Promising Local Site: I Love Chennai

G.R.Krishna ("GRK") has launched I Love Chennai, a very neat looking web site and "campaign" for folks who are passionate about this cool (huh!) city.

The web site has some great photos, including as part of the Chennai Photoblog. A good example (of a couple of "machis" on their bikes):

ILC also has an online discussion forum and plans to soon launch "Its our City", "an online PDF ezine" to which "you can contribute articles, photos, writeups, ideas...etc".

A very promising start indeed! I hope ILC continues to keep up the initial momentum. They are absolutely on the right track by making it a community effort.

Long term, I think such a creative and community focused effort can give mainline papers - like The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle (that silly tabloid passing off as a newspaper with its horrible Sun TV ads ), TOI (if and when they eventually launch) - and even the neighbourhood papers a serious run for their money.

PS: Here's my 2-bit for GRK and co.: get the guys behind Bosey on to this platform.

"How RSS feeds are like magazine subscriptions"

A great post by Kaps comparing RSS feeds and magazine subscrptions:

RSS feed subscriptions are quite similar to magazine subscriptions. A subscription shows a commitment to read but there is no guarantee that the subscriber will read it. Both are delivered to you once the stuff is published.

A higher subscription base provides some comfort level to the writer / blogger as he/she knows that there is a committed readership.

Blog comments are like ‘Letters to the Editor’. Accolades are hard to come by.

People who visit the blog directly are similar to people who buy the magazine from the newsstand. This kind of readership is normally seasonal (usually Mon – Fri).

SiliconBeat provides a good model for Indian journalist bloggers

SiliconBeat, a blog created by a couple of technology industry focused journalists at the San Jose Mercury News, provides a great model for Indian mainstream media journalists.

A key feature about SiliconBeat is that the blogger-journalists leverage the advantages of the online medium (including its infinite space and more informal nature) to go beyond what appear in the print.

Especially interesting is the way in which they use the blog as a forum to aplogize for the inevitable reporting and editorial errors that occur in the printed version. This apology to the CEO of Wine.com, along with a clear explanation of why the error occured, is a good example. Please note that the writers don't say "our editorial desk screwed up". They stick to the "we" approach - as in the entire publication.

The SJ Mercury management deserves kudos for allowing their reporters to be so frank about their vulnerabilities - it's something that even several technology idols can learn from.

Such a blog is great branding tool for the paper itself (the journalists often link to "the full story in tommorow's paper"), plus a great way for the journalists to attract sources and tip-offs for new stories. For the audience, it is a great way to learn how journalists operate as well as an opportunity to interact directly with the reporters.

I eagarely look forward to the day when leading Indian reporters follow SiliconBeat's lead.

An economics writer who makes for interesting reading

Businessworld's Niranjan Rajadhyaksha is an exception in many ways including

1. He writes interestingly on economic matters, and

2. He provides a refereshing change to the leftist "economists" who have dominated the Indian media - including unfortunately, the business media - for a long time.

His latest column titled "Tragic outcome of bad economics" is a nice example where he weaves a pattern using three real-life happenings. One of them describes how, in Sholapur district, family members have "bumped off their aged, shown them to be suicides caused by suffocating debts, and then claimed compensation from the government." (If the government incentivices suicides, it reaps murders!)

Government policies that violate the laws of economics often do more harm than good. It could be any of the idiocies that the political class perpetrates: the urge to announce blanket compensation packages, the attempt to buy votes through promises of cheap (or even free) power, or the attempts to block the growth of efficient cash and forward markets for agricultural products. Each can have perverse results - from the misuse of energy to cold-blooded murder.

Pepsi CFO Indra Nooyi gets bloggered

The top item today on the Pepsico web site:

PepsiCo President and CFO Indra Nooyi delivered a commencement address May 15 at Columbia University’s Business School.

In speaking about the powerful role America holds in the world today, Ms. Nooyi encouraged these new business leaders to make a positive and personal difference as representatives of this great country. She used the analogy of a human hand to emphasize America’s leadership position and to ensure it continues as the world’s “helping hand.”

Regrettably, the analogy was interpreted in some circles as unpatriotic or disrespectful. As a result of this feedback, Indra issued a formal apology.

Read "in some cirlces" as "in several blogs".

