Goa-India.org

When offered free space for an online site, only two journos took up the offer. Here's Rina Drego at http://rinadrego.goa-india.org/ and Pamela D'Mello at http://pameladmello.goa-india.org. Sites need some updating. Like mine too.

This afternoon, it was a hot but enlightening walk along the Mandovi riverfront, where Miguel Braganza and team have their Konkan Fruit Festival in full bloom. One felt guilt to see URLs pointing to bsggoa.swiki.net (a site which takes you no-where, after the Swiki.net free but easy-to-use server from the Georgia Tech University closed its service. Anyway, we now have a replacement. While walking past their stall, one also told Louis (and Melissa Vaz) of Loumel's in Saligao: "Now we have the space to get a site going again." Anyway, the good news is that the Botanical Society of Goa now has its very own news-site going at http://bsg.goa-india.org Here's wishing this venture all the best. And it seems to be doing fairly well at its start.

GUJ, or the Goa Union of Journalists, a professional and trade union body which I have been associated with since the 'eighties (now not so directly, since being an independent/freelance journalist kind of puts me in a different slot, now has its own website. While announcing it, the general secretary's report gave the URL as http://www.guj.goa-india.org, which takes you to no place, since there isn't a "www" in the URL. Let's see if we can correct that error with an alias.

Goa is today stared in its face by a crucial issue -- that of how different segments of its population are treated. In March 2006, anti-Muslim riots errupted in and around the twin-towns of Curchorem-Sanvordem. Goa's secular lobby has been quick to study the issue. Here's a PDF file that contains the informative and insightful Nandita Haksar (et al) report into the issue. (Please see the PDF below for a text that's properly formatted and complete, with appendices.)

Have been trying to upload some copyleft photos (mostly on Goa), for free not-for-profit reproduction. See this section in cyberspace FN's Goa photos on Flickr. It's my dream to create copyright-free and sharable photographic images in cyberspace.

Setting up a mailing-list on Yahoogroups.com is very easy (even if not so politically correct, maybe). Some lists related to Goa seem to be running in a fair to okay manner. My favourite is Vascokars United, run by Jen Lewis, out of Birmingham. There's also our Saligaonet on Goacom.Org, Aldona-Net and others. Some other Goa regional lists (that maybe could do with more activity) include: Anjuna-AssagaoNet, ArporaNet, Cuncolim-Net, Mapusa-Net, MargaoNet (just getting started), Nerul-Net, PanjimPlus, Raia-Net, Saligao-Net (mainly an archive for the above-mentioned Saligao list), SanguemNet, SiolimNet, snd Vasco-Net (don't join this list, the active list is VascokarsUnited). If you'd like to set up a regional mailing list, it's very simple. Need help? Just get in touch with me (FN).

A report about an attempt to create more space for the non-profit world in cyberspace... many years ago. Lost track of the date. It says: "Smitten by the cyberbug, non-profit groups and campaigners are eager to take to the Internet. An initiative underway in Goa could see a profusion of alternative web-pages surfacing on the world wide web. Some 33 participants -- including representatives of NGOs, campaign and citizens' groups, educationists, and others -- recently underwent a four-day course on web-design in the western Indian coastal state of Goa. This, it is hoped, would create a pool of alternate talent of persons who would be able to put out useful web-pages on the Internet, related to both Goa and the nearby region...."

Do you want to set up your village, school or alumni site? It might be possible to even set up some other not-for-profit site here. Are you keenly interested? Do you have a good cause? If the answer to both of the above is positive, then we can talk... This is a not-for-profit venture. Money doesn't matter. What does is your commitment to regularly maintaining the site. If you have this, let's launch your site. Just email me.

These are some blogs I've been trying(!) to maintain. Not all deal with Goa, but all were crafted from here: Documentary film in India, Journalism in Goa, Education issues in India, Goa Miscellania, Radio in India, Alt India, Community Radio, BytesForAll, FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) in Asia), Goabooks, and IndiaWeblogs.

Saligao's new site is up. Amazing. In just 24 hours. Thanks to Free Software (basically, CivicSpace, the centre offering "free, open source tools for building thriving online communities") for making this possible. And Derek Cordeiro, the young student-techie at Saligao who's great for understanding and mastering software tools. Without the help of Chris Wilson of London and who's the chief engineer at AidWorld.org, this all simply wouldn't have been possible. Chris responded promptly to a request via the BytesForAll list and gave us space to host these initiatives. [POSTSCRIPT: Just located a part of the Saligao electoral roll in cyberspace, which is here as an attachment, just below. -FN May 1 Labour Day, 2006]