This is my last post on this blog. Radio Userland has served me well since I started blogging in 2003. I will post more details on the transition, at my new blog - for now I just wanted to make this announcement, and provide the new url and feeds.

New Blog URL - http://dinamehta.com/
Subscribe via RSS 2.0 - http://dinamehta.com/feed/
Subscribe via Atom - http://dinamehta.com/feed/atom/
Comments feed - http://dinamehta.com/comments/feed/

The new blog will also be called Conversations with Dina - it's just a new blogging platform - but the same old blog! I do hope you continue reading and feeding it.

My old blog will be archived at its old url (http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/) and I will keep the archives going. Stuart, who has worked out the platform for Conversations with Dina on Wordpress has done some neato hacks - one that I love a lot is that the search function will not just search the new blog archives, but also my old Radio blog archives. And he has managed to transfer some of my posts over too. That's so cool!!! Lots more needs doing there ... and that will emerge I'm sure.

12:26:59 PM    comment []  trackback []

Its been quiet here too long ....... the result of many many shifts. A new home, getting things to work smoothly, much travelling, transferring from a PC to a Mac, not being able to figure out how to get my Radio blog easily onto a Mac (Paolo has very graciously offered to help after I left a comment at his blog)....

And mosoci β

Mosoci is more than an idea - it is a beta platform, an emergent plan.  It is jazz, bricolage and serious play.  It lets us play a little music where chaos, creativity, diversity and complexity are all welcome. It fulfils our desires and needs which are driven by the fundamental experiences of our souls, to live and work in an emergent, globally connected community.

What it is not, is a formal traditional organization.  We hope the lifestream we have built at the Mosoci blog demonstrates this.  We want it to be more than just the two of us.  Stuart spells this thought out really well:

"We know we would not be doing this without everyone that has read our blogs over the last few years. Social Media built the platform for our collaboration and the sense that our network and community would support, participate with us and help us grow. Now it is beyond an idea and yet it is still being formulated. We certainly don't want to end up as just the two of us. Today though we are happy to feel like we are in a constant state of beta. That's the zone where it is a real rush.

Thank you for your support, praise and interest. Our blogs and blogging will evolve just like our other social media activities are. For example we are really enjoying bringing our bookmarking into the feed. For now our tweets are there too. That may be overwhelming. Then it may also be helpful. We'll let the readers tell us.

It is born out of our curiosity, passion and deep belief in the strength of social technologies to make a real difference, our willingness and drive to share, learn and grow allowed us to experiment with and use those very technologies to communicate and collaborate on several projects over the years. More details from Stuart:

"Much happens today by chance. Things also emerge and we find ways to jump on them and adapt. Over the years Dina and I have enjoyed telling parts of our story. We first met in an online forum. I set her up blogging ìConversations with Dinaî with install instructions over an IM chat session, long before voice and video connections were possible. Skype also helped to revolutionize our collaboration and connectivity. Open channels between India and the US made collaboration around Learning Journeys, research, and just links and interests possible. Working in India for most of the last year, attending some conferences together around the world and we knew we were at the point where where 1+1 makes more than two.

Mosoci is the platform of our collaboratory around the interests we love, are passionate about and to reinforce the direction and learning we need to go in. We wonít be successful without our network and our community and the power of social media. Blogs, wikis, forums, twitter, bookmarking have enabled who we are today."

10:29:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

Global Voices Online has announced the first five citizen media outreach projects to receive Rising Voices microgrants.

9:43:04 AM    comment []  trackback []

I am shocked at the venom and death threats against Kathy Sierra - it is sick, mean, even anarchical and evil, totally unethical. My first reaction was disgust and dismay and I have the greatest sympathy for what she is going through - but I find myself as appalled at the knee-jerk reaction of hate going around about a set of people implicated in her post - its not doing much good I'm afraid. Truly *Evil* minds whoever they are in this case, feed on such things.

I feel Mitch Ratcliffe's post is a really balanced take on the whole thing, especially this from Mitch - "We are further from that moment of truth now, however, because the silence of mock outrage reigns."

There are many conflicting thoughts in me right now around this issue. The woman in me is enraged at what Kathy is going through - and yet am not sure its a 'woman' thing at all. Lots of the American blogworld , esp at the A-list level, is fairly obsessed by how few women are really respected in Tech - this is evident by the endless debates on inviting women speakers at conferences. And yet, apart from BlogHer I don't see much happening to change this, as I see the same set of women speaking over and over again. The outrage against what's happened to her, is possibly greater because Kathy happens to be a woman. Are we perpetuating this gender divide by making it a woman thing - am not sure.

As a blogger, and one who has been around since 2003 this sort of stuff has been around. [link via Doc Searls]. Hate is just simply bad. Cyber bullying is bad. That's what we need to address. Whether against victim or accused (note here - I make a distinction between accused and convicted). Whether its against an A-lister or a Z-lister. Whether against man or woman. Its a reflection of a society gone badly wrong. Only the social system within which it exists can correct itself. In this case, blogs. Blogs and bloggers often reflect mob-like mentalities - some call it the echo chamber - and while there are many positive aspects of this - we must guard against the negatives.

