Linking a diverse country: mailing lists in India

By Frederick Noronha fred at bytesforall.org

They're less glamourous than web-sites, at first glance don't seem as obviously useful as e-mail, and definitely not as luring as chat. Yet, the simple but priceless tool of mailing-lists, which comes from an earlier Internet era, has an important role to play in a vast and diverse country like India.

This is clearly shown from experiences from the field.

From pointers to locate texts in Sanskrit, to developmental information use to India, expats chatting and fighting via the Net, news from a range of sources, and even GNU/Linux techies sharing vital information ... all this and more is making itself available on India-related mailing lists.

TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION

Mailing-lists are indeed a treasure trove of information, and vitally useful for a country like India. Inexpensive to operate, a well-run list can bring in immense results. Setting up a list is easy, but keeping it going is difficult.

Says Jeanu J Mathews, based in the US: "Internet-based mailing lists have all the standard conveniences that anything based on the Internet has. But above and beyond that (some like the) SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association, run by Prof Sreenath Sreenivasan of Columbia University) is an excellent networking vehicle and the members, though often close-minded in their outlooks, are very helpful to aspiring journalists such as myself. I am very greatful for the same."

Mailing-lists are seldom advertised. You probably won't find a directory for them. But the good ones get noticed fast. These grow in popularity through word-of-mouth.

Today, there are 'families' of mailing-lists like the Indnet.org network which offers lists guiding you about emigration law, economic news, plain discussion, headline-news about India, library science, an employment bulletin, and even a matrimonial digest. Some have upto 5000+ members.

First the basics. A mailing list -- or discussion list -- comprises a group of people that read each others emails. Subscribers to a mailing list send messages to one central email address. A special software program then distributes this message among dozens or hundreds of the list's subscribers.

This means certain advantages. It's like having a meeting which goes on forever without tiring you (hopefully). Besides, your meeting allows everyone to talk whenever convenient to you, without cutting into someone else's time. You intervene when you please, and at your own convenience. Most interestingly, once set up, all this cost very little money. (Free list-hosting sites offer certain services, though these are showing signs of being curtailed.)

If lists can be so useful, why has India overlooked the potential of the humble mailing list? One reason could be that when the Net first opened up in India in mid-1997, the allpowerful and fashionable web-site was already making waves. Mailing-lists were in the news internationally perhaps in the early and mid-nineties. We in India too went along with the 'fad' of the times, rather than exploring the potential of this appropriate tool. Perhaps it also took time to understand what mailing lists were all about.

Then too, you need time, perserverence and patience to build up a mailing list. As one would guess, there's little money in this tool -- though its potential to build community, share information, link up people and even mobilise action sometimes is immense.

In the 'nineties, the IndiaLink network of NGOs set up a handful of interesting lists, like the IL-environment. This linked green campaigners across the country, from the humble concerned citizens to persons like union minister Maneka Gandhi and wildlife campaigner from Mumbai Bittu Sehgal. But lists tend to be unpredictable, and these fell into disuse.

Social campaigners have been quick to realise the potential of software. Harsh Kapoor based in France runs an interesting mailing list that seeks to campaign against the increased communal polarisation of a civilization known as India. Kapoor's SACW is an "informal, independent an non-profit" citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web (http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since 1996.

In the past couple of years, many across India have realised the potential of unglamourous mailing lists, if necessary using free list-sites. Like yahoogroups.com. Search this site, and you could get a few hundred lists with the word "India" prominently listed in them.

But this is not enough.

FINDING THE COMMITMENT

Says New York-based UNDP policy analyst Vikas Nath <vikas.nath@undp.org>: "Somehow South Asia has not picked up on mailing lists inspite of having good connectivity in comparison to other regions. I guess, the problem is with find good lead organisations to start mailing lists. Looking at India: most of the NGOs do not have an effective email/ web strategy. This is even more striking since we are the ones who could most benefit from the mailing lists."

"Not many people in South Asia can afford to subscribe more than one or two good environment or development related publications. But if we were to have effective mailing lists which for example circulate relevant articles and postings, then they would prove to be immensely useful," adds Nath. He explains that in Bangladesh, there are cases of group of doctors and health professionals making available health related databases or articles available in the West to email subscribers.

