Comments on I think ... (Tarun Chandel's thoughts): The Power of Blogging

Hi, it was good to learn about Mumbai Barcamp 3 fr...

2008-04-09T23:42:00.000+05:30

Hi, it was good to learn about Mumbai Barcamp 3 from your blog. I was wondering if there are any audio recordings of sessions---could help geographically challenged people like myself listen in.

Ah so this is what it was all about :)You can give...

2008-04-02T15:17:00.000+05:30

Ah so this is what it was all about :)

You can give yourself a pat Tarun.. yours was the most involving discussion among the ones that I sat at the blogcamp.. and coming at the fag end of the day it was in its own way refreshing..

and about the topic itself .. there can never be an answer set in stone for it.. blogs in its essence are becoming publishing tools geared to make content rich websites rather than good'ol journals.. at the camp you were caught between various sections of people who were using blogs for altogether different purposes..and hence the hijack..the goal of the blog defined the perception of blogs for each and everyone who spoke their mind... which like I said before could never find a common territory and frankly it need not..

I agree with your thoughts and I think you conveye...

2008-04-01T14:47:00.000+05:30

I agree with your thoughts and I think you conveyed it pretty well at the camp but may be because of the money making sessions before it people just did not want "blogging for passion". Blogging as you only said is something that we are trying to make sense out of, so each one has its own way of interpreting it. Going by your blog I know it is not for making money or any domain expertise, it looks more like a platform where you express your thoughts and that's what I guess it is for a lot of people. What you are saying will strike a chord with them (the right ten) but rest may not understand.

I don't believe you have just 10 readers though ;)

Hi Tarun,Thanks for your presentation and the foll...

2008-03-31T15:02:00.000+05:30

Hi Tarun,

Thanks for your presentation and the follow up post that clarifies on your thought.

I was one of the people who may have hijacked your presentation at the camp... apologies for that. It was the heat of the moment. If I were smarter, I would have made my comments after you were done speaking. Maybe even privately to you if no time was left.

To re-iterate what I said during your presentation, forget expressing yourself. Think persuasion instead.

Only by having a persuasive mindset can you distinguish yourself from amongst the 35 million+ blogs popping up every year.

If you have something worthy to say, why be satisfied with just 10 pairs of ears? Why not aim for a million pairs of ears? And try to help everyone that you can?

50 years back, people who wanted to express themselves wrote letters to others. People who wanted to change the world started newspapers.

So my summary is: if you just want to express yourself, use BCC emailing. Or maybe Yahoo Groups. But if you want to change the world with your thoughts and words, start a blog.

And never be satisfied by the number of people your blog reaches and touches. Always aim for the stars.

Thank You.

You thoughts seem more clear on the post than what...

2008-03-31T12:52:00.000+05:30

You thoughts seem more clear on the post than what you were at the Bar Camp. Probably Because u are not interrupted ... or may be I am hearing it all again....

however, you lack the passion with which u spoke at the bar camp.... Eg: The statement abt 10 people was communicated effectively among the audience at the bar camp.. however It could have been presented in a much better way in the post...

To be fair, u were making a valid point. But the w...

2008-03-31T12:04:00.000+05:30

To be fair, u were making a valid point. But the whole discussion was hijacked to as different level!!

Another learning point could be how to bring the hijackers back to the fold!! :)

Your talk also helped me in defining my own "promise statement" for my blog. Blog is different things to different people and it's important to understand what it is to U.

Your post makes much more sense of what you were t...

2008-03-30T22:13:00.000+05:30

Your post makes much more sense of what you were trying to say at the barcamp. I guess your last line is a lesson to all of us! :-)

On a more personal note, I was a little intimidated by the flood of thoughts on ways to make money and optimize searches. Personally, I fell in love with the power of expression blogging gave me, years back and I'm still coming to grips with that. I've a feeling this is far bigger than most of us can envision.

The comments seems to be longer than the original ...

2008-03-30T20:49:00.000+05:30

The comments seems to be longer than the original post.. lol

Nice way of expressing your thoughts. In simple and clear words.. :-)

Nothing to do on a lousy weekend, so blogs make go...

2008-03-30T19:16:00.000+05:30

Nothing to do on a lousy weekend, so blogs make good read and write. So here is my opinion or ranting as well...

It is said that "Word is God". It is through words that a man lends comprehension to world around him,both physical and meta-physical. Minus the words and there is no knowledge.

Bible says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This is obviously has theological interpretations but it goes to emphasise the importance of words from time im-memorial. It is in man's nature to propagate the words, either through oral or written traditions. It is through conversations (collection of words) that a meaning is arrived at. So this part has not changed. What has changed and will keep changing is the medium or "technology" to record and spread these words. The power of word is so big (it was with God!!), that "authorities" have always tried to control it. And authorities have varied from tribal leaders to kings to Governments.

The first ever recording
(written media) of words was using tree leaves and then stone tablets. Their exclusive nature meant that they were not to be mass medium. Words were in realm of few men who used and appropriated them. The world remained pretty much the same for many many millinea untill Printing press was invented. That perhaps was biggest technology invention for recording and distributing words cheaply and on larger scale. Similarily oral tradition of knowledge evolved from folk singers,story tellers to radio and finally TV.

Last century has seen unparallel technological growth in form of Internet, mobile phones and digital media. After Printing press and wired phones, Internet and moible telephony have had the biggest impact on how words were recorded and disseminated. In my opinion it is not web1.0, web2.0, blogging which have revolutionised anything but it is the Internet, the technology of interconnected devices which was major shift after printing press. Blogging, prodacsting and futurecasting etc etc were/are merely waiting to happen and will keep happening for sometime. If you lay human civilisation like a roadmap, Blogging is not an innovation, Internet was, Blogging is merely a milestone.Blogging is result of evolution in internet tools. The democratisation of words and infrormation happended when somebody put up first web site.

Next things in Blogging : Just like internet has social, political, legal and cultural implications which are not fully understood, so does blogging, prodcasting, videos or any other content riding on internet. Most of blogging (dare I say 90%) is harmless noise made by individuals keeping online diaries for friends and family. Narrowcasting has always existed (Mast Ram porn magzines, college mags, professional mags).Blogs, casts and many such tools will create a long tail of content, most of which will be din of words and opinions over opinions over opinions. Traditional media would start using new tools and boundaries between traditional media and emerging media would blur. Bloggers who are journalists would be bought by media houses through online market place. Some blog networks would become popular and start acting like so called "traditional media house". It is said that new always emerge to challenge the old and in process end up becoming the old once it has vanquished the old. Tools like technorati and other search engines would become more powerful and better. Rating systems would also evolve to rate better content. Afterall, when the whole society suddenly starts talking in a massive set of online conersations, the word which was with God would be finally and truly be appropriated by men . The situation would be like tower of babble and tools which could look into mess and noise to extract the useful knowledge would be needed. There would be online groups (e-greenpeace) educating people about danger to internet caused by e-pollution from dead blogs,orphaned sites, nonsense and heavily recycled opinions. The huge data centres where these conersations would be recorded, would cost huge money in power and space bills. Blog burrial sites might be a good business idea ;) But eventually Blogosphere would lead humanity into Omega point of conversations.

By the time Tarun, you are like 90 years old walking to yet another barcamp (possibly done somewhere on Moon), you would balk at idea of your grand kids using newly launched "telepathic messengers" to send messages to their friends and you would be agonised about them using implanted bionic google search chips to write exams instead of learning it "the hard way" by reading their cariculum blogs err..e-books in old good e-library!!