Goanet

Goanet is a mailing list related to the state of Goa, located on the western coast of India. It was started in 1994 and, in 2012, completed 18 years of operation. Primarily an email-based network (with smaller operations on Facebook and the web, it has been considered influential in linking Goans across the globe, specially in the diaspora.

History

It was started in 1994 by a (then) 17-year-old student Herman Carneiro,^[1] and since then has grown into being the most influential electronic mailing list linked to Goa.

Carneiro studied Chemical Engineering (Northeastern University in Boston), and has an M.Sc. in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He was at Imperial College, London. He has worked in biomedical research at LeukoSite, Inc. and then at PerSeptive Biosystems, process design at Pharm-Eco laboratories, and capital engineering projects at Kodak. Carneiro was at Whitehead Institute, MIT, where he was a team manager for the Human Genome Project. Later, as part of his Masters-degree program, he designed and carried out a research project for the World Health Organization in Cambodia on sustainable interventions to prevent dengue fever outbreaks in the region. He has also conducted research in new drug discovery at Pfizer, Inc., and has worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as an epidemiologist. Herman has also been keen sportsman and represented Kenya in the East and Central African Junior Tennis Championships in 1992 and 1993. ^[2]

Launched in 1994

Goanet was started on August 25, 1994 with approximately 20 members. The mailing list was run from Carneiro's university e-mail account. According to Carneiro: "Netters were asked to put a * in their subject line to indicate a message to be posted on the list as opposed to private e-mail. The list grew slowly but steadily. Pretty soon we had 100 members and by that time I could not cope forwarding all the e-mail. So, I requested that a mailing list program be setup for Goanet on my university's server. I was successful and Goanet found its home for next 4 years."^[3]

On the Goacom server

Goanet had real-time archives on the web and the membership continued to grow steadily. In 1998, Goanet moved to the Goacom server. This allowed Goanet to expand even further. Carneiro has argued that Goanet (also called Goa-Net and GoaNet earlier) has been "more than a mailing list from the start -- it's been a virtual community."^[3]

Run by volunteers

Volunteers of Goanet have included Bosco D'Mello (Canada), Eddie Fernandes (UK), Vivian Coelho (USA), Eustaquio Santimano (Denmark), Sunila Muzawar (UAE), Frederick Menezes (Goa), among others. Among the first members were Jacqueline Carneiro (USA), Jeannette Carneiro (USA), Peter D'Souza (USA), Maria D'Souza (USA), Ulysses and Kendy Menezes (Kuwait), Kevin Coutinho, Craig Rodrigues (Canada), Marlon Menezes (US), Brendan Fernandes (Australia), Joanne Fernandes (Australia), Tashlyn Gonzalves (Australia), and Sherwin Nazareth (Australia).^[3]

Outside Goa

Goanet has a readership of over 10,000 people each day.^{[citation needed]} In 2004, the network was claiming a membership of "probably... 5200 members, besides others who visit the website" and a readership in scattered across some 50 countries worldwide.^[4] The list's participants, primarily Goans now living outside of Goa^[5] have been involved with a number of initiatives, including an attempt to bring computers to more schools in Goa^[6] and efforts by the government to study migration from Goa.^[7]

Built awareness

Goanet has built awareness about expat and environmental issues in Goa. It has also inspired the formation of a number of other cyber ventures (particularly e-mail lists) and has also been active in discussing Goan writing and literature. Prominent posters on the list include JoeGoaUk, who is known to share a number of photographs and news reports on a daily basis from Goa itself. Dr. Alberto G. Gomes has written an academic paper on the interactions on Goanet. (‘Going Goan on the Goa-Net: Computer-mediated Communication and Goan Diaspora’. Social Analysis 45 (1), p 53–66)

In 2012, Goanet announced that it had launched Goanet-Femnet for empowering women, and was helping campaign to preserve Goa in conjunction with the Save Goa Campaign, UK.^[8]

Photo Gallery

Goanet, a Goan network in cyberspace
Goanetters' meet 2011: Sujata Noronha and Elaine Mendonca with football returned expat coach Aelred.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Dr Pramod Kale of Pune, who has studied the Goa tiatr.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Dr Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes (migration), ex-NRI Commissioner Eduardo Faleiro, Dr Savio Abreu, director of XCHR.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Amita Kanekar, Fr Victor Ferrao (Rachol), Aelfred, Adv Albertina Almeida, Jason Keith Fernandes.
Goanetters' meet 2011: FN with Mario from Canada.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Canadian-Goan expat family.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Tony Correia-Afonso with Goanetters.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Dr. Anibel Ferus Comelo and other Goanetters.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Children's books and more.
Goanetters' meet 2011: Sujata Noronha of the children's library Bookworm, with the Canadian expat Dan Driscoll.
Writer Margaret Mascarenhas releases Silviano Barbosa's book. Circa 2005.
Author Valentino Fernandes and Barbosa, after releasing their books at a Goanet meet.
Goa int'l chess junior champ Ivana Furtado at a Goanetters meet. Circa 2009.
Goa int'l chess junior champ Ivana Furtado at a Goanetters meet. Circa 2009.
Ivana, with children, at a Goanetters' meet. Circa 2009.
Another year's meet at Institute Piedade. Circa 2010.
Noted IT guru Ashank Desai (alumni: Goa Engineering College) addresses Goanetters.
Planning, brainstorming, charting the future.
Prabhakar Timble addresses Goanetters.
Peter D'Souza from the US and another Goanetter.
The venue: International Centre, Goa.
Samir Kelekar, Peter D'Souza, Ronita Torcato.
Eddie Fernandes, Ronita Torcato, Lira Fernandes.
A Goanetter from South Africa.