Barcamp Mumbai was hastily arranged event for me. I had wanted to attend an event like this since long time and then from a ex-twitter follower came to know of the barcamp in Mumbai on 17th Jan 09. Instantly registered for same. I had a bit of my apprehensions on the same as last event I attended in June 2007 in Pune was flooded by sponsors and it lost the purpose what it was meant to be. Never mind those were sunny days for economy, not so sunny for me though, the sponsors lined in for sponsorship and it was evident in the superb lunch we had.
After the round of introductions, the next 20 minutes were for deciding the sessions. It was unconfrence. Meaning everything decided on the fly or say on runtime (IT slang). So quite a few sessions were lined up. To start with there was a blogger named H. Iyer or Ahem (his blogger name) who had a session on “Blogging in crisis”. He sounded compassionate and narrated the harrowing experience of 11/26. He had started a helpline for helping out people in need and then he said he received lot of calls owing to the help. He has a blog on the same. I don’t know how much difference it made or makes. But what feeling I got was, that helpline was specific to Taj and Trident victims. Of course they were victims as well, but they were elitists. First time the folks from upper society were hit by terror, so a lot of noise was being made by the so called celebrities. I asked him the question “why didn’t you mention that CST victims called you up”? He gave a straight bat answer “he didn’t expect CST victims’ relatives to go watch the TV and call him”. Social differences ? Just cos CST victims were normal common man – the most common Indian citizen who grinds in the daily life ? And then I asked him “why didn’t he target cities like Delhi or Ahmadabad or Bangalore or Jaipur or for that matter 7/11?” Very unfortunate thing to happen in India. We don’t see anybody as human – be it a victim or a normal human being. We have lot of spectacles to see him – caste , religion, sub caste, region, language, town, city, village, uffff…..
And for the rest of the day HI was pretty much active. He didn’t have any qualms in accepting that he was a gay and the experience that led him to be gay. Alright GAY rights. Everybody has his own life, his own way to live. Anyways that doesn’t mean I am anti gay or whatever. I m neutral to this. His life, his way of living, more so his choice. I am a big believer in letting a person to be him untill he doesnt encroach anybody else. Unfortunately not many believe that. And I dont have any grudges against Harish. if anybody propogates that, may be he / she does it on her own for his / her crooked interests, I m not privy to that...
The next session was the best of the lot. A guy called Thakkar, Abhishek Thakkar just rocked with his witty and super humorous narration of his blogging journey starting from a normal blog to a podcast to gupshup to owning his own domain. He spoke of how he started blogging to woo a girl only to end up seeing her being married off to someone else, how he was busted by his parents over his blogs and then he shared dos and don’ts for avoiding getting caught by your friends and parents whom you don’t want to read ur blog J. He was just amazing and he got max applause from everybody. He lightened the tense and a bit serious mood set in by Iyer ’s session…
There were a few sessions on blog security by Skyn3t and why Pappu cant blog by a blogger named Dinesh Soni….. Blog security was a technical session and concentrated on bypassing the blocked urls and surf through PROXIES. Useful for people in countries like UAE or middle east where lot of internet censorship is in place. The blue ribbon you see on my blog is a result of this session. The non techie bloggers found this session too techie for them and they just passed on. Soni ’s session was a bit before lunch, so pizzas were smelling in and everybody wanted to go n grab them. Session was alright where he listed some reasons why few bloggers vanish and can’t put forth the interest in the blogs for longer time. Some of them being the “following the fad”, “blog wars”, “no comments” etc.
Another session was on “traditional media vs. blogs” by DNA journalist “Arcopol” who kept referring me as “Mr. Infosys”. It was a good session with people chipping in against the Hindi news channels like “Aaj tak “ and “India TV” (need I say more?). People concluded finally that even if blogs gained prominence, the news papers and traditional news on serious news channels would always be primary importance. A blog at best in current shape is a reactionary view. You won’t switch onto a blog to find the “Breaking news”, although a Twitter could be a source for Breaking news stuff. More on twitter later J
Lunch was a longer one and I wasn’t in a groove to socialize with many people. The bloggers there were not suited to my genre. I was really expecting to meet up Ria in the session, but she wasn’t well and so she cudnt attend it. Rest of them, I didn’t feel any connect and I was happy to be back to my laptop once the pizzas and coffee was done with.
