MortarBoardCULong.jpg CU on Smart Phones Marginal cost of e-mail is zero, and it has many other advantages, so the CU will not abandon e-mail any time soon. Nevertheless, it appears that growth is mostly happening in smart phones, especially with WhatsApp. The devices are getting cheaper and the data packages are getting cheaper. There is a now mass of users that we can potentially reach this way. WhatsApp is free. It allows messaging, and PDF attachments that open instantly. It allows for replies in text. It allows for groups. In other words, it is a 2-way, any-to-many dialogic platform that should be able to carry the CU's style of political education, albeit in a modified form. The CU needs to move on to hand-held devices. It's time to experiment with them. WhatsApp groups can only have (up to) 256 members. This limit means that it could not replace the existing Google Groups, which have thousands of members. Also, the amount of material (i.e. attachments), that the CU posting presently carries, would be cumbersome on WhatsApp. Proposal Bearing the above in mind, I propose to start a WhatsApp group that is dedicated to the Johannesburg live sessions of the CU. The aim would be to use it to alert current participants a few days prior to each session, in a similar way to what I have done by e-mail for the last two weeks or so, and previously, from time to time. It could also carry selected topical material, and, of course, 2-way critical debate and dialogue. I propose a voluntary rule of only one PDF or image-file attachment per message. I would NOT propose to change the existing e-mail posting practice in any way, at this stage. What do comrades think about all this? Any suggestions? Here are two links that explain "WhatsApp Group Chat": https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/21073373 https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/23776567 VC __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13881 (20160729) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/002901d1e9e3%247795f7a0%2466c1e6e0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
