Sachi and Lee LeFever spent a couple of days in Mumbai on their world tour. It was fun spending time with them - I felt like I was on holiday myself :). We didn't do many 'touristy' things - chatted a lot about India, Mumbai, lifestyles and people, about Web 2.0 and how excited we are about social media and building online communities. We ate, drank, ate again, went all over the city - saw many sides of Bombay, even attended a panel discussion at Crosswords on New Media!

Sachi and Lee really wanted to experience what it means when people say Bombay is bursting at its seams, so I took them to Dadar station at 6 pm on a working day - Lee says it was the highlight of his trip. Check out what he saw here. And this is neat too - looking in on their dog who's back in Seattle through a webcam set up with Skype!

They're blogging their trip around the world - and have lots of great posts and photos there. I like the set up at The World is Not Flat - Lee tells me he designed it on Drupal and it has some neat features. And they have have visiting cards that simply have the logo of the blog - no names, no address, no email id, no tel numbers. Nice!

9:41:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

My blog is 3 years old today. On my first anniversary I had written:

My first day blogging .... it's not what I know but whom I know! So why am I blogging? To learn and find out what the fuss is all about.

What is the fuss all about ? It seems simple enough ... once you get that first kick on your butt to just go try it ! Many chaotic rambles coming up from a regular girl in India ........

The chaotic rambles continue.Creative chaos. And I now know what the fuss is all about ... it is creative friction through chance conversations.

Conversations that become more meaningful with time.
Conversations not limited by time and space.
Conversations that raise the bar for all involved.
Conversations around which communities are formed.
Conversations that can potentially change the world.
My world, your world, our world. And I do believe it works."

On the second anniversary, I said ... Old Lady Blogging !

In so many ways, it is my identity. And my social network - it's given me so much through readers and my communities of friends around it in work and play, in new interests and communities, in recognition and money, in ideas and encouragement.

Thank you blog. Thank you readers.

8:34:39 PM    comment []  trackback []

Or web-ethnography. Corporate India analyzes content on blogs and online forums as a form of research:

Recently, Nokia India, through its research partner AC Nielsen ORG MARG, conducted web-ethnography (webnography) based on blogging sites and online discussion forum to get a feedback on its fashion series models.

ìBased on our findings of our regular market research on the fashion series models of Nokia and insights on youth, we tried to validate it with the qualitative research conducted through the content found on online blogging sites and discussion forums,î said Anjali Puri, director, Winsights AC Nielsen ORG MARG.

ìLargely the findings were validated and that too at a much lesser cost. So, now we are taking the research methodology of webnography to other clients too,î said Puri.

Through web search engines, the research firm used a simple methodology of finding relevant content in a natural context on online blogging sites and discussion forums. As these contents occurred naturally on the web, it was real consumer context as opposed to the contrived/constructed contexts of focus groups used in qualitative research.

After the content was collected, it was processed through the regular marketing research methodology. Then the respondents were identified and informed about their opinions expressed being used for analysis. But there were no questionnaire put up before them to maintain original views.

The pilot project research conducted by the research firm validated Nokiaís earlier findings on the functionality of its mobile phone model 7260 and 7280. Similarly, webnography also validated youth insights such as growing social consciousness found in earlier research. Ruchika Gupta, consumer insights manager, Nokia India said, ìWebnography could work as an early warning system and identified issues can be further taken forward for traditional research.î

9:51:23 AM    comment []  trackback []