This blog was born five years back, on March 5th of 2005, in Blogger platform. As it enters its 5th year and social media has progressed so much, there are a lot of alternative platforms (Twitter, Facebook et al.) to express oneself or to indulge in discussions, but still Blogging remains to be my most favorite thing ever happened in the Internet world. Today, I thank to the inventors of this wonderful medium called Internet and I hope this journey will continue to be as exciting as it was on Day 1.

With Twitter and Facebook, some bloggers seem to be losing interest in blogging. Though I don’t understand how blogging can be replaced by FB and Twitter, I see that some bloggers are shutting down their blogs and moving to other web 2.0 platforms or discarding the social media itself. I don’t understand how blogs can be replaced by Twitter or Facebook. Facebook has become too crowded and it’s getting so tough to keep track of the friends’ updates. Twitter has turned out to be a big chat room and it’s only the link/news sharing aspect that I like about it. You can’t use Twitter to blog your thoughts in 140 characters. And micro-blogging has become a farce term, as people use too many 140-character-messages to post their thoughts and it isn’t micro-blogging in the word’s sense (watch this funny video on Twitter too).

But blogging is here to stay, because we all love a bit of individual space, a unique identity of our own in the virtual space. And now the whole noise about micro-blogging overtaking regular blogging is losing base. As one of the blog post title in Tech Crunch says – “Blogging Vs. Microblogging: Twitter’s Global Growth Flattens, While WordPress’ Picks Up“.

Why am I cribbing about blogging now? Because I wanted to take a moment to write about my favorite writers from the blogosphere and why I admire them so much. And they make me want to improve the way I express through a language which was alien to me about 7 years back. Here are those people:

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Dilip D’souza @ Death Ends Fun

A writer par excellence, Dilip uses very simple language to strike a chord in our thoughts. There is no juggling of words that you would need to refer to the dictionary to understand. He also pauses striking questions before us and brings in fresh and original perspectives.

Recent favorite – Ranjodh, Nitin, Jaspreet, Raju

Pritz @ Life is Beautiful

I met Pritz through the blogosphere and she has become a good friend since then. She writes about simple things in life that we mere souls do not usually look at or think about. Simple thoughts about simple things in a simple life. That’s what makes her writing so beautiful.

Recent favorite – A Fairytale

Kuffir @ Kufr

Standing firm and tall for something that you believe in is an admirable quality, which is why I read this blog. Kuffir writes largely about caste, politics, social injustice and issues concerning Andhra and beyond. His points and responses are so sharp yet never vulgar or insulting anyone. You may agree or disagree with him, but you can’t ignore the questions he ask.

Recent favorite – kancha ilaiah on telangana

Joshua Newton @ Josh Cafe

I’m not much in favor of his Malayalam screenplay writing as you must have seen in this blog earlier, but I’ve been a fan of his English blog from a long time. Actually it is through Pritz’ blog that I came to know about Josh’s blog “Reportage”. His blog posts sometimes has a story to tell and sometimes its about human emotions. Whichever it is, his writing will strike an emotional chord in the reader.

Recent favorite – Such a long journey

Vinod Joseph @ Winnowed

Author of Hitchhiker, a much discussed novel, and a regular blogger. Vinod is not the type who shies away from commenting on social and political issues like many of our celebrity writers (humor is many of them rely on for popularity).

Recent favorite – Religious Fundamentalists Stick Together Irrespective of their Faith

Amit Varma @ India Uncut

For the short, simple and witty posts. He has a sarcastic take on almost everything that goes around.

Recent favorite – Dear Shah Rukh Khan

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And it’s not just the text blogs that I like in the blogosphere. More to come in the next day.

Like in the last year, Poonam and team are coming up with the Avant Garde Bloggies Awards for 2009. As she says in her blog, – “Avant Garde Bloggies awards aim to recognise the best posts from your blog. It is an award competition where your entries are voted and judged by fellow, expert bloggers. It is a competition to recognise your blog. And as always, its meant to be fun and healthy.”

So rush your entries now! Check out Poonam’s blog for more details.

Over at Audio India, we are starting a series of interviews of music bloggers. This will help you get to know more of the people behind the voices and their musical journey. Starting with the early stage music bloggers, we are now featuring Murali Venkatraman of Manappathivu. Go ahead and read it.

This blog, titled Just Jo, has just turned 4 years old. The journey has been so interesting so far and I hope that it will continue to be the same. Four years ago, this blog was started as a personal diary. It was then transformed to accommodate music blogging which in turn inspired the concepts like Blogswara. This blog has also helped me to improve my language as well as myself. It helped/helps me to refine myself as I get to write/think on various topics or communicate with people of different kind. And I realized that this refining process never stops and the life online has something to teach us everyday, just like the real life.

I have one question for you though – What is it that you like or hate about this blog? Considering that your reasons for hate or love have helped me to be the ME, I would really appreciate your feedback.

Bloggers and blogging have come to the news again with a Supreme Court ruling on the latest case of Ajith, an 18 yr old blogger from Kerala. Ajith had started an Orkut community against Shiv Sena and the community message board had received messages alleging that Shiv Sena is trying to divide the country on region and caste basis.

