Calling for a State of the Indian Blogosphere 2009 Collaborative Report

Comments 26 December 2008

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I have been reading a lot of work done by Ethan Zuckerman and others at the Media Re:public project at the Berkley Center of Internet and Society at Harvard University.

In a very well written paper on the importance of international news, Ethan Zuckerman talks about the value of adding context to interest Western readers in international news.

I’m a big fan of Global Voices, which curates user generated content from around the world via a network of more than 150 active volunteer authors and translators and more than 20 freelance part-time regional and language editors. I am subscribed to the Global Voices country feeds for Brazil, India, Russia and China and regularly check their special coverage section for their more comprehensive stories.

However, even as I agree with Ethan on the importance of context, I believe that the present linkblog format of Global Voices doesn’t really provide that context. Reading the absolutely brilliant Global Voices India feed, for instance, doesn’t give an outsider an overall sense of the structure of the Indian blogosphere.

It doesn’t tell her that some of the oldest and the most influential Indian bloggers are journalist-writers (Amit Varma, Shivam Vij, Annie Zaidi). It doesn’t tell her that some of the popular Indian bloggers write blogs that resemble personal diaries, filled with humorous personal anecdotes, book, music and movie reviews, and opinions on news stories (Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, Neha Vishwanathan, Rashmi Bansal, Patrix, Manish Vij). It doesn’t tell her that a new category of Indian business and technology bloggers are beginning to speak to an international audience (Amit Agarwal, Gautam Ghosh, Kamla Bhatt) and some are even beginning to resemble mini news organizations (WATBlog, Pluggd.in). It doesn’t tell her that several Indian celebrities (Shekhar Kapur, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shobhaa De) and CEOs (Gurcharan Das, Rajeev Karwal, Ajit Balakrishnan) are experimenting with blogging. It doesn’t tell her that blogs are likely to play a more involved role in citizen activism in the 2009 general elections than they have done so far. It doesn’t tell her that Indic language blogging is finding its feet with several bloggers choosing to blog in Hindi, Tamil, Kanndada, Telegu or Bangla. Finally, it doesn’t tell her who the influential Indian “bridge-bloggers” are, which ones she should follow and why.

Similarly, the other Global Voices country feeds give me a peek into the Chinese, Russian or Brazilian blogospheres but don’t give me an overview. Let me say that the problem isn’t peculiar to Global Voices. The equally well curated Desipundit linkblog for Indian blogs also fails to give such a holistic view. Finally, as a quasi-academic trying to make sense of social media in the BRIC countries, I can safely say that such a resource doesn’t really exist elsewhere either.

What we need is a State of the Indian Blogosphere 2009 report (and a similar report for the other big countries Global Voices covers).

I see an annually updated 15 page PDF report that includes the following sections (later updates may or may not cover different topics) –

1. An overview of the Indian blogosphere (How many blogs? How many blog readers? What are the most discussed topics?)

2. The history of the Indian blogosphere (What are the biggest milestones? What are the biggest controversies?)

3. An overview of the personal and diary blogs in India (Who are the most popular bloggers? What are the most common themes? What are the recent trends?)

4. An overview of current affairs and activism blogs in India (Who are the most popular bloggers? What are the most common themes? What are the recent trends?)

5. An overview of business and technology blogs in India, including CEO blogs (Who are the most popular bloggers? What are the most common themes? What are the recent trends?)

6. An overview of celebrity and gossip blogs in India (Who are the most popular bloggers? What are the most common themes? What are the recent trends?)

7. An overview of Indic language blogging in India (Who are the most popular bloggers? What are the most common themes? What are the recent trends?)

8. A review of the biggest themes and memes in the Indian blogosphere in 2008, including a review of mainstream media news stories about blogging in India.

9. A directory of the most influential bridge bloggers in India, which can use Amit Agarwal’s directory of Indian bloggers as a starting point.

It’s obvious that such a report can hardly be put together by a single person, and I suggest that DesiPundit and Global Voices take the lead in putting it together, with contributions from leading Indian bloggers.

