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The virtual

worldblogginghas everyone

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create your blog Blogging What is BloggingJust about anyone you know, from CEOS, RJS, DJs to fashion designers is a blogger. Even the Bollywood biggies are blogging: from Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan to Shekar Kapur. Why even Laloo Prasad Yadav feels the need to say something on a blog! NINA takes a look at this self-publishing online phenomenon, and checks out some of the city bloggers who like the city, well, are laid back about updating their blogs

(WIth INput s from ChAItANyA KumAr)

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‘Hyderabad is a delightful city. Full of culture and excitement and history and delicious food!’ To us Hyderabadis this is not really news. But somehow, it is thrilling to read it on the Big B’s personal blog (http://blogs.bigadda.com/ab/). Slower than their Hollywood counterparts, Bollywood stars are finally getting on the blogging bandwagon.

Now we don’t have to depend on film magazines to satiate our curiosity about tinseltown. We can peep into personal online diaries and read about what a particular star had for dinner last night, or where another one went for a party. Aamir Khan’s blog (http://www.aamirkhan.com/) is a huge draw, with 500 reader responses signifying the lower end of the feedback he receives on his entries! Even our intrepid Railway Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, known for his idiosyncratic ways, has had his say on a blog. His comment on wanting to play a politician in Shahrukh’s film elicited over a hundred responses: (http://www.mypopkorn.com/blogs/celebrityblog.html?blogid=MTA)What is it about blogging that is so compulsive, both for the reader as well as for the writer? What is it that drives people to blog?

Long ago, loneliness and existential angst were overcome by a good old-fashioned prayer session before bed. Whether the rest of the world cared for

us or not, one had the conviction that God was listening, that He loved us and listened to our worries and could fix our troubles. Then, when Darwin shook up the age-old notion of the celestial nature of human origin, there began a craze for diary writing. Although one was not sure whether God was listening, it became the fashion for everyone – from intellectuals to bored housewives – to pour mundane thoughts and feelings into ‘Dear Diary’.

So is blogging just a natural progression of this? In our wish to express ourselves, to overcome a sense of increasing isolation caused by our lifestyles, is blogging to an unknown audience better than living without having made a mark at all?

One can argue that a well-known personality has compelling motives for blogging. It has now become almost an essential part of good PR, since it bypasses the sometimes biased media reports and allows the public to get an idea of the person behind the image. Whether these articulate entries are really typed in by our superstars and politicians or ghostwritten is another matter altogether. Aspiring writers also have good reason for trying out their skills online. In some cases it has even

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For the absolutely clueless: what is blogging?

A blog is short form of web log and is a website, maintained by an individual, group or company, with regular text entries as well as photographs, graphics or video. Blogs can focus on a particular subject – like sport, technology, cooking or art, or can be online personal diaries. There are currently over 110 million blogs worldwide.

led to a contract with a publishing house, as in the case of Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, arguably India’s most popular young female blogger, who landed a book contract with Penguin as a result of her blog, http://thecompulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com/. Blogging can also prove lucrative, in rare cases, like Amit Agarwal’s Digital Inspiration, http://labnol.blogspot.com/ whose phenomenal success has earned him the title of the first Indian professional blogger. Even at WOW! we have our bloggers – Vijay Marur, http://vijaymarur.blogspot.com/ and Jeremy Brian, http://salsahyderabad.blogspot.com/ who actually have energy left over after their day jobs to go online and work again.

But what drives the aam aadmi or aurat to power up and hunch over a keyboard, sharing trivial minutiae about their run of the mill lives? Is there an exhibitionistic streak in so many of us? Or is it just a case of doing it because we can? City DJ BlackJack! who posts at www.magickalkingdom.com says, “Posting my thoughts online is essentially conversations with myself. If my words relate to someone else who cannot articulate similar thoughts, that is even better.”

Many bloggers also use their sites to share their passion for a certain subject. Venkat Siddareddy, who blogs in Telugu at http://www.24fps.co.in/ and http://navatarangam.com/ says, “ Cinema has been my passion and blogging gives me a platform to document my ideas and share them. It is a two way channel- my ideas are critically viewed and are debated upon. I chose to blog in Telugu as there are already many blogs in English on cinema, and I wanted to bring Andhra readers closer to cinema.”

how to start your own blog in three easy steps But be sure you really have something to say

While almost every email provider or search engine now offers the opportunity for users to create a blog free of charge, Google’s old classic blogger.com is still the simplest system for novices. It really does get you started in three easy steps and will provide answers to problems as well. Open https://www.blogger.com/start to begin with and then follow

instructions. It’s that simple! Now go ahead and start writing. But do wait until you are sure you can really blog on a regular basis before mailing friends and family telling them to see your creative outpourings. Nothing is as frustrating as dead blogs with a paltry four entries from two years ago. Also, remember that however informal Internet publishing may seem, copyright and plagiarism laws apply here as well. Do not fill your pages with information lifted from other sources without permission or acknowledgements. It is also a good

blogabad zindabad: Five city blogs to check out

http://hyderabad.metblogs.com/: Metblogs feature every major city in the world with locals posting their impressions of day to day life. Unfortunately, the Hyderabad site is suffering from a dose of our typical lackadaisical slowness, and posts are much too infrequent.

http://lazybug.wordpress.com/: A city-centric personal blog which covers a variety of topics, with some very striking pictures and lots of titbits about Hyderabad and its happenings. http://spaniardintheworks.blogspot.com/: poetic, graphic and a pleasure to read. This blogger is temporarily off the air, let’s hope she’s back before we have read all her old posts. http://sudeepdsouza.blogspot.com/: The blogger is a software professional and it shows! But also has a good smattering of social, local and family issues.

http://cinnamontrail.blogspot.com/: Deliciously laidout food blog, with yummy pictures.

