The new mutiny on the Blogsphere

A modern mutiny

First there were full page ads from IIPM flashing a smiling Arindam Chaudhri. Then ads for his Rs. 40,000 -3 hour workshops. Which finally gave way to the more aggressive 'DARE TO THINK BEYOND THE IIMs' kind of ads. They apparently seemed to be working because IIPM expanded to 7 campuses and made even more ridiculous claims. Some ignored, while many others perhaps enrolled in Chaidhuri's fraud Indian dream.

Many such full page ads and self proclaimed economic theories, rankings and awards later, JAM did a full pager on IIPM. Frail defences failed to work. Meanwhile, Gaurav Sabnis, a regular Jammer and a vetran blogger linked his blog to the article. A frustrated IIPM sent him legal notices, which made even funnier stuff for Gaurav's blog.

Events cascaded to a really serious level when IIPM apparently threatened IBM that Gaurav (who was with IBM) was posting unpleasant stuff on his blog. If that would continue, the threat went, IIPM students would 'burn their laptops'. Sensing needless threat to his company, Sabnis resigned from IBM, standing for his own principles. The huge movement of mails and messages that rocked the blogsphere made him nothing short of a modern day Mangal Pandey - someone who sacrificed his career for his principles.

It had interesting similarities to the 1857 mutiny. On one end, like the British, was IIPM. With loads of money and mainstream media support. And a PR-marketing savvy wannabe new age guru to head it. There was brewing discontent. And then Rashmi's article was a spark. Gaurav, to me then fit in as the perfect matyr of this episode - with his career on sacrifice.

The 1857 mutiny we all know failed. The British won it. This one though might just be different. I would bet on IIPM eventually going down. And the reasons are the new rules of the game, which 'Prof. Chaudhuri' somewhere forgot.....in the analysis of this episode, some fascinating trends about our new world emerge as well.....

It all started with JAM. Its intent might seem extremely tehelka-like, but was a bit different. Tehelka has to expose plots to sell. JAM on the other hand wanted to make its readers aware. Its one of those magazines that shares a bond of trust with its 30,000 odd young readers all over the country. And so after waiting for a while for the mainstream media to take on the insti, JAM decided to do the honors. Now as a mag thats so young, and lead by an editor who is an IIM A pass out herself, JAM enjoys levels of trust that are rare to find in a media infested world. And perhaps that was the reason why it felt compelled to bring out the IIPM story in the open.

Gaurav is a regular on the cyberscene - his blog recently reached 2 lakh hits. In cyber world you're connected. As time passes, there are networks of people who link blogs to each other, forming huge webs where information can travel at unbelievable speed. While it cost AC some 5.5 crores for his print campaign of IIPM, it did not cost Gaurav a dime to post his thoughts on his blog. And while it was just the newspaper screaming at the reader in the case of the ad, in Gaurav's case, it was an entire network of people. People connecting to each other, and passing the word. Literally making each blog a mini publication, with its own readership base, and ability to influence other blogs. Sooner or later, the sheer numbers of the virus like message spreading on the web would out-grow the number of people who'd be influenced by the TOI ads.

But good 'ol Arindam was not to give up so easily - he took the battle to the blogsphere with his kiddos posting the greatness of IIPM on their blogs. Now it doesnt take much to figure that a blog that started yesterday, has one post and no links doesnt carry much crediblity. A blog is not about views alone. Its about the relationships - an entire ecosystem that cant be copied overnight. You cant have hundreds of other bloggers link to you overnight. Nor can you 'buy out' entire chains of blogs to carry your message. These desperate posts only added to the amusement of the blog community which was by now generating momentum in its support for Gaurav.

I recieved a mail in my mailbox - a forward that argued for the case of Gaurav and that his sacrifice should not be in vain. How much would it cost me, I wondered, to forward this mail to my 300 odd contacts? And even if 1 percent of them - JUST 3 do that to their contact lists, we'd literally have thousands of emails going all over the place - much much more than what AC could possibly ever control.

Just goes on to show how trust is shifting from mainstream media to democratic people-owned media. Blogs written by people like us. Just like with the printing press, the Bible reached the masses, with blogging, today, anyone can write his or her own Bible (literally) and have others read it too!

Will the message will reach the people who are really misguided enough to decide based on misleading press ads? Will the rich dads who pay fat fees for fraud instis ever surf these blogs or get dazzled by Chaudhuri's glittering psuedo smile? Will someone from the IIM gang ever stand up to the blatant misuse of the names of the intitute for cheap DARE-TO-THINK-BEYOND-IIM publicity stunts? Does this also show how desperate people are, to get a management degree - that they'd turn a blind eye and go gaga over anything that promises them 'placement'? Or does it show that wannabe gurus may have long pony tails and even longer theories but they cant outdo or outthing mass networks of connected people? Lets leave these questions for another post.....for now it seems that the time for the digital uprising has arrived!