Gauravonomics Blog

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I was pleasantly surprised recently to see that Tata Indicom is using its account statements to invite customers to participate in its blog and forum –

I have been presenting slides on how real employees (including old friend Nidhi) use the Tata Indicom corporate blog to have real conversations with their customers –

I tend to be very particular about building the right customer community platform using the right software (which, very often, is something like Lithium), and for a reason. The right platform enables and encourages the right behavior, opens up new degrees of freedom, both for community users and the administrators.

However, the Tata Indicom example is a reminder for me that brands can do a lot of right things without using sophisticated software. Their blog is built on the free Wordpress blogging software and their forum is built on vBulletin, not a particularly sophisticated forum software. The forum user interface is unwieldy, the different pieces of software don’t speak to each other, and there’s only so much that Tata Indicom or their customers can do with it.

However, even though Tata Indicom doesn’t have the right software to run a customer community, it sure has the right soul and, in the end, the right soul matters more than the right software.  Read More

I was profiled yesterday in a Mail Today story on people whose lives were changed by blogging. The other bloggers profiled in the story included Amit Agarwal, Gautam Ghosh, Dina Mehta, and Nikhil Pahwa.

I started blogging in 2004. I saw myself as a writer and wanted to see if I can write in an engaging way on a sustained basis. I wrote stories, poetry, observations on life, marketing and technology. I met a lot of interesting people via my blog, made some good friends, some of whom became girlfriends in time.

In late 2006, I decided that I didn’t want to be a typical IIM MBA in a typical fast-track corporate career. I decided that I wanted to be the “next marketing guru” (I own the nextmarketingguru.com domain). I realized that internet and mobile, and especially social media, are not only changing how we connect with each other, but also how we connect with brands and organizations. So, I started writing about how social media is not only changing our lives, but also business and society.  Read More

Lynn Berry at Associated Press reports that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has been posting videos on his blog for a few months, allowed comments for the first time, only to be bombarded with critical comments.

Surprisingly, his rather innocuous video on the importance of sports and recreation has attracted more than 500 comments, mostly criticizing the limited access to low cost sports facilities in Russia.

I’m surprised that the blog does not have comment moderation to begin with. Also, given that no criticism of the government is permitted on the Russian national television stations or the newspapers, it will be interesting to see how much open criticism and debate the Kremlin would tolerate.

Cross-posted at Social Media in Business, Development and Government.

Introduction

Late on November 26, 2008, India was shaken by a series of terrorist attacks across ten prominent locations in Mumbai, India’s cultural and financial capital (Wikipedia).

The ten terrorists, linked to Islamic terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, managed to hold Mumbai hostage for more than 60 hours and killed 171 people, including several foreign nationals.

Citizen journalism played an important role in covering the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack and several observers, both in the mainstream media and the tech blogosphere, have written about it from many perspectives.

The story has been framed in several ways — “participatory media vs. legacy media”, “Twitter vs. blogs”, and even “Indian internet users vs. American internet users”. As someone who tracks social media and citizen journalism in India very closely, I thought that it may be worthwhile to write a long article length post and separate the myths from the reality.

I’ll divide the case study into four sections —

- Section 1: What was the role of citizen journalism in covering the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack?  Read More

Now that my blog is my work for the next nine months, I thought it will be useful to redefine the focus of my blog(s), both as a guide to my readers and to myself.

During my tenure as the Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University, my official fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies — will be my main blog. In my daily posts on the blog, I’ll mostly focus on how social media will be used differently in BRIC countries as compared to US/ EU, but also riff frequently on the broader theme of how international values apply to the development and use of new communications technologies in BRIC countries. From mid-September, I will start hosting a weekly podcast with thinkers and practitioners from the social media and social entrepreneurship fields, and from mid-December, I will become involved in inviting and editing contributions for a crowd-sourced paper (or e-book) on how global values shape communications technologies. So, my fellowship blog will demand most of my time and energy and I would urge you to subscribe to it in a feed reader or by e-mail.  Read More

Quick Summary: Gauravonomics Blog is featured on the Social Media dashboard at Guy Kawasaki’s “digital magazine rack” of the Internet Alltop.

Maverick investor Guy Kawasaki has been involved in several interesting startups of late (Truemors), but Alltop is the one I really like.

