When Bloggers Meet – Blog Camp Mumbai Jan 09

Pictures on Flickr

17th Jan was a special day. Not everyday you get to meet dozens of the same breed seated together 😛 . A little nervous initially, being my first outing to such an event. But once I reached there things turned out to be so cool. Yeah when bloggers meet…

I need to mention here that Microsoft was more than just generous to give us a great venue (-cameras) at their Kalina base (thx @hardik). Add to that super fast WiFi and all the geeky infrastructure you can ask for. The event was sponsored by iBibo Blogs.

So what really happens in a Blog Camp? Bloggers from all over the city  meet up and share their vision, experiences and more. The camp is open for anyone to take a small session and speak about anything they wish to.  The entire day is a open discussion. So no formal presentations, no boring lectures and yeah not to forget loads of Coffee, Tea and Pizzas.

BLCM was a good learning experience and an opportunity to meet some of the most experienced bloggers in town. And not always do you get this feeling in a big crowd ‘OMG, all of us think so similar’.  Here are a few things I picked up @ BLCM

Harish Iyer spoke about blogging with a heart and social initiatives that the bloggers can undertake. A kind heart person, Harish has several NPO initiatives to his credit.

After listening to Harish’s session, I would probably redirect my NGO to the blogspot domain. Nischay! See nischay.org and  nischayfoundation.blogspot.com

Also a very interesting debate @ BLCM was about anonymous blogging and people maintaining their personal diary online. Rajiv spoke about his personal blog (url not named by him) and he revealed that he writes there only when he hits extreme end of emotions. His personal blog according to him a personal diary which he doesn’t publicize. However the argument against that was that since you have put it on the Internet, you actually want people to read it. I can relate to such a situation where you post things, but they aren’t meant for the masses but just the close ones. (One reason could be that in a personal diary entry, one often reveals his weak/soft side, and we certainly don’t want any tom, dick and harry to read that and think he can take us for granted whenever he meets us ).

Personally even I refer to my blog as a personal diary and often post things that are too personal. They aren’t always meant for the masses and they end up being password protected after I read it myself after a few days and realize that it was written when I was in a really bad mood.

IdeaSmith shared some amusing events on how she created a fake blog on her real name to hide her REAL blog from being discovered by a colleague. Now thats what I call a dedicated – anonymous blogger. 😉

One very interesting session by Eligible Bachelor left us all rolling on the floor laughing. EB spoke about his 6 dead blogs … and the line I like the most was his opening statement “same old story – geek likes a babe, geek cannot tell her, so geek makes a blog to tell it… “ (yes its EB‘s personal story, name withheld on request). So by the time his blog develops as a natural blog and reaches its target the babe is already engaged 🙁 . And thats not all for the tragedy … 6 yrs later HIS parents reach that blog and ask him who is that gal?? lol

EB highlighted the value of hindi podcasts and touched the soft side of a bloggers heart in a very humorous manner. Dear EB aka Gentle Giant .. you rock! (One of his blogs is www.hurrhurr.com which shows you nothign but weight loss tips so go to http://www.hurrhurr.com/fn/ if you want the real stuff 😉  )

Arcopol Chaudhari made a comparison between Journalists and Bloggers and noted that most traditional media guyz think that Bloggers are second handers who hear things here and there and write about them. Without getting live and first hand info. Thus not taken seriously by many journos (yes the ones moving around with an elephant in their a&&).

Being a print media (DNA) guy himself Arco certainly understands the bridge between bloggers and Journalists. You can read Arco’s Blog here.

Skyn3t spoke about Security over the Internet and Blog security. And if things go right skyn3t would also be speaking @ the next OnlyGizmos security meet held by our own OGz-Harshad!

One thing that I must mention is that Bloggers are Brothers here. BLCM brings together professional aswell as armature bloggers but we meet as friends, friends with a clean heart and the community feeling amongst us. BLCM is the mark of our unity and togetherness. Proud to be a part of this community…

It really hurts me when I meet bloggers in day to day life and see a competitors feel in their eyes. I look forward to invite such a$$h^&*@ to BLCM and change their outlook towards fellow bloggers and develop that community feeling.

Gearing up for the IIT B TechFest next week, I also plan to visit the BarCamp @ VJIT on Feb 1

Update: IdeaCamp2 (Pune) coincided with the BLCM … Bhavya has all that you need to know about the Idea Camp here!