Post lunch, the first session was by Rohan on “truth through blogs” something similar to that. Was good session with topic being discussed not my genre. I didn’t participate and rather kept updating the twitter. Twitter was a huge hit in the camp and people had as many as 100-300 followers. I stand very low at 9-12 which keeps alternating in this range. I am not much into twitting. But then it’s another form of “social media” . What this term means, I don’t know.
Ideasmithy aka Ramya took the next session on “Blogging identity”. Well she was a fashion journo, so had lot of style and mannerisms. Cannot put it in words, but then how do few celebrities react or talk, this was evident here. Very touchy and on smallest of thing would go all out in expressing her gratitude to even a slightest of feel good remark. She was a “self proclaimed urban feminist and a male basher”. A mention of it and I stopped connecting to her. Wow, what do you get on bashing the opposite species ? Hits on the blog ? Not really!! She hardly gets 3-4 comments on her so called “bashing male” posts. She narrated a story when she was proclaimed to be a married women in a story ran on DNA by some journalist and she was quick to brand the print journalists as “spoiled brat”. She also said how a colleague of hers was on a mission to find her real identity. I guess she would sue me on typing in her real name. But then who bothers. I detest this kind of bloggers. They actually kill the spirits of blogging. They use blogging as tool of social networking and promoting their brand of thoughts. Rotten thoughts I must say. Now when she was giving her session, another Page 3 kinda blogger was chipping in with her comments on SRK – Salman Khan feud. Now who the heck in the world bothers about what Salman Khan said or why on earth the 2 fought ? They would be present in every blogger meet and just would hog the limelight. All you find on their blogs is the stories of “page 3 stuff“, “bitching” and stuff like that.
Priyanka took the next session on “monetizing the blog”. Was strictly an ok session, in the end she was promoting her own company “inkfruit.com”. Nobody I know of my readers blogs for money or I m not aware of. Seriously for me blogging for money is no-no. I detest this kinda sessions too.
In the end I was exhausted and bored to core. I wanted to run away. In the meantime between sessions, I kept talking to Nidhi and few others. Wrote a few posts on “Arm Ball”, my cricket blog. And installed “Live writer” from Microsoft. It’s a good tool and Hardik explained it in a better way. Irony was, he is a MS employee and was sessionizing on a “MS product” so lot of hits were on him. But then I m a Microsoft fan and I find products from MS good. Be it Vista or Word or even XP. I liked Live Writer and would soon use it to post my blogs on.
By 445 I was done in and slipped out to catch a bus back to Pune. The idea was good and the times showed up a reflection. Just one sponsor in this tough times. Just that the content was bit more serious and had more participation from “normal kinda” bloggers like me and my readers rather than those “wannabe celebrities” of the blog world. There would always be a question mark on the who is the real blogger? People like you and me who blog for a cause or the breed who crops up in this kinda blogger meets and try to hog the centre stage with their idea of blogging. In my opinion they just kill the blogging spirits. I didn’t feel a connect to what Ideasmithy blogged.
Concluding word : Twitter is a huge thing. Like Orkut was in 2007, Facebook in 2008, its twitter in 2009. People are on a mission to coax others to be their followers, even if they know them or not. Just be a follower and show up the fame by the number of followers you get J. For that matter, I am on twitter too by the name of sam_2.
19 comments:
nicely summed up your meet...made for a very interesting read.
i used windows live writer for a while...it consumes a lot of ram...have switched over to zoudry raven...comparatively much easier to use.
it was an interesting read Sam...!!!
worthful too..!!!
hmm interesting narration of the turn of events. I felt like i was attending it in real. So sorry for not being there. :( I wud hav loved to meet u too!but god had other things in store for me.
aww.. poor u !!! such an uninspiring , uninteresting meet...i have to get my act together on twitter ..just never bothered to update it .. maybe its fun.. i discovered fb and orkut late as well ..
Awww, pore thang, did I scare you too much for you to speak up and tell me to shut up when I was talking? Or did you fall asleep from boredom? Surprisingly it didn't stop you from following me on Twitter and commenting on each of my tweets. You even took the effort to check out my blog. Now if only you'd paid a little more attention (or do you need to learn how to read as well?).
