Building community, communicating better By Frederick Noronha
Blogs are the new rage on the Internet net. We talk about having the "latest" hardware and the most upto-date version of Windows. But in this rush to keep up with the trend, we forget the most powerful role the computers can help with -- communicating. Since the mid-nineties, this columnist has been deeply fascinated by the power of 'mailing lists'. This, really, is old technology. You don't need to be a geek or a computer whiz to create one. Yet, almost anyone can benefit from it. Basics first. What is a 'mailing list'? Put simply, thing of a meeting which goes on and on and on.... via email. Just imagine a place where people share ideas and information, without there being any restriction on time. Best of all, you take part when it's convenient for you, it could be at dawn or during working hours or at midnight. You don't have to be around when there's some other pressing job at hand. (Mailing lists can be addictive. But that's another story....) This is achieved through a simple tool. E-mail. But, instead of sending out mail to individuals, you send it to a group. Meaning, that all people interested in one particular topic post their messages to a central address. All mail sent to this address (by anyone from the group) goes to everyone else. Mailing-lists often allow members to discuss and contribute to the deliberation. That makes it both more democratic and rich. Of course, like at any real-life meeting, you also get the crank and the cantankerous. Someone who insists on his or her (usually his) right to speak, when everyone else hardly wants to hear him. Or someone who puts things in such a crude manner that others are put off by it. But this is a small price to pay for the right of (almost) everyone to communicate. Puzzled? For a detailed discussion of the technical aspects of this powerful medium, read 'Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing: Creating Newsletter, Bulletins, Discussion Groups, and Other Powerful Communication Tools', Top Floor Publishing, 1999 http://PoorRichard.com/email/ ) So, coming to the point, how exactly does this help us? In one's own case, one accidentally came across Goanet, a mailing list set up by then-teenager, Herman Carneiro, way back while he was still a student of the North-Eastern University in Boston. In 2004, Goanet completes ten years of its existence. It has a readership (combined for Goanet and Goanet-digest) of almost 4000 readers each day. Over the years, this not-for-profit and volunteer-driven network has been able to put Goans (and people interested in Goa) in touch with one another. Not just that, it was able to share information on a scale perhaps next only to that done by the newspapers in Goa. This sparked off some initiatives and inspired at least a handful of overseas Goans to take on innovative work when they returned to Goa. If tiny Goa got an Internet node just after nine other cities in the country, it was due to lobbying from this network. If a few hundreds of once-used computers were distributed to schools, it was again due to ideas shared on this network and the resultant initiatives taken up by volunteers. To check out the list, visit http://joingoanet.shorturl.com (see the 'archives' section). Over the years, some differences in perspectives (naturally, what's wrong with that?) lead to the disagreements surfacing, and other mailing lists being set up. The Goan Forum and GoanCauses (both on yahoogroups.com) are examples of other Goa-related networks, while www.goa-world.net in the Gulf has a large number of its own mailing lists, ranging from the interesting to the inactive. Joseph 'Boogie' Viegas, who since migrated to Canada, set up his network of lists on his goenkar.com server, now managed by Mario Alvares of Porvorim. Thanks to the policy of a US university to encourage its students to set up mailing lists on just about any subject of their choice, the idea caught on quickly among a Net savvy section in Goa. On the one hand, it spread to professional groups. The Computer Society of India's Goa chapter, journalists in this state, and the Botanical Society of Goa have their own mailing lists. One sometimes wishes there would be more participation on such lists though. So does the local GNU/Linux group, ILUG-Goa. GAP, the Goa Association of Photography, has a list of its own, though the same may be less active currently. WildGoa is a network of young wildlife enthusiasts. There are many other mailing-lists and discussion groups, ranging from one to promote computers in the classroom ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) to another for gays. There's even one where priests can get access to ideas for their sermons on the coming Sunday. There are mailing lists to discuss Konkani, link Gulf Goans, and focus on music from this region. Catholic Goan Network is a faith-based network. Perhaps the most finely-crafted e-newsletter is GoanVoice UK (www.goanvoice.org.uk), brought out each Friday by University College London engineering librarian Eddie Fernandes. There's no reason why almost every organisation could not set up a mailing list of its own. This would ensure that they share ideas and keep active in between the once-a-month meeting that many have. This solution is particularly useful in the case of non-profit and professional organisations. If the commercial world doesn't bother too much with this idea it's simply because there's no great money to be made here... probably there's no little money either. But we can't afford to overlook the fact that what's happening is the building up of vital social capital. Beyond professional groups and hobbyist clubs, mailing lists have spread to some villages. SaligaoNet has 140+ members, CalanguteNet is less active, while the new Aldona-Net has seen some sporadic if interesting discussions. Attempts to build a network for Sanguem needs more momentum to become successful. Rene Barretto and Daniel D'Souza were behind the 'Vascokars' initiative. John De Sa has been behind the tongue-twistingly named [EMAIL PROTECTED] network. There's no reason why any village or region could have its own mailing-list. Initially, it might be expat-oriented regions which immerse themselves more into this technology, since the 'early adopters' are mainly abroad. But, with e-mail and the Internet becoming accessible to a wider section in Goa, we could all have something to gain from enhanced communication. At the village level, some of these networks have helped to focus on problems of the area (garbage dumping, water depletion), or discuss initiatives being undertaken (career guidance, reducing accidents), or simply keeping people informed about what's going on in their area. The technology is such that you could have an elderly priest write local history of the vaddo and spread it across the globe via cyberspace. It happens! Ask members of Saligaonet. So, in a word, we have much to gain. Provided, of course, we can apply the technology to suit our needs. Let's not get obsessed with the 'latest' in technology. The question is what is really relevant to us. Setting up a mailing-list is an easy task. Just go to yahoogroups.com and you could do it yourself. There's no charge, except a small advert tagged on to every message you send out. If you find yahoogroup's advertising irritating, or have other reservations about using this option, there are other possibilities. Symonds.net has hosted nearly a dozen lists put up by this columnist (see www.indialists.org) for a reasonable fee. Others offer similar services. If you're interested in setting up a network on any subject or theme which doesn't have one already, and need some help to get it going, just drop me a line at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Any good cause will get the support it deserves. -- FREDERICK NORONHA is a Goa-based journalist, and can be contacted via telephone 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 or email fred at bytesforall.org ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