I've had all sorts of threats and quite a bit of hate mail - I found the best thing is to simply ignore it and it usually goes away. I'm glad Kathy brought it out in the open though, its an issue that needs to be debated and addressed - and still I wish she hadn't made those really serious and clear accusations against specific individuals until after all the investigations by the authorities were done. Blogs are so powerful and the internet is an unforgiving place - entire reputations can be ruined thus.

We had an incident, not half as offensive as this, but the fallout was pretty severe, in the Indian Blogosphere - where a guy who was plagiarizing content from blogs was really beaten up by Indian bloggers - and I got tons of really bad hate mail for calling it Mob Justice and a witch hunt - although I will say this once more, that I would never condone plagiarism. - check the comments out there - these are only those that I let through. There were tons of mail and other comments that crossed my line of acceptability and were really lewd, hateful and full of threats. I ignored them and deleted them. And they went away.

Censorship and more regulation is not the answer - has it ever really worked where the internet is concerned? Andy Carvin has called for a Stop Cyberbullying Day. That's the sort of action that makes sense.

12:16:43 AM    comment []  trackback []

Found at the Fast Company Blog: IFC, a World Bank Group organisation, and World Resources Institute has an interesting report - The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Opportunities at the Base of the Pyramid. Some facts from their Executive Summary:

Four billion people form the base of the economic pyramid (BOP) -- those with annual incomes below $3,000 (in local purchasing power).

The BOP makes up 72 percent of the 5,575 million people recorded by available national household surveys worldwide and an overwhelming majority of the population in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean -- home to nearly all the BOP.

This large segment of humanity faces significant unmet needs and lives in relative poverty: in current U.S. dollars their incomes are less than $3.35 a day in Brazil, $2.11 in China, $1.89 in Ghana, and $1.56 in India.

Yet together they have substantial purchasing power: the BOP constitutes a $5 trillion global consumer market.

"In its geographic analysis, The Next 4 Billion finds that the Asian BOP market (including the Middle East) is by far the largest, with 2.86 billion people and a total income of $3.47 trillion, constituting 83% of the region's total population and 42% of the its aggregate purchasing power."

BOP populations across countries:

More countries covered here.

Income vs expenditure for India in this BOP market:

This shows huge market potential .. probably larger than ever thought before, and really undeserved by businesses. C.K.Prahalad must feel vindicated!

10:49:47 AM    comment []  trackback []

On International Women's Day this year on March 8, The Blank Noise Project is once again, collecting stories in another blogathon.  From their announcer post ...

"This is an attempt to understand how different women ( across age groups/ cultures/ communities) have dealt with street sexual harassment in their everyday lives. Male bloggers are encouraged to share stories of women in their lives and how they have dealt with street sexual harassment. Non bloggers are also invited to participate- email us your story. We will upload your email at www.blanknoiseactionheroes.blogspot.com. You could also be an agent- the one that collects stories of confrontation/ of heroism from your mother, grandmother, cousins, domestic workers, people in your office, the vegetable vendor, the woman bus conductor...anyone! To confirm your participation, announce the event on your blog and email us the link right away!"

10:19:22 AM    comment []  trackback []

I've been quiet here, but have been blogging a lot at the Asia Source II blog. Its been fun facilitating the Open Publishing sessions - I've learnt so much myself! We've had huge challenges with connectivity - 120 of us sharing a 256 kbps modem; trying to get Plone then Drupal working and finally resorting to Wordpress for the live blog! Rather than writing it entirely, I've got lots of folks from different countries and tracks sharing their perspectives. Lazy me :)

What's the blog about ...
This blog is meant to capture the colours, flavour, essence and spirit of Asia Source II in Sukabumi, Indonesia. We'll be sharing our discussions from the sessions, lots of fun stuff, some serious FOSS wisdom, and even some poetry. We'd love it if you jump in and add your perspectives to the many conversations and exchanges we will have in this space. The Asia Source II wiki will have more detailed content and reports.

Here's one of my early postings there:

We're working in military tents!

There are four learning tracks for the morning sessions. Three of the four groups are working in military tents, fitted with 8-10 computers. The uber geeks have a classroom, where they can lock up all their cool gizmos like wireless transmitters.

Here's what Track 1 on Open Publishing had as their objective for the Camp Blog they are running as one of their projects:

- to create a lasting online documentation of the camp

- to capture the 'spirit' of Asia Source

They've been blogging, learning how to resize and insert images today, tomorrow they go podcasting. Fun!

2:20:02 PM    comment []  trackback []

I'll be in Sukabumi, Indonesia for the next ten days, at AsiaSource II. It really is going to be a camp, and am excited to be living fairly in dormitory style - takes me back to my college years! Its also an opportunity to meet an entire new set (for me) of folks doing some excellent work in the social media area in South Asia and South East Asia, as this is the first time I'm attending a conference in the Asian region.

