Last night at dinner, Hope made an observation.  She wondered aloud why she saw so many people in Asia carrying 2 mobile phones with them at one point in time.  This reminded us about an organisation  in India where they are thinking of setting a system (not in place yet as the employees are resisting it) by which different SIM cards must be used for official and personal use - the office obviously pays for official calls only.  So each person would have to carry two SIM cards - and replace them as appropriate depending on whether they are making a personal call or an official call.  Or carry two phones. And each person would have separate mobile phone numbers for personal and official calls. 

Makes no sense to me !

Makes me wonder whether there are any cell phones with two SIM card slots, without the phone having to be turned off each time you want to swap. Any thoughts on this ?

10:36:10 PM    comment []  trackback []

Hope is here.  She's the first visitor i have had from the blog world - Rob Paterson's daughter. Follow her tales of her travels to Asia at her blog - ourgeneralstore - insightful and terribly amusing :)

I am so enjoying having her with me - she's young, fresh, vibrant, intelligent, very warm - with her feet on the ground and a heart of gold.  And best of all, a complete foodie like me. She is like an Indian in so many ways .  She loves spices - she's been attacking all my pickle jars and eats raw green chillies (the really hot ones) with her daal-chawal !  Last night we took her to our favourite seafood restaurant, Mahesh, and i saw her enjoying licking the last dregs of masala from the crab, off her fingers, like a true Indian.

And here she is getting cooking lessons from the lady who cooks for us ...... they needed no language to communicate and connect - my maid speaks no english and Hope no Gujarati - but communicate they did - and she might just teach me a few things about Gujarati cuisine now.

Yesterday she set loose on Mumbai - here's her account of her day- brought a smile to my face - the city can be overwhelming.

Tomorrow we go off to Khandala for Diwali - its a 5 day weekend here and we're just going to cook and eat and sleep and read and watch movies and plant and listen to the birds .......

8:26:09 PM    comment []  trackback []

How do « ordinary bloggers » blog ? And Why ? A slightly dated study in California and New York, one that i missed.  Saw it at Spiral Bound, Stuart's linklog. 

Some useful stuff around usage  :

"In the 9 days, was published an average of 80 posts. Some bloggers published several times per day - in one case about 27 posts per day ñ others published every few days. The publishing process is a source of pressure: both creative pressure: bloggers feel that at times they have plenty of things to say, at times nothing much; and audience pressure: bloggers feel they have an audience expecting regular, good postings, and an obligation towards them. Participants speak about feeling burnout, and having stopped blogging for a while.

Posts had an average length of about 10 lines of text (209 words), with some posts comprising 494 words and others 80. There is real work around language to find the right ìtactfulî tone for direct and rich communication within a format that is quite limited. Compared to other digital communication formats, such as discussion lists, some participants appreciate the particular form that interaction takes with blogs. It is described as ìinteraction-at-one removedî; as ìgentler, more reflectiveî and ìconstructiveî: bloggers encourage comments on their posts and reciprocate by commenting othersí posts.

On the main page, blogs linked to surprisingly few blogs. The mean was 1, and range between 0 and 6 links. Individual posts instead on average included a link, with a range between 0 and 5 links. Links seem to be a differentiator between ìordinary blogsî and ìtopic-orientedî blogs as analysed by J. Bar-Ilan, who found that these blogs have many links both on the main page and within each post.

The bloggers interviewed say their preference for blogging over a web page because it is more dynamic ìthe rhythm of frequent, usually brief posts, the immediacy of reverse chronological orderî, more focused ì the little distraction it providesî. As one of the participants put it: "You don't hear their voice in the same way".

And on motivations to blog (bold is mine) :

"For some participants, their blogs are personal diaries that describe to their family and friends the events, the projects and the experiences that happen in their life. Almost ìreal-timeî, archiving and access from any web point are mentioned as very important features. A blog is perceived as a ìsuperior alternative to sending mass emailsî because it is freer and less intrusive: bloggers can publish when they feel it, readers can read when they feel like it, with no obligation to respond.

Other participants publish their blogs to raise and take position with respect to what they consider important public issues. They analyse and argue on issues that they feel "obsessive" or "passionate" and offer "a point of view, not just chatter". Politics, ethics and medical research are among the topics discussed. The blog works as an "outlet" for thoughts and feelings, and provides a framework for ìworking through issues, to let off steamî.

The act of writing, as art and craft or as a support for thinking, is also one of the motors of blogging. Blogging is a means for exploring and developing writing skills. As one participant says the discipline of blogging "forced him to keep writingî. Blogging is also a means to probe, articulate and convey oneís thinking on the public arena. It is partly a reality check, partly an interaction with the audience. And some participants describe the relationship they have with their "regulars" readers. Archiving of posts is again a central feature as some of the posts may be part of larger publishing endeavours.

A last reason for blogging is being part of a community. The publishing process becomes intrinsically collective, as people interact through blogs. "Blogs are natural community tools for people whose practice is to write and comment on the writing of others: researchers, poets, journalists, and to a lesser extent software programmers...and who typically obtain recognition from their written words".

The full report is here (pdf file).

6:57:08 PM    comment []  trackback []

This is staggering yet not surprising - India's mobile phone users surpass land line base.

"The number of mobile phone subscribers in India last month swept past the country's fixed-line telephone base in a growth trajectory that is second only in speed and magnitude to that of neighbouring China.

According to India's telecommunications authority, the country's mobile telecom base grew by 1.4m in October to reach 44.9m subscribers, compared with 43.9m registered users of land lines in the country.

"This is not just a revolution in terms of growth in the market, it is also a dramatic shift of power to the consumer in India," said Mr Mittal. "In India mobile phones are for ordinary people and fixed-line phones are for the rich. We used to think it was the other way round."

6:41:13 PM    comment []  trackback []