Scenario: My dad is a metallurgical engineer in India. The only time he use he makes of a computer (my old Pentium I with 32MB RAM) is to send/receive emails, browse news websites and call me using Net2Phone service. But he is one enthusiastic individual. He does extensive reading, mainly in print medium. Then when he calls me, he keeps mentioning about how Microsoft is expanding its operations in Hyderabad, RFID is going to revolutionize India, etc. He has his friends circle who consider him the hotspot for technology news. If there could be one active blogger, he would fit the bill. But explaining to him what a blog is, then asking him to go online (net usage in India is not cheap), login to a blogging site, create a new blog entry, publish it, etc etc will take me ages (and drive me crazy at the same time).

Solution: MSN Spaces to the rescue. I create an MSN space for him using his hotmail ID. I enable MSN Spaces Mobile settings to put his hotmail id as the email address from which he will publish. Thats it. Now all I do is give him the email address where to publish his blog (generally of the form Username.secretword@spaces.msn.com). Now he can write an email to this address whenever he finds something interesting, compose the email offline (save money on net usage), connect to the Internet and send using Outlook express and Bingo!!! Its done.

Advantages:  It is a dynamic environment for him to post his thoughts, share with me and his friends and get feedback. Plus it gives a sense of accomplishment (at least for people who have never published anything on the Web) to see your thoughts presented in a really cool format.

I have always believed technology to be an enabling force in everyday life. This is a prime example. Dad, start blogging :)