Delhi Bloggers Bloc

Seeing the responses of everyone for kite flying as an activity, we can safely say that this is a long awaited meet – the kite flying meet – DBM 24! This kite flying meet is happening after several years of the previous kite flying meet that we had in DBB.

Here are the details.

Date : 16th August’08 (Saturday)
Time : 4pm
Venue : Nehru Park , chanakyapuri
Map : http://tinyurl.com/6chw5u

Material required : Everyone will be required to get their own kites and “manja” on a “roll”. More than one kite for novices and perhaps one for experts :). Please handle Manja (thread used for flying kites) with care since it is coated with glass at times. This material is easily procurable at any local market.

Please also get ur kite flying expert friends along with you in case you know anyone.

The venue will be 100% confirmed by tomorrow since we want to make sure that there are no rules against flying kites in Nehru park. Otherwise it is a beautiful area with vast expanse of land and good chances of wind. We plan to indulge in kiteflying/photography from 4-7pm after which we will proceed to Yashwant place for refreshments (near chanakya cinema). Both places are marked on the map (http://tinyurl.com/6chw5u). In case it rains during our session, we’ll move to Yashwant place straightaway.

For this meet, the coordinator would be Kuldip Nar (9810007524). Please confirm your attendance in the comments here or at the facebook event. While you are at it, please join us here in facebook.

PS. Updates on the happenings of Social Media & Blog camp soon to follow

Registration Link : http://socialcamp.eventbrite.com

Sponsors:

What :

This is a one-day semi-camp style “unconference”* which brings together stakeholders and audiences of social media and blogging. The wave of social media in India (which includes Facebook,

Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ryze, Orkut, YouTube, Flickr and many more) has led to a huge interest in the personal and business implications of this here-to-stay form of interaction. Blogging has already been a huge platform of expression for professionals and citizens from all walks of life.

The idea is to provide an ongoing and large platform of interaction for everyone, from entrepreneurs to enthusiasts, from technology to marketing experts, and from media to PR, to enrich themselves with a whole world of learning and business opportunities.

Where :

Date : 7th June’08 (Saturday), 9:30am – 5:30pm

Venue : Indiatimes Office,
7th Floor, Times Internet Ltd.
I World , Opp. DLF Golf Course,
DLF City Phase V,
Gurgaon, Haryana – 122005
The venue is wifi enabled and has an auditorium, projectors and a board room for parallel tracks if the need arises. Lunch/tea/coffee/snacks would be provided by our prime sponsor – Indiatimes.

Parking : this will be provided inside Indiatimes office; Map: http://xrl.in/5lk

Who:

Experts/executives from social media related platforms or blog platforms, Journalists who know how blogs have become an alternative to mainstream media, Professionals who have used social media to connect and build communities, Marketers (clients or agencies) who are using social media/blog strategies, Techies/application developers in these fields, Entrepreneurs who have ideas around social media and blogging platforms, bloggers (corporate, professional and otherwise), blogreaders who want to know a bit more, PR professionals looking to develop/enhance their blogger relationship programs, Marketers who want to look at case studies on how others are using the same.

HURRY! REGISTER HERE AS A SPEAKER, DELEGATE OR EVEN AS A SPONSOR.

Some exciting sessions already lined up:

Taxonomy of Blogs: A Media Perspective : Madhavan N, senior journalist
Digital Marketing for the Travel Industry in the Web 2.0. Scenario : Nirat Bhatnagar, founder chahiye.info
Bringing “Social” to software : Manish Dhingra, founder Tekriti software
Where are you going in your social media car? : Rajesh Lalwani, Blogworks.in
Impact of social media on purchase – case study : Rajesh Lalwani, Blogworks.in
Social media – Socio cultural implications and trends : Manav Deep Mianwal, Head Brand & Media, Airtel enterprise services
Using social media in the corporate context – Natraj Akella, Brand strategy & marketing, IBM
Participatory Media: The view from inside – Shyam Somanadh, Principal Architect, Network18 (Web18)
Communities : Lessons, Challenges, Opportunities – Nikhil Pahwa
Why must you tweet: Micro-blogging v. Blogging – Sanjukta Basu, Blog and New Media evangelist
Exploiting the Internet – Riding somebody else’s Success – Jamshed V Rajan, Director products, Ibibo web pvt limited.
What makes mobile social networks successful? – Interactive session by Ekta Rohra Jafri
Blogging Superstars : How to monetize a blog effectively? – Mohit Maheshewari, Co-founder Tonic Tag Media Pvt Ltd
Law & Technology – Gurpreet Singh, Internet Attorney
Protecting “New” in New Media – Prashant Singh
Knowledge sharing: Should I use the Social platform – Aparajita Suman. Consultant-KM

