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[ FOLLOW SAJA ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/sajahq ]
It happened with blogs (see SAJAforum collection of South Asian blogs) and Facebook (see all the South Asian FB users and groups, as well as the Scrabulous story and SAJA's own groups, including SAJA, SAJA Students, SAJA Profs), so it's only natural that the Twitter phenomenon would have major South Asian and South Asian diaspora voices and users (as you may know the 2008 Mumbai attacks are widely credited with helping put Twitter into the public consciousness among journalists and others - see coverage in this case study by Gaurav Mishra and this piece in the LA Times). So, in honor of SAJA crossing 300 followers on its SAJAhq account, we are going to try to create a list of major South Asian Twitter voices. First, here's what the @SAJAhq feed looks like:
[If you are new to Twitter, here's a resource page and webcast I did a few weeks ago, "Twitter for Journalists: Everything You Wanted to Know About Twitter, But Were Afraid to Ask."]
What follows is a very subjective list of some of the most influential Twitter voices who happen to be South Asian. Over the last few days, I captured some screengrabs of major Twitterers I knew about or those suggested by others. In order to apply some metrics to the collection, I am trying to include only feeds that have at least 500 followers AND 500 updates - AND something interesting to say. Of course, these numbers will swing up and down in the days and weeks ahead (some, in part, by just being on this list).
Leading us off, true to Twitter's tech roots are Padmasree Warrior, CTO of one of the most important tech companies in the world; Om Malik, co-founder of SAJA and already one of the most influential tech bloggers in the world, thanks to his GigaOm blog and Anil Dash, who's a leading tech evangelist at pioneering blogging company, Six Apart (makers of Typepad, Movable Type). The rest of the group is an eclectic mix of folks who have various interests, including a dentist in Karachi. Click on the image to get to each of the Twitter feeds.
Please help us round out the list by adding your recommendations for Twitter feeds to follow in the comments below. Tell us why he/she is worth following (or even if it's you). Would love to have more desi voices from other countries represented.
Meanwhile, my recommendations for a few Twitter folks I follow (they don't meet the 500-follower threshold - yet): a Nepali in America, AnupKaphle; a Pakistani in America, iFaqeer; a Sri Lankan in Colombo, Indica; a Bangladeshi in Berlin: Rezwan; a Bangladeshi in London: AsifSaleh; and SepiaMutiny, the Twitter version of one of my favorite blogs. Also check out two North American correspondents Twittering from South Asia: W7VOA - Steve Herman, VOA bureau chief; SNolen - Stephanie Nolen, Globe & Mail bureau chief.
Another way to see live feeds is via TwitterGrid: check out one with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India here; and another one with Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka here.
Please help us round out the list by adding your recommendations
for Twitter feeds (with any number of followers) to follow in the comments below. Tell us why he/she
is worth following(or even if it's you). Would love to have desi voices from more countries represented.
Meanwhile here's my personal Twitter feed:
[If you are new to Twitter, here's a resource page and webcast I did a few weeks ago, "Twitter for Journalists: Everything You Wanted to Know About Twitter, But Were Afraid to Ask."]
[ FOLLOW SAJA ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/sajahq ]
