Nan:2011-06-12-mvi-soc.culture.indian.telugu
From Usenet Big-8 Management Board
From: Steve Bonine <spb@pobox.com> Subject: Moderator Vacancy Investigation: soc.culture.indian.telugu Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 09:07:00 EDT Message-ID: <95jru8F3j1U6@mid.individual.net> MODERATOR VACANCY INVESTIGATION (MVI) moderated group soc.culture.indian.telugu This is a formal Moderator Vacancy Investigation (MVI), begun because moderated newsgroup soc.culture.indian.telugu is not functioning, and may have been abandoned by its moderator(s). This investigation will attempt to verify the reasons for non-function, and may result in the removal of the group or the selection and installation of a new moderator. In practice, the Big-8 Management Board considers the third alternative -- changing the status of the group from moderated to unmoderated -- as likely to cause more harm than good. NEWSGROUPS LINE: soc.culture.indian.telugu The culture of the Telugu people of India. (Moderated) RATIONALE: Probe posts to this group resulted in bounces. The last on-topic article is from 2005. DISTRIBUTION: news.announce.newgroups news.groups.proposals soc.culture.indian.telugu soc.culture.indian CHARTER Telugu is the twelfth most widely spoken language in the world [1], the second most widely spoken language in India. It is a Dravidian language spoken by about 69 million people. Earliest written records in Telugu date back to the third century A.D., while polished written literature dates back to about 1000 A.D. Andhra is the Sanskrit name for Telugu, and most of its speakers are in Andhra Pradesh, a state in the southern part of India. Telugu is one of the four major languages of the Dravidian family, with its own script common to all of its several dialects. Telugu culture dates back to the begining of Christian Era and it has evolved with the inputs from both Sanskritic and Dravidic culture groups. The proposed newsgroup is expected to be a forum for discussions on topics that are specific to Telugu culture, with no apparent relevance to persons not interested in Telugu culture and language. Postings relating to Telugu or Andhra Pradesh but are of relevance to others are expected to be crossposted to appropriate newsgroups (eg soc.culture.indian, rec.music.indian.classical). Likewise, if a topic is not Telugu-specific, it is expected that it will be posted elsewhere in an appropriate forum. Many postings on the proposed newsgroup are likely to be in transliterated Telugu, with an English translation not necessarily accompanying them. The following is a partial list of such possible topics. Arts: ----- Performing Arts: Kuchipudi dance, its style and framework compared to Bharatanatyam and other dance forms from other parts of the country, dance dramas, evolution of Telugu theater, Telugu lyrics in Karnatic classical music, devotional philosophies of its exponents. Other Arts: Ballads, `harikatha', `burrakatha', their current popularity. Communication Media: ------------------- Electronic Media: Quality of Telugu TV programs, State autonomy versus privatization of the TV, relevance of various programs on the TV, its role in social life, in politics, in government, in adult education, its influence on common man, its role as a news media. Same for Radio, with discussion on regional radio stations. Print Media: News analysis, commentary, editorials, investigative and yellow journalism in Telugu newspapers, their quality in comparison with national newspapers in English. Literary quality and popular literature in periodicals, soft pornography in weekly magazines, science fiction, educational magazines, children's magazines, comics. Visual Media: Films: Various genres, modern trends, comparison with other Indian or foreign language films, technical quality, dialects in films, literary quality of songs, obscenity in sight and sound, social issues in films, film personalities such as directors, actors. Painting, sculpture, handicrafts, puppet shows and street plays. Developmental Projects: ---------------------- Literacy improvement, adult education, primary health care, eradication of social evils like `Jogin' system and bonded labor, NRI interest in such projects, profiles of social service organizations, social workers, governmental long-term projects. History: ------- Various theories on the history of the Telugu language and people, life of a common man in various dynasties, current status of native tribes, British influence on the region, migration patterns. Literature: ---------- Discussions on classical as well as modern literature may include major literary movements, various literary forms and their relationship to the content, diachronic evolution of the relationship between form and content, influence of world literature and philosophers, folk literature, children's literature, literature in various dialects, translations from other languages, poets, playwrights, novelists, story tellers and such. Scientific Literature: --------------------- Teaching science in Telugu, scientific vocabulary in Telugu, reviews of science books in Telugu, taking science to rural children. Software: -------- Good features of a transliteration scheme, various schemes, typesetting in LaTeX, what-you-see-is-what-you-get software based on transliteration, special spell-checking problems in Telugu, optical character recognition, merits of existing packages, ftp sites for transliterated texts. Teaching Telugu: --------------- Challenges in teaching Telugu to the second generation (born and settled outside of Andhra Pradesh) - especially that outside of India, designing textbooks, dictionaries and other learning tools for them. The above is only a small sample of possible topics. It is hoped that the proposed newsgroup will generate discussion on many more such topics. HISTORY OF THE GROUP: The group passed its vote on 13 June 1992 by 276:64. The group was active between August 1992 and August 2001. PROPONENT: Steve Bonine <spb@pobox.com> PROCEDURE: Those who wish to comment on this moderator vacancy investigation should subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant threads in that newsgroup. To this end, the followup header of this MVI has been set to news.groups.proposals. For more information on the MVI process, please see http://www.big-8.org/wiki/Moderator_Vacancy_Investigations CHANGE HISTORY: 12 June 2011: Moderator Vacancy Investigation