And errr, 'fashion journo'? Where'd you get that from, dude? No one's ever paid me to write. And *sigh* since no one has to pay to read my stuff, I apparently can't keep the riff-raff out. Figure that out if you will.
hey thanks for peeing here u sicko twang bang smithy whoever!!
actually bloggers like u suck and u folks feel that u can get away with ne shit u write on a blog worth 0 cents....
and basically i didnt want to spoil my taste buds by speaking to u and trust me u looked horrible in that sick attire u got in the blog camp!!
u shud better have been turned away from the meet itself for being a Male basher and a feminist b***
Now just get the heck out of here to your gay or lesbo friends and do blog out on this topic if u wish to...
its such a poor thing tht u tweet on something u hv least idea of and ur narrow fickled mind wud never have an idea of what u were ranting of on ur do paise ka tweeter profile....
and e1 if somebody wud pay me or any sane person a 100 trillion dollars, i bet they would drop bi to read ur shit on ur even shittier blog.....
now go figure wot hit u to be here to get urself humiliated!!
i know u d be shocked and u d fake up a good story abt it and speak abt this incident in upcoming blogger meets and get some cheap applauses!!
ah man!! go get a life ideasmithy beyond ur fickled ego and fizzed out feminism worth 0 cents!!
Hey Sam i didnt like the language you are using. Quite tasteless. And there was no need to abuse anyone. If u dont like a person dont interact with the person, thts it. No need for foul language
Sam, are you serious about the nasty comments you have made? Or you are just doing this deliberately to create controversy and garner comments on your blog? There is already too much hatred and negativity in the world, dont add to it. If you do want to, sign in for the Taliban, dont blog. This was a learning session, not a review session of individual bloggers, neither are you a "critic". Respect the speakers for their thoughts and comments. If you had done even a percent of what Harish / Aham did for the victims' relatives with your blogging skills,you would have been blessed. Instead you sat on your typing board and typed ****. That's a lot of bad karma you have created for yourself. You have the power of speech becasue you are a human. So dont behave like an animal. Respect people, so they can respect you back. You have lost a lot of honour for yourself as an individual. If you have any feedback, say it, but in the right way. Blogging gives you the power to spread information, learning, education - dont use it to spread blog-violence. remember, any dirty comment u make to degrade anyone is going to come back to you. you have the right to call me names and say stuff about me, but it wont affect me. its your bad thought which will come around and harm you sometime. And thank your stars that none of your relatives were trapped in the taj or the trident or CST or the Cama hospital that night. Thank God you are still alive still. And make teh best of it.
Not that I owe anyone an explanation Sam, but guess, I didn’t communicate myself completely at the blog camp.
Thanks for bringing up this issue, so that I could tell you what actually happened.
I appreciate the fact that your views are heartfelt. You have all the right to express yourself. I had set up MumbaiTerrorHelpline with a motive of collating all information in one space. The major source for collating information were the local TV channels.
Why would anyone in Mumbai/India call me when they can switch on the TV and get information? And I didn’t ask the
Yes, you are right. I got calls MOSTLY only from the families of the elitist. Though I put up information about everybody on my blog. I just got MOST calls from the elitist. Their relatives were trapped inside, and the “actual” picture was quite Hazy.
When it came to victims in CST, the terrorists created mayhem and fled the place. People were taken to the hospital promptly. And their relatives were informed. The whole devastation happened quite quickly as compared to the 3 day fight at Taj, Oberoi and Trident.
I took every call with the same empathy. You are correct once again; I couldn’t make a great difference. But I did whatever little I could. In the end I am sanguine about the fact that I wasn’t a mere witness.
After the 3 day siege, I made it a point to visit JJ hospital everyday and blog about what help was needed in the hospital. (The hospital didn’t house the elite) I started a face book group called GAP (Group Altruism Proactive) and we conducted a workshop on emergency first aid and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation. We plan to have a pool of volunteers trained to tackle emergency situation by being equipped to heal.
Now when the dust has settled and people have decided to get to business as usual, we have decided to kickstart, random acts of kindness, where we thank the Police, The railway etc for all their help in keeping us safe, and we urge them to be equipped to tackle with terror, for it could revisit us anytime.
