study included interviews with industry giants like Roger Faxon, chief
executive of EMI Music Publishing; Leslie Moonves, chief executive of
CBS; Doug Neil, senior vice president of digital marketing for
Universal Studios; and Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP Group
PLC.”
Heh .. Johnnie .. I’m with you in feeling ranty! As a response to this, a stopcyberbullying community is nice, comments policies and guidelines are ok if you believe you need them, but a Bloggers Code of Conduct???
What will it achieve - perhaps nothing. What will you do if someone violates the bloggers code of conduct
- delete their comments, report them - that’s something you can do
without such a formal code isn’t it? Who will enforce this Code of
Conduct across blogs? Will bloggers that do not share this ‘code of
conduct’ be
ostracized? Will not this ‘moral’ responsibility grow to have legal
ramifications?
Will spammers and trolls and death threat issuers from non-US countries
be prosecuted? Will you be able to stop them? Will you only encourage
people to look for different and more sophisticated ways of piling on
their vile - it
is after all a human condition, and not a blog condition.
It seems to me, culturally, it is a very North-American thing to think up.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love some aspects of North America and
have met some of the finest folks there - but this operating out of ‘fear’
is
one aspect I have written about earlier, that I find goes beyond
protection. Perhaps it’s the phrasing of it that gets to me - ‘Code of
Conduct’ implies rules and regulations, implicit in this is that there
is only one way ahead. I don’t like that. It will make us guard our words. It will give credence
to the power games played out in the blogworld by providing yet another
weapon to divide those who have it and those who don’t. It will foster
a culture of fear. In the worst case, it will breed litigation,
insurance, liability.
Why
formalize something we’re doing anyways - if you’re proud of your space
(your blog in this case) you’ll protect it the way you feel best.
Banning anonymous comments for instance, is a personal choice - in my
case, I have deleted comments that are vulgar, lewd and allude to
physical threats. The others, I prefer to debate with. If others do not
wish to, ignore them or take the ‘fight’ to your space, or theirs.
There is a strong self-regulating aspect to this medium, and the recent
events are proof, with different angles and facets to the story emerging.
My
biggest fear in having a ‘formal’ code of conduct is it will take some
of the ‘human’ out of the blog. It will raise entry barriers to
participate in blog conversations, where few exist. It may even force
more bloggers to shut down all conversations in comments, because a few
are violating their freedom to comment. It will defeat the
self-regulatory and self-correcting nature of this medium. One of the
delights of blogging is it so reflects human behaviour - it gives us
the space to share freely our humility, our pride and our
infallibilities, our opinions and counterpoints, our failures and
successes, our rituals and dreams, our conflicts and resolutions. It
lets us debate and converse with others freely and intuitively. It may
reflect our professional views, but it is as far from
‘corporatization’ as any medium is today. Will not shared standards
and practice bring about ‘corporatization’ in some form or other?
There’s my long rant! Unlike Johnnie’s pithy post.
I’ve known Shubhangi for almost 15 years. We worked in the same company then. We still do. She’s been my mainstay at Explore Research and Consultancy, ever since she came on board way back in 1999. I’ve never known her to panic, feel out of control and never once has she met any of my requests (however absurd they may seem) with anything less than a smile and a “we can do it”. She makes my life so easy really.
Tremendously talented and always looking out for something new to do - yeah - she does yoga, is a full-time mum, rides bikes, paints Tanjore paintings, is an expert in Japanese - and now a fantastic photographer. Match that with her deep understanding of humanity, her strong sense of what’s right and not, her ability to question life and you find a precious gem. She has her feet firmly on the ground - and a heart of gold.
Recently, she discovered Flickr - go check out her awesome pictures there - each one has such depth and tells a story. The image in this post is by her - and one that I feel reflects who she is perfectly. She’s also discovering the joys in sharing herself as she has so quickly built a community around her images. And now she’s blogging and learning the ropes - I am so thrilled about this - welcome huggggggs Shubs. For long, I have felt she hides herself away - not anymore I hope 
| "Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation?" Guy de Maupassant |  |
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