[Reader-list] FW: Welcome to the "reader-list" mailing list

[Bhaskar Dasgupta]

Hello there to everybody,

Just joined on the recommendation of Anant M (thanks, mate!). I live and
work in London and am interested in various aspects of economics and
technologies, banking and mathematics, politics and history, etc. 

Cheers

bd

--------------------------
Bhaskar Dasgupta
http://dailysalty.blogspot.com/ (for shorter daily comments)
http://piquancy.blogspot.com/ (for longer weekly essays)
---------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: reader-list-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:reader-list-bounces at sarai.net]
On Behalf Of reader-list-request at sarai.net
Sent: 21 October 2007 08:26
To: bdasgupta at gmail.com
Subject: Welcome to the "reader-list" mailing list

Welcome to the reader-list at sarai.net mailing list! Welcome to the
Sarai Reader List.

The Reader List partly serves as a platform for online discussion on
the themes that emerged in the Sarai Reader 01, and partly to create a
lively community that discusses and debates key issues in new & old
media  practice and theory and reflects on the experience of the
everyday, as well as technology, culture and politics in city spaces.
The Sarai Reader's concern with the theme of the Public Domain means
that the list is especially open to reflections on what is the nature
of a free public space in our cities, and in our various practices,
and what it might come to mean. The people who often post on the list
include social theorists, activists, filmmakers, telecommunications
engineers, artists and software programmers.

LOCATING THE LIST The list is administered out of Sarai in Delhi, on a
server located in Amsterdam, and our members are spread over many
parts of the world, with strong concentrations in Delhi, Mumbai,
Amsterdam, Bangalore, Lahore, Kathmandu, Berlin, Chicago, the eastern
Atlantic seaboard (including New York), Brisbane, Sydney and London.
You could say that the List is beginning to be truly reflective of the
dispersed nature of internet culture, although we do need more people
from places that are nearer (in geographic terms) and perhaps more
distant (in virtual terms). It would be great to get postings from
Calcutta, Dacca or Ahmedabad... So, if you want to spread word of the
list, to people and places both far and near, please do so! I would
even request you to forward this email to others whom you think might
be interested in some (or all) of the things that the Sarai Reader
List sets out to discuss.

LURKERS AND POSTERS As in all lists, (and especially new lists) the
majority of subscribers are also lurkers, (everyone who has ever been
on an online discussion has lurked for some time - there is nothing
wrong with lurking as long as it does not last for ever). I am sure
you would agree with me that over time one can even recognize
personalities and quirks of regular posters, and that we look forward
to our personal favourite correspondent who has been silent for some
time. So do lurk, but only for a while, and we look forward to reading
what you have to say.

DIRECTION(S)? We at Sarai who have been involved with the list on a
day to day basis feel that future directions for and on the list
should emerge from the community of subscribers. To this end, we
propose that we spend some time discussing the list itself and how
best to make it as lively and convivial as possible, how best to
maintain a provocative edge so that there is always room for fresh and
new perspectives, and how to ensure the broadest possible
participation, so that the list does not become subject to anyone's
private agenda, but a true digital commons, very much in the 'public
domain', where everything that is relevant to cities, media and the
flows of information, culture, knowledge and power can be discussed
and talked about.

WHAT SHOULD THE LIST DISCUSS So far, there has been a tendency on the
list to have a great deal of discussion on computer technology,
(especially free software) the internet, online surveillance, privacy,
even water. Even though these strands may look quite disparate,
interestingly enough, a common binding principle has been reflecting
on public access to resources. Some of these may have seemed to speak
to and from specialists, but we are sure that most people got the
gist/essence of the discussion, although we urge all posters that they
try and make their postings sufficiently accessible to non-technical
people. The habit of using metaphors and experiences from outside
one's immediate discipline and experience is a good one, it connects
people with 'idea bridges' and the more 'idea bridges' there are the
more walking across can be done.

Anyway, what we do realize is that it is not necessary for these
issues to dominate the list to the exclusion of all other issues. So
please go ahead and post on things that seem relevant and important to
you.

CONVERSATIONS Please be willing to enter into an argument, post
something that is interesting, and take issue with each other, in a
frank and civilised manner - we can then have a reasonable yet an
interesting online culture of debate.

INTER DISCIPLINARY CONVERSATIONS This list is a platform for
inter-disciplinary conversation, and that can happen if techies,
artists, activists and the theorists who are on the list realize that
they are not talking to people of their own kind alone.

This list is as much about the last film that you saw that made you
sit up and think, as much as it is about the last piece of code that
challenged your humanity. It is also as much about the delight and the
rage of living in a city, and it is especially looking for resonances
between urban experiences located in different places.

The list needs to have a sustained take on other issues of
significance, like the presence of media in urban spaces, the politics
of information, spaces of autonomy and freedom in contemporary culture
- the aesthetics, ethics and politics of representation - all of these
are equally important to us, and we need to talk about all these as
well.

GLOBAL/LOCAL What is also important is the ability of the list to have
a sustained reflection on what goes on around us in the immediate
vicinity of our lives. For example, there has been a reasonably active
discussion thread on online surveillance and the politics of
information which at times wove in the realities of many places, (esp.
Delhi and Amsterdam) onto a complex map of what happens when
information and power coalesce, but such discussions have tended to be
limited to thoughts on the 'Digital Domain' alone.

This skews the list into a mirror of the activity that happens 'in
other places' and a silent, mute bystander to what goes on close to
our own offline realities. We all know how easily our sense of what
constitutes our reality is defined by the mainstream media. How the
filters that are locked into place by the big media also ensure that
many things that concern us remain unexpressed, unknown and
unarticulated. This is particularly true of the happenings and
realities in South Asian cities. This list can then be seen as a space
for the free encounters  for the ideas, reports and reflections that
either slipped out of, or were suppressed by the 'big' (old & new)
media.

Over time, we can see a whole cluster of lists emerging around the
Reader List, with sub-themes, and perhaps with invited moderations, or
proposals for discussions on specific topics. All this can happen, and
will depend on how much initiative and energy we all put into the
list.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE For starters, we have a few suggestions.
These are not mandatory, but we would like you to give them due
consideration, as a sketchy roadmap of where the list can go.

1. That people on the list write a paragraph about themselves and
their interests and and send this to me (the list administrator). This
will help us all get a sense of who we are, and allow many lurkers to
have their say. I will prepare digests of these postings and put them
back into the list. 

2. That topics and threads for discussion be proposed for discussion,
within the broad ambit of the interconnections between old and new
media practices, city spaces, info-politics and net criticism.

3. That the list spends some time discussing itself, and what
direction(s) it wants to take.

3, That we try and ensure that as much material that reflects South
Asian realities gets into the list as do news and views from
elsewhere.

4. That Original postings constantly keep coming into the list, and
that the list does not turn into a cooking pot of 'forwards' and
'announcements' alone. Furthermore, when you wish to post an
announcement, please send the mail to announcements at sarai.net, and it
will reach everyone on the reader-list as well.

5. That no one uses the list for spamming, private agendas,
propaganda, personal aggrandizement, pet hates and advertising.

This is a long and perhaps unusual welcome note, but I hope that it
provides something to chew (and then post) on. I would welcome any
responses, and urge that they be made on the list itself, and I hope
we can spark a thread of discussions on discussion itself.

Warm regards, and welcome again. For old threads, do check the
archives. The reader is also available online at
www.sarai.net/journal/reader1.html


Monica Narula List Administrator.

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