‘llo all. Did try updating you live from Pune yesterday (the unConference I briefly mentioned, remem?) but somehow it didn’t happen. The venue’s wi-fi was down & though Saks did have her personal roaming connection, it was difficult to upload the pics.
And y’all do how I love to post pics!
So decided to just wait till today & do it right.
Reached the venue on time (around 9ish in the am) but there was hardly anyone around. The main audi building at Symbiosis had a big banner across it & there were many all over the place as well stating things like:
“Some blogs are meant to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and few to be chewed & digested”
“A little blogging is a dangerous thing”
“Blog and let blog”
“Let’s Blog it”
“I am a blogger, that’s what I do”
“The blog is writer of the blogger”
Incidentally, did not get the last one. Wise ones, please enlighten silly me.
Saks & I were pretty bored initially, it seemed disorganized (realised later no one even made a list of who all attended!) and there weren’t too many people around.
They did all start coming in though and by the time the introduction session was over (not a “My name is blah, I blog at blah.blogspot.com” thing, more a “My name is blah, I work at blah & I’ve come here for blah”) the audi was pretty full.
In retrospect if I had to club the groups of people attending; it would be (01) Relatively New or Wannabe Bloggers (02) Corporates who were there to market their Blog related products (03) Media.
(Click to enlarge) Tarun (an unOrganiser’ of the event) (top pic) & Sakshi (lower pic) with media people clamoring for interview!)’
I suppose my friends Sakshi, Akshay, Aditya/Abhishek & I would fall under the (seemingly) very small category (04) bloggers who’ve been blogging it for a long time & somewhat established (not that I’m anywhere close to the celebrity status of the aforementioned bloggers!). We six (I’m counting pretty Neha who was also with us) had all traveled from Mumbai (albeit in 3 separate cars) especially for the event.
(Click to enlarge)(L-R: Tarun, Abhishek, Aditya, Akshay, Neha & Saks)
The day progressed pretty well & I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Presented on the fact that there are negative aspects to blogging and while they should not deter you from blogging, one should be careful about what & how much information one puts up on the www - especially for personal bloggers. Was quite an interactive session, lots of queries & points being raised.
Deep, Abdul, a Nerdy Geek & Superunknown blogged about how my session went (among other things).
(Click to enlarge)
The rest of the day I spent between attending other talks (I was a bit disheartened that most of them were by the corporates marketing their new products. Somehow I wanted to hear more from the bloggers themselves) and speaking to the media & other bloggers present.
Was especially taken aback when this pretty, highly enthusiastic girl came upto me, introduced herself and said told me that she had started blogging because of me! So, I guess at least one good thing has come out of thevoiceinmyhead! Her name is Priya Shah & she’s part of the WATblog team. Didn’t manage to get her personal blog url but will link to it when I do. Yes, I feel all motherly now.
(Click to enlarge)
There was a really good debate towards the end of the day - Traditional Media (newspapers online & off & television) v/s Modern Media (Blogs etc) - which would one take more seriously? which would be more likely to believe? are these trends changing? More questions & enthused debates filled the hour slotted.
I moderated the debate & was pleased to that it ended on the note that Modern Media shouldn’t be compared to Traditional Media like it is a threat to it or that it will replace it, but rather that it has a place of it’s own and it add value to the already existing media.
I met lots of people, bloggers, media & corporate types am happy to say, I had fun!
Cannot end this post without thanking (ty, ty, ty) the online Lakhan to my Ram, it wouldn’t have been the same without you!
(Click to enlarge)
Tags: BarCamp, Blog, blogcamp, BlogCampPune, bloggers, bloggersmeet, India, pune, unconf, unConference
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June 17th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Seems like an event I missed… Go rockstars!
June 17th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
June 17th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Couldn’t agree more with this one. Traditional media relies on exclusivity—being the first one to get the lastest scoop out to the people. On the other hand, blogs rely on conversations—you could discuss/write about something even an eon old and be sure of being “Dugg,” provided what you have written is intelectually seductive.
June 17th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
P.S: First time visitor.
P.P.S: Loved this.
June 17th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
The feeling is mutual.
June 17th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
The blog is the writer of the blogger
.
As in:
“The child is the father of the man” may b
Nice post!
June 17th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Hi Melody
Thanks for reviewing my post and commenting on it. Many thanks for mentioning my small name in this post too. Your session in the 1st part easily stood out cos I could really connect to it having faced the stalking from a specific set of people. I dint know what to do, cos I dint wanna get into the murkier game of abuse and all that, finally changed my URL.