There are four main learning tracks:

• Open Publishing and Broadcasting
• Alternative Hardware and Access
• FOSS Implementation and Migration
• Information Management

• risks in open publishing and managing risks
• why organizations should adopt social media
• role of social media/open publishing in disaster relief
• communication, community, collaboration brought about by social media
• open publishing is not just about blogging/wikis ... it is also about keeping track of conversations - session on RSS, trackbacks, social bookmarking, technorati, digg etc ... the entire ecosystem around blogging

7:54:04 PM    comment []  trackback []

What should marketers be looking at in 2007?

TRANSUMERS from GENERATION C(ASH) living transient, connected, participative lifestyles, showing off their STATUS SKILLS, experiencing TRYVERTISING, masters of their YOUNIVERSE, indulging in TWINSUMER ventures, within the TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY of the GLOBAL BRAIN moving ever closer to CROWD CLOUT.

(Images from the trendwatching website). Go there to find out more on status, transparency and consumer power, the online revolution, more adventurous consumption, and a shift from consumption to participation.

"GENERATION C(ONTENT) is joining GENERATION C(ASH). If consumers produce the content, if they are the content, and that content brings in money for aggregating brands, then revenue and profit-sharing is going to be one of 2007's main themes in the online space. It's not like brands will have a choice: talented consumers are going to be too sought after to remain satisfied with thank you notes. Get ready for an avalanche of revenue sharing deals, reward schemes and sumptuous gifts aimed at luring creative consumers."

"At the core of all consumer trends is the new consumer, who creates his or her own playground, own comfort zone, own universe. It's the 'empowered' and 'better informed' and 'switched on' consumer combined into something profound, something we've dubbed MASTER OF THE YOUNIVERSE. At the core is control: psychologists don't agree on much, except for the belief that human beings want to be in charge of their own destiny. Or at least have the illusion of being in charge.

"And because they can now get this control in entirely new ways, aided by an online, low cost, creativity-hugging revolution that's still in its infancy, young and old (but particularly young) consumers now weave webs of unrivaled connectivity and relish instant knowledge gratification. They exercise total control over creative collections, including their own creative assets, assume different identities in cyberspace at a whim, wallow in DIY / Customization / Personalization / Co-Creation to make companies deliver whatever and whenever, on their own terms".

11:30:37 AM    comment []  trackback []

Global Voices Summit in Delhi. Rebecca MacKinnon, one of the co-founders of Global Voices Online sets out some thoughts before the summit. In an email to the GV group, she says: "I've posted on my blog with some thoughts about what I'm hoping to accomplish at this meeting, plus some context of where we've come from and where we may be going."

Latest news from the wiki:

• Global Voices Delhi summit - only a few days to go!
• Global Voices launches new search function!
• See also the collaborative attendee-written blog on this wiki.
• Photos may be found on Flickr.

• Participating via IRC (One click Web chat!)
• Streaming Live Audio
  • Audio and video archives of some of the presentations (coming soon).
• Topical discussions and roundtables
• Coverage, transcripts and archives

12:00:29 AM    comment []  trackback []

I have been tagged by my friend Rob Paterson in a Blog tag game where you tag 5 people whose blog you enjoy and ask them to tell the world about 5 things that most people may not know of you.

Along with me, Rob has tagged:

• Craig Willson at Humble
• Peter Rukavina at Ruk.ca
• Cynthia Dunsford at Iridescent spoke
• Johnnie Moore at Johnnie Moore's Weblog

• Whether Pigs Have Wings, by Anant Rangaswami
• Lilia Efimova's Mathemagenic
• Nilu's Recursive Hypocrisy
• Beth Canter's blog - Beth's Blog
• Jim McGee's Musings

8:12:15 PM    comment []  trackback []

Stuff that's caught my eye recently:

• Research beyond Google "Google, the largest search database on the planet, currently has around eight billion web pages indexed. That's a lot of information. But it's nothing compared to what else is out there. Google can only index the visible web, or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index." Topics Covered in this Article: Deep Web Search Engines | Art | Books Online | Business | Consumer | Economic and Job Data | Finance and Investing | General Research | Government Data | International | Law and Politics | Library of Congress | Medical and Health | Science | Transportation

• Kameel Ahmady has a series on youth culture in Iranian Kurdistan based on Visual Ethnography. Parts one, two, three, four and five.
  

• Top 10 lies of Web 2.0 - a tongue-in-cheek post by Dan Frost
  

• Delete Your Bad Web Rep - bad idea I think .. we leave traces of ourselves when we put ourselves online. Against my belief in transparency and the open web. There's always good and bad .. and to hide the bad .. hmmm .. paranoia?

