Of course the title is inspired by Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus – Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.
Here is a screenshot of the homepage of a blogger-friend's blog – www.2wheelsindia.com – taken at around 2:00pm, 12th September 2010.
You can find some text encircled in the screen-shot above. It says:
MAHINDRA "DIABLO" A 300CC MOTORCYCLE..??
Yes, it's the latest buzz in the motorcycling world of India. Satadal Payeng has been doing this for quite a long time. His blog has become my first visit for motorcycling news, info and tit-bits.
Now compare this screenshot (below, taken at the same time as above) with India's leading motorcycling publication BIKE INDIA. The site is bikeindia.in.
It has no mention of the new bike from Mahindra. Why? One reason could be that it wants to save the news for its next monthly issue, which will hit the stands after 15 odd days from now.
Why would it want to do that? So that it can take motorcycling fraternity of India by surprise and generate good sales of its magazine!
Does it take too much brains to understand that internet means instant, quick, power? Even if the reason isn't what I've mentioned above, Bike India needs to do better if wants a presence online which matches it's claim of India's No. 1 Two-wheeler Magazine.
The problem also is that Payeng does it for free (apparently :)). Bike India doesn't. In that sense, to me, Payeng is acting out of a desire to share his passion, and in that he is generous. And this alone could kill whatever 'strategy' Bike India has deployed so far.
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