#Event Details:

09:30am – 10:00am : Registration
10:00am – 11:15am : Speakers present topics
11:15am – 11:45am : Tea/coffee/snacks
11:45am – 01:15pm : Speakers present topics
01:15pm – 02:00pm : Lunch
02:00pm – 04:00pm : Speakers present topics
04:00pm – 04:15pm : Tea
04:15pm – 05:15pm : Speakers present topics
05:15pm – 05:30pm : Feedback/closing of the event

The Blogathon edition meet was a very successful one, with everyone gushing with good feedback about the meet. We had 2 sessions – the first detailing about the Blogathon which also evolved into general discussion about blogs, monetization, relevance of blogs to our lives, how one can make a difference through blogs etc and the discussion continued in the Blogathon context. We got a lot of feedback from attendees (separate post on that). After tea and snacks, we resumed with another session which was specifically held at the request of few attendees on how to get traffic on to ones blog and how to be noticed. This was also well appreciated. After this we had sumptuous pizzas thanks to our sponsor “AlooTechie”.

Here is the list of attendees who joined us at DBM #23 – Blogathon Edition, held at “The Attic” in connaught place.

Shubhra Krishan
Roopak
Shantanu D
Sanjay Shrivastava
Mayank austen soofi
Surendra
Darpan Majumdar
Akash
Amit gupta (Founder Photojojo)
Twilight Fairy
Ashish goel (Founder iTasveer)
Arpit gupta
Nalin savara
Anshul Sushil
Aakriti
Rahul
Kunal
Shruti
N. Madhavan
Raza Haider
Honey Singh

For pictures of this meet you can see the DBM #23 – Blogathon Edition set in fllickr.

After the very exciting and successful first ever Delhi Twitter Meet (Delhi Tweetup / DBM XXII), we have some exciting agenda for our next meet also. Here goes…

DBM XXIII

Date: Sunday, 20th April, 2008,
Time: 5pm-8pm

Venue: The Attic, 36, Regal building (first floor), Connaught place, New Delhi – 110001 , Tel : 2374 6050, 5150 3436

Directions:

The entrance to The Attic is on Parliament Street ( Sansad Marg ), on the left side, after Park Hotel. It is just above the erstwhile pub DV8.

By Metro – get off at Rajiv Chowk ( Connaught Place ) station on Line 2 Central Secretariat to Vishwa Vidyalaya ( Delhi University )

Parking – In Palika Parking, Near Jantar Mantar or Hanuman mandir.

Map : http://tinyurl.com/44dg6l

Please note that the entry to this meet is NOW free of charge!. Alootechie has very kindly decided to sponsor our venue and well.. aloo tikki costs! :). We would be served tea/snacks at the venue.

Agenda :

Primer on Blogathon India .
We are glad to announce that our group is supporting the Delhi leg of Blogathon India.

As some of you may already know, Blogathon India (www.blogathon.in) is a week long, group blogging online event, to be held from the 20th to the 26th of April 2008, being organized by various blogging communities in India. Ours is the community partnering from the capital. This would be an ongoing endeavour and not just “a one time meet” in a series of Blogathons. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness about social issues amongst bloggers and other internet users (including non bloggers). Bloggers from all around the nation are expected to blog about topics which fall under six categories – infrastructure, politics, media, sport, cinema and gender. And best blogs will also be awarded by a jury of eminent experts. The topics in these categories are:

Infrastructure: Sunday, 20th April 2008
How can we improve the traffic condition in our city?

Politics: Monday, 21st April 2008
How do we change the focus of politics from caste/religion to grassroot issues?

