Exchange4Media updates me us that Meow 104.8 FM from Radio Today (India Today Group) made a bold first-move today with its launch in Delhi. 'Meow 104.8 is India's first talk based radio station for women. Someone broke the clutter finally- phew! Would others follow suit quickly like they tend to do?

I haven't heard the station yet, but plan to eavesdrop evesdrop today. 'Thodi Meethi, Thodi Catty' they promise to be. :)

More radio stuff here.

Users are going to love this, I think. Quick after Twitter comes Guy Kawasaki plus Will Mayall and Kathryn Henkens' Truemors.

The concept is simple "Tell the World' - post your rumors, news, and sightings, and anyone with web access can read and rate them within minutes". However, Truemors wants to see 'true' rumours that are relevant, add value to people and maybe entertain. The site rightly doesn't want gossip, which on the other hand mostly deals with individuals. I would suggest you read the detailed, but engaging, about us section before you get started.

It would be interesting to see how and what they moderate though.

Get started you can... by leaving a message over phone, IM, web interface and email.

Go spread some!

I visited Mumbai last week for a talk at The Park- Navi Mumbai - a very chic, contemporary property indeed! Navi Mumbai surprised me with its green and space, but then new development seemed to be mushrooming everywhere so looks like it will get busy too.

We were a small group, around 15 of us...

Towards the end of my talk, I shared these points that I think are relevant for businesses (particularly those with global outlook) looking at adopting blogs (and social media):

1. Think Global - it's very easy to get trapped by our own geography and language. Our customers and other stakeholders however may not be limited to just these and it's important to keep that in mind when planning our social media strategy. For example, on the language front, Japanese has already overtaken English as the # 1 language on the blogosphere. Do we have stakeholders in that geography or those who speak that language?
2. Think Local - equally important that we don't just scratch the surface and ignore local initiatives. Again language for example- Hindi & local language is beginning to get popular in India on blogs & social media.
3. Think Engagement - blogs are not about 'selling', though they can lead to enhanced sales - thanks to the help they offer on the customer's decision making process and because of enhanced trust they result in. However, let's not don't get into a sales spiel - think how can we add value to our readers' life.

Off to Mumbai now, where I have a talk to deliver, but will try and put the text here tomorrow.

UPDATED at 7.37 a.m. IST, 26 May 2007.

Here's the text as I submitted and is slightly longer than the print edition; the structure too is a bit different . The piece was originally titled You Blog? . If the piece reads different from my other blog post, please remember that it was written with 'print' in mind and for a larger, diverse reader group. Do share your inputs and feedback.

Here we go:

Even though this piece appears on the technology page, it has really less to do with technology and more with conversations, though enabled by today’s Internet technology.

By now of course all of us know about blogs – that they are diaries on the web; that they are easy to write and manage; that thanks to thousands of free templates you will never need a designer (only partly correct  ); that they are the Internet live and ticking; also that they are big and are seemingly here to stay.

Truth also is that, even as a there is a new blog launched every second, majority of them end up dead, soon after launch.

So we won’t delve upon how big the blogosphere is and all that stuff, instead, let’s try and figure out whether indeed YOU need to blog and if yes, how could you ensure that once you have set one up, it doesn’t end up, like perhaps a majority from among the 71 million + that are listed on Technorati.com (www.technorati.com) already are – dead!

The answer to this can be really simple:

I spent some time on them in the last couple of days. It's early days yet, for both, and I would be keenly watching to see how they shape up.

Groups - or addas as they are called on BA - I visited, still have very few members and it might be some time before they achieve critical mass. CI doesn't have groups, unless I missed out, and continues to attempt building the community around blogs - more on that in a bit. Both looked very similar to Orkut in terms of features, so I wasn't really sure on what's the incentive for anyone who's already on Orkut (a large number now) to move to either.

As a matter of fact 2 clear trends I have recently noticed on Orkut:

1. It's become more mainstream and a somewhat older population is now beginning to adopt it too (I was fairly embarrassed until recently, to acknowledge that I was a member on Okut and would quietly lurk around, watching life go on around me). Now it's a bit like Ryze + loads of much younger people.
2. If youth who were already on Orkut are choosing to adopt new communities too, (they are not abandoning Orkut) then one community that I think finding traction is Facebook. It's more aspirational - the lure of a more global member-base, coupled with familiar Indian faces (many who have studied or are studying overseas) already friends with global buddies... making them more accessible to new joins. There's also more that can be done on the site, so many seem to be adopting it because they are perhaps now more comfortable with the concept of SNA and think they can hold their own etc.