• Alec Saunders on creating a meme through blogging:

  "In 12 months time, we've managed to insert an idea, which now has apparently a ton of currency, into a very old industry. We haven't relied on large marketing budgets, or heavy lifting PR campaigns. Instead, using just blogs and conversation, we set out to cause a change that would produce an environment that would be more conducive to our success, and the success of hosts of other companies like ours.

  And that, my friends, is why blogging is powerful."
  

• Computing, 2016 - What won't be possible: "The new social-and-technology networks that can be studied include e-mail patterns, buying recommendations on commercial Web sites like Amazon, messages and postings on community sites like MySpace and Facebook, and the diffusion of news, opinions, fads, urban myths, products and services over the Internet. Why do some online communities thrive, while others decline and perish? What forces or characteristics determine success? Can they be captured in a computing algorithm?

  Social networking research promises a rich trove for marketers and politicians, as well as sociologists, economists, anthropologists, psychologists and educators. "This is the introduction of computing and algorithmic processes into the social sciences in a big way," Dr. Kleinberg said, "and we're just at the beginning.""

• Am enjoying playing with Twitter and iLike ... first impressions - both are really easy to use, and fun! Twitter is amazing .. am currently experimenting with an SMS-Blog interface on a research project and I see lots we can do with a Twitter-like application. I see lots of potential for online campaigns and disaster information/relief as well.

1:13:18 PM    comment []  trackback []

is on November 14, 2006.  An interesting initiative from Making Life Easy:

As part of World Usability Day weíre asking you to make some noise about things that are hard to use. London-based research and design consultancy Flow is marking World Usability Day with a campaign to get people to speak up about the things that make their life needlessly difficult.

Confusing cash machines, unclear signs, frustrating websites - poor usability is everywhere and it gets in the way of life. Sometimes it is just annoying. At other times it stops us doing what we need to do. It can even be dangerous.

World Usability Day is an international event promoting the message that people have had enough of things that are hard to use. We want people to share their usability frustrations with their fellow sufferers. Record your experiences at the campaign website MakingLifeEasy.org and:

1) See what is frustrating other people
2) Rate these annoyances on a scale of Usability Pain (coming soon!)
3) Upload a photograph and describe what makes life needlessly difficult

11:46:57 AM    comment []  trackback []

Wow .. this is just fantastic.  The folks at Savage Minds have set up an open access wiki on anthropology journal articles and papers, and have created a discussion list and IRC channel for those interested in anthropology to hangout at:

Learn about the issue
openaccessanthropology.org is now up and, while it's still very much a work in progress, it is the best place to go for an overview of the issues - and will get even better as we all help grow it.

Sign up for updates
There is an Open Access Anthropology group which people are using as a mailing list - you can sign up today to share your ideas or just keep up to date with what is going on. So far the list is not very high-volume, so you won't be drowned in email if you sign up.

Join the conversation
We've started an IRC channel where thereís been a fair amount of chat about OAA (although really it is just a place for anthropologists to hang out in general). It's #savageminds on irc.freenode.net. If you are unwise in the ways of IRC just go to IRC at work type in a nickname, for 'server' put irc.freenode.net and for 'channel' put #savageminds and then you should be good. If you are looking for an IRC program, we recommend GAIM (PC) or Colloquy (Mac).

10:30:25 AM    comment []  trackback []

If you care about Internet Censorship, today's the day to register our protest. Reporters Without Borders urges internet users to join in a 24-hour online demo against internet censorship.

Tags: citizen journalism, internet censorship, censorship

9:22:55 AM    comment []  trackback []

Am looking forward to the Global Voices Summit at the Indian Habitat Centre in Delhi on December 16-17. Details and signup here. Day One is open to all, Day Two is for the GV team. If you're not a part of the Global Voices team, I'd still recommend you attend Day One .. its a fantastic and perhaps the only opportunity worldwide, to meet such an amazing and wide spread of bloggers from all parts of the world, from regions that are almost never represented at other 'blog' conferences. To look outward and not inward.

I had such a good time in London last year at the Summit!

GV is also running a survey among readers, to help re-design the site. From Ethan's blog: "If you're a Global Voices fan, please take a minute and take our survey. We're trying to poll our readers before redesigning the Global Voices site, getting a sense for what people like and use the most on the site. It would be a big help if you'd join us and tell us what's working and what isn't working for you on Global Voices. Thanks in advance."

8:41:20 PM    comment []  trackback []

I was delighted to read that Dr. Muhammed Yunus has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 for Grameen Bank - some say he is an economist and should have been nominated in that category .. I can't help feeling this one is really appropriate because:

"Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development." The Norwegian Nobel Committee

"Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below serves to advance democracy and human rights." Ole Danbolt Mjoes, director of the Nobel committee. [via Washington Post]

His model is being followed in India as well ... and the proliferation of Self-Help-Groups (SHG's), typically groups of women who are given access to microcredit to start a small business, has the potential to empower women by enabling them to make economic decisions and help increase family income. [Image from Lifeonline]. Access to credit can be a great catalyst in enhancing the socio-economic conditions of the poor. Where earlier, they were considered 'outsiders' in the world of banking, as they had no collateral, they are now 'bankworthy'.

