Call for ‘Intro to Blogging’ Content
Update: DesiPundit Wiki added. See below
DesiPundit is slowly evolving as a newbie blogger’s first stop. Although inner workings of blogging are second nature to veteran bloggers, most of the newbies are drowning in the deluge of blog jargon. Right from defining blogging to the extent of the blogosphere, they are left gasping for an accurate picture. Identifying that need, we are calling for a ‘Intro to Blogging’ Content Competition. Read on for more details
We are seeking four articles/posts of no more than 1,500 words on the following topics:
- What’s a blog? (Introduction to blogging)
- Start blogging now (Guide for those interested in starting a blog)
- Tools for Blog Nirvana (listing blog tools like Technorati, Flickr, etc)
- State of the Indian Blogosphere (will be updated every 3/6 months; can extend to 2000 words)
The first topic explains the concept of blogging delving a little bit on the evolution of blogs as a communication medium. We would like it more if you could customize this for the desi blogosphere. The second topic explains the nitty gritty of blogging tools right from free blogging services to independent hosting. The third topic takes it to the next level by explaining in detail the various add-ons, hacks, and complementary tools (Web 2.0?) that add a little zing to your blog. The last topic might be challenging as it requires you to evaluate the Indian blogosphere as it exists today. Feel free to contact several top bloggers as you write this piece and I hope they help you out.
Update: Let us see if we can get a decent writeup with a wiki experiment. Go to the DesiPundit wiki and add in your stuff. Password: desipundit. If the result is better than the entries we get, we’ll go for the wiki content otherwise we’ll still keep the contest running.
You can either email us your content or post it on your blog and send us a link. If you choose to post it on your blog, we’ll cut-n-paste it from there though. Of course, due credit will be given in any case. You can use your existing posts if you want and customize them according to the topics. You can write on all four topics or any one topic. The winning entries will be hosted permanently on DesiPundit so that any newbie can browse through it and get acquainted with blogging.
Now, the prizes. We’ll be awarding $5 Amazon (or any equivalent online store) coupons each for the first three topics and $10 Amazon (or any equivalent online store) coupon for the last topic. Writing a single ‘blog post’ may not have been more profitable, eh? Deadline is Tuesday, March 21, 2006. Winners will be declared a week after the deadline. We reserve the right to use our (’much-debated-about’) subjective opinion on judging the entries. Criteria will be simple easy-to-understand language devoid of jargon, availability of relevant links, and creative writing.
19 comments
MadMan
March 15th, 2006, 2:32 am | #
Why don’t you simply link to one of the numerous guides available on the Net for topics 1 to 3, Patrix?
Patrix
March 15th, 2006, 2:55 am | #
I rather have a pithy customized post in simple language.
Ramnath
March 15th, 2006, 4:26 am | #
State of the Indian Blogosphere (will be updated every 3/6 months….)
Perhaps you should also think of posting the winning entry at Wikipedia. Or may be make that a collective effort right from the begining.
Patrix
March 15th, 2006, 4:42 am | #
Ramnath, that’s an excellent suggestion. Let me mull on that a while and maybe I might have something tomorrow morning.
Chetan
March 15th, 2006, 5:13 am | #
I agree with Ramnath. That is an excellent suggestion. A collective effort on that front will definitely beat out any individual’s attempts at collecting and collating so much information.
Chetan
March 15th, 2006, 5:49 am | #
I would agree with MadMan. A first page on google search has so many good links:
http://www.blogger.com/tour-start.g
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050929/
There’s already excellent content out there. Why reinvent the wheel?
In the same breath, you could also add links to intros on What’s a feed, howto use.
Patrix
March 15th, 2006, 12:30 pm | #
Ok. I guess, a wiki would be a better idea. Check for the update above.
Sudhanshu
March 15th, 2006, 2:05 pm | #
I think these two speeches must definitely be part ot it.
http://lib.ru/STERLINGB/story.txt
http://www.viridiandesign.org/2006/03/viridian-note-00459-emerging.html
Thanks to Cory Doctorow, of Boing Boing for linking to them.
Patrix
March 15th, 2006, 2:10 pm | #
People, all the links are great. Now if only you start writing on the wiki with the help of the links, it would be great.
Chetan
March 15th, 2006, 6:44 pm | #
Lol @ Patrix’s last comment.
Sunny
March 15th, 2006, 9:32 pm | #
Patrix - it’s a bit tricky to work out who it’ll all fit together.
You might want to consider that even wikis are difficult for newbies
Anyway, I’ve made a holding page… will try and write something up over the weekend if I get a chance. At least I’ve committed.
Patrix
March 15th, 2006, 9:43 pm | #
Thanks, Sunny. BTW the wiki isn’t for newbies, outcomes from the wiki will be for newbies.
Aaman
March 15th, 2006, 10:17 pm | #
very good idea, and this can be expanded to more questions, in fact, newbies could put up questions that more experienced bloggers, desi pundits, as it were, can take a crack at
sandy
March 16th, 2006, 5:47 am | #
wish i knew what you guys are talking about. but, then, it’s for guys like me to get to learn. i’ve somehow made it till here , now do i have to go to wiki or rebecca or whatever. i hope i ‘ll learn so that i can have my own spot too, with a little help from you all.
Mridula
March 16th, 2006, 5:56 am | #
This is slightly OT here but I was wondering: How many Indian corporate blogs are there apart from
CNN-IBN
http://blog.tatainteractive.com/
and
http://www.tekritisoftware.com/blogs.php
That is all I know and I am ineterested in knowing what I am missing out.
Deepak Shenoy
March 16th, 2006, 5:24 pm | #
If you really want the answer to all those questions, and in less than 1500 words combined, you will want to read:
http://theunknownindian.blogspot.com/2006/03/intro-to-blogging.html
Manaswini
March 16th, 2006, 8:54 pm | #
How about an Indian twist to category 2? As in - so you want to start an Indian language blog? Here’s how to do so! It would be great to get some kind of a 101 thing up on how to start a blog in Hindi or Marathi or Bengali.
karmadude
March 17th, 2006, 3:24 am | #
I agree with MadMan on 1 to 3, why reinvent the wheel? Plenty of information on this already out there on blogs like problogger.net
sami
March 18th, 2006, 11:54 am | #
i have added some content to the wiki(section 2).
plan add some more in the coming days. hope others would contribute to the same. wouldn’t it be better to first make a small team, create a roadmap, so that the rest of them would have a better idea about what help they can offer.
but wiki is really a very good idea.
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