By Ajinkya Deshmukh for Mangalorean.com, Manipal

Manipal, April 18, 2008: The first day of the Manipal Media Students' Convention (MMSC), 2008 was a lukewarm affair. There was the occasional heated discussion as there was the cold shouldering. The event was held at Hotel Valley View International.

The bloggers' meet was the flagship event of the MMSC and was well received among students from Manipal, Surathkal and many others from across the country. The bloggers' meet followed the model of an 'unconference': a group dynamism that operates upon the principle of equality. Anyone could go up and talk anything about blogging. "An unconference works on equality and respect for all the speakers," said Peter Griffin, an activist and blogger. The entire venue was Wi-Fi enabled for bloggers to log onto the Net and blog live.

The Convention was inaugurated by chief guest Dr. MV Kamath. The vice-chancellor of Manipal University, Dr. Raj Warrier was also the guest of honour, spoke on medical blogging, stressing on evidence-based medicine online. Tehelka journalist and blogger, Annie Zaidi balanced the argument between rant and rationale; expression and impression in her talk on blogging and journalism. Literary blogger, Chandrahas Choudhury gave insights into literature and blogging, his blog: www.middlestage.blogspot.com recently turned three years of age. "Literature survives time. It is the highest and richest form of expression," said Mr. Choudhury. Following him was Peter Griffin who spoke on blogging and activism. His was the best received session of the day.

Apart from the experts there were also the delegates at the convention who gave various views on blogging. The freewheeling session lasted over 5-and-a-half hours and gradually died out. "Not being a tech-savvy person, I was caught clueless at times. However, as an organizer, I must say the concept was very sound. I hope this Convention happens annually, exploring more universal themes," said Kerban Billimoria, one of the organizers of the Convention.

The day also saw a workshop on podcasting by co-founder of Indicast, Aditya Mhatre. Mr. Mhatre gave the participants the technical know-how about how to make and host podcasts. The workshop was followed by making of podcasts that were hosted on free hosting services. The podcasts were then judged by Mr. Mhatre.

Day two holds much more in store for MMSC. There will be talks and workshops on Internet content writing, 'The Database vs. The Narrative', 'Why new media is not new?', 'Content is not King' and many more discussions with the likes of Mukesh Sharma, Kiran Jonnalagadda, et al. Day two will also feature the valedictory function, the distribution of prizes to the best blogger and the best podcasting team.