2006 was the year when we discovered blogging in droves; we shared videos on Youtube; we signed petitions for anything and everything that grabbed our fancy. The growing Indian middle class discovered we had an opinion and even the means to express it that didn’t involve protest marches and hunger strikes. In fact it didn’t even involve stepping out of the house. The computer and an Internet connection gave us the means to register our opinion on a myriad of subjects. From the serious ones like the Jessica Lall murder case to the ridiculous like the alleged behind the scenes activities in some of the country’s television news stations. 2006 was the year I came to rely on Wikipedia for almost all the questions and queries that my kids had. I contributed to it from time to time and even corrected something written about me that I didn’t agree with only to have it revert to its earlier form almost as quickly.

Like a lot of others I found out just how easy and cheap it is to keep in touch with people. I learnt how to talk to my mum and sister using Skype but soon realised that our broadband connections are not all they are cracked up to be in India. I re-discovered old friends and made new ones thanks to an email group that brought together people from my school – Lawrence School, Sanawar. We started small and now have close to a thousand people signed up. Just the idea that a single press of the send key on my computer and a thousand people would have heard from me is a mind boggling one and yet one that we have come to take for granted.

It wasn’t just about the written word. I soon realised what a delight it was to shop online, something I never thought I’d do. The pleasure of being able to visit amazon.com and browse the latest books and movies or the most obscure music titles and then know that armed with a credit card I could actually purchase something was a real thrill.

I posted my first photographs for family and friends to see on a web site and watched as the number of hits climbed. I never got more than 150 hits but even crossing the three figure mark for the first time was one of life’s small pleasures.

It wasn’t all fun and games however. I spent a better part of the year with more than one identity snooping on chat rooms and email groups listening to the idle chatter trying to gather what ‘informed opinion’ was saying – particularly about a subject close to my heart – Kashmir. I subscribed to email groups to try and understand what people were saying. I was soon disappointed because it didn’t take me long to realise that the advantage of anonymity that Internet gave me was also the biggest disadvantage of the new world we have carved out for ourselves. It wasn’t long before I realised that what passed for ‘informed opinion’ on the net would very easily have qualified as downright slander if expressed through any other medium. People hid behind false identities or simple anonymous posts to post messages and emails full of gossip and lies.

Sadly 2006 was also the year when the Internet coupled with mobile phone cameras gave rise to a completely new industry of homemade pornographic movies. These were movies or more accurately short clips made with a cast that, more often than not, did not even know that they were going to be famous. The cameras are getting smaller; the resolution is getting better and the technology cheaper. This a problem that is going to get worse before it gets better.

Internet gives us amazing opportunities, opportunities that we wouldn’t have imagined possible a few years ago but it also presents amazing challenges. How do we police the net without killing the goose that lays the golden egg? How do we bring in an element of accountability and responsibility without destroying the soul of its free speech that we have come to count on?

One thing for is for sure that what ever happens will have to happen because we do it, not because someone is watching over our shoulder to see what we write or what video we upload. We will have to be more responsible with the opinions we express and the things we say about others. Anonymity is such a wonderful cloak but one that is so easily abused.

Another challenge is going to being bridging the gap between those who are connected and those who are not. I live in Srinagar (about 20 days in a month to be honest) and there is so much we take for granted in Delhi – like a regular supply of electricity and a stable Internet connection. There are times, at least twice or thrice a month, when I am without a broadband connection for days on end. It is impossible to commit myself to sending an email on a particular day because I am not sure if “the link is down” is going to be my status. E commerce, E governance, BPO industries all remain a mirage for us when even a basic connection can’t be relied upon.