Amit Verma posts on the Shiney Ahuja situation, and at the end points readers to some rediff.com comments. Hers is the comment in question:

i thoughted that he is a good persun and his name telling that he is shiney persun. All pepuls are spradening baddy things about him. No oned talkied about shakeete kapeur and guldshand geiver. Why?

I absolutely took the comment at face value but went down a little further and found another one by the same user:

how i killing you with simpule engleesh? are you goned maddy ? to killed you need guned, kniefe, hamur, stoned. howe simpule engleesh killed you?

As soon as I read this it clicked. Poes Law. Its an old internet rule that states:

Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.

I think we need to have a rediff commenter specific version of this law. On reading rediff comments I think we can simplify the law as well:

It is IMPOSSIBLE to recognize whether or not rediff comments are parody.

I think we should name it the Bala law in honor of Ajit Balakrishnan without whom we would not be blessed.

And for anyone who is willing to try and figure out if the above commenter is for real check out Halakus Comment Page.

Ive been a big fan of Vir Sanghvis writing for years, and am glad to see he is one of the first prominent Indian Journos to dip their feet on the web.

However I am also terribly disappointed in the technology of the site, not the content but the technology. I am no open source zealot, most of the work our company does has Microsoft technologies behind it and I’m a big fan of the .NET platform in general. However I do also believe that every job has the right tool, and in this case by using a .NET based CMS Vir Sanghvi has done himself a disservice. Based on the sites content an implementation of WordPress or Joomla would have been much easier(and dare I say much less expensive), and provided the content in a far superior way.

Some specific problems:

1. The RSS feed is just wrong. The data in the feed has nothing to do with the page linked to.

2. The next page link uses an AJAX control that does not take you to the top of the next page.

3. The form for Lets Talk does not work.

Lets hope these are teething issues, but my experience has been that for content focused sites Open Source CMS’s do a better job.

UPDATE:  An email id has been provided. savemumbai@in.com
Email this address with in case they need to show citizen support in court.

There are a lot of questions being asked about how the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai could take place. Most of this seems like noise rather than any sort of concrete measure to improve security. A friend of mine has been involved with a PIL that is asking for an accounting on why numerous police modernization initiatives have gone nowhere. The Society of Indian Law Firms(SILF) and the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry are both involved as well.  In my mind this kind of PIL is far more productive than the abstain from voting, tax revolution, bomb Pakistan nonsense that is being forwarded on the internet and over sms’s.

The filing of the PIL got some coverage in the press but not enough. Here are some articled from Mint, Indian Express and DNA. This is not the flashy emotional appeal that the majority of the press seems to lap up. This is a substantive series of steps we would like our government to take and consequently the amount of coverage is limited.

My friend has asked me to help get the word out, and try and get as many people as possible to sign up here.

So what can you do?

First and foremost I would appreciate it if you could pass this message on as far and wide as possible. The more people who sign up for this the better. At the bottom of this post there is a little share this button. You can use that to email this post, or share it with anyone you would like to. Pass it through facebook, through orkut, through twitter anyway you can think of getting this in front of as many people as possible. There is a forum on the website www.abillionhands.com Its not very active right now but maybe we can change that.

Next step would be to take this out of cyberspace and into real life. I have some ideas for things we can do, but lets see how many people we can get to work on this.

If you would like to read the full text of the PIL you can download it from here.

Below is a Background Note about the PIL.

It has happened before and it could happen again. Mumbai has been attacked by terrorists over 15 times in the last 2 decades and by virtue of it’s position as the country’s financial capital, is a prime and vulnerable target for future attacks.

26/11 has yet again exposed the many weaknesses in Mumbai’s security systems. The audacious attack on 2 of Mumbai’s leading hotels and it’s key railway station has led to a tremendous loss of civilian and police lives and great damage to property. The anger and anguish amongst Mumbaikars is palpable. This time it cannot go to waste – it has to be channelised towards effecting constructive change for the City.

Mumbai has a more than 16 million strong population and just 42,000 policemen & women. Festivals, floods, fighting crimes and terrorist attacks…Mumbai’s brave police men and women put their lives on the line everyday. They help keep the wheels of India’s financial capital turning – but what have we done to help them?

Now the Society of Indian Law Firms, that represents India’s leading law firms, supported by a large group of leading business personalities in Mumbai and the Bombay CHamber of Commerce & Industry believe it’s high time Mumbai did something for it’s Police.

PIL : WHO & WHY?

- The Petitioner is the Society of Indian Law Firms supported by a group of concerned Mumbai citizens and business leaders from the City. On Thursday, India’s oldest chamber of commerce, the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry joined the PIL. The Bombay Chamber has over 2000 member companies. It is for the first time in the Bombay Chamber’s history that it is backing citizen action of this sort.

- More training, modern equipment, better coordination, enhanced resources and an elite force that can deal promptly with terrorist attacks – the solutions are all known, discussed and debated. In many cases the State has even promised to implement measures to help better equip the Police. But little has come of it.