Basically, Alltop has a number of sub-sites, or dashboards, focused on a narrow vertical. Each dashboard features the headlines of five most recent stories from 30-50 top blogs and websites for that topic. When you place the cursor over a headline, it displays part of the story so that you can decide if you’d like to read it.

You can think of an Alltop site as a “dashboard,” “table of contents,” or even a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points — they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. (link)  Read More

Quick Summary: Attend the first Mumbai Bloggers Meet-up for 2008, and discuss the state of Latin American blogosphere or the nuances of video-blogging with Global Voices editor Juliana Rincon Parra, over pizza & wine.

Invite designed by Melody

When: Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 8:00pm
Where: A/65, Sea Lord, Opp Taj President, Cuffe Parade, Bombay, India

Peruvian-Colombian blogger Juliana Rincon Parra is the Latin America and Video-Blogging editor on Global Voices. She is also great fun to spend an evening with (based on first hand recent experience).

Here’s an opportunity for you to meet up with her and discuss the state of Latina American blogosphere, the nuances of video-blogging, or just hang out.

You can find out more about Juliana at her Global Voices profile or her Facebook profile.

What’s more, here’s a bonus for the regulars at my parties. Unlike the usual party at my place, where I spend most of the time cooking dishes or mixing drinks, I’ll not enter the kitchen at all. So, not only can you spend time with Juliana, you can also (finally) spend time with me.  Read More

Patrix is an urban planning doctoral student at Texas A&M, the founder of DesiPundit and a self-confessed Shyamali Malakar fan. Patrix blogs at Nerve Endings Firing Away.

I have already written about why I love Patrix’s blog -

- Patrix has an intuitive understanding of how conversations are created on blogs, and, as I try to understand the nature of online conversations myself, I find myself looking up to him as something of a guru.
- Patrix has an innate curiosity about technology and popular culture and the ability to write from an enthusiast’s perspective, something any blogger would do well to emulate.
- Patrix is one of the most generous people I have known, online or offline, and, via DesiPundit and his own blog, he has probably done more to promote desi blogging than anybody else.

Patrix belongs to the second most widely seen species of desi bloggers, the doctoral-student-blogger (the first, of course, is the journalist-blogger) and I’m sure that you’ll meet many more bloggers from this species in the ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ interview series.

Jamshed Velayuda Rajan, or Jammy Rajan, is based in Chennai, works for an Internet major, blogs at Ouch My Toe and is one of India’s funniest bloggers.

I have already written about why I love Jammy’s blog -

- Jammy manages to do that rare thing – being personal and funny at the same time – and every post on this blog is laugh out loud funny.
- Jammy has one of the best 404 error page I have seen on a desi blog. Reminds me that I have to work on mine.
- Jammy does innovative little things to engage his readers, like offering a Best of Ouch My Toe PDF file for download, asking readers to pick a topic for him and putting subscription and archive buttons within his posts.

Jammy, I feel, is the perfect follow-up to Jai, because of the contrasts between them in terms of their backgrounds, their content and their style of writing. It will be my endeavour in ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ to explore this diversity in desi blogging.

Q. When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?  Read More

Jai Arjun Singh is a New Delhi-based freelance writer/ journalist/ blogger. Jai works part-time with the Business Standard newspaper, blogs at Jabberwock and is mainly known for his erudite reviews of books and movies.

I have already written about why I love Jai’s blog -

- Nobody else writes as prolifically or as beautifully about books and movies as him.
- His interviews are more personal and insightful than any other I have read on desi blogs.
- He manages to make even his rants read like literature.

Jai, I felt, was the perfect person to start off the ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ interview series because he is the perfect example of the desi A-list blogger/ journalist, a species you’ll often come across at ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’.

Q. When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?

A. I started in September 2004. Initially I thought I would use it mainly as an online “storehouse” for some of my published articles and reviews, for easy access and reference. But over time that function changed: I found myself increasingly writing fresh things purely for the blog, whether in the form of personal posts, general observations or notes about books, films etc.  Read More

Yesterday, I announced that ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ was open for business –

‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ is open now! Do walk in tomorrow for (virtual) coffee and (real) conversation with your favorite bloggers!

