Is a blogger a journalist?

When I was in Barcelona with SIME on May 21, I had the chance to meet a veteran, well acclaimed journalist, Jennifer L. Schenker who is one of the industry’s most respected commentators with over 30 years working for leading publications like TIME Magazine, the International Herald Tribune and Red Herring. Since less than a year she runs her own venture, Informillo.com. And she claimed that bloggers are not journalists. She felt journalism is more about reporting facts and connecting information together without any personal bias, and blogging involves more of the personal factor, and is most of the times personal opinion more than information per se. Some how I felt that bloggers are journalists too since news events are first broken out in the blogs (and micro blogs now) too, and generally digg which could be a decent indicator of things that are on the top of the web mesh for the day predominantly features blogs along with news sites. And when you dig deeper, the word journalist encompasses both a columnist and a reporter. So probably blogging is all about being a columnist, but what happens if you include video bloggers? They interview people and spread information / news too. The intersection between traditional and new media is a grey area, and at least the pundits of the English language would not be a great fan of the cross pollination of the terms and usage.

Biz. Cards: Asian vs European way

Networking: Asians vs Europeans

Asians hand out their business cards with both their hands, and some even bend down a little bit whilst doing so. On the other hand, Europeans flick it from the top of their hand almost with disdain when giving it out. Nothing is right or wrong, but I think the Asians have a higher tendency to get offended if they do not really understand the difference. And it would not be all wrong for you to think that I did not get offended the first time I was in Sweden when someone actually “index-handed” his business card across the table to me, only for me to then realize later that its a cultural thing. And from then on, I follow a hybrid model, give my card with a flick but get the other persons with both my hands. And in general, I find that in Sweden people converse with you first, get to know who you are, and then exchange business cards. Of course its not always the case, but thats what I have observed in many people at least. On the other hand in Singapore and India, people first flash out their business cards, and then start talking about themselves / their business.  (of course those who forgot / do not have business cards are left with no option ) . Again, good networking is probably the later, but I would also call the Swedish model more selective / relevant networking making it more focused, and the stash of cards you bring home are probably all relevant. 

Hint: if you have nothing to begin a conversation with a Swede, start about the weather. It’s the best way to get him / her to start talking.

140 chars only please ..

I have been using twitter  a lot of late (and jaiku before) since is simple, and most importantly restricts you to write within the 140 chars. And so will blogging for me from now on. I am going to write a series of very small posts about anything and everything (that is somehow a flavor of technology, life or my passion) and try to make it more regular. Yes, its more the extrapolated 140 char (or probably 140 words) stuff that should be the house rule (live blogging could be an exception of course), and here is my first attempt on a couple things, twitter style.