Pune’s blogging community gets its first chance to
unconference
June 16, 2007
Pune
News: Discussions on topics as varied
as censorship and citizen’s
journalism, ‘Blogcamp Pune’ — Pune’s
first blog unconference held at
Symbiosis Centre for Information
Technology (SCIT) — was attended by
over 120 bloggers — both the recent
converts and the veterans — from Pune,
Mumbai and Goa.
The
one-day unconference being the city’s
first blogger-targeted event, there
were informal discussions peppered
with tech-talk. It also provided a
platform for unmasking new-age
concepts aimed at the net-savvy
generation. Purple Nova’s marketing
head Milind Pandit introduced the
company’s latest ‘do-it-yourself
web-hosting technology’, which will
enable the user to host content
directly from any internet-connected
device through the use of an URL
rather than a standard HTTP protocol.
While Sulekha.com’s Sudhir Syal spoke
about blog print, the website’s
attempt to take blogs into the print
medium, Rediff.com launched its
‘blogshowcase’ (platform to showcase
their blog)
www.blogshowcase.rediff.com.
Besides software pundits, many young
bloggers nurturing hopes of venturing
into the blogosphere thronged the
camp. “Camps like these double up as
cesspools of novel concepts and also
act as indirect market spaces,” said
Mythili Rao, a blog novice.
“I
wanted to know how I can commercialise
my blog,” said Pune-based software
professional Tejas Nandarshi, who sees
blogs as a money-making venture. “The
blog camp has been a source of many
tips on how to increase one’s blog
traffic and readership,” he said.
Vidya Shastri, a Reiki instructor from
Pune plans to start a blog informing
masses about the nuances of the
healing art. “Lots of people are
unaware about Reiki’s power to heal.
Blogs are an informal medium through
which you can communicate and
educate,” she said.
Rajesh Segu, who had been a part of
the first blog camp held in Chennai
and one of the organisers of the Pune
blog camp, said there were many
developments since the first blog
camp. “Though there were fewer
attendees, the spirit remained the
same,” he said.
