On May 9, this blog at Emergic.org completed four years. I have posted every day since I started. I wrote a Tech Talk midway during this period after completing Two Blog Years. I thought it is time for another look at the blog world and how that has helped shape my thinking about technology and entrepreneurship.

The blog began in May 2002. Like many others, I was inspired by Dave Winer. I had been writing a daily column on Tech Samachar for about eighteen months then. I would end up reading a lot to get those written. My motive for writing was that it forced me into a discipline of reading and thinking about a broad set of technology areas – thus expanding my own horizons.

More fundamentally, writing is something I have always liked and done. When I was young (college days), I kept a daily diary. Every night, I would write a couple of hundred words on what happened during the day. It helped me reflect and get a bit of perspective as I was growing up. That habit continued somewhat infrequently during my IIT and US days. Now, I write out a diary page once a week or two in my notebook. I find that writing about the world as I see it helps me think better. There are times when I am very happy or very sad – the writing helps me balance my emotions.

My love for technology writing found its first natural outlet in a fortnightly column I had started in Express Computer called ‘Internauting’ in early 1996. I continued that for sometime on Indialine – one of the IndiaWorld family of sites. You can find some of my early writings here (via the Internet Archive). I then started Tech Talk in November 2000 – to ensure that I started reading and thinking about technology. The column was inspired by a Red Herring daily column (I don’t recall the name now). I wanted it to be daily because it would then become as much a part of my life as it would for my readers. That philosophy continues to this date – Tech Talk is published each weekday. It is a mix of my writings and those of others – aggregated together on a theme.

When I came across the blog format in early 2002, I immediately liked it. The free flow of thoughts on one’s own site appealed to me. But it took me a few months to make the decision to start my own blog – I wanted to make sure that I could have something new daily. In that sense, it was more news-paperish – because I wanted the blog to become a daily utility in the lives of my readers.

Today, there are a few thousand readers who read my blog – either by coming to the site at emergic.org, or in their RSS aggregators, or via email. I get 10-odd comments weekly from readers on the blog, and some write directly to me. Four years later, the blog is as much a part of my life as it is for some of you.

Tomorrow: How I Blog

I have now settled into a fixed style of blogging. Monday to Friday, there is the Tech Talk on a specific theme. At times, the series carries on for more than a week. On weekdays, I publish five additional posts which are mostly snippets of things I found interesting. On Saturdays, there are three more such posts while on Sundays, there are two. So, in a week, there are thirty blog posts on various topics mostly related to technology along with five Tech Talk columns. This routine has remained largely unchanged over the past year or so.

The Tech Talks are written in a continuous sitting on the weekend (mostly Sunday mornings). I keep a few topics on hand, but it is only when I sit in front of the computer and there is the pressure of a deadline that the real topic emerges! After writing out the Tech Talk, I send it to my colleague, Atanu Dey, for a language review – in part because I don’t like reading what I have written again! Atanu runs an editor’s eye on the writing and comes back with corrections and suggestions, which I then incorporate into the Tech Talks.

I create most of the other blog posts in advance so that I am not scurrying around in the morning trying to find items to publish! I spend time reading almost daily, and whenever I come across something interesting which I’d like to remember and share, I put it as part of the blog. At any given time, I have a dozen or so blog posts in ‘draft’ mode waiting to be published. Every morning, the decision is mostly about picking a section of those posts to be published on the blog.

This may not be blogging in the classical sense of the which is writing out one’s thoughts. I tend to do that in my Tech Talks – like this one. The discipline of reading and blogging helps me build and extend my mental maps of the world of technology. Comments from readers help embellish this process.

This has meant a significant time commitment from me – considering that I have a full-time business to manage in Netcore, and investments in nine other companies, at least a few of which require some attention at any point in time. The reading-blogging combo has helped me a lot in putting together a set of ideas for the future. Many of my initiatives don’t work out, but there are learnings which I use for the next set. I am willing to make big bets on the future (mobile internet, utility computing, event web, rich content over broadband and mobile, mobile payments, among others), and prepared for failure – not necessarily of the idea, but of the venture.

Over the past year, the time available to me has reduced because of Abhishek’s arrival into my life. I have had to give up a few things. But my commitment to blogging has remained unchanged.