Here's the text of Nooyi's apology:

A message from PepsiCo's President & CFO, Indra Nooyi
Following my remarks to the graduating class of Columbia University’s Business School in New York City, I have come to realize that my words and examples about America unintentionally depicted our country negatively and hurt people.

I appreciate the honest comments that have been shared with me since then, and am deeply sorry for offending anyone. I love America unshakably – without hesitation – and am extremely grateful for the opportunities and support our great nation has always provided me.

Over the years I’ve witnessed and advised others how a thoughtless gesture or comment can hurt good, caring people. Regrettably, I’ve proven my own point. Please accept my sincere apologies.

– Indra Nooyi

The Times of India has a detailed version of the developments:

In her address last Sunday, the Chennai-born Nooyi compared the five major continents of the world to the five fingers of the human hand. First was Africa -the pinky finger - small and somewhat insignificant but when hurt, the entire hand hurt with it. Next was Asia - the thumb - strong and powerful, yearning to become a bigger player on the world stage. Third was Europe - the index finger - pointing the way. Fourth was South America - the ring finger - the finger which symbolizes love and sensualness.

According to some students who were present at the graduation ceremony and who fired up the issue in the blogosphere, Nooyi then reserved the remaining finger for the United States (and not North America, they say), launching into "a diatribe about how the US is seen as the middle finger to the rest of the world."

They say she then went on to make "condescending" remarks on about America's role in the world and how it is "our responsibility to change the current state of world opinion of the US and make the other fingers rise in unison with us as we move forward."...

... Talking to this correspondent on Wednesday evening, Nooyi regretted that her remarks were being cited out of context on various blogs. She pointed out that the predominant theme of the address was how to advance American interests.

Jeff Nolan, a VC, points out the big picture: the mainstream media had zero role to play in Nooyi's humbling.

if there was any question to the notion that corporate entities should pay very close attention to the blogsphere, this should settle it. Go check out the Yahoo message board for Pepsi (NYSE:PEP) following the ugly commencement speech that CFO Indra Nooyi gave to Columbia's MBA graduating class recently. This story erupted in blogs over the last week, not a word spilled about it in the MSM (nor would there be considering what Nooyi was saying in her speech.) The firestorm caused Nooyi to put a statement on Pepsico's website first suggesting that her comments were misconstrued, but today there is a statement on the homepage expressing that she is "deeply sorry".

"Girls again beat boys in school exams!": A politically correct non-news

It is school results season again. Which means that we will be treated to an endless stream of gushing newspaper and TV reports on how girls have yet again "out done" boys in pass percentages.

I don't have anything against girls or encouraging more of them to get educated. My PROBLEM (read as BIG problem) is that this is NOT NEWSWORTHY!

Can you tell me the last time when boys outscored girls in terms of pass percentage? No idea, right? Then WHY THE HELL is this "phenomenon" which happens year after year after year... considered newsworthy? Why should this be the only area when journalists violate the trade maxim that "Dog bites man is NOT NEWS. Man bites dog IS."?

Can we, Sun TV, The Hindu, et al, PLEASE treat this as news only when boys outscore girls? THANKS!

Should bloggers bother with accreditation?

From IANS (via MSN):

Bloggers to get official accreditation
New Delhi, May 17: If you are a serious blogger, the Indian government may just open its doors to you.

India is in the process of framing rules for granting accreditation to Internet journalists and bloggers for the first time, taking a reality check on an evolving world of net writers who could shape opinion and who have already been granted access to official corridors in countries such as the US.

"We are framing the rules for giving accreditation to dotcom journalists, including bloggers," Principle Information Officer Shakuntala Mahawal told IANS.

The first meeting on this was held a fortnight ago, and more are scheduled in the coming days.

"We want an inclusive policy and we want to complete the process as early as possible," Mahawal said.

First they will be offered accreditation. Then invites for official junkets. Then will come plots in "dotcom journalists colony". And so on. Domestication complete, we will never see a Tehelka-like expose again.

Do we really want this to happen to bloggers?

Biz Journo movements

Vidya Viswanathan, who covers the IT industry, is back with Businessworld after a brief stint with rival Business Today. So is M.Anand, who had earlier joined a different Business Today (a Gulf based publication). Hats off to BW's Editor Tony Joseph, himself a returnee, for managing to attract back these two very good journalists.

Rahul Satchidanand, who used to be with Business Standard in Bangalore, is now doing some very good work (from the same city) for Business Today.