"In one village in Nellore District, for example, women have acquired land titles in their names and taken Rs.180,000 as loans towards construction of their houses. They have said that they will not tolerate wife-beating and have forced their husbands to stop drinking alcohol. The longest-standing group in the village has rotated the revolving fund 25 times and also has a savings deposit of Rs.30,000 in the bank. In another village, a group has saved Rs.800,000. In total, the women of the district have mobilized savings of Rs.60 million.

The women have used the revolving funds for productive activities, emergency consumption, health needs, marriages and children's education. The Total Literacy Campaign launched in the district in 1991 has brought education and information, with the savings groups becoming important centres for disseminating information on health, education, water and sanitation. There are visible changes in the health and nutrition of women and their children. Women have identified sanitation as a major problem and are exploring possibilities of financing sanitation improvements, with matching funds from the Government. Women in the credit groups have a positive self-image, recognize their own health needs better and find themselves consulted by men, who realize that credit and information can be accessed through the women's savings groups."

From the Bangladeshi Blogosphere: "People are delighted over at the Bangla blogging platform "Bandh Bhanger Awaaj". Drishtipat has news, pictures and more links to texts and videos on Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank. Mudhpud Chickness says Dr. Yunus has put Bangladesh on the map. The South Asia Biz says "Today is a great day for Bangladesh." Tanvir says: "I hope that this success will allow the Bangladeshis to dream big and lead the country to prosperity." Atunu says "Finally, a deserving Bangalee wins the Nobel Prize". Shahidul Alam of Drik posts an wonderful tribute to Dr. Yunus." [via Global Voices Online]

[Image from PBS's The New Heroes Series on Muhammed Yunus.]

Tags: Microcredit, Muhammad Yunis, Nobel Peace Prize, Social Banking

9:20:52 AM    comment []  trackback []

Ethan Zuckerman, has been on holiday to Zimbabwe and has a series of really insightful posts.

My Holiday in Harare :

"I spent less than three days in Zimbabwe, never left Harare and spent almost all my time in the company of different flavors of civil society activists. So I got a very brief and one-sided picture of the country. Still, I learned a lot - most centrally, I learned a little about why people who have the option to leave continue to live in Zimbabwe: itís one of the most beautiful countries Iíve ever been to, and the Zimbabwean people I interacted with are some of the smartest, bravest and friendliest folks Iíve ever met.

Which doesnít mean that Iíll be hurrying back. The ways in which Zimbabwe is broken are deep, profound and would be intolerable to most people around the world. The fact that Zimbabwe continues to exist - that people go to work, to the market, to the bars and cafes - is a tribute to the resilience and flexibility of the Zimbabwean people. Iíd snap, within days or weeks."

You Might Be Having a Currency Crisis IfÖ

"Iíve never seen currency with an expiration date on it before. The bills I carry are, technically, ìBearer Chequesî. They read:ìPay the bearer on demand Twenty Dollars on or before 31st July 2007 for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Issue date 1st August 2006.î In other words, good luck getting my $20 - (about two and a half US cents at todayís black market rate) after August 2007 - the currency is technically worthless at that point. (Friends tell me that previous currency marked like this has been ìextendedî by legislative act to maintain its worth.)

This currency looks temporary, too. Itís got one ink color (as opposed to the multicolored fantasy of earlier bills) and no security thread. Given how much it costs to print money, how little the bills are worth, and how fast theyíll become worthless, it seems no surprise that a government scrambling to make ends meet might cut some corners in the national mint."

Photos from Zimbabwe - with pictures on Flickr

Reading Between the Lines:

His last post talks of how the internet is under threat there.  Here's an excerpt: 

"I find it hard to believe that a government which can't pay its bandwidth bill is systematically monitoring the internet communications of half a million people. But threatening to monitor those communications creates a panopticon effect - by telling people they're under observation, many (most?) will behave as if the government's watching. And in a country where transgression can mean indefinite detention and abuse while in custody, it's hard to blame people for wanting no remain firmly on the right side of authority"

Fantastic blogging really as he shares what he loves about the country and his frustrations with the complexities and the unknowns.

9:46:54 AM    comment []  trackback []

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google" - New Scientist - Bruce Sterling. [link via Ethan]

An almost-real, funny-scary take on the internet from the eyes of a "miserably-happy" teenager. Here's an excerpt:

Okay, I admit it: Debbie is insane. The fact that Debbie really likes me, that just proves it. Debbie ACCEPTS this sick state of reality. She EMBRACES it. We are doomed.

Imagine that Debbie and me somehow go out together. We want to network with our peer group, teenager-wise. I need to figure out what's hip and with-it and rebellious, and Debbie needs to know what the other cyber-Goth chicks are wearing. Is that okay? No!

