Delhi: Blog group Vs Blog group
By Techgirl

First there was only the ‘Delhi Bloggers Bloc’ mothership with its happy bloggers zooming around Delhi and NCR ‘connecting’ techies, journalists, photographers and anyone who used the net as a forum to express themselves.  By all accounts, during the 6 year old flight, everyone at the Delhi Bloggers Bloc had fun along the way.

Everyone seems to have a good word for Delhi Bloggers Bloc which has organized a number of high profile, successful events.

But in 2008, a group within Delhi Bloggers Bloc broke away and jumped into the smaller ‘Delhi Blog and New Media Society’ spaceship. The call themselves the Delhi Bloggers.

It seems there is still some bad blood between the two.

On Jan 13, the Delhi Bloggers Bloc blogged about completing 6 years on Jan 13, 2010.

“
The Delhi Bloggers community completes 6 years!
 
It’s been another glorious year in the history of this group of Delhi’s bloggers! It seems like just yesterday when we were celebrating the 5th year anniversary of our group which is still growing, spreading further and hopefully adding value to the lives of all who are a part of it!  .  From my end, it sure has been one hell of an experience which has provided me not just an opportunity to interact with so many bloggers and indulge in so many events/activities with them, but has also directed me towards a new profession altogether! The Delhi Bloggers Bloc completes 6 years on 13th Jan! (It was created after the first ever Delhi Bloggers meet on 13th Jan 2004).

In the past year we have organised some spectacular meets like India’s first ever WordPress camp where Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress & Om Malik, the founder of the Gigaom network, joined us along with a lot of bloggers from all remote corners for India! This was the first such pan India bloggers/social media enthusiasts event to be organised. It was also the first such event where global attention was upon what was happening in the Indian capital, thanks to it being a WordPress Camp being fairly popular events. Such was the excitement generated during this meet that the hashtag of our event (#wci) top trended for the entire 2 days that the event was held for!

Another wonderful meet organised in the past year was the first ever meetup with a politician in India – and who else but the savviest one – a meet with Dr. Shashi Tharoor himself! It wouldn’t be entirely incorrect to state that the entire country’s twitterati and bloggerati was watching our event hashtag to see what was transpiring in this one of a kind unique interaction between a politician & users of new media.
“

On Jan 15, the rival Delhi Bloggers blogged  about completing 2 years

“
It feels like it was yesterday when a group of people felt bored; bored by being a part of so-called blogger groups that only roamed around aimlessly, increased the earnings of CCD, Barista and some other coffee chains, networked with each other and never made any use of it. This boredom led them to do something different, something that no blogger group had ever attempted before. They tried to make a difference.

The risks were high, the stakes even higher. Weathering a storm of hate & cynicism, these brave people paved way for a group of bloggers who wanted to be relevant, bloggers who wanted to rise over the culture of aimless networking and blogger meets. This group of Delhi Bloggers came to be known as Delhi Blog & New Media Society, a group aimed for bloggers and new media enthusiasts who wanted to make a genuine difference.

Looking back at the two years since this group was formed, we can proudly say that we (the whole of DBNMS) have worked hard to achieve this mission and we have done well.

Our achievements are not small, considering the insurmountable odds we have faced. From organizing the first ever blogcamp in National Capital Region to give bloggers a free (free as in thought & beer) & open discussion space of their own, to organizing workshops that taught a lot of people how to blog; on many an occasion teaching people how to use the internet. And not only did we spread the knowledge that we had, we also collaborated with traditional media that normally was averse to blogger opinion, or had just 2-3 default bloggers to talk to. We collaborated with several PR agencies whose clients wanted to take the opinion of bloggers and new media practitioners but didn't know how to. Today major brands host blogger outreach sessions, and DBNMS ensures that the information is not restricted to just 5-6 niche bloggers. As a result, several brands have held very successful blogger outreach sessions, thus benefiting both the brand and the bloggers. And besides the two Blogcamps & several workshops, there are two Twestivals to add to our achievements as well where we tried to do our bit for those in need.

Challenges will come and go. There will always be naysayers and critics, & of course people who want everything for themselves and nothing for the rest, but our commitment will stand! The Delhi Blog & New Media Society will stand steadfast in its beliefs that it is always the community, and not the individual, that matters, a community that every member can be proud of.

A very Happy Birthday to the Delhi Blog & New Media Society. May we get stronger as we grow, may we never falter in our resolve, and may we empower more and more on the way!
“

On the internet, the blog post is mightier than the sword.

(Techgoss had published the following on June 24, 2008)

Delhi bloggers break away
By Techgirl

First there was only the ‘Delhi Bloggers Bloc’ mothership with its happy bloggers zooming around Delhi and NCR ‘connecting’ techies, journalists, photographers and anyone who used the net as a forum to express themselves.  By all accounts, during the four year old flight, everyone at the Delhi Bloggers Bloc had fun along the way.

Most recently, on June 7, the Delhi Bloggers Bloc organized a highly successful ‘Social Media and Blog’ camp at Gurgaon sponsored by Indiatimes. The Online media partner was Tyroo Ads, and the promoters Wordpress and IBM. Another successful meet up in the long list of such events by Delhi Bloggers Bloc.

As it happens in every organization in India, a few people in the Delhi Bloggers Bloc mothership were not happy.  Was it something she said?  Was it something he said?  Was it a clash of personalities?  Was it a clash of ideas?  Was it creative tension?  We will never know as both the blogging groups had a parting of ways with the reasons private so far.  In the Delhi blogging circles, there is talk about people being banned for unethical practices, but no one is willing to publicly discuss the genesis of such disagreements.

Soon, the group of  ‘rebels’ left the Delhi Bloggers Bloc mothership and  jumped into the smaller ‘Delhi Blog and New Media Society’ spaceship.  The Delhi Blog and New Media Society is a not-for-profit organization affiliated to its large mothership ‘Indian Blog and New Media Association’.

The Delhi Blog and New Media Society (DBNMS) also has a number of respected, successful bloggers. On May 24, they held a successful ‘Blogcamp Delhi’ part-sponsored by software giant Microsoft. On June 28,  DBNMS mothership the Indian Blog and New Media Society (IBNMS) is conducting a 3-day blogging workshop at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

Will some bloggers in Delhi attend functions by both blogging organizations?  Will some stop themselves for fear of alienating fellow bloggers.  Divorce is always hard on the children and bloggers.

Respected super bloggers have spoken about the need for peace and unity.  Sadly, I have to disagree as the blogging community needs few more fights and flaming emails to generate enough masala for goss websites like techgoss.  In the interest of gender equality,  I suggest a female captain from one of the spaceship has a twitter war of words with the male captain of the rival blogging spaceship.  May the best blogging group win.

Why should ‘old’ media only have competition and rivalries?  After all whatever ‘old’ media can do, ‘new’ media can do better.

Delhi Bloggers Bloc can be seen at www.delhibloggersbloc.com

Delhi Blog and New Media Society can be seen at www.delhibloggers.in

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, BPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog
http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com/