27 Aug 2008
· community-radio
The Telegraph has just run a story on the Birsa Agricultural College’s radio station that was launched in March 2008. Seems that the college is so enthusiastic about the response, they now want to set up 21 community radio stations across the 21 Krishi Vigyan Kendras in the state of Jharkhand.
The report quotes BAU director R.P. Singh Ratan who said, “The objective is to ensure that farmers in all these districts are constantly updated on agricultural procedures, the latest farming technologicies and even made aware of climate changes and pest attacks.” You can read the full story here.
Continue reading →22 Aug 2008
· media
Is there such a thing as book or magazine publishing 2.0? Perhaps there is a need for it. A lot of smart people are trying – some smart ideas and some not so smart. Which is which? I guess only time will tell.
To begin with, things that have displayed some degree of success on the web are being applied to the traditional format: aggregation, verticals, user-generated content, social networks, popularity rankings…
Continue reading →22 Aug 2008
· community-radio
A great example of community news broadcasts comes to us from a little village in Manipur, where some villagers have got together to do a daily morning broadcast of news culled from local newspapers. No radio, no license. They simply use a microphone, four loudspeakers and very crude PA system. Such is the broadcast’s popularity, that the villagers have taken to structuring their lives around the broadcast. Read more of this PANOS Relay feature here.
Continue reading →20 Aug 2008
· media
As products proliferate marketers will research and find the smallest niche available. First videos, then Tv programming and now 24 hour channel dedicated to babies under 3. In-womb will be next! Or is it already out there? Fortunately there are pockets of sanity – see this Associated Press Story
France’s broadcast authority has banned French channels from airing TV shows aimed at children under 3 years old, to shield them from developmental risks it says television viewing poses at that age.
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 →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.
Continue reading →12 Sep 2007
· media
I just noticed (accidentally) that I am ‘connected to’ Barack Obama, US Senator and Presidential Candidate through three different people. Talk of six-degrees of separation! In the world networked through LinkedIn, Plaxo and others, my guess is that it may not be six any more.
BTW: If you haven’t been to Plaxo recently you should check out their new interface and tools.
Continue reading →03 Sep 2007
· media
I came very close to participating in a scam executed by an India ‘social networking’ site. Unwittingly, of course! It started when I received a mail from a site called yaari.com:
‘xyd wants you to join Yaari!… Is xyz your friend?… Please respond or xyz might think you said no’
Normally I completely ignore such messages, but this time I did not. Why? Firstly, I was curious (media has been giving some play to this site), and the curiosity was heightened by the fact that the company is named as Yaari LLC, and provides an Atlanta address on the invite. Then of course, I was curious what my good friend was doing on a site like this, perhaps there is more there than apparent from the name.
Continue reading →