Friday, August 15, 2003
What is O Book?
O book stands for Organic Book. The book grows in size depends on the community involvement and interest. Anybody with a decent knowledge of English and Tamil Culture could contribute. The contribution could be an orginal thought, a translation, from a book, from internet, from eMail forums, from the family. The information ought be authentic and useful to the community, to the students of Tamil Culture and others. The source of information should be clearly mentioned. Information about the contributor should be mentioned at each entry.
O book utilizes the concept of Digital Journal (Weblog) that makes each entry very easy. To add a contributor, the interested party who could be a student, a scholar, a diaspora Tamil should contact the Editor of the Journal and get a 'prefered author' status. This will enable the contributor to enter into the O book. All the entries are invariably moderated first for its authenticity and originality. However, this is not a hurdle for the enthusiast who will be helped in everyway to add an entry. The moderation is only for the copyright issues and decency of the content.
O book is aimed as a community activity to inform oneself and others and keep that information open to public in internet. Contributor is higly encouraged to utilize the multimedia nature of Internet and its connectivity. Your contribution could just be a pointer, a link or an essay with illustration, audio or video clips! Sky is the limit of your imagination.
O book in the long run will be a potential source of information on Tamil culture, a record of several generations of input, an enormous database.
Tamils with a bent of web technology are encouraged to participate and improve the journal with their knowledge.
Students are encouraged to contribute regularly what they learned in this book and inform others who live some wherelse.
Elderly Tamil citizens may use this digital journal as a 'muthusom' a heritage that they want to leave.
Teachers may use this journal as a resource material for their teaching and may leave a feedback that helps to grow.
Scholars can choose their own topic and share their expertise with others.
Try to keep your English simple and lucid that everybody understands.
You don't know English? But still you could contribute! Yes, give us the information you have in Tamil or other languages, we shall find a translator for you! Our Legacy begins in English and likely to grow in other European and Asian Languages.
The bottomline is sharing and growing together. An O Book is a community book and it is Organic. Share your views and information with others so that everybody is informed. In the digital age it is the informed society that survives the test of time.
O Book, UyirppU.....are concepts developed by Tamil Heritage Foundation