It's not that we can't do it: it's that all our social relations have been reified with a clunky intensity. They're digitized! And the networking hardware and software that pervasively surround us are built and owned by evil, old, rich corporate people! Social-networking systems aren't teenagers! These machines are METHODICALLY KILLING OUR SOULS! If you don't count wall-graffiti (good old spray paint), we have no means to spontaneously express ourselves. We can't "find ourselves" - the market's already found us and filled us with map pins."

Also read Men standing around broken machines by Paul Ford, a short but well-written essay where he goes back to a much-older future:

"I think about the men because there are two futures: the near and wild futureóthe future of Web 2.0, the war on terror, and midterm electionsóthrashing and blind like a baby mouse in the grass. And there is the other, much older future, which is basically an enormous, ever-widening archaeological dig. They're digging up old Roman bones, pilgrim gristle, and mysterious chunks of iron that may have been astrolabes. Shovels in hand, people fall over dead onto the piles of ancient coffeehouse newspapers and loose pioneer trash that they have themselves exhumed. Time passes; it could be a few days or a millennium. Someone digs them up and holds their skull in hand and wonders: what was the dig like then? There is nothing wrong with the newer future. Those who make it work for them will be powerful and rich. But that older future seems to have more room in it for those quiet, dry-eyed men. And I know I want, someday, to join their group as it stands frowning around a steaming car engine, each trying to figure out what went wrong."

7:29:10 AM    comment []  trackback []

I had a good time in Chennai at BlogCamp over the weekend. The best part, as is with most conferences and unconferences, was meeting folks from a wide array of fields. And the gupshup that always occurs when you catch up with old friends in person and are able to shake hands (and hugs) with your favourite urls. And the IRC which I did enjoy a lot and thought was really useful - thanks Bala and Ange for setting it up - a lot of questions for speakers came from there and much fun was had. And meeting folks you fight censorship battles without even meeting, like Jace, who is not only smart, witty and insightful, but is a fantastic photographer who makes his subjects look sooooooo good. I've grabbed most of the pics here from his Flickr feed.

It was fantastic to soak in the enthusiasm and energy of the young guys at Chennai, who couldn't contain their joy as you see in this pic, and who's hard work made this event possible. Adel, Aswin, Hitesh, K Shyam, Raghu, Andy, Kausikram , Ganesh, Varun, Vignesh... and all the others I didn't quite get to meet .. you rock!

Peter, Neha and I briefly shared our experiences on Disaster Relief Blogging and I was part of the Corporate Blogging session, where we had 6 speakers in about 1.5 hours .. and so we all got 10 mins each. Instead of getting into more detail on Brands and Blogs, I just thought I'd share one aspect of it .. which are the risks involved, through the Kryptonite and Chevy Tahoe Apprentice cases ... the first company which ignored the blogworld and got a lot of flak for it, the second case an example of a company that preferred to manage the risk they took in asking ordinary folk to create ads for them, using stock files the company provided. Some learnings I shared on new 'rules' emerging for brand managers:

It was quite a grand show with sponsors and kits and free wifi and back channels. However, there are some things I feel we need to re-examine as we go into more BlogCamps in India which is something Peter, Neha and I talked about over many cups of sweet coffee, where we felt we should have them more frequently, in different cities, and with more focus areas.

Unconference as a Format
The first thing I was uncomfortable about was what Bothack calls this whole obssession with unconferences - he makes some neat observations and useful suggestions:

"I feel, Chennai bloggers are obsessed with the term ëunconferenceí. After the phenomenal success of the BarCamp, every other meet here is in the unconference mode. Unconference is a good thing, but not for all kind of meets. I would suggest narrowing down the content and more importantly having workshops instead of ppt sessions.

Also instead of having a BlogCamp 2007, I would suggest BlogCamp should follow the BarCampís steps. It should become global and initiate other cities to have their own BlogCamps. They can transfer their existing site to say chennai.blogcamp.in and have a registration page similar to BarCamp.org, so that other cities can register and share online resources."

While I don't feel unconferences are overrated, they do have a time and a place. I've been part of a pure Open Space Meeting coordinated for NPR by the amazing Rob at the New Realities Forum where the agenda was set completely by participants - if I remember right, there were more than 300 participants. However, it had a core theme - a very clear objective - and was really well-organized in terms of a lot of care taken in figuring out the venue, the rooms, making it easy for people to navigate through the free-flowing structure, and run by a real maestro in Johnnie Moore, who Rob describes as "an exemplar of calm courage and astonishing presence" which is a really perfect description of Johnnie.

The absence of organization around content does not mean its an unconference. For an event that has folks from all over the country and a wide array of bloggers -- we had tech bloggers, livejournal-ists, professional bloggers, mainstream media, corporates who blog and who don't, newbie bloggers and those who've been blogging for many years now -- perhaps the classic unconference might have been one big pool of chaos with participants having difficulty navigating through. I think our attempt at a classic unconference might have been disaster at this level.