- and mentioned my ‘eleven Desi Blogging Cafe questions’ –

Sometimes, I’ll ask them my ‘eleven Desi Blogging Cafe questions’. Sometimes, I’ll put aside these questions and ask them other questions. Sometimes, I’ll let you ask them questions. Sometimes, I’ll let them ask me questions.

If you are wondering what those ‘eleven Desi Blogging Cafe questions’ are, here we go –

- When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?

- What do you blog about? Has the focus of your blog changed over time?

- How do you think people describe your blog to others who don’t read it? How would you like them to describe it?

- How do you think people describe you to others who don’t know you? How would you like them to describe you?

- Is your online persona different from your real self?

- How important is your blog to you? In what ways? Why?  Read More

Yesterday, I played a trick on you that TV channels all over the world have perfected –

I’m pleased to announce that I have finally found a format for the ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ series I am fully satisfied with. It’s intimate, it’s interesting, it’s insightful, and it has never been done in desi blogging before.

And now that I have your full attention, I’ll leave you precariously balanced at the edge of your chairs, until tomorrow.

Watch out for Desi Blogging Cafe!

Today, instead of teasing you more, I’ll give you – (music building up into a crescendo) Desi Blogging Cafe (loud applause)!

Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite desi bloggers? Have you ever wished that you could ask them how they started blogging, what they have learned from blogging, even how much money they make from blogging(!)? Have you ever wondered if they are as interesting in real life as they are on their blogs?

If the answers to those three questions is ‘yes’, you would love ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’! Because, at ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’!, you’ll get to know your favorite desi bloggers like you have never known them before!  Read More

As regular readers of my blogs would know, my ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ series has had severe identity crisis issues.

First, there was ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ version 1, where I featured one desi blog everyday, gave three reasons why I loved the blog, and offered one (hopefully) helpful tip to the blogger. I did the series for about two weeks and then realized that I was not doing enough with the series.

Then, there was ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ version 2, where I included a small bio of the blogger and three of their best posts to give you a sense of who they are and why they blog, apart from the three reasons why they are included in the series and my blogging tip to them. However, after doing only two posts, I realized that I wasn’t satisfied with that either (did I mention that I’m a perfectionist?).

So, I stopped the series for almost two weeks, to fine-tune the format.

I’m pleased to announce that I have finally found a format for the ‘Desi Blog of the Day’ series I am fully satisfied with. It’s intimate, it’s interesting, it’s insightful, and it has never been done in desi blogging before.  Read More

As you would have figured out by now, I’m never quite satisfied with my blog. As I learn more about the art and science of blogging, I find more and more things on the blog that need to be fixed. Yesterday was my day off from work and I spent most of it working on the biggest tweak on my blog ever since I shifted from Wordpress.com.

The thing is, Gauravonomics is not one blog anymore, I have split it into two separate blogs –

- At Gauravonomics Blog, I’ll write about blogging, marketing and personal development. If you want to read about what I’m thinking about, head over here.
- At Gauravonomics Diary, I’ll write about love, life and pop culture. If you want to read about what I’m doing/ feeling/ reading/ watching/ listening to, this is the blog to read.

I split the blog into two because I found myself writing for two separate sets of readers on the same blog. My older readers wanted more personal posts about what was happening in my life, but the focus of the blog had moved to what was happening in my head, resulting in a new set of readers looking for posts on marketing, technology and blogging tips. With the split, I’ll find it easier to have meaningful conversations with both sets of readers.  Read More

What do you do when a journalist asks you for an interview?

Well, if you are an A-list blogger, you insist that you’ll do the interview only by e-mail (Jason Calacanis) or offer to blog about the topic and let the journalist quote from the post (Dave Winer).

Now, I’m not a A-lister yet, so I just do half a dozen little jumps around the room every time a journalist asks me for an interview. When I do become an A-lister…

Also See: Jason Calacanis (rejoinder), Dave Winer, Michael Arrington, Fred Vogelstein (rejoinder), Techmeme, Jeff Jarvis, Wired, Dan Gillmor, Valleywag, Heather Green.

Today’s Desi Blog of the Day is Saffron Trail by Nandita.

Here’s Nandita on herself –

Nandita is a medical doctor by qualification, a a nutritionist and cook by passion and a freelance writer by occupation. She writes for Men’s Health – India and Complete Wellbeing, among many others and she is one of the group bloggers at Daily Tiffin – a family and lifestyle blog. Nandita dreams of starting a little home-style restaurant someday soon and her husband has already reserved the position of CTO (Chief Tasting Officer).

