My fellows my wings!

This is abiography of my friends in the sky..with wings and beautiful eyes....Pigeons! The peacemakers!
they love to fly and fly high.This is their story and our story..as they see us from the sky and as we see them from the ground..Our stories..

Think Street Dude!

This is a slide show about the streets of Delhi..Old Delhi in India..it captures the narrative of the lanes and by lanes of the narrow and dark and historical indian space..with its own vibrant nerves and bright skin, and restless mood.Its the city's busiest corridor..humming and humming..it own sonnet of work and leisure..

My video post: This is a brief biography of my work.

My work with spaces and people in rural and urban India.It includes my encounters with different cultures, development sites and issues offering immense challenges with which I navigated life.

Video Cast!

My video is story of an American Professor of Intercultural Communication, and her transition to a new culture.It includes a small conversation with her family and candid shots of her while she navigates and waits for a new life..

Web 2.0: Difficult interactions,Happiness or Hype?

Web 2.0 has provided for a kind of interaction that comes with ease and fun. However, this ease is dependent on internet access and hardware support, which still seems elsusive in many countries and even more elsusive in certain groups such as those who are disabled and older.But this has been a case, historically.It will be unfair to give any final verdict about how and what form can Web 2.0 may take to help and suport these groups.Few things take time.It took several decades for the trians to be accepted as a mode of public transport.Trains were initially used only to transport material but later it was adapted to transfer humans.Plane invetors were termed as insane when they first thought of flying.Gas took decades to be accepted as domestic fuel.And so on.In all these examples the key is the adaptability of the technology, which Web 2.0 may also experience to cater to those who are excluded from its benefits and usage.

Web 2.0 appears to be more polular amongt the rban outh.But I am hopeful that it is means to an end and not an end itself.It has the potenial to take new forms to address all groups including the disabled and the old.

Almost all technologies are lanuched and then are adapted in to new forms and usages for new set of people.Web 2.0 is devloped for specific people in a specific location with certain requirements such internet access, language skills and so on.This is done by one set of professionals.But often there are new set of professinls who specilize in adapting the existing technologies for people who are unable to use the existing technology in its original form.This has happened many times;screen reader followed internet and personal computer,motorized wheelchairs followed motorized carts,braille came to kill the dependency of seeing to read and so did the software called JAWS which visully challenenged people use to read the computer text

I therefore will remain hopeful of Web 2.0 becoming more enbled for the excluded groups.With screens readers and audio technology, and the ease of use, cetainly older people and visually impaired are already not feeling hesitant to use web 2.0.It is only a matter of time when web 2.0 will adapted for all. The growing popularity and research interets in the field will lead to more development for the inclusion in the new technology.

Lets be 2.0 Hopefuls!!

Creativity expo in Ohio University

This was truly a space to ponder over! Students were presenting their ideas at the desk while food was served on adjoining desks.. Brawl and brain within few yards!

Students were presenting their project-ideas while visitors including the professors, were conversing and evaluating the projects.Project-ideas and presentation ranged from academic research on Media-representation of women to more methodology and grassroots work such as Micro-finance project with Kenya's rural communities, to amendments relating to the role of the American Vice-President.Yet another set of presentations were on research methodologies and study of informal education in African countries.

But one project that interested me most was the one called "dancing in silence".This is the project that uses performing arts to work with deaf.Dancing is used as a way of expression.music is inherently being used with dancing and bith seems to imbedded in to each.but this is the conventional form.The uniiquesness of the project is the the new way of looking at a form and creatinga content that will be helpful for those who marginlaized in regard to the performing arts.Projects trains and performs with deaf pwople, who dance "in silance" meaning without ant bachground music.

This was fascinating and I think such endeavors are not only novel but also contain in them a strong sense of purpose, which is one the key things but is often seen missing in the academia.It was a relief to see a student seeing the unseen, the marginalized people and using the a popular form with available resourses to help them perform the new roles of lives!

In the midst of life: My Portfolio

This is my work with spaces and people in rural and urban India.It includes my encounters with different cultures, development sites and issues offering immense challenges with which I navigated life.

Gaza In American Heart

This podcast is a small dedication to the spirit of people of Gaza through the words of an American singer,Michael Heart and through the lived experiences of an American farmer, Art Gish and his wife,Peggy, who went "out there" to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people in pain of conflict,war,greed and injustice..

Together they stand and together they fight.. And together they Shall Never Go Down! I hope we stand with them too..

Podcasts: Way to go!!

Pod casting is the answer to the fast-paced-fast-food-hurry-sick -mad-rush work culture that is a part of an average life in a globalized life.There's always a lot to do and there's never enough time.TV programs, Radio shows and internet videos are all expanding at unprecedented speed both inform and content.Its crazy to keep track of everything. That's where podcast come into picture.They allow archiving..organizing and retrieval at- any-time.Plus they add a new dimension by allowing comparison of the old with the new!

Podcast are more effective with discussions, lectures and tutorials.for such genre always need to be referred back for the details or analysis.

I have been viewing/listening podcasts on Academic earth and TED. They two allow me to keep myself updated about the new discussions, new technology and new debates in academia and in design and technology world. I also often listen to NPR to pick fresh perspectives.Certainly all this keep me more confident and on my toes when I write about them in academic pursuits.Plus they help me when I look for internship positions, participate in conferences and when I appear in interviews .They are a cool learning devices and are capable of provoking new debates and reviewing issues in new light.

Media providers get constant feedback and are able to track the popularity and public- interests of the themes they provide while audience are able to make regular comments , demand new content and provide their own insight to what they see, thus creating a new level of engagement and interaction.This is true communication and indeed a new wave, which go a long way!

