Will Twitter swallow the blogging fraternity?

Many years ago there came a buzz on the internet in the form of blogging. A lot many people who had the little knowledge of Typing and Emailing became online publishers aka bloggers. They created their own Web url and expressed their views on their site.

By having a blog (Web log) you have a worldwide identity and it is available for free. The kick in this hobby is that you get back bouquets & brickbats in terms of comments to your articles from the readers of your blog site. These comments spice up for the intended networking on the internet.

Some bloggers got to monetize their blog with Ads and many “get rich quick” sort of stories cropped up. Though on the other side, more than 95% of them have still been stumbling to realize any money out of their blogs.

The downside is that, bloggers some times run out of inspiration and get stumbled with writer's block. For some of them, this online hobby took away their precious time since it required extensive research before sitting down to write an informative article.

Why not you publish a short and crispy post?
The fitting reply to this Q, came in the form of Twitter.com which snuffed off the stumbling blocks involved in writing out those longer posts. Make it short, make it sweet. How about typing out your thoughts in less than 140 characters. This has been called the micro blogging or tweeting.

Twitter ~~ What is it?
As Wikipedia tells...
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since the tweets are shorter the micro bloggers aka tweeters were publishing out their posts too often as well as enjoy the fun of subscribing to the updates of their friends. But, at the same time this is taking toll on blogging. Many good bloggers who started to tweet became less involved in churning out any better articles in their blogs. So, is this new concept of micro blogging a blessing or a curse?

Yes, let us discuss



A one day unconference event to bring people together to talk about how to share information in 140 characters is happening at Chennai. The unconference was named buzz140.

When : On Sunday the 21st June 2009 between 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Where : Photon Infotech Private Ltd. Location : No. 2/102, Photon Towers, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Karapakkam,Chennai.

More about the event is here
Directions to the venue is here and here

Participation is absolutely free, though you may not bother to spend US $ 1 towards your lunch expenses.

Oh, did I miss to inform you of my micro blog?
Here it is : www.twitter.com/srinidotme

Catch you at the event.

The Successful Failcamp

The event had been a great one, which gave the opportunity to know the great lessons learnt by the risk takers. For those participants who had so far not taken the risk, it gave the impetus on to know about the stepping stones which will lead to the successful destination. So it was really amusing to have seen such a good meet up which had got its initial birth in the mind of an energetic Namma Blogger Kiruba.
I started my trip to the Failcamp with Virupa giving me lift in his car. We went for the event at 9.00 a.m. The venue is at 6th floor of P.T.Lee Building situated exactly opposite to the great land mark of Chennai, the LIC. The P.T.Lee Building houses more than 5 offices and all of them except the 6th floor is occupied by Government Departments.
Me & Virupa arrived and met Kiruba at the parking area. Starting our way to the Tenth Planet's office, Virupa suggested to avoid the lift and go up by the stair case. Humpf, lazy me had was to take the hardest task of climbing nearly the 100 steps. But we got the chance to see all the government offices upto the 5th floor, which had its traditional look of shabby desks and dirty files lying on the tables. If not for Virupa we would have not got the chance to see these awesome things... Finally reached the 6th floor of the building.
The scene is different here with a tidy entrance and a security person handing out a register to have our details registered.


We filled up the register quickly and eagerly went inside the tenth planet's office to see the attractive office.


The interior speaks out on par with a Five Star Hotel and I needed to turn to left after much gazing of the nice reception hall. On seeing the computers and work tables I happened to recall that I am at the office of a software company if not a five star hotel.

A nice design on the wall...

I understand that much of sweating has gone out from the team @ Tenth Planet to ensure that those participants get the warmth feeling during the meetup.


I think by seeing this you will not believe that this is an art work on the walls which leads to the rest room.


A restroom in par with that of a 5 star hotel.

During the meetup since the talks given by different CEOs were so much interesting.I really delayed going to the rest room for peeing since doing so will make me at loss of missing the session. But this tiny aspect was already taken care of by tenthplanet's CEO Mr.Kumar Mani, he had designed the restroom to include the Public Address System.