Entertainment: Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
Does Bollywood overshadow regional cinema in India?

Media: Wednesday, 23rd April 2008
Why are Indian news broadcast channels not as mature as their International counterparts?

Gender: Thursday, 24th April 2008
What are the challenges that society faces in accepting the concept of alternate sexuality? How can we address them?

Sport: Friday, 25th April 2008
Are ‘media’ and ‘commercial interests’ in cricket the only reason that are killing other sports in India?

At DBM XXIII, apart from the usual networking and interaction, we will have a discussion on the how, what, when and where of Blogathon to help us maximize our participation in this event. We would also be re-announcing the specific topics for all the categories and would also take feedback on how to conduct further blogathons. We are also expecting non-bloggers there, hence we would be helping them setup blogs and would encourage them to participate by creating their own blogs.

If there are any volunteers willing to help organise the meet (DBM XXIII) in anyway (physically, online, monetarily 🙂 ), please let me know at twilightfairy at gmail dot com.

Look forward to seeing you all.
Please confirm your participation in the comments so that we know how many ppl to cater to.

Here’s the list of attendees of the first ever Delhi tweetup 🙂

1. Garima Dhiman, http://twitter.com/garimadhiman

2. Manav, http://twitter.com/nextmanage

3. Antony Tongbram, http://twitter.com/tonytongbram,

4. Mayank Dhingra, http://twitter.com/mayankdhingra

5. Gaurav Mishra, http://twitter.com/gmishra

6. Babychen Mathew, http://twitter.com/babychen,

7. Honey Singh, http://twitter.com/honeytech

8. rajesh lalwani, http://twitter.com/rajeshlalwani,

9. Zabeeh Afaque, http://twitter.com/zabeehafaque,

10. Nitin Dhawan, www.imarketingadvantage.com

11. Monica Jasuja, http://twitter.com/jasuja

12. Ashutosh Pradhan, http://twitter.com/ashutoshpradhan

13. Vyom Prashant, http://twitter.com/vyomprashant

14. Bona Bhatia, http://twitter.com/bonabhatia

15. Megha Bhatia,

16. Mayank Gupta, http://twitter.com/mayankgupta

17. Ravi Kapoor, http://twitter.com/ravikapoor,

18. Sanjay Shrivastava, http://twitter.com/mojosanjay,

19. Gaurav Mishra, http://twitter.com/gauravonomics,

20. Shantanu Dutta – http://twitter.com/shantanudutta

21. Twilight Fairy http://twitter.com/twilightfairy

The pictures of the meet are in the Delhi bloggers flickr pool as well as can be seen in this set.

Time for the next meet – DBM XXII – which is also the first ever Delhi tweetup.

Before we go ahead – let see what this confusing jargon is (for those who are unaware of it).
A tweetup is a “twitter meetup”. Twitter is a tool used for microblogging. Microblogging is blogging micro updates.

That was twitter in short. One can update these microblogging updates through IM, sms or web. There are also several desktop clients to do the same. Through twitter one can choose to “follow” people and get to read their twitter updates. Similarly ppl who “follow” you would get to read your updates. Twitter is quick and easy, very good for bloggers who dont have much time to update their blogs :).

Some of us are on twitter already. Some ppl like Hillary and Obama are also there :D. It doesnt matter whether it is really them or their proxies but they are very regular there. Those who aren’t yet on twitter, but would like to be, can quickly join in. Once that is done, you can follow “delhitweetup” – the id created for delhi twitter meets. This id is currently following some of you already. So the twitter updates of Delhi twitter users would also be in one place.

Now for the real thing:

When : 16th March’08 (sunday)
What time : sometime in the evening – 4-ish.
What : get acquainted with each other. Demystify twitter for those who dont know it yet.
Where : you decide .. This would depend on the number of ppl willing to attend the same.
Please give your ayes and nayes here (or you could tweet them keeping @delhitweetup in your confirmation tweet).

Those who wish to follow me on twitter, my id is twilightfairy.

Happy tweeting!

