Comments on: Short, Modular Content and Its Impact on Culture

by: Vijay Anand

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 18:33:12 +0000

Not entirely related to Sharad’s post but nevertheless a viewpoint, particularly related to the development of an unchanging core and insular communities.

http://musingbangalore.blogspot.com/2006/12/diversity.html

by: Navin Kabra

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 05:50:38 +0000

You might not yet know it, but the same thing might be happening to communications. A few years back, e-mail superseded letters as the primary form of communication and the the general lament was similar - e-mails are much shorter, and generally the writer has put much less thought into it than s/he would have put into a letter. Now, for many people, IM is supplanting e-mail. But the most interesting shift is happening in Orkut.

Orkut is Google’s social networking community which is _very_ popular in India. Orkut has something called a scarpbook, which is being used by most of its users (in India at least) as a non-instant messaging service. This is a random hunk of “scraps” (i.e. messages) that I pulled out of an Orkut user’s scrapbook.

sweety:
hey koshy….v meetin up on sunday…at 5…east street ccd….pls come…n reply bac…
10:02 PM
11/20/2006

kimberly:
im guessin ur at work! so how’s it goin? i havin loads of fun with sahara! n all thanks to u n hans mike has begun callin me ‘cutie’!!!!!
5:33 AM
11/14/2006

Shraddha:
nice pic!how u doin?
6:37 AM
11/13/2006

Pablo The Poet:
I dont have the Masala Mix cd re… I think either Santi or Vani had it…
8:48 PM
11/10/2006

Note how short the messages are. And also note the times. Unlike IM these are not parts of a longer conversation.

In general, I think it would be a very educative experience for many people to spend some time on Orkut. Everybody in India who is under 25 is on Orkut. And most people over 30 have just a vague idea of what Orkut it. It’s a very different world there. Worth checking out.

by: Arun PC

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 05:08:29 +0000

Sharad,

I feel that there is room for everyone. “Radicalized micro-communities” and “anchored individuals” both of them would exist in harmony. I say this because I feel people will still pay for Gartner and will also use Wikipedia and blogs. With the advent of internet, people thought the Publishing industry would be affected; surprisingly it was the music industry that suffered. Hence, I feel these are still early days to draw conclusions.

Also note that both Tim and you mentioned the word “consumed” and not “purchased”. Both of them have very different implications.

Thanks,
Arun.PC