Coming back to Ibibo and its blogging initiative - I think, even though they have given their 'rewards programme' a new twist by bringing in the criteria of interactivity and quality, and that is DEFINITELY going to clean up the place a lot, will it become a serious blogging platform? I don't think so! Here's what I think, but I need to go back a bit, first:

Gaming is engagement, action and games can have a cult following - makings of a great branding opportunity and many brands are already 'playing'.

However, because top-end game associations can be expensive, it can be a tricky call too - how much branding is too much branding? When does it become intrusive to the gaming experience? And maybe defeat the purpose!

I chanced upon this case-study on Puma and their tie-up with Sony on its game Wipeout Pure. I can't really comment about this particular instance without having played the game, but do check out the slideshow as a generic question.

What do you think about in-game branding? Do share your experiences with any such games you may have played or as a marketer participated in with brand promotions.

It was to be a monthly discussion but its already been 4 months since the launch of Blogworks - between our new business discussions, talks & workshops, writing the blog; (and of course) meeting our work commitments & deadlines :), we haven’t been able to keep that promise. Do hope that the content from the discussion below will make up for the gap. We hope to be more regular though (there are a couple of discussion already in the pipeline).

Much has also changed in the last few months- just the term blogosphere has become partly redundant, it’s about Social Media or Live Web now, broader in what it covers. Social Networking and User Generated Content (UGC) have been gaining mainstream status. In view of that, it was pertinent that we discussed: Impact of Social Networks and User Generated Content – an India perspective.

How long is a week? Very long if you are talking about social media, UGC and SNS - in the days between we had the discussion below and actually took it up - Social Networking Site Minglebox has received $ 7 million funding from Sequoia Capital and YouTube has announced revenue sharing! It's not for nothing that I call social media the fastest running animal on the planet!

Joining me today are(alphabetically):

1. Alok Mittal, Canaan Partners – Alok, a friend, former client 2 times over, is a Partner with Canaan - an early stage venture fund with focus on internet, technology and BPO space. A first generation entrepreneur, Alok is also a founding member of Band of Angels India - an organization comprising successful entrepreneurs looking to invest in seed stage businesses. Alok’s community blog Venturewoods attempts to bring the Indian venture community closer together. Alok is located in New Delhi.
2. Amit Ranjan, Slideshare – Amit Ranjan, of whose product I am a great fan, is the co-founder & COO of Slideshare(www.slideshare.net). Amit keenly follows emerging trends in the consumer internet space in India and writes a blog called Webyantra about the Indian Web 2.0 space. Amit is located in New Delhi.
3. Prerna Gupta, Yaari.com – Founder & CEO of Yaari.com - a social networking site for Indian youth. Prerna has led Yaari through rapid growth and widespread media coverage since its beta launch in October 2006. Prior to founding Yaari, Prerna was an Associate in Summit Partners' venture capital fund in Palo Alto, CA. Prerna is an economics graduate from Stanford University and presently splits her time between India and the US.
4. Yours truly moderated and I am 'still located in New Delhi :).




5. Blog the Talk Edition 2 is in association with IMPACT - The Media, Advertising and Marketing Weekly, which will, starting this week, carry the text for its readers over 2 issues. Thanks Team IMPACT.
6. UPDATE- I am delighted to renew my association with HP - India (Hewlett Packard) . The Personal Systems Group - Commercial of HP India, which is responsible for business notebooks, business desktops, handheld devices and more would now be associated with Blog the Talk. Thanks HP ! :)

Hope you enjoy the talk and participate with comments and feedback:

All thoughts expressed by participants are personal opinion of respective speakers and do not represent the views of Blogworks or any other company/ organization.

Rajesh:Alok, first of all let me congratulate you and your colleagues on your new investment in iYogi! I think it’s an interesting next generation outsourcing concept.

Let me begin by asking you… networking on the net isn't new - sites bringing friends together, dating and matrimonial and even business networking sites have been there forever; but suddenly there is a lot of buzz about user generated content (UGC), content communities, social and business networking - communities are emerging all around. What brought about the change?