Nath should know. He himself started two mailing lists. One is on DigitalGovernance at http://www.digitalgovernance.org and has over 1000 subscribers now, around 600 from Asia region. The other, DevNetJobs is run with the support of other volunteers at http://www.devnetjobs.org (it has almost 15000 subscribers, with around 8000 from the Indian sub-continent.

Shaji John <shajijohnk@yahoo.co.in> shortly celebrates the 'first birthday' of her friends_of_UP maailing list www.yahoogroups.com/group/friends_of_up.

Says John: "The group is formatted as a knowledge community for social change in UP and in its short period of existence grown to about 150 members." A sociologist, she worked with several NGOs. Work takes John to different "hard to reach" areas, from where the mailing list is kept going via cybercafes in Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Jansi or even Banda.

"It will be too mcuh to assume all your dispatches will be read with great attention by all... to some it might be even a bit of a nuisance..right? That said, I must note I do get occasional support mail from some members whom I know nothing more than their ids and that goes a long way in sustaining me," says Shaji John.

Says Roger Harris, a close watcher of the ICT-for-development campaign worldwide: "Part of the trouble is list messages can range from incredibly useful to iritatingly banal, and what's one to one person may be the other to another. No way to decide without spoiling things. For India, the big thing must surely be local languages as soon as possible. Also probably more local initiatives."

Swati Sani <swati@sanisoft.com> is one of those who runs a list for the people of the central Indian city of Nagpur, most of whom are staying outside the city or the country. It's at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nagpurcity/

"The list was started in July 1999. Since then many people have found their long lost friends and have used the list for various other purposes ranging from finding about courses in universities, exchanging recipes to exchanging view on politics," says Sani.

Some strange things have come out of the list.

An infant girl, concidentally also called Swati, had been adopted from an orphanage in Nagpur by a Dane family some 16 years ago. As the girl grew up she wanted to find out more about her biological parents. Through this list she was able to contact a member who helped her trace her biological mother. Now, the girl's mother's family and her step-siblings are being helped by the Dane couple.

It was the night of September 11, 2001. All the telephone lines from NY and NJ area were down. But internet was working. There are dozens of Nagpurians living in that area. "We sent a message to our list asking anyone wanting to contact anyone back in Nagpur to send us a mail with their contact phone number and the name. We kept checking mail every half an hour and I don't really remember the number of phone calls we made that night. But yes the gratitude earned that night was the best reward ever," says Sani.

But this is not about social work alone. It's about allowing people to communicate, exchange ideas, network and share goals on a scale seldom done otherwise on a people-to-people basis. Goa Schools Computers Project, now drawing attention for the way it has been drawing practical support from expat Goan communities, was first sounded out via the GoaNet mailing list. Given its high ratio of expats, and differences in perceptions, there are also other Goa-linked lists like Goa-Goans and GoanCauses on Yahoogroups.

Carneiro set up GoaNet in August 1994 says: "In September of 1993 I moved from Nairobi, Kenya, to Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to go to university. Kenya had an established Goan network with two Goan clubs in Nairobi. And, many of my social activities revolved around these two clubs and the Goan in the area. However, in the US no such network existed."

Not just isolated, this 18-year-old then didn't even know how to use a computer. His sister wrangled a job in a university computer lab, so he could learn more. He picked up a lot, and during work hours would use the Internet Relay Chat, or IRC. "Missing the Goan network in Kenya, and having no way of connecting Goan around the Boston area at that stage, I turned to the Internet," he recalls. The rest, as they say, is history.

GoaNet networked Goans around Boston and New England, which might have catalysed the formeration of the New England Goans Association. It has brought literally hundreds of Goans back in touch with their distant home state, which their ancestors had left two or more generations ago, in some cases.

DISCUSSING ISSUES PERTINENT TO THE REGION

Says Carneiro: "The main utility of this list is to network Goans around the world. Goanet is a medium by which we can get the latest news from Goan, discuss issues pertinent to the region or to Goans, hear about social events organized around the world and much more. It is a place where we can post obituraries or report notable achievements. The main thing is that it brings Goans around the world that much closer to each other."

"I am most satisfied when I see the community taking full advantage of the list's potential. Whether it be through having good debates, or finding a long lost friend, so long as the list is lively and being used I love it," he adds. "I get lots of satisfaction when someone writes to me to tell me that they have found an old friend on Goanet. I love those personal emails."