Thats the speaker box blasting out the session going out at the main hall of the office.

Astonishing to know of how their work environment will be.

Ohh I really forgot to tell about the Failcamp.
Okay., Now lets see about the meetup...


It started with a breakfast. We had it at the conference hall of the Tenthplanet office. The art work on the walls of the hall was really nice.



The failcamp started with Kiruba addressing the crowd. Came to know from him that this is the second failcamp in the world.


Suresh Sambandam the CEO of Orangescape.com. He gave a nice talk and the participants were astonished to know that he had started his venture in Cuddalore Town at an early age of just 19 years with just only a 12th Standard qualification. He has failed in his first venture and gone for a regular job to learn. After that he has started his own successful company called Orangescape.com.
I am proud that he hails from my town Cuddalore and we both had our schooling at the same premises.
His company Orangescape has got recognised as top IT innovator by NASSCOM for two consecutive years and boasts of being one of the 3 companies showcased as EMERGING companies in the NASSCOM Product Conclave.


Thats Kalyan the founder of quadsgroup.com. His initial experiment has failed since friends were the partners in his company and that those friends had spent more time in flirting with their girl friends than mending for the company. After 7 months of journey he dismantled the business and also lost two of his close friends. His second experiment has come out successfully since he had got a lesson and concentrated more on marketing .


Thats Deepak the founder of Ensemble Technologies. His story is that after finishing his Engg Degree at his native place Erode, he started his business in partnership with one of his friends. Though he was one of the responsible persons in the placement cell at his college he had decided to not try for an employment. His father had supported his wish of starting the business with the condition that he will be given only one chance to experiment, if it fails, Deepak has to then walk on the track which will be shown by his Dad.
He has lead struggling days in his initial 4 years. Though he had not known what is what in business he had the perservance to develop it by any means. After 4 years, he decided to shift his Embedded Solutions to Chennai.
The initial days for him is rather hard with no known persons to give support. With just 1 Lakh Rupees in his hand he had landed up in Chennai and started in setting up a minimal office. He had had the worse case scenario of implementing cost saving right on the daily consumption of his drinking water at his office. To save on the expenses incurred on water can, he used to drink more water in hotels during his break fast and lunch. Thus he had would not drink water from the water can at his office.
Indeed a smart idea on part of Deepak, but its really a hard thing to see that these kind of bitter struggles had gone into the bricks which were used to make Ensemble Technologies into a now wonderful castle.


Thats Deepa an employee of Tenth Planet asking a point to the entrepreneurs. I am envious of the employees of Tenth Planet that they speak out of their desire to be an entrepreneur just in front of their own CEO.

Later I got astonished when the CEO Mr.Kumar Mani himself expressing that he recognizes his employees as an individual entrepreneurs by themselves.
Awesome.
Hats off to you people. Its really a Tenth Planet.
Thats the CEO's artistic cabin. Awesome...


Some of the cubicles had really interesting stuff pasted inside them, which made an interesting thingy.




Virupa the founder of HomePlanGuru.com making a point. The interesting aspect between us is that he is born in my native Cuddalore and now living in Nanganallur, Chennai. I was born @ Nanganallur in Chennai and now living in Cuddalore..

He stresses that most of us FAIL to say NO when we need to say NO. This is an important aspect due to which many of us FAIL to SUCCEED.


Its post lunch session. I forgot the name of the dude giving the talk. He is also from Cuddalore. The more theory he gave out made me more sleepy indeed. Any how the topic was interesting but since its post lunch session, the sleepy tunes set in forcing me to yawn.


Chanced to capture the Chennai's landmark the LIC at its full view on my little camera phone through the glass pane from the Tenthplanet CEO's cabin. The top left corner what you see is a bee hive. The dots are due to the dirt on the surface of the glass pane.


Thats Arvind who dared to innovate while he was doing his college. He started his business with friends as his business partners. Though he was offered US$ 12 Million by a venture capitalist from Hyderabad, due to the problems between the partners, he ejected out of the partnership. Dumbfounded to know that with such a huge sum of money waiting for his disposal he has ejected out of the partnership. Really a great thing that such young people are churning out interesting things on Earth and had taken such a strong decision to be a noble man to make his strings straight rather than taking the money for a ride.