Times of India reports on blogger Ajith’s case:

Reacting to these posts, the Shiv Sena youth wing’s state secretary registered a criminal complaint at Thane police station in August 2008 based on which FIR was registered against Ajith under Sections 506 and 295A pertaining to hurting public sentiment.

Ajith then sought an anticipatory bail from Kerala High Court and approached Supreme Court to quash the criminal complaint. But the SC did not favour the blogger. SC bench said “We cannot quash criminal proceedings. You are a computer student and you know how many people access internet portals. Hence, if someone files a criminal action on the basis of the content, then you will have to face the case. You have to go before the court and explain your conduct.” Now the boy has to face the court in Maharashtra, the home of Shiv Sena, and he is afraid of his life for obvious reasons.

One of the main advantages of blogging is that it allows you to express your opinion freely and fearlessly. Agreed that some bloggers misuse this, i.e. indulging in personal abuse, and such people should be brought to law if the offended person decides to do so and if there is a strong case. I emphasize on the word “strong case” because there should not be a situation where anyone can drag anyone to court based on mere allegations. In the light of new ruling, bloggers would resort to politically correct statements, which would not help much in open debates and discussions and it will take out the spirit of blogging and make it function like mainstream media.

Another sad thing is that the court now says that a blogger can be booked for the comments posted in his/her blog. It is true that mainstream media has such laws applicable to them, but blogging does not function like main mainstream media. Blogging is an opinion medium, not a reporting medium and should be kept at that and exceptions of law should be made in that line.

But bloggers are not above the law. Perhaps the discussions on Ajith’s case would make bloggers become more responsible in their writing. By citing proofs/data/references to backup their statements/claims, which is good in the long run for a maturing media like Blog.

Now let us look into what the Delaware Supreme Court (in the USA) ruled in a similar case back in 2005. They reversed a lower court decision that had required an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who targeted a local elected official on a newspaper site. Following were the comments from Chief Justice Myron Steele:

“Given the context, no reasonable person could have interpreted these statements as being anything other than opinion. … The statements are, therefore, incapable of a defamatory meaning,” Chief Justice Myron Steele wrote in his ruling, noting that blogs are inherently filled with opinion.

Steele described the Internet as a “unique democratizing medium unlike anything that has come before,” and said anonymous speech in blogs and chat rooms in some instances can become the modern equivalent of political pamphleteering. Accordingly, a plaintiff claiming defamation should be required to provide sufficient evidence to overcome a defendant’s motion for summary judgment before a court orders the disclosure of a blogger’s identity.

“We are concerned that setting the standard too low will chill potential posters from exercising their First Amendment right to speak anonymously,” Steele wrote. “The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all.”

Now compare this with our Supreme Court rule in Ajith’s case and think about it.

Also read: 100 Essential Legal and Privacy Guides for Bloggers

My Valentines Day special song was an entry to the Desicritics V-Day contest. The results have been announced and I got an honorable mention. Thanks to DC and Templestark for his kind words. This is what he had to say:

Honorable mentions:

Joseph Thomas (Jo) for a song – yes a song!!! (Valentine Day’s Song – Let Them Sleep – that he arranged and sung himself. Top effort. It’s not quite my speed of music but inspiration clearly hit him right between the ventricles.

It’s the first blogger meet especially for all headbanging bloggers – and it comes a day before Iron Maiden rocks Bangalore.

When? Saturday, 14th February 2009 at 4:00 PM

Where? Stones pub, No.303,1st Flr,ashoka Tower, 1st Stg, Indiranagar, Bangalore – 560008

What’s the plan? Have a few beers, listen to some Maiden, and talk about blogging!

How do I register? RSVP at the official meet page, where you will find a link at the top-right to confirm your attendance.

The picture on the left shows a screenshot from NDTV’s website, where they exclusively discusses the topic of moral policing. What caught my attention to this portion is the title of the discussion – A free country? And I couldn’t help but ponder about the same question now on the light of NDTV allegedly suing an Indian blogger from Netherlands. Are we still living in a free country and is our freedom of speech protected?

It all started out with the blogger Chyetanya Kunte (link from Google cache) blogging about 26/11 like the rest of us. And it contained an external reference (from Wikipedia) about Ms. Dutt’s reporting from Kargil. The blogger did not say/accuse anything which has not been said/accused before. But it looks like the folks at NDTV decided to sue the blogger and asked for an apology. What we see now in his blog is an ‘unconditional apology‘ and he has taken down the blog post.

I agree that it is okay to take offense. NDTV or Barkha Dutt is very well within their rights to take offense. But is suing the blogger the way to solve the matter? And suing for what? Drawing an external reference in his post? The media all over talks about the freedom of speech, liberal values and such. Especially NDTV and Barkha Dutt in particular have always talked about such causes in the recent past. But now this incident makes me wonder if all of it was just a business/marketing stunt. We have a lot of pseudo-liberals in our world anyway.

Read the rest of this entry

Book Republic is an alternate book publishing and distribution platform founded by a group of Malayalam bloggers. Their aim is to bring in talented writers to the mainstream and to implement a decentralized distribution system. Their first book, “Nilavliliye kurichu kadam kathakal”, which is a collection of poems by T P Vinod (who writes in the name Lapuda), has been published on last Saturday. You can order the book from www.bookrepublic.in. And their blog is here.