Bangalore-based Udhay Shankar N <udhay@pobox.com> describes some of the mailing lists he has been part of. These give an idea of the potential of mailing-lists. For instance: cooking-pot ("private list of Indian techies, membership by invite only"), Linux-India-General ("fairly noisy nowadays, but still has nostalgia value since I helped set up"), Cybercom and InteractInn-L ("list-owner Vani Murarka was one of my correspondents before she founded the list"). Given his techie-orientation Udhay is also a moderator at India-GII, and is on claw-in, exchinnet, and free-india (see details in the box alongside).

After a recent workshop in Chennai on 'Knowledge Sharing for International Development', a mailing list was set up for the purpose. Similar lists were set up after workshops on spreading literacy (held in Ahmedabad) and to campaign for the legalisation of community radio (held in Hyderabad). The campaign for legalising community radio in India has got added momentum thanks to continued and sustained interactions via the list, along after the workshop ended.

Today, India can boast of lists set up for even the stray village. (SaligaoNet, run from Goa, has a membership of around 120+, mostly expat-based, from this village close to the North Goa coast. It has kept busy in raising funds to encourage the magazine-reading habit locally, build awareness about pollution problems and water depletion in the area.)

Other lists are set up by alumni of various institutions, and GNU/Linux clubs spread across India. Journalists, naturally, being in the communication business, have naturally set up a number of lists. There's e-journo, NMW list for women journos, India-EJ and ThirdWorld-EJ for environmental journalists both run out of India, Indian Online Media Forum at Yahoogroups, besides others. Some of the INDNET lists, also set up by NRIs ages ago -- in the late eighties -- are extemely well run.

The India Network Foundation is a non-profit organization founded to "serve the Asian Indian community around the world, and researchers and scholars interested in learning about India." Started as the first internet resource for India related news and events in 1988, the INF calls itself "the first and foremost resource on India and India related issues."

Today, it's a nonprofit, charitable, educational and community organization founded by Dr. K.V. Rao "to serve the Asian Indian Community around the world and to help developmental projects in India." Its lists include digests ranging from news to matrimonial, and specialized forums such Immigration Law Forum. Membership in the India Network is "open to anyone interested in India and India related information". All for free!

J Kappil runs the NRI News group (nrinews@yahoogroups.com)

There lists are also giving Indians a chance to see another reality, beyond the media-depicted situation. pray4peace at Yahoogroups is run by the Peace Revival Association of Youth based in Pakistan. "This email list seeks to promote the Peace Awareness Program through interactive learning and establishing a network of peace loving people all over the globe and particularly in our area of action -- i.e. Central and South Asian countries," say its promoters.

Says Eustaquio Santimano <ejs@image.dk>, a Goan based in Denmark: "A bit of how it all got started .... Over the years, having made contact (via the Net) with many of our school buddies from Don Bosco Panjim, we decided in September 1999 to create a Bosco_Net mailing list. After a little persuasion from well-wishers we opened our forum to help link-up Don Bosco students from all over the world." Today they have members from Bosco schools from India, Philippines, USA and even Egypt.

Today, this links alumni from institutions in Matunga, Lonavala, Goa, and even a school or two in Latin America. "Presently we have around 330 members from all over the world. Out of which 215 are registered with the mailing list at http://www.goacom.com/bosco_net," Santimano said.

GII, run out of Delhi, calls itself a list meant to discuss "India's bumpy progress on the global infohighway". Some discussions focus on the status of telecom in India, how it compares to other countries, regulatory issues (pricing, monopolies, privatising, structuring), need for changes to Indian laws, law on the right to privacy or freedom of expression in cyberspace, and implications of new technologies for India telecom. It also looks at matters pertaining to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

Lists also help collaboration across international boundaries, beyond South Asia.

Recently-launched Solaris is run out of Delhi's sarai.net. But discussions tend to be led by international participants keen to understand "critical issues of the Internet and development". This list is a new electronic mailinglist on IT and "Development" related issues in the "non-Western world".

Says this list, in a bluntly critical voice: "Information technology hasn't solved world poverty. It arguably has contributed even further to the growing income inequality on both a global and national scale while the all too easy rhetoric of UN initiatives, and DotForce and other Digital Divide programs appear to be recycling outdated neo-liberal dotcom models."