Regarding starting help lines in other cities, I have my hands full with Bombay alone. I have a job, I work full time. I would be there to do all that I can for people from any city. But I’d rather do something completely than starting something compassionately and then leaving it halfway because of lack of time. What’s important is that we are all doing our bit in the space that we are in. And assist NGOs and social workers in other states whenever they need any help. I am sure you also would have your way to deal with and help survivors and victims’ on 26/11. This was my way. I don’t know whom I helped and how much I could help. But I am content that I did something more than being a mere witness.
I just have to ask you something, why are everyone around bad, why is Ideasmith a bitch, why am I someone who favors an elitist, why is the monetization session a personal propaganda of her organization, and windows live writer… why is there an issue because the guy is a MS employee?
Why are we being judgmental about everything? Arent there good people around. Why do we feel that the world is filled with opportunists and publicity crazy people? May be we are looking at things from a different angle. May be we have seen the dark side of life that we dread everything that makes us see light, because this could be natures ploy and the darkness might soon come when the source goes away.
I have nothing against you and I am not making an attempt to understand you. But I want you to know, that the world is not all that dark.
Should you still feel that I was wrong and wish to vent out your anger. +919833100340 is my number. If you would comment back on your blog, you might receive a lot of flak. You might have people telling you that you are wrong even if you have a point. Feel free to call me and scream at me if you think I have tried to say anything that I shouldn’t have or if you feel that I am expressing piety by giving you my number.
I feel every person I meet is a friend. And so are you mine. You wouldn’t have said all that you have if your heart didn’t beat for those who died in the 26/11 attacks. Our ways of expression are different. But our concern is similar.
God Bless!
Smiles
Harish Iyer
I am sorry, I am gay and I am on your blog despite the fact that you have mentioned to Idea Smith to get off this space with her gay and lesbian friends.
I liked the fact that you ended your piece about me saying " His life, his way of living, more so his choice. "
but you wrote that after making judgmental observations about me... and my sexuality. Yes. I am sexually attracted to men. I love the color pink, have a pink mobile (you got the colour of my shirt wrong though, it was red :-) ) but you know there are many of my straight friends who love pink too... So we cant really typecast. And though I don't make a conscious attempt to act Gay or Act Straight. I am happy that i look the way I am actually, with no mask. :) that's a good feeling.
I do speak about my sexuality whereever I can, so that people understand that homosexuals are a part of the normal society. I can very well, do a woman and bear kids. But I am myself. Happy and Gay. It might though come across as being loud about my sexuality. But yes, that was the intention. To be loud.
Btw Harish you had clarified everything at the Blog Meet itself on being asked why you helped only the people trapped in Taj and Trident only and why didnt you help people from other cities. So i guess Sam is repeting these points here for no reason. He should have paid more attention at the Blog Camp.
Here is part from the post
"I detest this. They aint doing any good to the blogging world. All you find on their blogs is the stories of “page 3 stuff“, “bitching” and stuff like that. "
Let me tell u Sam there isnt any rule saying tht you cant blog about Page 3 stuff or bitching. And yes there are blogs who do that and are very famous.
Do check http://perezhilton.com
The guy is gay and blogs about Hollywood and does lots of bitiching. Yet everyone loves him and the blog is immensely popular. Its a Page Rank 7 blog and has Alexa rank 518(Twitter has Alexa rank 599). So you should stop saying that "They aint doing any good to the blogging world". You seem to be a narrow minded person. Respect people as they are and also their work.
Harish, thanks for coming by here. i didnt mean to create any controversy out here...my views on space being totally mine.
and i dont know if u r friends with ideasmithy or not. and when i said her to buzz off to her lesbo n gay friends i didnt mean 2 say u...
and for other part i have already said everyone has got his own choice of /for his own sexuality...
i didnt like the way ideasmithy potrayed men or the fact she wrote a comment on my blog...
i was courteous enuf on her blog to accept that she had a blog abt feminisms or whatever isms, but that comment never got published...and may be now with she propogating the word around, i m getting the hit as a bad guy (i remember ur superb comment "being a guy too u get hits") and she being again potraying herself as victim whereas she is not!!
