To me it means...

1. Content is king- irrespective of whether you are a large production house, a citizen journalist or a backyard film director, compelling content will earn you money. So far the latter two variety were happy with just visibility, but with a plethora of options to upload content on, it has become important for You Tube to ensure that it invites quality content - it is no fun to log on and not find anything of value -people will simply move on.
2. With a revenue share in place (based on number of views?), production houses would likely put-up quality content and that may further change how we consume news/ entertainment etc.
3. While server space may be cheap, You Tube will likely have fewer people clogging the community with junk, if they believed there is monetary benefit in uploading quality content.


Let's await a formal announcement.

Arguably the most famous blogger in the world, Robert Scoble, has upset a few people with his recent remarks.

Want an update - go here or practically everywhere on the blogosphere.

It started here it seems.

My conversation with Kanika sometime ago (that’s her in the pic), about her Yoga workshop, made me think about distinct styles that each of my teachers use and the unique learning each of them left me with, without any of them making any obvious effort. Simple but deep.

The first time I ever attempted yoga was around 2001- twice a week, Mishra ji would come to our office in the evenings to conduct sessions. My then relatively younger body had never really exercised (other than active sport that I enjoyed all my growing up years) and even a simple Vajra Asan would leave me (and the others too :) ) in pain.

Witnessing our discomfort, Misra ji, in his inimitable style, would urge us to “Enjoy the pain.” Partly how it was said and partly the seeming irony of that statement would invariably have us laughing, but lo, as we started to ‘enjoy’, the pain would disappear.

I was to subsequently use this learning in challenging times, as I finally brought myself to a point that I could look pain in the eye and smile at it, it would start to melt, soon disappearing. Things would actually start to sort themselves out.

I miss Mishra ji’s classes and would love to go back to them some day.

1. Ajay is a man on a mission - a green mission.
   

   His recently launched blog GreenDioxide.com focuses on "...simple, practical practices we can all adopt in our organizations and communities to make a big difference to the planet."

   "Use common sense,"he says, adding,"You might never get it, but you still take a smallpox or meningitis vaccine. The same goes for climate change. So, cover yourself, before it is too late."

   Read his practical tips and join-in to make a difference.

2. She went, she saw, she created!

   
   

   

   Most people would go on a holiday and come back with a travelogue - not Rekha. When I recently met her, after her return from a holiday in Lebanon and Turkey, the glow on her face told me something was cookin - out came Global Desi. A global citizen she truly is anyway and the blog will share her and other traveler's experiences. The blog design is work in progress, but content shaping up nicely - read her take on the Bindi(an)question!

   This talk about travel and Indians reminds me of the SriLankan Airlines' outdoor campaign around town "Indians are everywhere, how do they get there? - SriLankan Airlines,". Brings a smile to my face- something doesn't seem ok with that line. It might have read better as, "Indians are everywhere, we take them there!" or something (if at anything on these lines). What say?

There is so much to learn in the social media space that it's imperative to collaborate, exchange notes, and help best practices evolve. We would endeavor to showcase the best of learnings from the blogosphere/ social media in our Blogs that Work series (It could even be a social media campaign and not just blogs. However, a personal musings blog doesn't qualify) for all of us to benefit.

The idea is simple - send us a case-study; if we find it interesting, we will first feature it on the blog and then put it up on the Resources page on www.blogworks.in . Write in at: conversations(at)blogworks(dot)in

Please follow this basic format for consistency:

About-Company/ Organisation

Key Highlight
Executive Summary
Need
Challenge
Solution
Results
Future

1. Is it a case of dumbing down of news or dumb news? Or both?

   
   The media has been working overtime since Ms. A and Mr. A of the B Family announced their plans to marry and I am told that NDTV ran a story highlighting the enhanced brand equity/value of the 'Big' family - business of a different kind they make it sound. Since it seems to fall in the realms of M&A, they could have at least considered limiting it to just NDTV Profit. After all some of their own senior team have been voicing the case for a more responsible media. :)

2. Overheard a young entrepreneur joke about retiring, once he had secured funding for his new venture. We live in the times of Disposable Business - where is the customer in it ? :)

"How can 'this' piece not be on the blog!" I had silently exclaimed to myself. After all 'this' is where it all started. A session in the office, an informal prompt and I had penned this first, with my limited understanding, for the company newsletter and it was then republished byExchange4Media.com in Jan 2006. It's been there since. In the interim, so much has happened...both for me and for the overall social media space.