Tomorrow: MyToday

One of the things which has changed over the past few months is my use of the RSS aggregator. For a long time, I exclusively used Bloglines – and my account there has accumulated nearly 400 feeds. When I had a lot more time, I could actually go through a lot of the feeds. But now, with time at a premium, I use Bloglines sparingly. Instead, I use a service we have created, MyToday, for much of my reading – both on the web, and on the mobile.

We created MyToday as a public aggregator – feeds on a few specific topics. The interface is meant for daily reading, and scanning large chunks of information rapidly. The current selection of topics (what we call “dailies”) in MyToday – tech, venture capital, mobility – partly represents my technology bias. I also created a smaller subset of about fifty feeds for myself (as a “reading list”) which I check every morning.

As I scan the post titles and excerpts on the PC, I open the ones I find interesting either in a separate window (by clicking on the small ‘window’ icon next to the title) or just do a click on the title to get a pop-up window to read more and then decide whether to open it in a separate window. I also rely on meme aggregators like Tech.Meme to get a glimpse into what the blogosphere is talking about.

This smaller selection has narrowed the topics I tend to post on. But it has meant much more efficient use of time. In general, if there is something interesting that I’ve missed, readers often email it to me. So, where I had once feared that I’d end up probably with a thousand feeds in my aggregator, it has been just the opposite. My own reading list has shrunk and I rely on topic-based aggregators to get a sense of the news and views flow.

This has also meant a greater reliance on other bloggers. I have a good idea of experts in different areas, and I find myself reading and blogging about what they have to say more. This is Web 2.0 for me – encouraging a two-way flow of ideas and thought, via the Web.

I also use MyToday’s mobile version a lot through my Hutch GPRS connection. Whenever I have free time or when I am travelling and don’t have access to my computer, I do check the stories on the mobile. I have become more and more comfortable with reading large chunks of text on the mobile. In fact, I find my focus greater when reading on the mobile because I am less distracted my other things.

Tomorrow: Thinking Evolution

The blog reflects my interests. These have changed somewhat over the past four years. The focus on emerging markets and the use of new technologies has, however, remained constant. This is what I wrote in one of my early posts: “Emergic is at this stage a concept. It means combining emerging technologies to create solutions for emerging enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets like India. Emergic is about taking the vision of "computing and communications for all" to the next 500 million users in the world -- most of whom are in the world's developing markets. They cannot pay for technology denominated in dollars. They need cheaper hardware, software and communications. Some of the key ideas in Emergic are Thin Client-Thick Server, Digital Dashboard, Integrated eBusiness software, WiFi for Community Networks, Weblogs (BlogStreet and Emergic.Org) and SME Clusters.”

My focus now is around two broad themes: building the mobile internet appropriately for users in emerging markets, and enabling computing as a utility. The first is about ensuring that the services that we use on the Internet via the PC can be made available to users suitably on the mobile. The majority of new Indian users will experience the Internet more on the mobile than on the PC. India has an excellent mobile data infrastructure, and that can create the foundation for a set of compelling information, communication and entertainment services primarily centred on the mobile.

The computing as a utility idea is about using thin clients connected to servers over high-speed networks. It makes computing affordable and manageable. I believe that if we can reduce computing price points to that of the mobile ($100 for the device, and $10 per month for the service), we will see a rise in the use of computers similar to what we have experienced with mobiles in the past four years in India. Broadband is critical for this to happen – whether it is over DSL or mesh wireless networks or alternate technologies.

Taken together, mobile data services and server-centric computing (with network computers) can create the next-generation platform for making computing ubiquitous – on both small and big screens. This can then help transform different verticals – especially education, healthcare, and commerce, where India needs significant investments going ahead. The new digital infrastructure that this twin-track approach can enable will position India as an example to emulate for other developing economies. This is what I want do accomplish through the Emergic ecosystem of companies in the next 5-7 years.

Tomorrow: Looking Ahead

The past four years have seen significant change in blogging and the future will see more. The number of people blogging continues to grow rapidly. Technorati tracks nearly 40 million sites. It is estimated that China alone will have 60 million bloggers in a few years. Podcasting is taking off in a big way, as is blogging from the mobile. Sites like MySpace and Facebook have integrated blogging into social networks and self-expression pages. In India, blogging is still small in its use and impact, but will grow in the coming years.

I see blogging evolving in three different directions in the future building on the themes that we have seen in the recent past: