 |
Net Gains (Feb 24, 98) |
The Net started off with just research scientists and academicians
using it to their advantage. Things have drastically changed since
then, and this week, Net Gains takes a look at how politicians,
artists and doctors are using the Net - and these are all 100
% desi !
With elections around the corner, there's no escaping politics
and politicians - not even on the Web ! Let's quickly browse through
3 politics-related sites listed in decreasing order of hype and
publicity generated by them.
The Official BJP site (http://www.bjp.org) wins hands down as
far as offline publicity goes - the launch of the site created
waves in our normal media - print, radio and television - the
saffron brigade takes a step into cyberspace ... Those who have
been following Net Gains since the past two years, would remember
reading a review of a BJP site - but there was nothing official
about it then !
IndiaVotes '98 (http://www.indiavotes.com) is the most comprehensive
election related site currently on the Net - log on for everything
and anything you want to know about the upcoming elections - news,
dates, parties, leaders, constituencies … you name it, you'll
find it here. While this site did not create a lot of hype in
the offline media, it is attracting a lot of traffic from its
online promotion. There's a carrot to get you into the site too
- the chance to win a music system worth over a lakh ! And the
quiz questions even have thoughtfully provided links to the answers
- now that's what I call spoonfeeding.
Finally there's a quiet mini-site put up by an independent candidate
Abhay Mokashi (http://www.atcs.org/abhay). The sincerity and simplicity
that ooze out from the site makes up for the site design that's
not particularly khaas. You can browse through a profile,
manifesto, and audio and video clips put up by Mr. Mokashi.
While the above sites may not be very useful to the average
urban Indian this electoral season, there's a lot of potential
down the line (hopefully not before another 5 years). Consider
being able to find out any information about candidates in your
constituency before taking an informed decision - all this at
your convenience, maybe even on the day of the polls - something
that you cannot normally do. We may be able to pose pointed questions
and raise issues online, and have them answered… Think about
it…
Last week, during one of the rare instances when I was connected
(and more importantly, stayed connected) at 31.2 Kbps, I threw
all caution to the wind, enabled the works - Java, image auto-load,
JavaScript, and visited a site I had long shied away from - Jaideep
Mehrotra's website. Artist Tree (http://www.artistTree.co.in)
is a graphic intensive site - the homepage itself has one image
of 123 Kb welcoming you to the site. The site is a showcase of
his oil paintings - and requires a Java enabled browser to enjoy
a slideshow of his paintings. I've no pretensions of being an
art connoisseur, but was spellbound by what I saw there - specially
the "flashback" painting. Not only are the paintings
excellent, but the way they are interactively presented showcases
great site design. Yet another example of the Net being used as
a gallery open to the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
IndiaOrth (http://indiaorth.simplenet.com) is a site that's
a base for Orthopedic issues in India, but generously open to
other medical specialties too. The target audience is the medical
profession itself and the presentations put up on the site are
a good example of how the Net is based on sharing of useful information
and knowledge. As momentum gathers, and other doctors start contributing,
the site could well become a one stop resource for reference material
and information.
A small but very useful bit of useful software on the Net is
Bootminder (http://www.download.com/PC/Result/TitleDetail/0,4,0-32656,501000.html).
This 100K utility warns you if a floppy disk is in your A: drive
when you shut down your computer, lessening the risk of boot-virus
infection. The best part about it is it's price - FREE ! Stay
logged on for more useful utilities in this column. If you've
come across some software, share it with others by sending in
the URLs pointing to the download site.