JournalisticBlogging: Possible?

Blogging has all the form of journalism but I think it does not have the full content of journalism.
As John Pilger, an award winning foreign correspondent of ITV says," It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and myths that surround it".

It is imperative for the journalists to know not only the message and its real agenda but also the method in which the message is communicated and its resulting impact.
All this needs professional training and deep insight.Blogging is far off from any kind of training.it is at best a place for opinions.As Raynsford writes in his article that blogsphere has its own "weather system".

This system has its own units.I agree with Raynsford when he says," Blogs tend to be highly personalised - an online stream of consciousness".

In this personlization, blogging often loses that objectivty that is the backbone of journlaism.It is therefore not fait to equate blogging with journlaism, which requires not only the personal expression of reaction to events but deep understading of underlying poltics and investigative pursuit to go to the core and dig out the truth.Despite the falling stnadrds of maninstream journalism, which is now dominated by media-corporate and Page 3 reportage, priciples of journalism still remain the same.Principles can never be judged by practice.It is true that that way journalism was practiced 200 years ago , as the aticle Is blogging journalism? says,is not same as it is today nor will be same in future.However the point is not the praxtice but the priciciples, which has not changed and is unlikely to change.



I believe that citizen journalism has added a new dimesion to the exisitng body of journalistic practice and has helped both journlaism and society.It has added a new voice and anew perspective, which professional journalists should take seriously for further investigation.Citizen- journalism is cabable of providing new vantage points, locations and fresh point of views which may not be under any pressure and can often be classifed under" free voice".This can lead to new stories and orginal investigations by those who are appropriately trained.

Blogging will continue to create a more vibrant space of conversations,discussions and will continue to question any kind of media status-quo.This is a good news and I think it will stay.
Institutional blogs and blogs of mainstream journalists speaks volumes of the potential that blogging has in it.Blogging, therefore has added more to the traditional ways of journalistic distribution by making it avaible to the instant feeback of the general public, who can post a comment immedietly.Thus blogging is now performing a balancing act for the traditional journalistic modes and distribution.i think this go on and will continue to maintain a good segregation between what is journalistic-work and what is journalistic-junk

The new way to maintain my writing as blogs and make it available to a wider audience across the world at any time and day has made me more confident and agile in my opinions and expressions.I keep myslef more updated and abrest with what i write , read and express.
I feel more empowered, more reached and more heard and at the same time I feel more responsible as a blog writer and hence more cautious in terms of my fact-checks.It is sharpens my critical-reading skills, and objective-writing habits.

Tim O Reilly's Web 2.0

I think Web 2.0 is a social revolution. It’s a new way of how people are engaging and will continue to engage with one another in the future. They are significant because they fulfill a very basic human need, and a very basic human urge; the urge to communicate and the urge to share. Due to their ability to create participation amongst people, Web 2.0 will have an immense impact particularly in the globalized age where work-culture is becoming increasing global and needs workers to spend a major chunk of the it time at work place. The definition of workplace, however, is no longer restricted to a physical space away from home. Globalized workplace is now increasing concentrated on internet and telephones devices such as blackberries and laptops, which provide radical work-mobility. Work, therefore, is no longer away from home and personal domain. It is right in the midst of it. An investment banker sitting in India with his family watching a comedy show with laptop connected to internet may be “at work” as he’s suggests the new investment portfolio to an investor in New York. I agree with Tim O'Reilly when he says that the phones would the dominant future devise and that personal computers would have a very restricted usage.

As a student, I use Web 2.0 applications on daily basis. Sharing photos through Facebook and Flickr with my family miles away from here is an integral of my daily communication. Without this, my day is incomplete. Besides, without Linked- In connectivity my daily professional networking and communication would never have been so vibrant and expanded.

I am sure that the future format of communication will be based on Web 2.0.However, as Tim O'Reilly suggests the exact nature of this communication format will not be easy to predict. This I think is due to the fact that this technology is being penetrated across the globe amongst people and organization with tremendous diversity and culture. This diversity in the users will produce the diversity in the nature and format of the usage. Without any doubt, it will vary from region to region. In traditional societies like Asia, for example internet is gaining popularity in establishing serious, long-term social relationships such as marriage through matrimonial portals with paid memberships. On the other hand, in the West, given its culture, the usage is producing different kind of social norms such dating and virtual friendships.

I also think that web 2.0 will produce several categories of people as its users such as personal users and casual users who would use it merely to connect with others, while others such professional users and institutional users, who would use it for professional enhancement and marketing products, services and/or ideas. This is already happening, but, as Tim O'Reilly, point out, people will get used to new formats, there will be more diversity not only in the ways people will use this technology but also in the demography of those who will use it.

I personally see an immense potential in these applications offered by Web2.0 in resolving social issues in the rural spaces of the developing nations where most of the social problems are concentrated. An inexpensive participatory technology provided though an easy- to-use device such a phone can truly empower the marginalized communities with the provision of timely and appropriate information, the lack of is presently is the primary reason of their marginalization.

Notwithstanding its reach and potential range to benefit people, the concern that the companies using Web 2.0 making implicit use of the data of the people for commercial purposes cannot be ruled out. The recent debate over Facebook intending to own the photos of the profile-owners and having explicit rights can be seen as one of the many potential threats. Tim O'Reilly’s clearly points out the explicit and implicit users in his talk, and it is clear that companies will have an access and freedom to use the Web 2.0 I in ways which are beyond the obvious use and visible purpose.

Yet there is no doubt that process of usage of Web 2.0 will evolve gradually and as it does, with its immense potential, it will not only entertain but will also enrich! And it some cases, it might even hurt!