A community in space

http://thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917612117Hoot50241%20PM2441&pn=1

12/27/2006
A community in space


Bloggers in India may be turning into a self-conscious and coherent
force. But the shadow of censorship still hovers.

Reprinted from the Indian Express, December 27,2006


Mahima Kaul
This year saw the baby bloggers growing up. After the Indian
government's ban of blogger.com in July, many bloggers who had till
then been lost in a sea of websites, banded together to try to fix
this problem. Within a week there was an online group created on
google, and about 500 bloggers were active on the forum. Many made RTI
applications to the government. Others posted helpful proxy server
addresses so that people could access their blogs once again. And
suddenly everyone seemed to be talking about them. The mainstream
media noticed this frenzied activity on the Internet and censorship
became the buzzword of the summer. The ban was lifted, but a movement
had been created. Most bloggers now look back at the ban as a good
thing — because it gave them a coherent voice. But they are still
concerned about the government keeping tabs on them.



For the uninitiated, blogs are personal spaces on the Internet. They
are small websites where an individual can write about any subject
under the sun, post pictures or use as a platform to collect
information. "It is a social medium" says Dina Mehta of Conversations
with Dina, "And I think the mainstream media did not quite understand
it. It is community based. You build relationships with other bloggers
as you leave comments on each other's blogs, and that helps you
improve. It is a self-correcting medium and so the good ones become
popular and the bad ones left behind." In fact, many from the blogging
community in India have banded together in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad
and Delhi to meet face-to-face. This October there was a Bloggers
'Unconference' in Chennai and Delhi Bloggers Meet (DBM) started in
2004. A team from the BBC that covered DBM this year was impressed
with the diverse blogs in India. Apart from personal blogs, they found
numerous social-minded blogs, and moreover, bloggers who were leaving
the anonymity of cyberspace to spread this social consciousness.



Many Indian bloggers became involved with a group called Global
Voices, which is based out of Harvard Law School. It is a non-profit
global citizen's media project, which explores how the Internet can be
used to build a more democratic, participatory global discourse. It
tracks blogs from around the world and highlights some of the more
interesting conversations (or posts) for its readers. It also wants to
bring more unheard, ignored, or disadvantaged voices into the global
online conversation, and this subject was discussed in great detail at
its Delhi summit in December. Mehta explained, "The idea is to go into
rural areas and set up a pilot project. We want to get the villagers
to keep an online diary where they can talk about their lives. But we
are still planning it out."



A similar idea struck Sanjukta Basu, an active blogger, and with her
friend Swagat Singh she started the 'Bloggers Outreach Programme'. The
idea was simple. "Mainstream media is limited whereas blogging is
limitless. It is not an elite concept — and if we could just introduce
people to it, teach them how to blog and encourage them to write about
social problems etc. we could spread more awareness about issues." She
invited students and social workers and is happy with her first
attempt. She is planning a series now, but also needs funding.
"Blogging is a more effective medium that is coming up as an answer to
the mainstream media and it is breaking the journalist's privilege.
People use blogs as an alternative to news media. In India it is not a
substitute at all; because of their editorial slants and distinct
points of view, they appeal to people." And she is right. Most people,
after finding out the news, seek blogs to read an analysis.



However, at the close of 2006, blogging still remains largely in the
hands of the tech-savvy. MSN surveyed a random sample of Indian
bloggers — official numbers in India are not known — and found that 85
per cent of them were under thirty-five. The majority used blogs as a
medium for self expression, while the others for entertainment.
Personal blogs are the rage with the younger generation. And if you
thought there was no money in blogging, consider this — a Delhi
journalist who kept a blog about her life became so popular that its
fame spread across India and Penguin offered her a book deal! However,
the more serious bloggers have been putting their heads together to
try and understand how the phenomenon is developing in India.
Questions at DBM up for research ranged from 'personality of the
blogger vs personality of the blog' to 'translating blogs from
regional languages to English' and 'comparing the Indian and Pakistani
blogosphere'.



But one question, that of censorship, still hovers above everyone's
computer. Reporters Beyond Borders credits India with more media
outlets than any other country in the world, but it also criticises
the government for regulating online activity with disregard to
individual liberties. While it attempts to tackle cyber-crime and
cyber-terrorism, the rights of the Internet user suffers. But as this
year has shown, a blow to the blogger is a blow to not just self
expression but a new form of social activism. And a free, democratic
country like India cannot afford to hold back the not-so-baby bloggers
again.


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