Although there was some planning out of sessions, and those who wished to 'speak' on a topic had a space online and on a 'paper-wiki' (term coined by Kiruba) I do believe depth in content suffered as a result of the diversity in participants, the fact that this is the first time such a large event is being organised by bloggers for bloggers, the absence of a basic theme, and most importantly, the resistance to have sessions moderators and coordinators prior to the event or any sort of scheduling. Now this is alright when you're running a local event for a homogenous bunch of folks, or when the agenda is single-minded, but in our case, there were people who had invested time and money in travelling to Chennai for the event, and needed an agenda and a little structure. Here's a shot of the paper wiki Neha took:

This last area is what might have made BlogCamp truly great --- where the session coordinators might have planned a little in advance how many 'speakers', whether to have ppt's (yucky) or speeches (yuckier) or conversations and dialogues (yummy). With a focus on depth of discourse rather than width which is what we achieved. We realised this while there, and tried to get some folk to moderate sessions - while some did a great job of it, others had much to learn. And we would have retained the spirit of an unconference by veering away from formal presentations and lectures .. to conversations and dialogue.

Venue - conference hall!

The venue wasn't right for an unconference .. the auditorium was too large, too formal in its set-up and the sound system was quite horrid. The smaller conference hall on the first floor, where many of the tech tracks were, was much better in evoking participation from all.

Where are the women bloggers?

I think we've all learned much ... I certainly did in the area of what needs to go into planning events at this scale!

Here are links to tons of pictures and blogposts on the event.

Tags: blogcamp, blogcamp2006, blogs, chennai, conference, madras, unconference.

9:54:32 PM    comment []  trackback []

Rediff News has this article on the Honey Bee Network which is focussed on creativity and innovation at the grassroots level.

"Spending a few hundred million dollars will help some children, and also enrich the manufacturers of the laptops (Chinese manufacturing), and all the middle-layers that will be invovled in the selling, maintenance, and support. Compare that to the alternative use of the same money.

9:01:02 AM    comment []  trackback []

It has been a while since I have been promising myself that I must share my thoughts on BlogHer 2006. One of the best things for me there was hanging out with with old friends and making new ones ... so shout out to danah, Nancy, Beth, Lisa, Elisa, Phil, Marc, Amy, Toby, Stephanie, Nicole, Susan, Grace, Sara, Salim ..... the list is endless :). I enjoyed the Yahootinis at the cocktails - thanks Salim for leaving behind tons of free coupons! I even got a hug from Dave Winer - not a sexist one methinks - it was because I am one of the rare species that still uses Radio Userland and after attending our session on community assistance, he thinks I am tough as nails :)

Some of my reflections on the conference follow.

On the Structure of the conference
This is really a recap for those who weren't there. It's useful for those thinking of organizing events and I shared this with the group working on the BlogCamp in India earlier. I think the way the sessions were laid out for the most part, worked well. A few of the breakaway sessions were really large - and the audio system wasn't great in all the rooms. Day 1 was instructional where we had about 1 hour sessions around certain pre-determined topics - where presenters made some formal-ish presentations - those that didn't were much more useful IMO - they ran workshops around questions the audience attending that workshop had, with some moderation. These sessions were run in parallel - and each ran for about 45 mins to 1 hour, with a repeat immediately thereafter, so a fresh lot of participants could take part in the session. So each participant at the conference was able to take part in about 2 sessions in the slot. Day Two was really just workshops - and much more unconference-like. These sessions were either run completely open, or the panel spoke for about 5-10 mins each and then it was thrown open for discussion. And action points were set too which was nice !

There were open discussions at the start of each day, and at the lunch sessions, with some keynote speakers - again this was done in the form of a moderated group discussion, and the whole attempt was to involve the audience in it - which they managed so well even with 400 folks on day one and 750 odd on day two. The one bugbear was that because they had so many sponsors, they allowed the sponsors 10 mins of spiel before each of the open discussions and keynote sessions - which wasnt received too well. The other thing they did with sponsors - was give them a separate area to show off their products and this was more effective I feel.

I was a little lost finding my Birds of a Feather group - I think what was missing was a little board or something to suggest the title of the session. By the time I got there, there was no place to sit, and I couldn't hear everyone very well and so I lost interest in the session.

Here's a great post by Christopher Carfi on conference marketing and how the sponsors handled themselves - some well and others making a real ass of themselves - at BlogHer 06.

On Our Session on Community Assistance
I really enjoyed it. Really. It was wonderful to meet Grace and Sara and work with them to ensure we had a session that really rocked. These are ladies who really have their feet on the ground, and hearts of gold - and I feel so priviledged to have heard their stories and learnt from them.

Some of the posts done around our Community Assistance Panel after our conversations there, which were greatly enriched by participation from the audience:

• Beth has a short video with Grace who appeals to BlogHers to use the power of BlogHer to use it for relief and recovery efforts around disasters all over the world, where she makes an appeal for BlogHer.relief.net!
• Christine Herron has one of the best summaries including some action points that came up as part of the conversation. She's also got one of the best coverage of the conference at her blog.
  