Yep, I was there...


Awesome guys,
Thanks to Kiruba, Kumar Mani, Kalyan ...... You, You & You for making the day a wonderful one.

An unforgettable memory in my life...
Few more pictures at my flickr

Failcamp Starts with a yummy breakfast

I am now at the failcamp venue - the tenth planet office..
Just had a good break fast at the serene office of tenthplanet office.

Fail Camp - Learn to Succeed from other's failure

An unconference to celebrate failure.
I hope such a topic should be first of its kind. Awaiting to get the juice of lessons to be shared by everyone at the failcamp. The response to the participation itself is really great with 100 people registering though the limit was specified as 75. So awaiting for this interesting camp...
The event is starting with a free breakfast at 9.00 am on 16-Nov-08 at Tenth Planet Technologies situated opposite to LIC building in Chennai.

Twitter Meetup at Chennai

There is a call from Kiruba for a meet on twittering at Amethyst cafe in Chennai on the evening of Sunday the 23rd March.
Rather than doing the twits online, it will be nice to have a real life discussion with fellow twitterrers.
Months ago there were news that one of the US local news paper would be using twitter for journalism.
Is this sounding you chimes on your ears, here is the wiki, just meddle in your name and join the gang.
Other side of the twittering is that its bound to devalue you by its addictiveness
Just read here this post by Mani Karthik

My blog post features on Y! Developer Network

It was an excitement for me to know that one of the photos I took on my 2MP Mobile Phone Camera has got featured on the Yahoo Developer Network.
A mention on my pipescamp review at the Y! site tells that its a "Play-by-play" of the event.
coOL!!
Seems that many of the Yahooligans had feast on reading my pipescamp review
The organizers have really put in great efforts in churning this world's first ever unconference on Yahoopipes into a success.

Thank you Mr.Matt McAlister of Yahoo Developer Network & everyone for making pipescamp a brilliant one.

My visit to the pipesCamp

The day for me started at 3.30 a.m. getting from the bed and catching the bus from Cuddalore to Chennai at 4.30 am. The event is at 10.00 a.m. in Koyambedu, the journey is usually of 5 Hrs from my town Cuddalore and as per my plan I could reach for the event at 10.00 a.m. on 23rd Dec'07


Photo taken while my bus is making its way thru the misty day on the ECR, the artistic road in South India.


A nice early morning shot of the ECR (East Coast Road)


I suppose it to be a theme park making a good feast for my mobile camera.

Although the usual journey time to reach Koyambedu is 5Hrs, I am bit lucky/unlucky to reach an hour earlier to the Koyambedu Bus Stand. Its 8.15a.m. and am confused on how to pass off the time till 10.00 a.m. Hmmm, ok pass the time at a eatery, had a breakfast at a small eatery named "Hotel Chennai" just opposite Koyambedu Police Station,
Had 3 pooris for breakfast.
Cost - Rs.10/- (Rupees Ten only)
Too cheap, could not believe, rather its tasty too.
Although I made my process of having the food purposefully slow I finished it at 8.40, Oh what to do, wondered on how to pass the time. Ok, have a slow walk to the venue.
The organisers of pipesCamp had used Google Maps to give the participants the location of the Hotel Shan Royale, so I failed to note down the address of the venue. As per the bubble placed on the map, the location is at the South Western side of the Fruit/Flower market of Koyambedu. I am an avid fan of maps and am so confident of the location which I confirmed the day before the event. Passed my time as well strolling through the busy road around the market. Remember a walk around the perimeter of the market complex (The largest market in Asia) will make you to clock around 4kilometers. While I walked for around 40 minutes and reached the South West side of the market hoping to see the hotel, I was welcomed by the filth and garbage which were the byproducts of the vegetable market. There is no sign of of the name - Hotel Shan Royale, pity me, should not have taken the maps with that much confidence.
Lesson - Should have cross checked before following the bubble placed by our friends on the Google maps
The bubble was placed in the map at a spot 4 kms away!!
Nobody in the area where I strolled into knows about this hotel, a bulb glowed in my head that an error has happened in the map. The only man wearing a T-shirt & pants walked past me...
Me: Sir, I wanna go to Hotel Shan Royale, where is it.
Him:Hotel Shan Royale? There is no such hotel here.
Me: ??
Him: Okay, u should be telling that hotel which is in Koyambedu Circle
Me: Where is it? Could I go by walk.
Him: No, Its more than 3Kms away and u have to catch an auto.
Then I reached the Koyambedu Round Tana thru a share auto and found the place. The time is now 9.50a.m.
Later came to know that a mistake has crept into the maps and it was corrected in the midnight prior to the event by Arun.


