The Indian Blog and New Media Society Launched As a National Body

India (SANEPR.com) May 16, 2008 -- Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Ajay Jain, President, IBNMS, and one of the earliest adopters of blogging as a profession, said, “It gives me immense pleasure in announcing the formulation of IBNMS as the national body. We have always been very active in blogging and now we will be equally active in networking too. In fact, in the past we have done a number of programs to bring together bloggers from various geographies and conducted successful sessions on technical and marketing aspects of blogging, how fellow bloggers can make money out of their personal or professional interest and the role of independent blogging in making a difference to society.”

The IBNMS has been a result of over a year of groundwork by some committed founder members, who have been busy enlisting support, raising resources and organizing events and other programs. This approach was adopted to enable the founders develop a bottom-up understanding of what the various players in this field expect and want so as to be able to define an agenda aligned to market needs. The strategy has paid off well, as the formal launch of IBNMS is being done with the support of a national representation of members and with a proven track record.

“The idea behind including all forms of new media in this initiative is because no one form of expression works independently in the digital world. There are no clear boundaries between text, photos, videos, graphics and music in the virtual space, and their roles are both overlapping and complementary to one another” he added.

In today’s digital world, every industry is looking for new media opportunities to showcase itself on the global arena. In fact, publishers, broadcasters, authors etc. have identified the potential of these new tools for communication and have started making use of such platforms to earn money and instant publicity and voice out their opinion to a larger society. This tools not only cater to groups or professionals but also to individuals or organizations, who could be doing this for fun, as a hobby, for a cause of greater public good, or for any personal reasons. Consumers of New Media are mostly individuals who track, read, view and listen to new media content. For the Corporates, New Media is emerging as no less a channel than traditional media for marketing, selling, advertising, PR and to engage with their stakeholders in multi-way conversations. The IBNMS seeks to be an inclusive body for all interest groups.

The IBNMS has been actively working with the community, coming forward to provide assistance and guidance. The society is open for membership to anyone from India and beyond (to ensure closer engagement with the global community) and is free at this stage.

The most significant reason to set up IBNMS has been set up is to improve collaboration between bloggers and new media users across the country. There are several of these groups and individuals across the country, and IBNMS aims at uniting these groups and bringing them under a single umbrella body for better knowledge sharing, communication & collaboration between the members of these groups.

The IBNMS has also come up with a 10 point agenda to articulate its vision (appended) of services to its members and to set an agenda for the future. It has been created in consultation over months with the concerned stakeholders, but is not a static document. It is expected to continue evolving over time to stay relevant and useful to members and is dedicated to getting new media, traditional media, corporates, PR agencies and advertisers to collaborate for win-win partnerships.

Education would be an important element of this agenda, and would cover topics like:

* Marketing and monetising your blog
* How can blogs benefit professionals and businesses
* Professional networking
* Technology tips for blogging, podcasting, videocasting etc.
* Why PR professionals should engage with bloggers and new media
* Personal Branding using the internet

The IBNMS is conducting BlogCamp on May 24th, 2008, along the lines of the more well known BarCamps, where anyone is free to attend. Talks & Presentations will also be made by those who volunteer to do so followed by a Blog & New Media Workshop and a 3-part workshop from June 28th – 30th in partnership with the India Habitat Centre. This workshop will cover the technical elements of setting up your blog, marketing your blog and exploring new media like photo and video blogging, video sharing, photo sharing, podcasting and more. This would be open to anyone to attend. For more information, you may visit www.ibnms.com.

Media Contacts:
Ajay Jain
+91 9910044476
ajay@ajayjain.com

Jyotsna Angara
+91 98481 28053
jyotsnaangara@gmail.com