20 Aug 2008
· community-radio
I eat my words. Okay not all of them. But at least the ones in the last blog where I cribbed about the WPC site. It turns out that the site has all the links – just that none of them show up when you access the site using Mozilla Firefox. Or for that matter if you’re using a version of Internet Explorer that is less than 5.5.
Since I am guilty of the first offence (I was forcibly evicted from my comfortable but limited IE existence and made to learn Firefox), no wonder nothing showed up. Apparently its a global malaise - of site programmers not checking their sites workability and usability on browsers other than IE. The irony of a community radio access site insisting on users having the latest version of a software in a country where affording a computer is a luxury of sorts seems to have missed the entire ministry.
Continue reading →13 Aug 2008
· community-radio
Here we are, at the receiving end of a Letter of Intent from the Ministry of Communications informing us that they were considering the possibility of bestowing upon us a community radio license for Gurgaon. Cheers went around, and we then gleefully typed up the URL that we had been asked to visit to register online (http://www.wpc.dot.gov.in/). There was no offline option. A diktat had been passed - all applications had to be done online, followed by the printed version being sent off to the Ministry. Cool. This did not sound too difficult. Except that for the first one hour, the URL just refused to open. Then, suddenly it did. What we had before us was a home page with no links. None. There was a search box on the left, a stream of alert crawling up the bottom half of the page, and some “About US” kind of matter giving us the raison ’d etre of the Wireless and Planning Wing (WPC) of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Department of Telecommunications). Very interesting I’m sure except that we just could not figure out where to go for our online application. Us! An NGO that is supported by a fully-functional tech team! In desperation I called up the officer who had issued us the letter. He sounded nice, sympathetic even. He put me in touch with CEMCA (Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia) which is working as a kind of nodal agency coordinating between NGOs and all the various departments and ministries involved in the gargantuan task of giving licenses for community radio. The CEMCA folks were extremely helpful, and obviously had received plenty of calls for help from other applicants. They promptly took over, filed our application, sent us the sample documents, and pretty much hand-held us till all the paperwork was done.
Continue reading →08 Aug 2008
· community-radio
The NGO I work with (not for), The Restoring Force (TRF), has received the preliminary Letter of Intent from the Ministry informing TRF that it has been granted a license to start a community radio station in Gurgaon. Considering TRF’s existing work in government schools in Gurgaon, especially in the area of career counselling and infrastructure development, it seems appropriate to focus, at first, on this area alone.
Having taken on the demanding yet exciting challenge of getting the radio station off the ground for TRF, I’m dazzled by the possibilities of this medium. When I look at our footprint - of semi-urban villages in Gurgaon district; slum clusters in the heart of Gurgaon’s mall mania; the lower middle class, middle class, upper class, and the super rich flooding the houses and apartments developed by private developers and HUDA - I can think of a million things that need to be said and heard on radio.
Continue reading →08 Aug 2008
· comment
If you were running a bar, would you refuse to serve an underage customer? Would you make systems to prevent the serving of alcohol to children? How about if you sold cigarettes in your store? What about adult content – either in your store or on your website?
What if you were a social networking site? Would you do something to prevent the eight-year-olds from registering?
I know all of these are not exact parallels, but the fundamental idea is the same. For instance, it bugs me no end that promos for late-night adult movies are shown during prime time TV, sometimes even during programming that is obviously aimed at children.
At least to me, all of these are milder or harsher versions of the same ethical question! There is a difference between putting up some mandatory and hard-to-find signs, and actually preventing the underage customers from being served.
Continue reading →06 Aug 2008
· media
I have been using Google Trends for some time now – for work and sometimes just for fun! Trust me it can be fun and educational. You can tell a lot about what is going on in people’s minds and you can even break it down by geographies.
Consider the word ‘terrorism’ for instance. Trends shows that steadily people’s preoccupation with it seems to have declined over the years. Search volume is much higher in India than in the USA. The volume has steadily declined over the last couple of years in the US but not in India. Washington DC and New Delhi are the leading cities in terms of search traffic. But in the last 30 days Delhi and Mumbai generated more search traffic than Washington. Makes sense!
Continue reading →06 Aug 2008
· media
Aimed at stylish women, Daily Candy is being bought by Comcast Corp for an estimated $125 million. According to Philly.com Daily Candy “delivers more than 2.5 million e-mail subscriptions through local editions in 12 key U.S. cities, including Philadelphia and New York”.
Is $50 per “loyal subscriber” a good price?
“We’re trying to build a large presence online as more and more of our customers look to the Web for entertainment and content. Daily Candy fits right into that strategy,” said Sam Schwartz, executive vice president of Comcast Interactive Media. The company said the Daily Candy purchase fit well with its cable television properties, including the Style and E! Entertainment channels.
Continue reading →05 Aug 2008
· comment
It does not always feel like what you may have seen in the movies or on TV. Sometimes it can even feel like a bad case of indigestion.
Interesting story in Guardian quoting a British Heart Foundation (BHF) survey that found that four out of 10 people get information about heart attacks from movies or TV and that can be “dangerously misleading and because of it, many of us ignore the real symptoms until it is too late.”
Continue reading →11 Jul 2008
· media
Most major social networking sites require their users to be at least 13 years old. Anyone who has kids knows that the kids are all over Facebook, MySpace and Orkut. Of course the kids fake it, because they want the ‘social networking’, but don’t have anywhere else to go. And we know that they are at a place they shouldn’t be, and most of us can offer no alternatives…
To create a safe social networking platform for kids eight to 13 requires some doing. I have done the thinking – it makes imminent sense for Pitarato do such a thing – and put it on hold…
Continue reading →29 May 2008
· media
It’s part of my job as the editor of an industry-specific magazine to visit corporate websites in search of company information, contacts, and images. Some companies are large multinational conglomerates with head offices in Europe or the USA; others are much smaller entrepreneurial efforts trying to leverage visibility for their company through the web.
All, without exception, fail to cater to that harried journalist rushing to meet deadlines, and in search of a company logo, or image that can go with a story or feature. Most companies also fail to utilize the power of the web in being everywhere, all the time. Sure, some have a “Press Releases” or “Media” section, with a couple of stories at least six months old. But almost none have high resolution images that can be used with a story. End result, on tight deadlines, the story is squeezed into a tiny newsbrief, even though it could have been taken across a short two-column spread if there had just been some pictures to go with it.
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17 May 2008
· adventures
Freezing temperatures, mutinous children and kindergarten values
Educational consultant Ajay Jaiman, 40, trekked to Chandratal over the Dussehra break last year with three other families—the Bhattacharyas, the Chopras and the Chakrabartis—ranging in age from 7 to 51. Despite a recent heart attack, which has postponed a high-altitude lake expedition this summer, he has not given up on physically demanding outdoor breaks
Click on any image to view an enlarged image gallery
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