Neha Vishwanathan and Patrix can work on the history of the Indian blogosphere (#2), the overview of personal and diary blogs in India (#3) and a review of the biggest themes and meemes of 2008 (#8). Shivam Vij, Annie Zaidi or the folks at The Indian National Interest can be requested to write the overview of current affairs and activism blogs in India (#4). I’m sure Sakshi Juneja will be happy to write the overview of celebrity and gossip blogs in India (#6). The Indic language curators at Global Voices and Desipundit can put together the overview of Indic language blogs in India (#7). Kamla Bhatt, Gautam Ghosh and Amit Agarwal can collaborate on the overview of business and technology blogs in India (#5). As involved observers of the Indian blogosphere at the aggregate level, Kiruba Shankar, Rajesh Lalwani, Dina Mehta and I can contribute to #1 and #8.

Finally, I offer my full support to Global Voices and DesiPundit to help with convincing people to write their 500 word sections, chasing them to do it within deadlines and editing the final report.

The State of the Indian Blogosphere 2009 collaborative report can then serve as a pilot for similar reports for the other big countries Global Voices covers.

Ethan/ Neha/ Patrix: What do you think?

Shivam/ Annie/ Sakshi/ Kamla/ Gautam/ Amit/ Kiruba/ Dina/ Rajesh: What about you?

Update 1: Since there seems to be some quick interest in this idea, here’s how you can help. In the comment section below, or in a post of your own, suggest what should be included in each of the nine sections, or suggest a new section. For instance, you can make suggestions on the best themes and memes of 2008 and link to the relevant blog posts or news articles. We’ll find a way of acknowledging the suggestions in the report.

Update 2: I have written a quick post on the top five themes and memes in the Indian blogosphere in 2008 to kick off the initiative. It’s your turn now.

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Gaurav Mishra

Gaurav Mishra - who has written 746 posts on Gauravonomics Blog on Social Media and Social Change.

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Gautam Ghosh

Brilliant idea !
I would be game for it!

Gaurav Mishra

@Gautam: Thank you. If you like the idea, I would request you to write a post on what else to include in such a report and the best way to compile it. Let's get enough momentum behind the idea to make it happen.

Mayank Dhingra

Sounds like a plan, count me in.

what's up comment #2 ?

Gaurav Mishra

@Gautam , @Gaurav

Would like to give a hand regarding collating #5 if needed.

neha

I think it's a fantastic idea - but might make for more interesting reading - if after a rough draft was done - we wikified it and invited changes, and contributions. I think we can only provide a basic skeletal draft...

But fascinating idea nevertheless...

Gaurav Mishra

@Gaurav/ Mayank: Thank you. I'll look forward to your suggestions.

@Neha: I'm delighted that you like the idea. Your idea of opening up the first draft into a wiki is brilliant. I'm hoping that Global Voices + DesiPundit will quickly adopt the idea. It will be great if we are able to put together a first public draft by mid January. :-)

David Sasaki

One of the very first projects of Global Voices was a wiki-based Bridge Blog Directory. We had separate pages for each national blogosphere and the idea was that one representative from each blogosphere would curate, contextualize, and update the directory - basically, what you're proposing for India. Beth Kanter did a great job with the Cambodian blogosphere for a few months. After about six months though every page was out of date. It would be great if we've reached a point were individuals (or groups) were willing to keep such a directory maintained. I think it would make a valuable resource.

Gautam Ghosh

Was wondering if we can also compile a demographic of bloggers in India. Who all blog, which age group, which industry, how much do they update their blogs, etc.

Would a web based poll work?

Aryan Niyukti

I agree with Gautam entirely. It will be interesting to explore the spread of Indian Blogger Demographics - age wise, industry wise, region-language wise,length & frequency of posts, tools used, interests etc. It will also be useful to explore the evlution from the 'early adopters' to the the more 'recent converts' to try to extrapolate the shape of future blogging.

Another unrelated theme could be an effort to understand why there haven't been any purely 'Indian' innovations in blogging/ social networking whereas gobally there have been so many of them. Does it only have to do with internet penetration or there are many other peaces of the puzzle?