WEBCAST: The South Asian Blogosphere and How it is Changing the Media

Listen to our BlogTalkRadio webcast in the player above or at this link (some highlights below by Jyoti Gupta).

As part of the second-anniversary celebrations of SAJAforum.org, SAJA's newsy blog, we are hosting an online panel discussion among some of the best-known names in the South Asian blogosphere. They will discuss the state of the blogosphere (South Asian and otherwise) and how it is affecting how news and information about South Asia and the diaspora is gathered and shared.

SPEAKERS:

Sabahat Ashraf ("iFaqeer"); blogger at blog.iFaqeer.com, contributor to several Pakistani/South Asian and Muslim blogs
http://www.iFaqeer.com

Anil Dash, VP and chief evangelist for SixApart (makers of TypePad  and Moveable Type) and one of the earliest (1999!) and most influential bloggers in the world
http://www.anildash.com/anil/

Karthik, blogger, Uberdesi.com
http://www.uberdesi.com

Maria Giovanna, blogger and journalist, Filmiholic.com
http://www.filmiholic.com

Arun Venugopal, editor, SAJAforum.org; correspondent, WNYC Radio
http://www.sajaforum.org

LISTEN LIVE OR TO A RECORDING: 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/09/26/desiblogs

As always, you are welcome to quote from anything said during the FREE, WORLDWIDE webcasts at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja

NOTES FROM this session by Jyoti Gupta <loopdesign@gmail>:

For those interested in floating their own blogs/social networks and/or ideas on the Web, here are tips from members of the South Asian blogosphere who participated on the SAJA webcast on Sept. 26, 2008.

The one advice that emerged from the sharing of perspectives: Chose a subject of your interest. Don’t concern yourself with eyeballs, audiences, or money-making.

Paraphrasing some of the other tips:

ARUN of SAJAforum: The balancing act for SAJAforum has been posting quickly and regularly, providing original content and taking a journalistic approach. In addition, blogging requires a lot of time commitment.

ANIL of SixApart: SAJAforum demonstrates how if you have an extremely narrow topic of interest and a passion about it, you’re going to have a great blog.

MARIA of Filmiholic: Keep it conversational. Be conscious of how much information you give about yourself (especially younger women) and be careful of cyberstalkers.

KARTHIK of UberDesi: Once you have your blog up and running, hunt for bigger blogs that share your interests and interact with them. If they like your content, they will help people discover you. Like SAJAforum and SepiaMutiny did with UberDesi.

SABAHAT of iFaqeer: I was tracking Pakistani bloggers in Pakistan, I met bloggers there in 2006 and after interacting with them, I was able to be a part of those voices, and not be an outsider.

On danger of being too narrow topically:
ANIL: There’s no such thing as too narrow. What matters is what your goals are. If your goal to be of service to people that are interested in that information, it does not matter what size the audience is. What matters is they know that when they want to know that information, they can come to your site and find it. If the tools are free and you can sign up and get a blog for free, just do it.

On blog platform selection:
ANIL: There are lot of platforms out there – Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad, etc. These days it's not about tools and technology, but what you want to achieve with the blog, and then you find a company or community with that experience and work with it.

On evolution and future of blogs:
ANIL: Mainstream social networks like Facebook.com and MySpace.com are monolithic and centralized networks that provide value, but they are not responsive, because they are not forced to be. In the future, people will have their own social networks, that will connect to and inter-operate with mainstream social networks.

You can listen to the full, one-hour webcast at this link.

BACKGROUND ON OUR WEBCASTS:
 As part of our efforts to bring our programming to more people around the
world, SAJA is doing more webcasts. We are using a service called
BlogTalkRadio, which lets us host webcast discussions with authors,
newsmakers, etc.

You can listen live via the web at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja
or by calling into a NY phone number: 347-324-5991. You can ask
questions via an online chatroom or live on the air, via the phone
(you can call from a landline, cell, or VOIP).

As soon as the event is over, you will be able to access - at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja - a recording of the proceedings.

This is also available as an downloadable MP3 file for your personal
collection. [If you want to subscribe to this as a podcast on iTunes,
go to "Advanced" within iTunes, then select "Subscribe to podcast" and
type http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/feed and hit OK.]

As always, you are welcome to quote from anything said during these
webcasts. Feedback, suggestions welcome: saja[at]columbia.edu

OUR ARCHIVES - listen below or download at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja

Our most recent chats:

* SAJA BRIEFING: Listen to a terrific group of journalists and experts talk about various aspects of the turmoil in the current U.S. economy - explaining in jargon-free language what it all means to everyday Americans, the world at large and much, much more. 

Speakers (in order above):

• Vikas Bajaj, business reporter, The New York Times (former SAJA vice president); read bio and archive of NYT articles
• Anirvan Banerji, co-founder and director of research at the Economic Cycle Research Institute; co-author of "Beating the Business Cycle: How to Predict and Profit from Turning Points in the Economy"
• John Laxmi, co-founder of a New York-based private equity firm with $4 billion under management (and SAJA treasurer); read bio
• Sudeep Reddy, economics reporter and "Real Time Economics" blogger, The Wall Street Journal (former SAJA Board member; photo by Preston Merchant)

Listen to the discussion here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/09/24/economy

* AUTHOR CHAT: SAJA hosted a live discussion about India's economy with
Prof. Arvind Panagariya, the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political
Economy at Columbia University and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the
Brookings Institution. His new book on the Indian economy, "India: The
Emerging Giant" has received rave reviews, including this quote from Fareed
Zakaria: "This is now the definitive book on the Indian economy." He'll
discuss his book and, given all the news about the Indian economy, what the
outlook is for India to survive the turmoil in the US and world economy.
Listen to the discussion here:
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/09/books-aravind-p.html

* JOURNO CHAT: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Ali Velshi of CNN, Priya David, Hari Sreenivasan of CBS, Roop Raj of WDSU-TV talk about covering hurricanes Gustav (some had covered Katrina, too).
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/09/webcast-dr-sanj.html
 

* AUTHOR CHAT: Author Sir Salman Rushdie discusses his latest novel, "The
Enchantress of Florence." He was live with us via phone for 30 minutes for a
discussion with arts writer Vibhuti Patel. For the remaining part of the hour,
Patel discussed Rushdie's work and his place in world literature. Listen to the
discussion here:
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/06/books-salman-ru.html

* AUTHOR CHAT: Aravind Adiga, author of "The White Tiger." His debut novel has
gotten exceptionally excellent reviews: From USA Today - "The White Tiger is
one of the most powerful books Iâve read in decades.  No hyperbole.  This debut
novelâ¦hit me like a kick to the head â the same effect Richard Wrightâs Native
Son and Ralph Ellisonâs Invisible Man had.... This is an amazing and angry
novel about injustice and power." Adiga used to be a former Time magazine
correspondent in NYC, now he's a freelancer based in Mumbai.
http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/06/books-aravind-a.html