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James_Cohen SEFI Regulars
Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 32
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Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2004 2:40 pm Post subject: Funding Issue |
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Dear Sir,
Has SEFI tried the Yahoo groups (http://groups.yahoo.com/)? This is a free service, although there is a limitation on files and photographs which may be stored on line without charge. I have been using this service for many years for a variety of pro bono hazard mitigation interest groups, including FLOOD_HAZ_MIT, ICE-SNOW-HAIL_HAZ_MIT, RESPONSE_RECOVERY and WIND_HAZ_MIT (titles are self-explanatory). I have also used it for specific projects in order to facilitate an exchange of information between various parties. I have never incurred any charges from Yahoo! for these services.
Respectfully,
James Cohen, PE
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Rudra Nevatia ...
Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 215
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Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 5:30 am Post subject: Funding Issue |
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I agree with James that Yahoo groups are good. It should be a proud moment for administrators every time someone signs up, without having to worry about loss of another GB of bandwidth.
Of course, having your own .org or .com gives you a lot more leeway. I maintain my web site on a shoe string budget of less than Rs. 4000 per year on a commercial web server in the US with not so insignificant 50,000 hits per year, 20% of which are from India.
Please allow me to offer some suggestions.
A simpler site design has several advantages. It loads fast and consumes less band width. Graphics (specially .jpg variety) take up unnecessary bandwidth. Accessing SEFI site used to take so long on my old Pentium 75 and MTNL connection that I could not sign up till I switched over to Pentium 4 and cable.
The number of subscibers (928), posts (2038), and visitors (15118) to date since 26th Jan 2002 do not seem to be very high figures. Most probably, a bare minimum package from a web host costing $8 to $10 per month should suffice.
It will be a good idea to keep track of how resources are being consumed by analyzing access log. There are several free utilities available for this purpose. Webalizer is most popular.
Now there are options other than emails for discussion groups. Wiki as a collaborative platform is gaining popularity.
Just some random thoughts.
Regards, Rudra Nevatia
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http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo
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alpa_sheth ...
Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 281
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Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:40 am Post subject: Funding Issue |
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Dear All,
Thanks to everyone for voicing their concerns about funding. Before initiating SEFI, we had thought long and hard about this issue of using yahoo groups vs. having our own independent website. In fact Pankaj Gupta had explored and experimented this avenue and it was realised right at the very onset that a yahoo group was just not enough for our needs. It became apparent that a forum for all structural engineers in India was a long felt need and it would find a lot of response in the community and would grow big fairly soon. Also, SEFI needed its own separate identity, which was part of the overall objective of SEFI - for structural engineers to stake their rightful place under the sun. Whilst SEFI is presently focusing on providing an e-platform for discussion, debate and dissemination, that is not the only aim of SEFI. All of you who have gone through the website have seen the voluminous number of links you can get for structural software, structural journals, conferences across the world, a forum for posting vacancies and profiles, archives of e-conferences, posting of proposed revision Code to IS 800 and so on. There is already a SEFI-GoD initiative for retrofit in Delhi; there will be more such projects in the future.
Remember SEFI is still a toddler (less than 2 years old). There are more plans which will engage all of us into capacity building of our structural engineering community in the nation and hopefully beyond too. We have till date about 30 SEFI subscribers who contribute to the running of SEFI. We are sure that out of a subscriber base of over 925, there will be more people who will feel inclined to contribute in the future.
Best regards, Alpa Sheth
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