Indian Online Journalism » Online Journalism

Subhash — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:53:47 +0000

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Typepad blocked: A bizarre move

Subhash — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:37:51 +0000

My ISP BSNL hasn’t blocked Typepad, yet. But Nikhil Pahwa and Shivam Vij (Crazy internet censorship time in India, again « Kafila) are reporting that the government has explicitly asked ISPs to block the blogging service. As Shivam observes, unlike earlier when one would just hit a 404 error (page not found), this time there is a notice that says the site’s blocked.
It seems like a very inopportune time for the government to be doing something as ridiculous as blocking a site. The beleaguered central government’s already bruised image isn’t going to get a facelift with this move. The Manmohan Singh government is now in the august company of some shaky sheikh’s?
Shivam raises some important concerns and demonstrates how inane such moves can be. That’s not to assume that such moves are the machinations of bumbling babus, but in fact a part of the DNA of the state to control: Here’s a Medianama post that bares it all How The Indian Government Plans To Regulate Online Content & Blogs. Would it be surprising that the citizens of this country are wary of moves like The National Identification of Authority of India Bill, 2010 (pdf)?
This isn’t just the Indian or Arab governments baring their fangs. About 60,000 Turkish blogger’s using blogspot don’t have access to their blogs, thanks to a court order. And let’s not even get started on the reaction to Wikileaks by the political elite in the U.S.

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Key points from Touch Press’ Gray

Subhash — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:39:08 +0000

These ingredients should probably be part of any web content team:
Wolfram Research co-founder Gray and his Touch Press may be future of e-books, publishing | ZDNet

Here are his three key ingredients next-gen interactive e-books:

* “You need an author that’s not a technical writer, but can tell a real story with depth and authority,” said Gray. “You would read this author even if the book wasn’t interactive. Traditional publishers understand this.” However, multimedia companies don’t.
* “You need real programmers,” said Gray. “You need people that turn hardware into magic.” Gray’s definition of programmers goes beyond “Flash hackers.” These programmers can use software to tell a story and give hardware purpose.
* And the final ingredient is “a television producer’s eye for moving visuals.” These producers deliver high quality video on budget and on schedule. “If this were TV you would watch it even if it weren’t in an interactive app,” said Gray.

Another twist in the AOL saga

Subhash — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:35:53 +0000

Media are abuzz with AOL’s latest acquisitions. With this, the story now turns local. I guess that’s what Tim Armstrong will hear from his Indian colleagues next week.
Corporate culture has this uncanny ability to make people think in the general direction the bosses are thinking about. And with Patch and Going in AOL’s kitty, the wind will blow “local” suddenly.
Hmmm, that must have sounded pretty cynical. In fact, I liked Patch. I think if implemented well, and since Armstrong had an interest in it, it could be a unlike other AOL acquisitions. One sad story is Propeller.com. I can’t for the life of me understand why they’re hellbent on destroying it.

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Focus on digital content

Subhash — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:04:48 +0000

The 21^st Century India Through Digital Content conference recently held in Delhi, with topic such as Digital Content in Business, Enterprise and Livelihoods should have been infested with journalists. It wasn’t. Except for a smattering of our ilk, there was not one from the power-list of Indian journalism.

It really should be an area that should interest journalists. Thanks to Osama Manzar of Digital Empowerment Foundation, I was invited. The event, of course, being supported by the Department of Information Technology of the Government of India and the World Summit Awards, was dominated by bureaucrats and ICT activists.

The benefits of digitalization of content and the use of digital media to purvey content are not up for debate.

Critical to taking the front seat in this digital drive is the active involvement of the press. It not only has to convey to citizens the benefits of ICT but also that journalists should get to use digital content as primary sources for storytelling. Now, that looks like a tough one, given the state of the government websites and the closed-door-corp-com driven websites of corporate houses. But we’ll get there, hopefully with governments realising that content professionals can help them with sprucing up their websites.

To start with, the Department of Information Technology could come up with avset of guidelines and must-dos for government websites to implement. Post-implementation it could be closely watched by Chief Information Commissioner of India Wajahat Habibullah’s people.

Of course, rules and oversight by statutory bodies sound good but one really can’t beat an all-pervading culture of information sharing. That is possible when there is a demand for it. And journalists can crank up that demand is they see the benefit having credible information just a click away.

The post-lunch session was on education, a very NGO topic, if I may. There was a lot that was discussed — passionate people with informed views on the matter. But my take on it is that the government should not be offered a “digital” excuse for the shoddy implementation of education for all. It cannot become a crutch for the government or a means for profit-many companies to make hay. A robust primary and secondary education system that covers the entire population of this country is a must – period. It is the duty of the State to ensure that adequate funds and means are made available for this important national need. Which essentially means I didn’t talk at all during this session!

The last session of the day was very interesting. It was on Policy Framework for Governance & Inclusive Development and the sub-session I attend was on Efforts on Inclusive Content Development through Mass Participation: Web 2.0 Technologies & Media. There were some interesting members in this team, like Latif Ladid of IPv6 Forum, Beatriz Elvira Alonso Becerra from Cuba to name a few. This a topic very close to my heart, and, again, I missed journalist at this session.

By constantly returning to these issues, IOJ hopes to be the bridge between journalists and what the WSA and the DEF are doing.

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