Here is the Hotel.
OH God, thank you, I had a good exercise for one hour and finally found the event venue at 10.00 a.m.
The event organisers were there and a short intro with the people there like Srivatsan, Bosky, Arun, ....
Me: Hi I am Srinivasan from Cuddalore
Him: Oh you are blogging at Cuddaloreonline?
(seems that he has already known me)
or
I should have got known since one my blog post got me an invitation from the district collector on the comments section of the blog post. A surprise and it should be first of its kinda in the blogging world.

The event started at about 11.00a.m.


A tee shirt bzz Microsoft .



Ganesh, Ramanujam and Arun Prabhudesai.
Arun is the sole sponsor of this wonderful camp and is churning out Hover.in from his staples named Orange Cube. The product which is expected in the month of February will be helping online publishers and bloggers to monetize their content thru display of customized content based on a keyword of phrase in an intuitive window. He asked me to register at his website but when i tried it is not going through. Hope that everything will be complete in another 2 months time. I plan to implement his product in my jokes blog.


Moyeen and Ganesh. Moyeen has a successful blog on bollywood movies and earning good number of clicks which come solely thru google search.


The event is set to start.


The key organizer Bosky giving out the intro talk. Heard that he was working in Microsoft for some 3 years and has now started his own company.


While the talk on how to and et al of the Yahoo Pipes is goingon, Mahen and Gapp are seen meddling some stuff on the internet. Thanks for the good Wi-Fi available at the venue.


Srivatsan giving out press talk to Divya, reporter at The Hindu.


Although the crowd is moderate all the participants were so much keen in churning out their mashups using the yahooPipes.


A pep talk by bloggers and developers. A good share of information took place at the event.


Balaji Sowmyanarayanan busy at developing a mashup.



Gapp busy with the laptop pc. Probably for getting the first prize in the hacking


Although the Wi-Fi is available, the shortage of lap top PCs have made these guys handicapped and they are found having a discussion of yahooPipes P:)


Moyeen and Siddhi found pichifying their brains for churning out a successful pipe.


MTC bus route mash up taking birth inside Siddhi's head, P:(


Arun and Co busy with a mashup .


Vamsee piping thru day Dreams D:)

With the things going busy with guys developing different kinds of stuff then came a talk by RL.Narayana, Director, Equvia Webservices
Narayanan turned up the tables with saying Mashups are still to come up of age and he gives quotes supporting that mashups do not churn out money.
Time has to tell how far these hacks make the other way to profit.


A summary on mashups given out by RL.Narayana
The full presentation made by him can be pulled up from here on the slideshare

Succeeding this presentation is the developer's delicacy -- the mashups created at the pipescamp

Ego search mashup came up as the first demo in the hackday


Siddhi demonstrating his MTC bus mashup



Labsji modified Siddhi's mashup and created an animated one using the yahoo maps, which made interesting to non-techie guys like me.


Arun giving out his mashup.



Arun: Hey, give me the lap top ya ArrG:(


Sagaro: Pongukeejeema

Arun giving out the talk at the closing of the event followed by distribution of T-Shirts to the hackers and a few more gifted people like me D:)

Oh I was not there in any of the photos taken at the pipesCamp

Mahen clicked me while we came out of the venue.

Related Posts: Siddhi's blog , prabhu's talk
My take
Plus - Good networking with my friends and some new people.
Minus - As I am not a developer I surely be not developing a single pipe.
On the whole a nice experience.