No. 31

Its been a fun week.  Ever since i put up the blog mela notice at my blog, i've been getting a lot of feedback - both positive and negative - on the issue of pre-selecting a topic.  I'd like to spend a little time discussing some of the neat issues raised, in the first section of this post.  The drum rolls follow !

There has also been much debate about this at various blogs.  This interest, debate and conversation is really super and interesting - it indicates many things :

• indian bloggers love the idea of a weekly blog mela - kudos to Shanti and Ashwini not only for setting up this system, but also nurturing its growth in a democratic manner
• there is tremendous pride in being selected on the mela - as it should be - and this can only encourage better quality of posts
• there is concern too and a certain sense of ownership on how the Mela should evolve - and such debate can only take it higher

Some of the issues that have been raised on the format/content of the Mela, and some more i wish to raise here are :

1. Should there be rules : the two rules Shanti made to me seem to make perfect sense :

• posts must either be made by Indians or focus on India or Indians
• every post that is nominated gets included   

Am quoting here from an email exchange with Shanti i had, where she said to me - "Except for this, there really are no other rules - there is no fixed format - you can always put things together the way it suits your interest. The idea is to introduce ourselves to each other and get to know other bloggers and build our own little community while having fun on the way :)"

Should there be more rules - what do you think ?

2.  Should there be special focus topics allowed or should it just contain 'best of week' posts - many feel that special-focus topics should not be recommended for reasons such as making the mela 'exclusive' and 'elitist' .  My personal view here is why not leave this to the discretion of the host - otherwise we might just be seeing the same list of Indian bloggers (the A-list as some call it) being nominated mela upon mela. 

More importantly, i think this would encourage bloggers who write on special topics by recognising their contribution.  I selected technological developments in India this week - and i've explained my reasons for this.  Can't resist adding a little point here - the Bharatheeya Blog Mela would not exist without technology, nor would this discussion surrounding it - after all blogs too are tools and enablers of conversation :):):).  Still, iI might just as easily have selected humour as a topic, or Indian films, or marketing and advertising, or export, or tourism.

3.  There seems to be an underlying need for a clearer understanding of how a post is nominated and selected for the mela - some call for transparency where all nominations should be publicly made only.  Two issues i want to raise here on the process of nominating posts - do we select posts that are popular or those that we find interesting.  Posts that are popular could possibly be measured by number of comments, trackback links etc.  Posts that are interesting - would always be subjective - what interests you may not interest me - and would then be based on a more qualitative feel.  These variables come into play, both while nominating a post or when hosting a mela.    

I feel that if we were to go with the 'posts that are popular' route, we'd perhaps be seeing only more of the same.  I'd recommend looking at 'stretch' - Mahesh did a super job by playing around with the format (and a neat collection of posts there too), so has Vinod by introducing us to a whole new set of bloggers through his topic of NRI culture.  Where the shared feeling is lets make the Bharatheeya Blog Mela more meaningful in each of its iterations, with the clear objective of  introducing ourselves to more and new bloggers each time, and getting to know them through the mela.  Ultimately, as Shanti says - building our own community of blogggers. And allowing this community to self-organise ! 

"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star"  Nietzche

Would love your views.

Now onto the mela : i was quite pleasantly surprised at the number of nominations sent in - unfortuntely, not many nominations for blog posts from bloggers we have not seen on the mela so far !

Here's the rolllllllllllllll ..... i've tried to introduce a few names that are new to the blog mela.

Interesting posts nominated for the week :

• Maish Nichani, who's blog by the way is a tremendous resource for really interesting posts in the area of KM, design, innovation and creativity, points (no permalink - look for the September 29th archives) to this article from HBS Working Knowledge - Why Managing Innovation is Like Theater. 

• A well crafted piece on Gandhiji's 134th birthday by Dheeraj Singh, where he talks about Satyagraha as a novel approach to the Prisoner's Dilemma, when compared to Intifada.  

• Sameer Gharat and Jivha are appalled at this interview in the Times of India with Venugopal Dhoot, Managing Director for the trying-to-diversify consumer electonics group Videocon. 

• Madhu Dahiya, in a thought-provoking piece of prose tells us how images haunt us. 

• And a neat little piece by Om Malik - Hindi-Hop with Rajé Shwari - on how hip-hop producers are experimenting with Hindi-Hop

Posts on technology making a difference :

• Rajesh Jain, has two neat posts that have been nominated.  One (of a series) where he shares his "growing up years" as a highly successful entrepreneur in the IT industry.  Thought-provoking and many lessons for an entrepreneur in any industry.   The other, where he talks about how the South Korean government is adopting open-source operating systems where he quotes a spokesperson :

"If the change is successful, we will be able to save about US$300m a year. Also, we may ensure security and inter-connectivity of national information system," 

and leaves us with the thought -

"And India continues to sleep. India has the opportunity to take leadership on the open-source front, and we do nothing. "

• To round off this mela - a very interesting analysis of how blogging and blogs have made a difference in his life - on the first anniversary of his blog.  Congrats Vinod !

The most difficult part of putting this mela together - my dsl server in Bandra was struck by freak lightning last night - and i've had to use a slow dial-up connection. 

Nature has its own ways and can teach us a thing or two about technology !!!

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