Alok: Thanks. I think the move towards consumer generated content has been gradual and limited on a geographical scale and people want to contribute quick byte-sized content - a la, discussion boards etc.

Myspace extended the frontier in terms of user expression. I think You Tube is perhaps the most extensive example of this, and driven by:

(a) Broadband

(b) Focusing on content which already exists with the users in a form that can be shared.

Prerna: The idea has been around for a while but I think what really brought around the change was when a few sites, mostly well-funded, executed the idea in very clear and simple way and had effective marketing to make their sites tip.

Amit: The community aspect being mashed up with the content is what seems to be spurring the growth at this stage. As Alok said, the content already exists; people are already creating it; now the ability to share that content in a social context has added the impetus.

There are pure SNS (Social Networking Sites) sites where networking is the end and there are content oriented sites where SNS is the means and not the ends.

Rajesh: Alok, how much of this unleashing has to do with the possibilities that Google AdSense and other contextual ad options brought along? That the owner of a community had, for the first time, at least a possible option of moving away from transactions or selling display ads, which may not always be a possible option?

Alok: I think that’s an interesting survival technique and helps in that context. However, that’s too small a stream for a reasonable business, especially as you get to rich media sharing, you definitely need something more as source of revenue/capital.

Rajesh: But do you think that to some owners it has given a dream to make it big.

Alok: I doubt anyone has made big with adsense…

Rajesh:(Laughs)

Rajesh: Amit and Prerna, how much of this SNS phenomenon of real people sharing personal lives and data is to do with a sociological change of a generation that has grown up with the net and doesn't much care about who is reading about them, their lives?

Prerna: I don't think everyone using these sites has ‘grown up’ with the net but people are adaptable and the freedom is addicting, especially when sharing information about yourself so readily gets you widespread affirmation from peers.

Amit: Psychological and cultural reasons have certainly contributed to this trend; also the fact that Internet adds a hugely convenience dimension to everything - be it ecommerce or friendship.

The convenience of interacting with people in asynchronous mode. Synchronous and direct interaction on a one-to-one basis is great but for many a people, it’s intimidating.

Alok: Ya, I guess that’s why I leave post-it notes for my wife (smiles).

Rajesh: (Smiles).

Amit: Good one (Smiles).

A few months ago, it had announced plans to pay users for uploads. Well, it's happened: This TechCrunch update yesterday informed me of a formal announcement from YouTube of its revenue share plans. While being seen as a positive step, a notable miss from the announcement is inclusion of 'pre-rolls' - brief ad plays before start of a video- that way ad messages would have reached the audience watching video embeds on thousands of blogs which pick content from YouTube, but that's going to have to wait it seems - tech concerns some say! Read the original TechCrunch story here.

The programme has some interesting features:

1. An 'integrated browser' opens web pages inside the reader...
2. While 'Auto discovery' ensures that I don't have to click any additional buttons to look for RSS feeds
3. Save a feed as a 'Channel' under the selected 'Channel Group'
4. The reader allows users to view 'Articles' by category; author; published; source; flagged; title; read...
5. When I like something? I simply move it into 'Archives' for future reference - I find this quite useful
6. The feature I love most however is 'Watches' which allows users to track conversations by keyword so all articles from feeds collected that have a certain or a set of keywords get separated under a given watch. I can add as many as I like...

Check it out! You can download i-Fetch here!

More about RSS and other terms here.

Been busy, trying to take care of some issues at home and am back. As a matter of fact, we have great action lined up Monday with launch of Blog the Talk - Edition 2. Discussing Impact of Social Networks and User Generated Content – an India perspective.. Joining me in the discussion are (alphabetically):

1. Alok Mittal, Partner, Canaan Partners
2. Amit Ranjan, COO and Co-founder, Slideshare
3. Prerna Gupta, Founder, Yaari.com

We concluded the talk a couple of days ago and just getting all other things in place. Like previous time, the talk is in association with IMPACT.

Exciting, I promise you ;)

Meanwhile, do read Edition 1, discussing impact of blogs and social media on business and marketing in India.

What's Blog the Talk - the discussion series was conceived to feature the best of learning from the ‘live web’ through panel discussions, talks and one-on-ones – mostly conducted online.