Sunday, July 08, 2007

Bangalore Bloggers Meet Part 1- Prelude to the Barcamp

With two bloggers meet being organised simultaneously (initially, both oblivious of each others existence) the blogging junta found itself in a confounding situation, clearly questioning the motives of both these meets. Nonetheless, this confusion lend itself as an ice breaker for the bloggers meet on Saturday evening, the gathering had a good laugh over it.

Before we were through with that we found ourselves in an even funnier predicament. The venue, cafĂ© coffee day flatly refused to accommodate the overwhelming response we received from the blogging community. As people started trickling in it was evident for an impromptu meet the number was looking really promising. Then we did a little walk to Koshy’s and finally settled at Koshy’s Chill out (yes not the best of places, but we were getting a little desperate after having spent 40mins hunting for a place).

This meet was a prelude to the Barcamp Bangalore 4 (BCB4). So after initial round of introduction, Hari, BCB4 organiser introduced many of us to the Bar camp concept. He further went on to explain that this year a bloggers collective was being introduced at BCB4 and that it was upto us to take it forward. Bangalore Mirror, July 8th 2007

There were a lot of concepts thrown back and forth. One thought in particular that hogged most of our time was how the bloggers need to probably be more socially conscious. Sridhar on that note suggested we start a web NGO. Interesting, the idea could be explored and would probably even get support from many non bloggers.

Also how Non tech bloggers like Sanjukta and myself be given a few lessons about the web and the various tools we could probably use. I agree with this one, I find so many bloggers doing really neat stuff with their blogs and would really like to use a few on my own.

We had reporters from the Times Group - Niranjan & Balanarayan attending the meet besides the following bloggers.

Sanjukta – who also organised the meet
Hari, Prayank, Sridhar, Anand, Sukumar, Ram, Jothi Vel, Amith, Vinu, Cipson (I hope I haven’t missed anybody)

Like expected I was a part of the minority one of the only 2 girls and one of only 2 non techies. However, Hari did go out of his way not make us non techies feel a little more important..

I was amazed how 13 strangers had so much to share and discuss. Frankly, I loved the attitude of these bloggers everyone wanted to use this medium of blogging to bring about a positive change. And in my opinion that’s a great start. Thanks Sanjukta for organising this one

The next meeting on July 21st at Brewhaha will be to freeze the agenda for the barcamp, we are hoping to see a lot more people.

To join kindly edit this wiki page – http://www.bangalorebloggersmeet.pbwiki.com/

I will update photographs once people send it across to me but I have put up what Bangalore Mirror had to say about the meet.

15 comments:

Exotic Gringo said...

Koshy's Chillout is perhaps truly the only place you can chillout without the staff bothering you. And it's not bad really. The coffee tastes just fine, and the hot choc is also decent.

Another suggestion for a future meetup: Brio at Home Stop opp. Garuda - central place and it's open air (so u can make all the noise)!

Anonymous said...

You mean July 21st, no?

Unknown said...

hey Dhivya,

Thanks for mentioning my name. Good to read about ourselves(in print!! ).
Checked out David's blog. Simply awesome. Will wait for his comments on my blog.!
Keep going!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dhivya,
Unfortunately,I missed the meeting (: But one suggestion,is it possible to shift the date 21st to some other date since,on 20 and 21st Proto is in Chennai and hence,many bloggers would miss the meeting.

Thanks.

You can mail me at himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

-Himanshu
(Blogger at http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com)

Balanarayan NT said...

Hello Dhivya,

Nice post.. thats my article there

: )

Bikram said...

Hi Dhivya,
I missed this prelude of BCB4 as I had to info regarding this. :( Anyways, now I'll make sure that I attend the main BCB4. But one doubt .. is it @ Brewhaha or IIM as stated by Sanjukta? I hope it's Brewhaha as it is nearer to my place. :$

Niranjan said...

hi Dhivya, so fast with the update. Fine job. But instead of quoting Bangalore Mirro, you have said Mumbai Mirror and also two reporters from Vijay Times and Bangalore Mirror. Infact both of us are from BM and Vijay Times is now relaunched as Bangalore Mirror. The card I gave was the old one and I hope based on that you must have distinguished. see you in the next meet.

david mcmahon said...

Hi Dhivya,

Great to hear there's a groundswell in Bangalore, where the blogging fraternity is obviously so vibrant.

I would like to reassure you that you don't need to be a techie to be a blogger, or vice versa.

It helps, but it's not paramount.

Cheers

David

gururanganathan said...

hi dhivya,
nice to hear that there was bloggers meet in bangalore.unforunately i was not able to join..by the way which agency you work for???..even me aspiring to be a planner!!!!

Devi said...

Dhivya,
it's really a rocking post

david mcmahon said...

Hi Dhivya,

Just put something on my blog that might have special interest for you, Ramjee and the other bloggers in your group ....

Cheers

David

jovemac said...

hi dhivya!

Thanks for mentioning my name too. Nice to see your blogs with tags. Did Vijay times too carried the news? I hope that daily didnt exist these days...

Anonymous said...

There have been more than one blogger before this. This one was two years ago:

http://www.anitabora.com/blog/2005/05/16/a-marathon-meet/

Hari is wrong about this being the "first" one.

Ajan said...

:(( waaaah!!! mummy! never knew this bloggers meet...will,come for the next one..
But isnt it the day harry potter is releasing??

Renie Ravin said...

Hi Dhivya, I'm not from Blr but - how would you like to join our team at www.indiblogger.in? Maybe we could help each other out!