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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!furuta
From: furuta@uw-beaver (Richard Furuta)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: starting a new net net.india
Message-ID: <482@uw-beaver>
Date: Tue, 22-Jan-85 05:18:14 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.482
Posted: Tue Jan 22 05:18:14 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jan-85 05:38:21 EST
References: <182@CS-Mordred> <3490007@csd2.UUCP> <2245@nsc.UUCP>
Reply-To: furuta@uw-beaver.UUCP (Richard furuta)
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 35
Summary: 


I've been trying to categorize this request for net.india in my mind.  The
normal policy would be to say "try it out using group 'net.foo' and if that
works out, then you'll have a good argument for creating the list.  Well,
unfortunately that argument doesn't seem applicable this time because most
of the suggestions one might have for a "trial" group seem inappropriate.
It finally occurred to me why this is so and why the various suggestions for
renamings of the group sounded incorrect.

What we have here is a request not for a newsgroup but for a "virtual
distribution."  Rather than a request for a place for people to discuss a
specific topic, what is being asked for is a place where people sharing a
common heritage can discuss matters of interest to them.

At our University, there are a number of national clubs in addition to the
issue-oriented clubs.  For example, there are three separate Chinese student
groups.

I think this is a commendable use of Usenet and would suggest that, if
nothing else as an experiment, that this newsgroup be created.  If there is
an insistance on making it hierarchical, create a new hierarchy so that if
other national groups also want to have newsgroups for communication with
their fellow countrymen there will be somewhere to put it.  Perhaps
net.nlang.greek is filling a similar role---I don't know.  However, the
naming seems to be misleading if it is---it sounds like a place to discuss
the greek language rather than a place for people to keep each other current
about the news from back home.

Could someone who knows fill me in?  My feeling is that there are currently
a very large number of Indian students studying Computer Science in U.S.
Universities (based solely on observation of the makeup of the graduate
student population here at the University of Washington).  If this is the
case, it is another indicator that the newsgroup will be used.

					--Rick