Here’s Nandita on cooking –

Cooking is like meditation. When I stand in front of my wok, I just put in the ingredients instictively. My heart tells me what will taste good and what won’t. And I cook with my heart. When one does that, the results are usually good. I believe in healthy cooking – low on salt and oil, fresh ingredients and spices, simple and quick procedures that help us eat freshly cooked meals at any time of the day. I eat to live so that I may live to eat!

Here are three reasons why I love Nandita’s blog –  Read More

Today’s Desi Blog of the Day is Deep Thought by TGFI.

Here’s TGFI on herself –

TGFI is a Ph.D student, chronic procrastinator and risk-taker. Right now, her life revolves around lab, and getting that elusive Ph.D. She loves science, Bombay, people who laugh, cribbing about grad school life, arguing about women’s lib, drunken revelry and cute salsa partners.

(which reminds me that the post which had me hooked to her blog also involved a drunken night out with the girls, and much laughter, and maybe even some roadside singing. URL please Thank you, TGFI!)

Here’s TGFI on her blog –

Her blog is a personal diary with snippets about her life. Initially very skeptical about such a thing as baring your soul on the www, TGFI has gotten hooked onto blogging as a venting board and enjoys the camaraderie, sharing of thoughts and the several blog-friendships that came out of it. Her biggest nightmare is her blog being “found” by people she knows in real life and she blogs in that fear, constantly.

I’m sure all you anonymous personal bloggers have dealt with that dichotomy too – the joy of finding friends in strangers and the fear of being found by friends.  Read More

Diogenes at ‘Quasi Fictional Views’ asked me to contribute a piece for her ‘Fine Art of Blogging’ project. Blogging biggies like Liz Strauss and Chris Garrett have contributed to the project previously and I’m truly touched that Diogenes asked me to participate. Diogenes asked me to answer a few questions about my blogging and here’s the piece as it appears on her blog.

What is my blog to me?

At the simplest level, my blog is a repository of my thoughts and ideas. It is also a white board where I experiment with words and projects, a place where I try to find my voice as a writer, and a project that will become my purpose, my calling, or my legacy. My blog is also a medium to create new conversations with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and some of these conversations have already become entrenched into friendships.

Why do I blog?

I started blogging because I wanted to be a writer, to write for a living, but wasn’t sure if I had the voice or the discipline to shape it into literature. Blogging was one way to find out.  Read More

Today’s Desi Blog of the Day is Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind by GreatBong aka Arnab.

Three reasons why I love Arnab’s blog –

- There are no sacred cows on Arnab’s blog and nobody and nothing escapes his razor sharp satire.
- Arnab’s headers are often laugh out loud funny.
- Arnab’s devotion to Mitunism is now legendary.

My tip to Arnab: How can I even presume to offer a blogging tip to the master himself? But, if I must, consider adding some navigation elements on the sidebar for your single posts.

So, why is Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind the Desi Blog of the Day? Because in the Hundred Must Read Desi Blogs list, he would define ‘Must Read’ for most desi blog readers.

PS: I just realized that Arnab has 1100+ feed subscribers; I’m not sure if another desi blog has half as many.

Also see – BlogTipping and Hundred Must Read Desi Blogs.

If you aren’t already blogging, here are ten reasons why you should start immediately –

- Blogging is a great way to record your thoughts and experiences in one place – like an online diary.

- Blogging teaches you to discipline your writing. Blog readers have infamously low attention spans and, in order to retain them, you learn to put forward your thoughts in short and succinct posts.

- Blogging also teaches you to discipline your thinking. By setting, and sticking to, a blogging frequency, you learn to ideate on demand.

- Not only does blogging help you discipline your thinking and writing, it also fuels your curiosity and creativity because you are always looking for new ideas to blog about, or new twists on old ideas.

- Blogging not only exercises your brain, it also improves your social skills. It requires that you start conversations with your readers, connect with them, and engage them in your blog’s community – important skills, irrespective of what you do for a living.

- Blogging is a great way to meet interesting like-minded people beyond your social and professional circles. Some of my best friends today are bloggers or readers of my blog.  Read More