Mumbai BlogCamp: Campus Conversations & Unconferences
 A quicky-quick post about the Mumbai BlogCamp. Firstly, how many of your read about it here and decided to show up? And if so, why didn’t you come talk to me??!!!
Sakshi and I pulled into IIT, Powai around 11, with a late but not dramatic entry since we walked smack-dab into the crowd dispersing for a break after the introduction. The lovely Meetu and my Twisted friend from Pune had made it on time, much to my mortification.
I sat through Rashmi Bansal’s talk about her blogging experiences. Some people just have a talent for communication! She didn’t say anything I didn’t already know but the audience was spell-bound. It was a nice round-up of what blogging is and what it means to the blogger.
This was followed by some discussions on security and tips to be a good blogger. I didn’t come away much impressed with either though I get the feeling the first talk might have been considerably improved had the speaker been given a chance to speak. Ah well, being an unconference speaker might mean you have to be much more aggressive to get your point across.
Aditya Mhatre gave a talk on podcasting which I thought came through very well. The audience seemed to think so too and I hope Indicast gets all the new voices that Aditya asks for!
I was rather overwhelmed by the ‘commercial’ direction that a lot of the talks were running along. Blogging has been a deeply personal experience for me, one of free expression, of venting, of relating and of sharing. I like money as much as the next person and would have no qualms about getting some extra (I do run ads on this blog after all). However I think if I start thinking numbers..stats, feeds, visitor count, search optimization etc, I’ll lose the essence of this blog. But that’s just me.
Lunch was a friendly affair, on the steps with people milling around and drifting in and out of conversations. It took me back to the college days, right from the back-bench-sniggering and the timetables. Skipping a few talks to sit on the steps with some co-vella-ites felt like cutting class. Not forgetting the inevitable eyeing of the opposite sex and sitting through one talk simply because said person was in the same room (Nope, ask no questions and thou shalt hear no lies!  :wink: )
I really enjoyed the Twitter talk that was started by Aalaap and taken over by the booming-voiced Hephail. Some of the other tweeple chipped in, from behind them or from the audience. And true to essence of micro-blogging, this was one of the shortest talks (20 minutes at my estimate). It was good to put a voice and face to each of the people I’ve been talking to these past few weeks on Twitter. My enthusiastic exclamations of “You’re so-and-so? I follow you!!!” prompted aalaap to smirk,
That’s your favorite pick-up line, is it?
Meeting other bloggers has always been an interesting experience and this was the biggest congregation of bloggers that I’ve ever been to. I’ve lost count of all the people I spoke to but I was particularly happy to meet Ranjan and Moksh.
You can read some of the other accounts of the barcamp by:
Ankit Arora: Top Indian Bloggers gather at the BarCampÂ
Tarun Chandel: Power of bloggingÂ
Deep: BlogCamp Mumbai-How was it
Brajeshwar has the photographs online.
Watch this space too; it’ll probably get updated by one of the contributors soon.
And finally, here’s what the media thought. (See you can spot yours truly!)
~O~O~ I call myself a chronic thinker. A few centuries ago, I’d have been called a Thinker. Or burnt at stake for being a witch.
My degree is my passport to the world of respectability. I moonlight as a troubled poet, a warrior princess and a closet sorceress. I am all of these and yet none of them is all of me.
All I was born to be really, was a story-teller. Scheherazade, Galelio, Cleopatra and Salvador have passed through. This time round, just call me IdeaSmith. Read more ideas
Prasoon on 
Ratz on 
Avantika on 
Shantanu on 
Dileep on 
March 31st, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Spot on. Money is fine to dine on but I can’t believe that blogging for revenue won’t ever skewer up quality, at least on originality.
It can only dilute the essence of what blogging is. Incidental revenue is fine, else discussion will invariably veer off content!
Anil’s last blog post..A Sacred Confluence and Serpents in Stone
April 1st, 2008 at 12:10 am
“…why didnt you come and talk to me?”
You really want people to give you reasons in public?
Cool, so now you are in the papers… all celebrity n stuff. Next time we meet, you are paying for the drinks n food
April 1st, 2008 at 5:23 am
okay how does one make money out of blogs? and why dont i know about this. and allthese years ive been writing fo free. bah!
man, i wish i was here instead of sitting and working in office.
Cynic in Wonderland’s last blog post..The Dearly Departed
April 1st, 2008 at 6:33 am
Pleasure meeting you. Now that i think of it, I never felt I was meeting u for the first time!
Ranjan’s last blog post..India’s first eBook on personal finance: Monday is Moneyday
April 1st, 2008 at 2:29 pm
@ Apoo: Talk to my agent, dahling…I don’t talk to SmartAlecs.
@ Cynic: Some stuff about SOE and MadSense that went all over my head! Yes, I wish you had been there too!
@ Ranjan: Likewise! Only wish we’d had a chance to chat longer.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 am
[…] what Deep, Aseem, Ideasmithy, and Jim Karter thought of the […]
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
[…] out accounts of other super-blog buddies - IdeaSmithy (made a splash in DNA as well), Meetu, Deep and […]
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
[…] IdeaSmith, a fellow DesiPundit was at the event as well along with Meetu. Brajeshwar provides the photo coverage of the event. […]
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Nice to find your space… This blogcamp has certainly added a lot of blogs to my subscription list… not to mention yours too! Maybe at the next blogcamp we could get a chance to interact. Good luck!
Aseem N’s last blog post..A journey from Goregaon to Mount Mary Church, Bandstand
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 am
Ha…small world. I met Moksh at a b’day party; but Moksh would have to have a razor sharp memory to remember me!
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
April 8th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
[…] my mid-morning snack break/browse that I bothered to scroll up. Heh! Featured Desicritic? First the DNA article and then this? Ooh la la…the spotlight seems to be in love with me this […]
April 27th, 2008 at 4:00 am
Arre baba, its not “IIT, Powai”. Then we will have IIT, Matunga and IIT, Chandivilli coming soon… This is a pet grouse of many who live/worked in/attended classes at the campus. IIT Bombay it is (not IIT Mumbai neither)
Shalom!
Rishi’s last blog post..Before my time…
April 28th, 2008 at 1:16 pm