The other part was good too, with the newspapers seriously need to look into what content they publish on what page. Though this point was shot off, but I feel in coming days with the competition for exclusive bits with electronic media, this is going to get murkier….
June 17th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
@ Saks:
@ Sparsh: First time too right? Welcome to TVIMH! Do not know about the saying. You could be right though. Sounds like it maybe that.
@ Superunknown: No need to thank me! Glad you liked the session & found it useful.
June 17th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Hey Melody,
It was nice meeting you at the blogcamp, time didn’t permit further interaction but since we are in the same city we could surely catch up some time. More inspirational interaction in the pipeline then: P Thanks for linking me.
Heres my personal blog: url http://www.lucidlymesmerized.blogspot.com
cheers!
Priya Shah aka Mesmerized
June 17th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Hey Melody,
Your presentation sure enlightened a few bloggers.
I could relate to stalking incident which happened with Kathy Sierra, here is the link,
http://www.stoweboyd.com/messa.....ra_de.html
Jatinder
June 18th, 2007 at 12:05 am
Came over from sakshi’s Blog wanting to read about the presentation on Blog Flames, Intrusions and Stalking.
Nice pics BTW
June 18th, 2007 at 9:08 am
“Online Lakhan to my Ram”, heh!
June 18th, 2007 at 9:09 am
From what I’ve bee reading, it seems everyone appreciated and loved your session. And well, I missed it
. Oh well. I missed the whole unconference that matter 
But hey, thanks for the pics. Got to know how everyone looks
P.S: “20 Random Facts” were fun to go through.
Till next time..
~Presh
June 18th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Hey Melody,
I am hearing good things about your session. Looks like you rock the place. I am happy for you.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Do you have a copy of that presentation on Blog Flames, Intrusions and Stalking uploaded somewhere? . Can you please upload it to slideshare . (www.slideshare.net ).It would have been helpful for some innocent people whom I am intruding and flaming now
June 18th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
And thanks for the link, will check it out!
@ Jatinder: Welcome to TVIMH
Glad you liked the presentation & thanks for the link.
@ Lalit: Haven’t put up the presentation. Glad you like the pics, most off cam phones.
@ Shantanu:
Too bad you missed it. But I guess you enjoyed Lonavala? Incidentally, Sakshi & I stopped over at Fariyas in the morning for the breakfast buffet, where were you?
June 18th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
@ Info: Welcome to TVIMH - and yes, I usually rock every place I go to
@ Nariyal: You know I read your first post & I was like - “now I understand why he wants the presentation”. Stalkers leave them bloggers alone…
June 18th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Hey melody,
You made a mark at the camp….It was interesting to know you….. you might also want to visit.
http://shahharshal.blogspot.com/
-Njoi
June 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
June 20th, 2007 at 10:33 am
“there are negative aspects to blogging”… I knew there was a good reason I haven’t been blogging. I just wish I knew which one it was!
June 20th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
And, do start properly already. Hate that your posts are so few & far between now.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Re: Fariyas… we started for Lonavala at about 10AM, so you two were probably already in Pune by then. Oh yes, Lonavala is always fun when it’s raining (which it was on Sunday).
June 20th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Perhaps the blog title should read Pune Blog Camp.
(http://www.blogcamppune.blogspot.com/)
Pune Bar Camp (http://barcamp.org/BarCampPune2) was back in December.
The next Pune Bar Camp is on 7th July.
(http://barcamp.org/BarCampPune3)
Whoohoo.. cant wait
June 21st, 2007 at 1:03 pm
And yes, TOTALLY agree with you about Khandala / Lonawala in the rains - I LOVE it!! See my Khandala page from the Pages link under the header.
@ Nigel: Thx, didn’t notice. Changed it. Bar Camps sounds good.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:23 pm
now this is odd… I commented.. and that got blocked by teh spam filter!! :?
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 pm
June 23rd, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Do you know that you were in my college campus??
June 26th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Good to know that you liked the Blogcamp Pune.
Thanks for coming to Blogcamp Pune. BTW I missed your talk, was busy running around, the topic was very interesting and maybe sometime in future we will/can discuss this issue again.
June 26th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
@ Tarun: Sure, will be good to meet up again.
July 11th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Hi
Pune360.com is looking for articles from Puneites and also Pune pics.
Let me know if you have anything.
Any feedback on Pune360 will be fantastic.
Regs
Sarika.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I wanted to join this blogCamp as well, but missed this time… Next time!