Update 10Feb: I just got off a Skype call with Adrian. He’s relocated to Panama, and is getting busy in some ways that I think we’ll all like. Ryzers, don’t change that channel….
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Update: As promised, if late, here’s the blogroll from the Meetup.
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Last evening’s Metroblogging and WINKsite meetup was great. About twenty bloggers cycled through from 6 to 8pm. I’ll update this post with a list of the blog URLs when the list gets published here, hopefully later today.
It was interesting how much of the early conversation focused on professional social networks, particulary Ryze. In stark contrast to the US, LinkedIn is not important here. Ryze appears to be the most commonly used network here, but every single person was complaining about how outdated the look is (my Ryze page is a painfully appropriate example), how little Adrian Scott seems to care, how sick of the Web 1.0 feature set they are, and how ironic it is that much of the Ryze coding happens a stone’s throw from Mumbai. The local Ryze events, historically one of Adrian’s key profit areas, are even run by a third party.
If Adrian elects to re-engage here, he could build a very interesting business without much strain. The group’s sentiment was still one of hope for improvement, rather than of resignation and rejection. That hope seems to spring from the significant investment that local bloggers and others have made in Ryze’s system. A key example is Caferati, an incredibly dynamic writers’ organization that started in Mumbai, has spread across India, and is moving further afield. Caferati was started by some of the same socially influential people who created the Tsunami Help Blog.
The clock is ticking for Ryze in India, however. OpenBC, a professional social network headquartered in Germany, just hired a Mumbai-based business manager Netra Parikh. She’s hungry and effective. Her follow-up email to me last night arrived at 8:40pm, when I was only just being seated for dinner.
[...] …but now we’re hearing some differing opinions as to which is preferred. Including comments made to Scott while he was visiting Mumbai. [...]