i might hv been aggressive in the post, but then 11/26 was similar for everybody, be it from taj or trident or parle or CST....the terrorists didnt see anybody as social distinction but as bloody Indians and they did their job!!
and then we as usual divided the victims in social classes like we always do!!
why cant we get over this ? why ? any good reason ?
we have been programmed to be so rt from our day 1 and to be so till last day!!
word jockey,
i dont got to write anything for controversy or getting more comments on my blog...i get whatever i have got to do!!
and my ire was directed to a special set of people who potray themselves to be blogger celebrities whereas they are none, those people would know nothing about say US or Obama, but wud have opinion on everything...
yes i refer to taht somebody who began this by dropping here on her own, i dint go and spread over the word that guys come in and read my post....
and thanks for ur kind advice free of cost, u shud thank ur starss too tht u werent at any of the sites the unfortunate events happened at or for that matter ur relatives...
bad karma and me ? ah thats a news to me..may be some people couldnt garner criticism out here, so they are shouting on the roof top that they are victims and i m the hunter...
get real, this is a world of free speech, u forgot that being in media ?
thanks for ur pragmatic views, they enlighten me!!
hey Rahul, point me an abusive language in the post ? somebody out of nowhere pops up calls me a thwang and i m not expected to react ?
ah man, this is a blog which is pretty much active and this is not once in ages updating blog....
there has been no wrong intention in here...yeah a specific blogger sucked and i have written that...if u dont like then fine dont read!!
i am not writing this for fame or comments....
i get enuf of them may be this ugly war wud hv scared my regular readers!!!
thanks for ur views!!
We Divide them basis class? Na mate, you thought 'harish' divided people basis class. I feel, he did hs bit. Dude,If you feel that there is still a gap. Please get up and fill it.
nah anonymous mate, no where i say harish did it....we have been programmed to see people in classes...
and i dont mean it for harish, but for all those so called elitists who have been vocal now and quie
t back!!
Harish,
may be ur comment puts my perspective in correct order, may be i got u wrong in writing this, but thanks for saying the words. i was touched on them...
for sure i wud give u a call but wont scream on u or put out my angst on u...
my only point here was why do we have to diferentiate between class of victims, not tht u did but in general thats been potrayed in the media and news papers!!
i have no grudges against you..it takes courage and guts 2 do what u did, yes i cudnt hv dome that...
thanks again for ur sincere effort to put ur point to me, i get that...
i have nothing against you but this comment of urs is really bad and abusive too
"hey thanks for peeing here u sicko twang bang smithy whoever!!
actually bloggers like u suck and u folks feel that u can get away with ne shit u write on a blog worth 0 cents....
and basically i didnt want to spoil my taste buds by speaking to u and trust me u looked horrible in that sick attire u got in the blog camp!!
u shud better have been turned away from the meet itself for being a Male basher and a feminist b***
Now just get the heck out of here to your gay or lesbo friends and do blog out on this topic if u wish to...
its such a poor thing tht u tweet on something u hv least idea of and ur narrow fickled mind wud never have an idea of what u were ranting of on ur do paise ka tweeter profile....
and e1 if somebody wud pay me or any sane person a 100 trillion dollars, i bet they would drop bi to read ur shit on ur even shittier blog.....
now go figure wot hit u to be here to get urself humiliated!!
i know u d be shocked and u d fake up a good story abt it and speak abt this incident in upcoming blogger meets and get some cheap applauses!!
ah man!! go get a life ideasmithy beyond ur fickled ego and fizzed out feminism worth 0 cents!!"
hey rahul, this is not a comment i wrote first n then war began, i wrote it in response to Ideasmithy's abusive comment to this post...she s got no business to come here and abuse me, if she does then i am no saint to take her comments in a quiet way!!
and she is too clever to potray herself as a victim...my first comment post blogcamp was on her blog wishing her and acknowledging her blog, that didnt see the daylight, but then when she had a dumb thing to say on Prez Obama swearing on her tweet thing, i wrote something and in response to that she began this game....
so mate, i m no abusive and i m no saint either....if somebody comes in here and begins a war for no good reason, he/she os gonna get something in return!!
may be to me she seems on who has descended from middle east or afghanistan who wants to issue a "fatwa" against me for writing against her.....
i lay my case!! and with this an end to this ugly row began by her and her fans :)
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