For some reason, mailing lists focussing on developmental issues and people by those struggling to make their point -- whether it is education, literacy, community radio, the environment, women in journalism -- seem to be more effective in taking off. Perhaps this is because of the creative energy flowing out of such groups.

FOR TEACHERS, PRINCIPALS, EDUCATORS, PARENTS

For instance Pragati -- which means "progress" in Sanskrit -- is a newsletter from Jiva's education department, a voluntary network run from the outskirts of Delhi. It provides updates on educational trends, IT in Education, useful learning resources, methods to enhance teaching, the development of ICOT (India's Curriculum of Tomorrow), and other teachers.

"It is meant for teachers, principals, educators, parents, administrators, policy makers, and anyone concerned about the state of education in India and internationally," says Steve Rudolf, the young American keen about giving a boost to such IT-fuelled education ventures in India.

GNU/Linux is another network which is active via mailinglists. Earlier, the LIG (Linux India General) mailing list used to go into overdrive each evening, India time, as tired young programmers took to the keyboards to speak on a subject that sparked off passion in them. The GNU/Linux network also has its complimentary LIH and LIP ('help' and 'programmers') lists, while regional GNU/Linux groups have at least two dozen mailing-lists on Yahoogroups alone. Of these some are very active, others tend to be slack and non-functional.

The South Asian Journalists Association, based among expats working in the US, has its own discussion lists network at www.saja.org/lists Many have good words to say about the efficacy of this set of mailing-lists.

One of the most interesting mailing lists on IT in South Asia is run by Irfan Khan in Karachi <khania@super.net.pk>. Four years old now, the list was started jointly by Khan who is in his early 'thirties and Sean Kline.

"(In 1997-8) the Internet was taking South Asia by storm, and both of us were interested in its application to equitable social and economic development. Both were already subscribed to AFRIK-IT and we used it as a model for our list," says Khan. It now has 250 subscribers, including in India.

It's hosted by APNIC [http://www.apnic.net/ ] free of charge as a public service. "From the feedback, I gather that it is considered highly useful as an information 'clearing and forwarding' mechanism," says Khan. It is strictly not-for-profit, and it takes an average of an hour a day to keep the list going.

On his own list, Khan would like to see ways of improving the "weak areas" of discussion and feedback. Says he: "Around 10 percent of our subscribers are active in one way or the another. This should change to active participation of a greater number of subscribers. Somehow or the other, s-asia-it has not become a *discussion* list as we wanted it to be. It is more of a news and information list -- which is okay in its own."

Women are not completely out in the cold either.

SAWNET is a mailing list by and for South Asian women's issues. Susan Chacko <susanc@chisos.cit.nih.gov> was involved in starting it about 10 years ago, and "it's generally thriving", says she.

It has about 800 subscribers who are all over the world (including South Asia) but mostly in the US/Europe. Most of the subscribers are ethnically from the subcontinent, but there are some who are from other parts of the world as well and are simply interested in South Asia or women's issues.

"The most unusual feature of the list is that it's limited to women. This was decided by a vote of the membership when it started, and has been ratified a few times by subsequent votes," says she.

The obvious strength is that people who might not otherwise get in contact have made connections through the list. "I've made several friends who are interested in the same issues as I am. The weakness is that only women with email access can subscribe. Ten years ago, this was typically a grad student in a computer-science department, or a faculty member in a US university. Things have changed a lot, but still, there are a lot of women without email, so there's still a limited group who can access Sawnet," adds Susan Chacko.

Says B.M.Bharadwaja: "On the cultural/nationalistic side; I know of one quite popular (as far as number of members and posts) called "Indian Civilization" has large number of posts daily and quite insightful discussions relating to ancient and modern india and Hindu culture. One more called "Roots" which is more specific to contributions of ancient India to the world and re-discovering our roots".

The Interact Inn All India Mailing List has been an interesting place, meant to allow Indians talk to each other, despite the barriers of distance. It was launched by Bangalore-based (earlier in Kolkata) Vani Murarka.

Says Ms Murarka: "(This list aims) to make the Internet a more useful medium for people _in_ India." The emphasis is on people "in" India, rather than Indians abroad, probably because NRIs have had it easier in taking to the Net in a big way from an early stage.