On 13th Jan 2004, a group of bloggers in Delhi decided to get together and meet offline for the first time. The excitement, apprehension, curiosity of meeting total strangers – all culminated in a rather successful meet and the formation of a community which has lasted all this while. It’s the 4th birthday of our beloved community. It’s great to have lasted this long in the online world, certainly no mean feat this one! 20 official meets, a couple of unofficial meets, history walks, photography gyaan, book reading, kite flying, link-ups, print/tele coverage (BBCRadio/ Delhi Times/HT City/TodayPlus), flame wars, exercises in blogging outreach and endeavours with NGO’s ……….we’ve come a long way together.

The group has had as its members, people from all walks of life..techies, journos, students, activists, photographers, lawyers, doctors, guys who make their living off blogs!!..and we’ve walked a few steps together. A few in our group have moved on, relocated to other cities, but are still a part in spirit, and try and stay in touch. As the old saying goes “Once a DelhiBlogger, always a DelhiBlogger!!”

We are celebrating our 4 years in this online world and keeping a simple meet this time with no frills and fancies – only fun unlimited, which includes shooting a video of delhi bloggers. If you wish to join in on the fun, please append your name at the meet registration link or write to twilightfairy at gmail dot com (mobile # nine eight one one five one one seven one nine). Please keep your calendars blocked for 13th Jan 2008, 4:30-11pm, Blues, Outer circle, CP, New delhi :). You can drop in any time at your convenience.

Date: 10 Nov 2007 (Saturday)
Time: 6 pm 3pm onwards…
Venue: Barista, outer circle, CP, Delhi

Organisers:

1. Twilight Fairy (Priyanka) (Contact No. +91-9811511719 )
2. Saurabh garg

For further details and confirmation of attendance, please edit this wiki (password delBM).

Another history walk! Here are the details :

Date: 07 Oct 2007 (Sunday)
Time: 4 pm onwards…
Venue: Jamali Kamali masjid, Near Qutub minar comlpex, Mehrauli Gurgaon Rd, Delhi

Organisers:

1. Twilight Fairy (Priyanka) (Contact No. +91-9811511719 )

For further details and confirmation of attendance, please edit this wiki (password delBM).

Finally we have the “history walk DBM” happening. Following are the details –

Venue : Safdarjung tomb (please read up on it, if possible get printouts or illustrations along – we’ll be in knowledge sharing mode)
Date : 10 June (sunday)
Time : 5pm (sharp as the venue probably closes by 6pm)
Equipment – cameras/tripods/ for the photography enthusiasts, notepads for the history enthusiasts and perhaps canvas for some painting enthusiasts? :p (Am i getting too imaginative here 🙂 )

For confirmations please respond in comments or write to twilightfairy[@]gmail[.]com

Venue : Cha Bar, located at Oxford Bookstore,
The Statesman House, First Floor,
148, Barakhamba Road,
New Delhi – 110001

Phone number : 011- 23766084 / 083 (Cha bar), Twilight Fairy

Date : 12th May 2007

Time : 6 pm onwards (till ~8-8:30pm as the cha bar closes by then.)

RSVP in comments please.

On 13th Jan 2004, a group of bloggers in Delhi decided to get together and meet offline for the first time. The excitement, apprehension, curiosity of meeting total strangers – all culminated in a rather successful meet. Three years and several meets later, this group has grown bigger and has managed to make its presence felt not just in Delhi or India but also with BBC. The group has gone through all that a dynamic group connected together online goes through, be it the ups or the downs. DBM XV is the third anniversary of the first ever meet that this group had. A lot of oldies and a lot of newbies are expected in the meet.

The details –

Venue : Lodhi Garden
Date : 13th Jan 2007
Time : 2pm onwards

The tentative plan is to shift to IHC when it gets too cold, approximately 5-ish.

Contact details : Twilight Fairy
Amit Ken

The GV summit 2006 was held in Delhi this year on 16th December 2006. An account here.