• Britt Bravo shares her thoughts - and Britt, just wanted to say we should really get the momentum going on the BlogHer Relief Network.
• Susan Kitchens calls for a blogger Field Day in preparation for disasters
• Beth Kanter has a really neat post on Network for Good's new study entitled "Impulse on the Internet: How Crisis Compels Donors to Give Online."
  

• Ham radio operator clubs have periodic field days, in which they pack up their gear and generators, and practice how they'd work in a disaster. Why not have a blogging field day, that would enable bloggers to work on how they'd be able to help in case of disaster?
• Bloggers could connect with clubs of many useful stripes - ham radio, off-road driving, etc. - to form collaborative relationships that deliver more effective impact in case of emergency.
• Take advantage of SMS on blogs - services such as 411sync can deliver blog content to cell phones, and many services (including Typepad) support posting to blogs via SMS.
• Work with press associations to get information from individuals into mainstream media. Especially in affected areas, the mainstream media may be the last outlet capable of broadcasting information.

2:17:02 PM    comment []  trackback []

10 Types of Web Writing - Lisa Stone and Lynne D. Johnson.

Words are Power. What does the audience want to learn - open floor - ideas, comments:

Having trouble finding out the rules of blog writing --- what is blog writing? Ans - anything you want it to be - there are no rules. My add - blogs are conversations - about engaging people in dialogues, not just publishing.

10 Tips:

Neat quote -"She shared the delusion of all writers that things written are shared" - Virginia Woolf, ORLANDO

10 types of web writing:

Readers, presentations,, word choice, conversations ..... the first four are a change in mindset as opposed to books and print and TV. Headlines, attribution, link blogging, essay blogging, Q&A, Reviews and how-to's.

A new mindset - the difference is the words we write CAN be found WILL always be found = Google!

Is writing on the web an art or a science? Both ... Words are our identity online, still creating our identity online requires using what we know about how humans experience technology.

1. Readers: How effective a writer are you? Lisa says ask your audience and "Own the fact that you're a writer. A lot of women, and especially bloggers, don't do that" and evolve and learn. Nice.

2. Presentation: Even the best prose can be lost on the internet. How you're connecting with the reader visually is important.

3. Word Choice - clarity, professionalism, voice, punctuation, profanity - , buzz - which can work for or against you. Be careful because your words are 'eternal'

4. Conversations - do you want to have one ... or not? Legal team made one business blogger (a winery) close comments - its an issue facing some business bloggers - I wish they'd let us screen them and post them. She circumvents this by offering up her email for readers to send comments to. A Newspaper columnist who just started a blog says closing comments runs totally against what a blog is about. One lady opens and closes comments off and on - she misses them when closed, but sometimes gets flamed on her parenting patterns. A paid blogger shares with us that she had to educate her employer about what a blog is - she sees herself as a content provider and not a blogger as she sends posts on Word and no comments are allowed. An author who now blogs asks ... does a blog have to be a conversation? Is it not a blog if you don't invite comments?

Here's an old post I had done on comments being closed.

5. Headlines: clarity, professionalism, voice, punctuation, profanity, buzz. Many examples given. Discussion on the use of profanity was interesting - one of the points made was that when you do curse, you get huge loads of traffic from sites you maynot want attention from - the other point of view was that if you do curse, hey if you curse, you do. Amen.

6. Attribution - don't steal!

7. Link blogging - two egs - repeats headlines and does a short excerpt and links them on a link blog. Or

8. Essay Blogging - chris nolan and danah boyd's blogs are examples of great essay blogs.

9. Q&A - good example at Mommy Blogers - three step Q&A - a.Call to action b.Interview c.Op-ed

10. Presentation - the layout of the content - see Elise's Berry and Banana Terrine Recipe in Elise's Simply Recipes for a good eg.

4:09:20 AM    comment []  trackback []

Its great to be here in San Jose at BlogHer. Weather's nice .. I wish it were a little cooler thoough. Was good to catch up with some old friends and am meeting lots of interesting people. And its amazing to be in this space with almost 400 women and a handful of men! Check the BlogHer site for updates, liveblogging, and Flickr feeds here.

This morning I attended - What's Your Crazy Idea - which was a workshop about blog-based communities. The session started with introductions from the convenors of the workshop - and then we broke away for short discussions around issues on building community.

Some of the discussions around this were on: Tools, Legal Issues and How do you get Communities started. I attended brief sessions on Tools and How to get Communities started.

How do you get communities started: some things that emerged from the discussions:

• what is the purpose --- what benefits/drivers/motivations for the individual and community
• listen well .. communities morph .. norms change over time ... engage the community in way forward
• multimodal - use pictures, develop memes
  

Nancy has more in her notes at the Online Facilitation Wiki and more from Heather Barmore

I like the way this workshop was structured - no PPT's and lots of discussion through sharing stories and experiences.

BlogHer06

2:41:06 AM    comment []  trackback []