"I'm getting a huge load of comments around the politics of religion, of division and hate at my last few posts on the Mumbai terror attacks. While religion and politics may have a lot to do with the state of our world today, my blog's not the forum to air or feed these divisions. I almost feel it's a violation of my own person. So I am deleting them. Sorry. All other comments and conversations are welcome, as always," she writes. "For all those who feel they have lots to say - I'd recommend they do something more constructive. Start by reading Ingrid Srinath's post titled This is not India's 9/11 [thanks Peter, for the link] and Priyanka Joshi's comments there."
This is not the first time that Dina has led initiatives to build global bridges of hope in cyberspace. Since 2003, she has contributed to building several important communities on the internet, such as Worldchanging, Tsunami Help, KatrinaHelp, Asia Quake Help, SkypeJournal and is on the Advisory Board of Global Voices Online. Her efforts have been recognized worldwide. She has been a Presenter and Speaker at many international conferences in the US, Europe and Asia on mobile spaces in India, social collaboration technologies, social media and adopting online social tools for research. In July she made a presentation at the Berkman Center of Internet and Society, Harvard University on Youth and Information in Asia and the World Women's Forum in France.
Dina, whose academic background is in sociology and anthropology, is based in Mumbai and has spent the last 20 years specializing in qualitative research and ethnography. She set up Explore Research & Consultancy in 1998, and her clients include MTV, JWT, Unilever, ESPN, HP, JJVC and Microsoft, Pitney Bowes Inc. Her projects include learning journeys, and immersions for innovation teams, and have led her to study the impact of technology in rural markets, follow trend-setting youth in urban settings, dig deep into motivations and possible triggers across a wide range of demographic and psychographic groups, explore and identify underlying value propositions and key drivers/barriers in several categories.
She is a founder and Managing Director of Mosoci India, a research & strategy innovation global company which focuses on guiding strategy in a Web 2.0 world.
Thanks, Dina. You have our gratitude and our condolences for your great city.