It was quite an interesting DBM this time with a LOT of brainstorming and eventually a conclusion (which is the most essential part). The few basics we discussed : (a) What kind of event we are looking at – a huge affair with lots of sponsors and propaganda OR simple like our meets are. We all agreed to make it big this time. But that requires a lot of homework obviously. (b) What do we call it – a seminar / blog camp / a workshop / a meet etc.? Most of us don’t want to call it blog camp and its not just about the nomenclature, we don’t want to repeat the chennai thing….we’ve got to do something different and new. something that hasn’t already been dealt with. It’s also to do with not setting expectations simply by avoiding using a name which has some associated with it. (c) What kind of audience/participation are we expecting? We can either try to reach out to people who are net literate, but not into blogging. This can be done by discussing some basic things like : what’s a blog..its uses, handyness and effectiveness; OR we can keep it amongst the circle of those who are already blogging but focus more on issues they still would want to know about. We understand that the two groups are mutually exclusive and we can’t expect an event to be attended by both kinds..(unless specifically organised so). So we have to promote the event accordingly. We haven’t really reached to a conclusion on how to do this. (d) What are we going to do in the event? After a lot of brainstorming we have more or less short listed two kinds of activities.. some sort of case studies where a presenter researches, substantiates with examples and presents a conclusion AND a group discussion where we have 2-3 panelists presenting their own POV. The audience could be allowed to ask questions/comment and eventually the conclusion is left to the audience. Now the content: We asked ourselves, what topics would draw *us* to a seminar kind of event. We came up with the following options. Following are topics for research, anybody can volunteer to take part in conducting these researches. 1. Personality of the blogger v. the blogger [suggested by Lijo, Prashant, Sanjukta] a more flashy name for this is Identity Management through Blog or the Psychology of the blog. A case study on this cannot be done unless a guineapig has volunteered for it. 2. Education, Abroad studies and blogging – A students perspective. [Mayank] 3. Shall we censor | Darker side of blogging [Sanjukta] She wants to know how reliable is the information on the blog, given the fact that blog owner can control and tamper everything..date of publishing the post, comments on it etc. Should we then really have absolutely free flow of all kinds of contents. Shall we allow inflammatory blogs in the name of freedom of speech. 4. Blogging trends accross nations – interaction / comparison with Indian Blogsphere. [Twilight Fairy] Suitable country for case study – Pakistan. We are similar yet different. We have a common cultural background and the same issues. At times even natural calamities strike us together. At times a hand of friendship has been extended across the border. We can research more on this though there is doubt as to how much certain blogs reflect the country and its people. But we can at least compare the general blogosphere as we perceive it. Following are topics for a group discussion. 1. Raveena Tandon – why are you not blogging? [Harneet, Yogesh, Nikhil]. I think these guys are just being plain mischievous. But we could definitely discuss something about celebrity bloggers. 2. Blogs, a threat to certain Industries [Prashant] – How a job of travel consultant is being replaced by travel blogs, and something about a different model of banking. Prashant can explain this more. 3. Horizontal Blog [Prashant] where one person is blogging about everything under the sun. It’s “perpendicular” to a topical blog. 4. Frequency of Posting – does it effect the quality of blogging [Prashant]. Special focus on the ppl who post 5 times a day. 5. Blogging Syndicates (groups in this context) and their impact on freedom of expression [Nikhil] : a celeb/popular blogger expresses a PoV on something and everybody else in his group tends to agree and only agree..even if they think otherwise. Let us ask ourselves are we really exercising our Freedom of Expression. 6. Sun V. Microsoft – The technical art of Blogsphere [Yogesh] He would have to explain this. 7. Business Blogging [Lijo] : An oft repeated subject. However one can speak on any breakthrough changes in it. 8. Blogging in Regional languages – Support and technology [Lijo, Amit gupta ] Lijo knows farmers in Kerala who blog in regional language. It might be interesting to find out about all the available technical and other support for regional blogging. 9. Ways of improving aggregation of blogs to better reflect quality of content. [Nikhil] He would have to explain this. 10. Usability issues with mobile blogging [Nikhil] as its gonna come up big time in the next couple of years this is the right time to start talking bout it. Besides these topics there’s general expectation from the event, common between Sanjukta, Harneet, Twilight Fairy, Mayank, Lijo (pls add ur name if someone’s left out), to reach out to those sections who are part of the same frame and yet unaware of blogs. – Media that reports on blogs – Govt. agencies, they have access to internet, power to regulate but don’t understand blogs. – Students, teachers, doctors – Creative minds at home..the home makers, retired persons etc. got access to net but not utilising – social activists, a lot of them have faintly heard about it and wanna know more about it. – Basically Anybody and everybody…as Amit Gupta said anybody can blog. The road ahead : So we really had a fruitful discussion on 7th. Now the next step. As of now we have somewhat decided to blog exhaustively about the topics we have suggested. Let’s first have a reality check on how easy it is to conduct these studies. We decided that we would come up with a group blog or a wiki for this discussion.