In the case of India, till the late 'nineties, it was difficult to get access to the Net. Abroad, expat communities of South Asian origin -- specially university students in the US -- were encouraged to set up mailing lists on a range of issues. That was why GoaNet was set up in 1995 by then 18-year-old Herman Carneiro, to grow into a network that encompasses a number of related lists and today has an estimated 4000 readers. Not a bad figure for India's smallest state!

This encouraged many other Goa-linked experimental lists to be set up. Some from this western coastal Indian state have taken root quite well. GoaCom (www.goacom.com), a local web based firm, hosts nearly two dozen mailing lists. Many are run on not-for-profit lines. Though some are still to be activated adquately, others are quite active.

Lists have widely varying tones. Moderators of the fairly active 'Sliklist' say it's "a place to have knowledgable, civil and most of all, fun conversations about technology, philosophy, culture and whatever else we want to talk about. We have only two rules: no ad hominem (personal attacks), and no spam."

Some lists are tame, others are boisterous -- wild might be a better word. Lists also tend to promptly get inactive. Others drag on, some face monotonous infighting. But lists can also be useful and a surprisingly convenient, and shockingly inexpensive way of sharing information across a country the size and diversity of India.

To cope with the defeaning silence that can kill many new lists, two strategies usually work. Firstly, you need a 'critical mass' in terms of your number of members, before a list gets activated with life of its own. Secondly, every list badly needs a committed core group that will nurture and promote it, specially in its early stages... till the 'critical mass' of membership is generated.

FREE SOFTWARE, LENDING A (MAJOR) HAND

Software of a wide range has been used to run mailing lists. Earlier, Majordomo used to be popular. This was built at a time when Net access was limited, and it allowed users to 'work' mailing-lists almost wholly by e-mail. Along the way, Listserv and other software became popular. So much so that at one time 'mailing lists' became synonymous with the term 'listserv'. Today, GNU/Linux products like Mailman -- that are part of the Free Software campaign, offering freedom both to developers and in terms of affordable prices, are proliferating on a number of India-run mailing-lists.

Lists can be either moderated or unmoderated. Moderation improves the quality of the postings allowed through, but somehow reduces the spontaneity of the debate. Some lists are announcement-only lists, not allowing for discussions by members. Silk-List, a place for "knowledgable, civil and fun conversations about technology, philosophy, culture and whatever else we want to talk about" says it has only two rules: no ad hominem (personal attacks), and no spam.

With their range and diversity, mailing lists promise to link a vast and diverse country in an inexpensive and effective manner. But do we have the patience to build them up, utilise them towards a positive goal, and also tackle challenges like the need for building suitable content, offering wider accessibility within the nation, and also importantly offering non-English language solutions so that the millions can talk to one another?

[This was compiled around 2002, and some links are obviously outdated. Needed volunteers to help update and amplify!]

Please draw any errors in URLs above to my attention. FN

Where to find a mailing list

Liszt at http://www.liszt.com Search by list's names or descriptions, words in messages of archives.

Topica http://www.topica.com Searchable database plus free mail-list hosting service.~

Tile.net http://tile.net/lists/ Includes alphabetical listing of lists, and domain where list is hosted

PAML (Publically Accessible Mailing Lists) http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/ Maintained by Stephanie da Silva.

Prodigy has an index to its lists at http://www.goodstuff.prodigy.com/Mailing_Lists/index.html.

ForumOne has a site that lets you search for Web-based bulletin boards (not mailing lists) at http://www.forumone.com/.

Many other lists are hosted at websites scattered across the globe. It's difficult to keep track of which interesting lists open up, and when they shut down. You might have to go by word-of-mouth and check with those who share your interests.

Yahoogroups (earlier eGroups), OneList, ListBot, Cool List, and other free list-hosting sites let you search among the lists hosted at that site. For some reason, Yahoogroups has become popular among Indians wanting to create 'free' (or adware-sponsored) mailing lists.

Others offering hosting services also offer mailing-lists. Mark Symonds <mark@symonds.net> is popular among the GNU/Linux network in India, and offers free to affordably-priced list hosting. Manaskriti's Vani Murarka <vani@manaskriti.com> also offers list-hosting services.

CONTACT THE WRITER

Frederick Noronha (FN), Freelance Journalist, Near the Convent Saligao 403511 Goa India, P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net http://www.ryze.com/go/fredericknoronha http://fn-floss.notlong.com

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