It's been a few months in the making, when in the course of a discussion we realised that while there is a lot of great work happening on the social media scene in India, it is dispersed - it needed to be aggregated, showcased. Also, with the revolution well set in, the space needed to evolve - sharing, learning and collaboration were tasks at hand.
Intuitively I wanted to call it IndiaSocial, nothing else seemed to fit = my colleagues loved it too - so we went and acquired the domain name at a premium. Several rounds of discussions later, we agreed to that IndiaSocial will:
...aim to bring together stakeholders in the Indian social media eco-system for engagement, sharing, learning and collaboration in a vibrant space - physical and virtual.
There were elaborate discussions on concepts like 'bringing together under an umbrella' versus 'open-ness' and we agreed that the promise of IndiaSocial was going to be 'Social Media Open' with open embodying openness - embracing all stakeholders; open discussions; akin to a sport field 'open' showcases team spirit and a level play field.
To begin with there are 3-4 initiatives that are planned:
- Case-study Series: Will share, on an ongoing basis, the best Indian case-studies of social media usage and impact across sectors - government and policy, not-for-profits, media, enterprise, human resource and marketing.
We are keen to put together a panel of credible leaders from the space, with a reputation for transparency, to help us structure guidelines for what should make it on the IndiaSocial Case-study series. I have spoken with a few friends and will be speaking with more...If you have a case with real impact, please share it here
- IndiaSocial Wiki : Will aim to dynamically capture the social media journey and resources from an India perspective. We're hoping to tie-up with institutions and individuals to ensure that accurate content and learnings are shared. If you are interested in contributing, write to us at open@indiasocial.in
- IndiaSocial-2010: We are planning a large format social media event, in 2010, to showcase the social media landscape and opportunities in India. In the interim, we expect to bring some other events in collaboration - will keep you informed about that soon.
We have also been speaking with a few others to come on board as 'Friends and Supporters' and will be adding a few shortly.
Our approach to building IndiaSocial is clear. We want to adopt what I like to call the 'Restaurant approach' - soft launch, work on issues, take feedback into account, better-better- better, word-of-mouth to build the brand - against a 'Pub Night Club approach' - goes up quickly, comes down soon enough.
If you'd like to collaborate, do reach with your thoughts.
- Follow IndiaSocial on Twitter: http://twitter.com/indiasocial or add @indiasocial
- Follow IndiaSocial on Facebook :http://facebook.com/indiasocial