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Bloggers in Hyderabad are true to the city’s reputation, laidback and easy-going as Hyderabadis are said to be. There are no super-active bloggers here, updating every four hours, or even every four days! In general, our city bloggers are not a prolific bunch. Still, you can find blogs about almost everything, from Telugu films and shairi to technology and IT news. Even MNCs have caught on to the implications of blogging, with companies like Infosys featuring blogs regularly on their website. (http://www.infosysblogs.com/). From CEOs to RJs, DJs and college kids, it would seem that everyone in the city has something to say, and they are all doing it via the Net.

As with so many technological advances, there is no consensus of opinion on blogging. On the one hand, it seems a depressing indication of how isolated we are becoming. Images of socially inept loners, closeted with their laptops, are what come to mind. Unwilling to venture out, the young student crouches in front of his screen typing furiously as he takes on a new virtual avatar – complete with an impressive alias or penname to screen his true identity. There is rarely anyone who can live up to their online image, just as there are few authors who can impress us as much in person as they do in print.

Blogging, as a form of literary expression, also has editors shuddering at the thought of the masses of unqualified people writing, at the inaccurate and mis-spelt information clogging the Net. But Vemana Madasu, city blogger (http://destructivedistillation.blogspot.com, http://hyderabadindeed.blogspot.com, http://onthesill.blogspot.com) who recently completed a degree in engineering, says, “The whole idea behind blogging is freedom of speech, the right to voice an opinion. Some

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Top five blogs worldwide (technorati rankings)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-blog/: a liberal online news site founded by American media heavyweights, it is currently number one on Technorati’s blog ratings, and was ranked the world’s most influential blog by The Guardian

http://www.techcrunch.com/: focuses on Internet products and companies

http://gizmodo.com/: a reputed online publication for those obsessed by gizmos of any kind

http://www.engadget.com/: another high quality site for the gizmo geeks

http://www.boingboing.net/: a group blog dedicated to cultural curiosities, odd news and other such novel titbits

of these opinions may be caustic, some may ridicule and offend certain sections of people. But that doesn’t warrant censorship. Every person on the blogosphere is equal and is responsible and accountable for their own posts.”

It is also important to remember that blogging has given a voice to a huge section of the middle class in our country that was silent before. The small-town teenage girl, hemmed in by convention, can now speak up without fear thanks to blogging. As Akila Ramachandran, a final year MBBS student, who blogs at www.mymirrortalking.blogspot.com puts it, “The relative anonymity of the Internet makes it easier to speak out about things about I wouldn’t have done otherwise. The ease with which I can be heard and understood by people is what makes me blog. And the feeling that I am not alone in this world is of some consolation.”

Every blogger knows there is a great sense of validation when readers respond. Whether it is a frustrated housewife, a misunderstood adolescent, or even a grandmother whose wonderful recipes are ignored by her own family, they can all find a sense of community online. With real life gettogethers, like the Indiblogger Meet, which is held in major Indian cities, (it was held in Hyderabad earlier this year), bloggers come together to share their experiences. Bloggers have also proved their value as citizen reporters breaking stories, for example in the hours immediately after disasters like 9/11 and the tsunami or in the aftermath of violence such as the unrest in Tibet.

Whether good or bad, wholesome or unhealthy, cool or geeky, blogging is here to stay. Like radio, way back in the 1930s, blogging has grown from a few qualified known personalities to W

Podcasting allows the user to share information, views, opinions and a lot more through online audio files. In a nutshell, it is a media forum that lets you publish and interact with the whole world. Podcasting is a simple and effective way of global communication. A better alternative to blogging, it lets you create your own talk show or radio program with content of your choice. Teachers can Podcast their classes and upload them for students to listen to later, movie reviews can be podcast for avid cinema buffs, students can publish their presentations, auditions can be held online. It’s guarantees a lot more for anybody who just wants to be heard. All the applications needed to Podcast are free and easily available on the Net.

one step Further – podcasting

“unfortunately, podcasting hasn’t really caught on in hyderabad yet”

it is a simple three-step process that involves recording, uploading and receiving.

Recording can be done through normal headsets or microphones that record sounds and save it in a particular media format. For recording a conversation on the net, software like Skype or iChat can be used. Most blogging sites also offer podcasting options.

You can listen to podcasts directly or download the audio file, which can be played using common audio players. Apple’s iTunes and Microsoft’s Zune allow you to subscribe, store and organize your podcasts.

MusT lisTenn Buzz out loud on Cnet.com – a daily podcast on technologyn Filmspotting on blogspot – a podcast on movies n Econtalk – a podcast on politics and economics

Recording, Uploading and Receiving

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