Offline Meet with LiveJournal-Cyberabad
Hi All
We took our first step in meeting communities this past week, moving towards a bigger, better and more connected LiveJournal experience for its India users. We are all awake to what India seeks from LiveJournal. And with warm and enthusiastic support from our members, we can see ourselves realising this vision.
This weekend we got an ( Read more... )
The recent trend among Indians, ("as also, people the world over) is to gravitate toward online communities. Facebook, Hi5, Orkut, Multiply, Myspace, IMVU, etc. The majority of these communities also support blogging. However, LJ from the start, has been focused toward Blogging as well as community blogs.
Marketing LJ would probably have a better hook on Indians if communities were also given reference. Consequently, communities would find it beneficial to take active part in promoting their communities.
For instance, I would be rather apprehensive about pointing a complete stranger to my own blog. But I would be glad to point him/her to the communities that interest me.
Besides that, Communities usually have a lot more going for them in terms of subject matter and expertise. I, as an individual have a singular perspective and would probably attract only a certain kind of crowd. A community on the other hand would attract people of varied interests and specialties.
People probably enjoy the feeling of "belonging" to something bigger than themselves. :o)
For instance, you pointed out the discussion on campus events. People from say bangalore could show up for an event in some bangalore college or fate and talk to whoever seems interested about why they joined the community and why (more importantly), they should also join up.
This would probably also apply to Interest communities like PETA or SPCA, etc.. Inter-personal bonding would take them a lot further than just advertising their communities on the fray. :oP
Kaydeeyoh!
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also, just yesterday i met psychog and his friends from the trek..and they had so many stories to tell. if they were to write about their experiences, it'd be wonderful..and viral..
not only is LJ a good place for bonding of this sorts, but also..well..a big collage book for community experiences like these..
if they were to form a community based on that, it would probably feed itself continually too..with periodic treks, biking, and what not!
i am being too dreamy here though, but if we were to find out a way of putting this together..it has a good chance of being not only a vibrant community but bringing more and more LJ-ers to the world of trekking :)
This being just an instance...
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psychog for instance, he can't update on the spot, like while he's half way up a glacier.. Why? No connectivity. Even if he did have network coverage, the cost is simply too high! He can't update his journal directly fro his cellphone unless he patches into a UK or US phone line to update his journal. Updating by SMS is out of the question anyway. It costs more than an ISD call. :oP
We don't have the framework or the tie-ups in place in India. And until updating a journal gets easier, people are most likely gonna keep it slow.
Another issue is "Normal people do not like writing about themselves". :( The mere act of typing something scares them and consequently, we have journals with one or two entries and otherwise, forgotten in the pages of history. It's a very non-indian habit, and unless people are getting graded in school or college for the volume of written content, people will likely just avoid the whole thing. :(
Sad, but I hope this changes in the near future.
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