07 Aug 2013
· media
I wrote my first piece of code in 1988. And over the years I have abandoned coding for many different things; but I seem to keep coming back to it, like it were my one true love.
In the latest iteration, I started teaching myself PHP and MySQL because I wanted to create a data-heavy, user-editable, personalized website – PublishersGlobal.com. The effort did push the limits of my knowledge of database design and my skills with PHP and MySQL.
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10 Jun 2012
· media
I started CommunityVoices.in as an experimental project to find, collate and share information about community media in India. The first phase is attempting to create a directory of community media in India.
CommunityVoices.in is being beta tested. At this time you can add a community media organization to the database, but the website itself is not ready for public viewing, yet…
Go to CommunityVoices.in
CommunityVoices.in website CommunityVoices.in website
Continue reading →10 May 2011
· media
Through this project I attempt to highlight independent, non-corporate, alternate news media across the world. The aim is to give ‘air time’ to views that much of the advertising-sponsored corporate media ignores. On occasion that some mainstream media gives space to an alternate voice, we try to point to that too.
You might find this site useful if you are interested in listening to alternate and dissenting voices, whatever your reasons. You don’t need to agree with everything you read here. I don’t – it would be a cause of worry if everything nicely stacked up along my existing views.
Continue reading →17 Mar 2011
· media
Is this the future of digital magazines? If the real experience turns out to be even close to how it shows up on the video, I’d want one. That is, I’d want to use this technology to produce one.
More info at Digital Magazines: Bonnier Mag+ Prototype | Bonnier AB.
Continue reading →06 Feb 2010
· community-radio
On Thursday, February 25, 2010, Gurgaon’s only community radio station celebrates three months of round-the-clock broadcasting to a community that has remained voiceless throughout the transformation of Gurgaon from a sleepy cluster of villages 20 years ago to a much vaunted “Millennium City”. The only civil society-led community radio station in the entire National Capital Region, Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is a platform for and by marginalized community groups in Gurgaon, especially communities living in villages in and around Gurgaon, migrant workers and inner city residents for whom the gloss and glamour of malls and glass-fronted office buildings is simply a testament of the uneven development that has taken place in this town. Broadcasting in Hindi and Haryanvi, the radio station is run by a team of community reporters, the bulk of whom are from these very target communities within Gurgaon. The station has been set up and is supported by The Restoring Force (TRF), an NGO that works in government schools in Gurgaon district, primarily in the area of infrastructure enhancement (such as toilets for boys and girls, and drinking water supply in school) as well as career counseling for high school children. TRF is also actively engaged in projects that light up villages using solar lanterns.
Continue reading →06 Mar 2009
· media
This started out as a personal project to document all the wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in India. The idea was to collate and provide unbiased information about parks and what to do, where to stay…
Over the years it has grown. There is now information about national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across most of Asia. It continues to grow and evolve…
Go to World-Wildlife-Adventures.com
Continue reading →05 Mar 2009
· comment
A study in the US has found that “TV ratings don’t accurately reflect the aggressive content found in shows popular among children – even cartoons”.
And what do you say to parents who take their 10-year-olds, 3-year-olds and even 9-month-olds to adult cinema? Not so long ago I left a late-night movie half-way because I found it disturbing/horrific… perhaps a little scary. But mothers with babies stuck to their bosoms stayed on…
Continue reading →26 Feb 2009
· media
Will the new Kindle read bed-time stories to our kids? Can it? Will it? Should it?
TV has proven its worth as a baby-sitter, across cultures! Social networking has effectively come to represent what we do using a browser and not what we do in our living rooms or parks and sports fields… This is a logical next step. Right?
The only loud objection one can hear is coming from the Author’s Guild of America. They don’t have a problem with the product… actually they suspect it may be very good. What they want is that the authors be sufficiently compensated for the audio rights being bundled into the Kindle 2.
Continue reading →12 Feb 2009
· media
Has it really? Is content being devalued because of the current economic conditions or is there a larger trend here? Have the accountant got it all wrong?
Read the Time article “Content, Once King, Becomes A Pauper”
Continue reading →12 Feb 2009
· media
The 2009 Online Advertising Attitudes report of UK reports that “22% of British consumers claim to only visit niche sites that are specific to their interests… A further 34% of British consumers spend the majority of their time visiting niche sites that are specific to their interests.”
Raising questions about the effectiveness of advertising on large portals and social networking sites, the report found that “26% of users never pay attention to the advertising on these sites and a further 36% rarely claim to pay attention to it.”
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