I am adding the text below as the e4m story didn't carry links - they help. Do leave your feedback...

It's been a while since I wrote a concerted post and though I really want to sit and write, I think that will only happen next week. Meanwhile...

1. A text message from a friend Sunday evening prompted me to switch on 'We the People' on NDTV. Blogs & Social Media were being discussed and while I only caught bits, I think most of the conversation revolved around what's already been said/ written on other fora: blogs & social media can be misused/ freedom of speech/ who is liable and so on. Barkha Dutt had also written on this subject in HT earlier. Some of this perhaps originates from personal slander and abuse that many amongst the media fraternity have been victims of, on an anonymous blog (now dormant).

   Fundamentally anonymity doesn't lend itself to credibility. How much do we believe stories appearing in a rag? I think the same applies to blogs written by anonymous authors.

   My chosen agenda for the year is to get 'experts' to blog - once that gathers momentum, scales are going to tilt in favour of the 'real' experts anyway. Unlike today's blogosphere (at least the India scene), barring a few real experts, everyone is claiming to be an expert on everything. There is an inherent danger in that.

   I would say Ms. Dutt should start writing a blog too.

   Also, unless I missed, no one on the programme spoke about impact of blogs & social media on business.

Across shores, Diva Marketing Blog featured us and its wonderful to see the interest in India, as this comment left for Toby showcases:

"...I think we can learn much from India, as they navigate and execute through and on social media."

There have been a few questions and requests from friends and I am trying to highlight them here:

1. We do not take independent blog 'design' assignments, though we are happy to work with our design partner to deliver a complete blog/ web 2.0 property, but only as part of a strategic turnkey offering for our clients.
2. Our differentiated offering is strategic advice to brands & corporates on impact and use of social media. To deliver this, we follow a process that promises measurable results and ROI.
3. Yes, we would happy to speak with small/ large groups to explain blogs, social media and impact thereof on your business and marketing -at your office or another venue and happy to visit new cities.
4. A workshop series enabling marketing/ communication teams with holistic information on social media is being planned. Do drop me a line if you are interested.
5. Yes, we take up mainstream corporate and brand reputation assignments too :). We believe that understanding of public relations coupled with knowledge on social media is our unique differentiator.

Time(s) surely (are) is changing. Time.com moved to a new Web 2.0 format this week...

Amongst others, Time.com's star bloggers Ana Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan will write 'Swampland' and 'Daily Dish' blogs respectively. There is 'The China Blog', but no India Blog, yet! Maybe someone from Time will read this and bring about change :).

The new site is, of course, RSS, podcast and mobile enabled and like many others in mainstream media, Time too understands the power of social media - embedded at the bottom of each story are RSS Feed; Digg; Del.icio.us (I still cannot get the URL of this one right at first attempt) and many other ranking/ bookmarking buttons.

The site features a Most Popular list but I couldn't figure out how it is compiled.

So there we are, Time's credibility coupled with new media transparency and speed - let's see where it takes us.

It has been a busy start to the year and even as the 'Cool List of 2006' post remains pending still, I have been thinking about what possible trends/ consolidation to expect online/ on the Indian blogosphere this year:

1. Year before last a client of mine was disapproving of my team's effort to get her brand visibility online. She thought it was 'easy' to get featured online and therefore didn’t count for much. I was quite amused by the reaction, as my own online experience had assured me of the medium’s power - my online writings have always been seen by more people; commented upon by more people; they stay around longer; can be linked; emailed... I can carry on. Coupled with the 'ease' of web 2.0, where I can do anything myself; put up anything on You Tube or Digg the power multiples, making the world truly flat. You are as good, as you really are! I think the online medium has arrived and will gain ground rapidly
2. When we launched BlogWorks.in last week with the Blog the Talk series, IMPACT weekly agreed to carry the content in a 2 part series. We were able to reach an entirely different community of readers through the exercise and the talk was read by a much larger audience, in addition to those who were already online . I like this marriage of mainstream with blogs. As blogs produce more and more compelling content, the trend is going to gain ground
3. I chanced upon a celebrity CEO's blog the other day. Very newbie, but very promising. I could see myself writing a blog a few months ago, struggling with template back-ends etc. but soon that became a thing of the past and I could actually concentrate on the writing part. I can see more and more experts and thought leaders joining the blogosphere and as that happens, credibility of blogs is going to go up too