Reading Assignment: Cultural Webs

Assigned: Tuesday, 28 September 1999
Expected Discussion: Thursday, 30 September 1999

There is a growing tendency of pre-existing communities to use Web sites to build or strengthen those communities. Many such sites focus on a particular nationality. Spend about thirty minutes exploring one or more of the following community sites and be prepared to discuss the implications of such sites in class.

• XuViet at http://www.xuviet.org/about/staff.htm. A Vietnamese Web community
• The LatinoLink community at http://www.latino.com/community/.
  • Their chat forum at http://www.latinolink.com/chat/chatfrm.htm.
• Talk Story with Uncle Charlie at http://www.hookele.com/storyteller/talkstory/. Chat about Hawaiian culture, independence, and other issues.
• MOO Canada, Eh? at http://www.moo.ca/home. Mostly young Canadians. Not very busy (at least when I checked).

You may also wish to look at some of the following sites, which provide information about some communities. In reading these sites, you should consider the intended audience of each page.

• Lakota Wowapi Oti Kin at http://web.lemoyne.edu/~bucko/lakota.html. About the Lakota Nation.
• Indian Circle at http://www.indiancircle.com/. A Web ring of Indian Tribes.
• Delphi Forums at http://www.delphi.com/. A large collection of synchronous and asynchronous chat.
• Yahoo's Collection of Regional Chat Rooms
• The Fluxus Indian Museum http://www.fluxus.org/museum/index.html. A parody.
• The Inuit K-12 Curriculum at http://siksik.learnnet.nt.ca/Inuuqatigiit/1/.