DBM XIV will be held on

7th Oct’06, 4:30 pm,
(steps near stein auditorium), India habitat Centre,
Lodhi road, New Delhi

Agenda : discussion for a seminar/workshop style meet, which could
itself be a starting step for a blogcamp
Please confirm your attendance in the comments.

The following attended DBM XII.

Rajshekhar
Nikkhil Pahwa
Dan Husain
Twilight Fairy
Harneet
Deepan
Priyadarshini
Ajay
N. Madhavan
Lazy Lump
Amit Verma
Sourabh
Toinks
Sriram
Ritu Chugh (junoesque)
Amit Gupta2
Sanjukta Basu
Snigdha
Amit Gupta (1)
Viral Gupta
Prasoon
AmitKen

Here are two accounts of this DBM – by Amit Ken and Twilight Fairy.

The following attended DBM XII.

Here are two accounts of this DBM – by Amit Ken and Twilight Fairy.

It’s time for another meet. Here are the details: Venue : Cafe turtle, Khan market, 24655641, 24655643 (Directions) Time : 5pm onwards Date : 29th July’06 Please confirm your attendance in the comments section.

Thanks all for attending. Some of the updates made by bloggers:
Solzaire’s account of his first ever DBM
Amit Aggarwal’s account (the blogger who earns his livelihood through blogging!)
Paavani’s Account
Amit Verma
Varun’s accout
Ashish Kumar view
Asit Ranjan Mishra’s writeup
Mayank Chauhan
Twilight Fairy

And Bill’s own impressions about the delhi bloggers are here.

Date: Saturday, May 6th 2006
Venue : Amphitheatre, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road
Time : 6 pm
Please confirm your attendance in advance at the comments section to help us coordinate better

This is for all you old and new, fast and furious, slow and steady, arose and awakened, dreaming and dormant bloggers out there…
Time for the XIth Delhi Bloggers Meet with Bill Tompson, Julian Siddle and Gareth Mitchell all the way from London
Who are Bill, Julian and Gareth?
Julian is the producer of the BBC World Service Technology programme Digital Planet
It’s a programme about how technology affects our lives rather than the technology itself. Gareth is the presenter of the same show.

Julian would be here in India to record a special edition of the programme just about this splendid country. Culture of Blogs in India is an area Julian would be particularly looking at and is trying to find answers to questions like “Do you have a particular view on the use or effectiveness of your blogs? What do you think about the use of IT in India or its potential? The country is often seen as being in the grip of a technological boom, is this the case from your experience?”

Bill is one of Britain’s leading authorities on blogging and Net activism and advises the EU. He has a regular column on the BBC’s website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4930796.stm

Bill would be sharing with us his expertise over the subject that connects all of us here…Blogging and also Net activism.
Now if all that doesn’t sound interesting to you….well then….something else will… 😉

What you waitin' for?

A Super Lightweight Slider

Visualize Your Ideas.

Delhi Bloggers Bloc

DBB presents – DBM 24 – the kite flying meet!

The meet at “The Attic”

DBM XXIII – discussion on Blogathon India!

DBM XXIII

The tweetup reports!

DBM XXII – the first ever Delhi tweetup

DBM XXI (4th Anniversary celebrations)

DBM XX

DBM XIX

DBM XVII

DBM XVI

DBM XV

Global voices summit

Update on DBM XIV

DBM XIV details

DBM XII attendees

DBM XII attendees

DBM XII

DBM XI – updates

XIth Delhi Blogger’s Meet with Bill Thompson, Julian Siddle and Gareth Mitchell