- Now the only option is to seek Court assistance in ensuring that all measures are taken to assist the Police in being better equipped to deal with the threat of 21st century terrorism

-The judiciary is the last standing pillar of democracy. Whenever all else has failed, the courts have come to the rescue of citizens – be it pertaining to the Environment, Heritage, Law & Order or Road Safety…

PIL has been a very effective tool used by Citizens to have their voices heard

- And so the SILF, Bombay Chamber and it’s supporting citizen team are now appealing to the Court to help ensure the State assists in modernising Mumbai’s Police

PIL: DETAILS

The PIL requests the Bombay High Court to direct the Union & the State (both, either/or wherever applicable)

a) Pursuant to the guarantee of ‘right to life’ in Article 21, the Union & the State should take all appropriate measures to meet the security threat to Mumbai

b) To disclose via affidavit all concrete steps being taken, with timeline and funding particulars, regarding establishment of Special Squad (Quick Response Team has been put together but not fully empowered)

c) Alongwith the above 2 points a) & b), the Union/State should

1. Permanently station NSG unit in Mumbai and wherever else required in Maharashtra

2. Provide sufficient coastal security coverage

3. Establish coordination mechanisms across Intelligence agencies, State Police and all Security Agencies

4. Assist, train and equip Police to meet new age terrorist threat

d) Alongwith a), b) & c), the Union/State should

1. Formulate and implement Crisis Management Plan

2. Procure and provide adequate equipment/vehicles/machinery (including Marine & Chopper units) for quick mobility via land/sea/air for effective patrolling, prevention and containment of crime/terrorist attack. This should be reserved for Police duties

3. Identify, fund and provide Surveillance Gear (such as CCTV coverage)

4. Implement the McKinsey Report that studied the Mumbai Police and advised on improvement and modernisation

e) Appoint Citizen Committee comprising of eminent citizens, retired judges and police officers to assist and advise on the implementation of all these measures.

I’m a big fan of Scrabulous the facebook application. Probably have 6-7 games going at any given time. Unfortunately for the Agarwala brothers, who developed it, they got sued by Hasbro for violation of their copyright on Scrabble. Real who has the rights in Europe wants to work something out, but not Hasbro who sued to shut them down. This has led to a circumstance where the game is not available in the US and Canada, but is all over the rest of the world.

I think what I feel now can only been described as schadenfreude. I am taking delight in geographical restrictions on content finally being applied to people in the US, instead of the rest of the world like it usually is. This has been something that’s annoyed me for years. The first time I encountered it was when I wanted to find out more about the Penn and Teller show Bullshit. This was years ago back in 2003, when I first heard the show was coming out, and they are a lot more international user friendly now. But while they have gotten better buying digital goods has gotten a lot tougher. I like to buy stuff, pay for stuff online all the time, but as of right now it seems like Audible is the only company selling digital media who wants my money. I miss allofmp3.com. Not Apple. not Amazon, none of the TV networks, if I want something like Heroes, or House my only choice is to Pirate it.

Ive been collecting screenshots of messages where I cant see content that Im looking for. Some are more egregious than others(Im looking at you NBC), but they all annoy me.  Here’s a slide show.

Ajay Shah has some thoughts on Private Treaties.

He quotes a Sucheta Dalal article about an email forwarded by the editor of the Economic Times.

At ET, we are carving out a separate team to look into the needs of Private Treaty clients. Every large centre will have a senior editorial person to interface with Treaty clients. In turn, the senior edit person will be responsible, along with the existing team, for edit delivery.

This is obviously unethical. ET should most definitely not be in the business of selling editorial coverage. I dont think any marginally intelligent person would argue otherwise.

My point about Private Treaties is that if its an advertising ONLY deal, I dont see an ethical issue. Instead of paying in cash the company is paying in equity. Equity has a value, and the stake divested is based on that.

If there is an editorial coverage component to the Private Equity deal its no different from the reprehensible practice that Bennett Coleman has with Medianet. It is however an ethical failing of that particular company. I do not believe that invalidates the potential benefits of Private Treaties to both, a hopefully ethical Media Company, and the company gaining ad inventory for stake.

Read about this on India Uncut today, and have some thoughts on it.

This is a recent phenomenon in Indian business, where companies give up stake to major media companies in exchange for Ad Inventory. I first heard about this a year and a half ago or so, when a friend was considering this. He never went ahead with the whole thing for many reasons.

I really don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with the concept. If anything its an innovative way for Bennett Coleman, HT Media, or any other media group for that matter, to book ads well in advance. For companies that need to build a brand through advertising, its a fantastic deal. You give up a little stakes for a minority investor, who doesn’t try and get involved in your business. As mentioned in this article, its a win win for both.

And it is not difficult to see why. Share swaps for ad space is a win-win deal for both sides. For a start, it is almost a zero-cash transaction.

What this neglects is the 3rd stakeholder implicit in the arrangement, the reader or viewer or listener. And that is the objection most people have to this kind of arrangement. Disclosure is the most obvious solution.

But here’s my question: Do newspapers or TV channels disclose every bulk advertising deal they do? What’s the difference between stake and cash when it comes down to it?

As usual the devil is in the details, its not about the ways in which the Times Group or anyone else sells their advertising, the issue is the separation between advertising and content. I think that’s pretty much the only issue. Bombay Times with their Medianet, pay for publicity, model, has destroyed the Times of India’s credibility amongst many readers. And those readers see this Private Treaty business as an extension of that.

Once the slime is introduced it covers everything. Even an interesting idea is tarred with the same brush.