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The Somali Civic Web A Virtual "Shir" in Cyberspace |
The
Somali Civic Web
is the website of the
Somali Civic Organization
which is an international non-profit organization in formation.
The mission of the Somali Civic Organization is to enable a large number of Somalis from all Somali clans to collaborate in seeking solutions for the Somali People in the areas of governance, economics, and culture.
The Somali Civic Web provides resources and tools to facilitate the Members of the Somali Civic Organization in effective collaboration on their chosen Civic Projects.
"Genuine democracy begins at the grassroots level in a Shir as debate and discussion among the Citizens!"
The initial Topic Areas for discussion in the Somali Civic Web are:
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Goals
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History of the Somali People
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Preservation of the Somali Culture |
The Resources and Tools will include:
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Somali Virtual Library (as a section of the Civic Webs Virtual Library) |
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Discussion Groups |
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Newsletter (later) |
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Directory of Members (later) |
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E-Mail Addresses for Members (later) |
Membership in the Somali Civic Organization is open to all Somalis and friends of the Somalis worldwide. Some voting and polling may be restricted to only Somali Members. Individuals may register online as Members, selecting a unique "user name" that they wish to use and a password. All visitors will be allowed to visit the Somali Civic Web to see what we are doing and to see the discussion in most of our Discussion Groups. However, only registered Members will be allowed to post messages in our Discussion Groups and these Discussion Groups will be moderated to enforce a policy of no derogatory attacks on fellow Members and no use of profane language. (Constructive criticism, justifying the criticism and offering alternative solutions, is welcome in our Discussion Groups.) Each Member will automatically receive an e-mail address in the form of their username@somalishir.org which automatically redirects any e-mails sent to this address on to an already existing e-mail address of the Member, thereby protecting the Member from exposing their real e-mail address. A Newsletter will be sent by e-mail on a regular basis to the e-mail addresses of all registered Members. It may also be offered to non-Members who request it.
Initial Languages of the Somali Civic Organization and Somali Civic Web will be English and Somali. Other languages may be added later, in particular Italian and French. Amharic and Arabic would be appropriate additional languages, but there are substantial technical difficulties in using their alphabets.
Collaboration will consist mainly of
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articles and comments submitted in the Discussion Groups; |
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articles, books, and data submitted for publication in the Somali Virtual Library; |
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voting and/or polls taken of Members on various issues online; and |
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e-mail correspondence direct between Members. |
As a consensus of views emerges on a topic within a Discussion Group, the Moderator or another Member will write a summary review of the current state of the discussion, including appropriate mention of both majority and minority viewpoints, as a web page that will be associated with the Discussion Group. This web page will be dynamic in nature, evolving to reflect the results of the on-going discussion and other work performed by Members. Whenever a web page is revised or updated, the old version will be stored in an archive for reference purposes.
Voluntary Contributions by Members will include:
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re-typing and/or editing existing documents as computer text files for typesetting as documents in the Somali Virtual Library; |
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translation of documents into official Languages of the Somali Civic Organization as computer text files ready for typesetting as web pages; and |
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conducting polls of Members worldwide as well as local polls of Somalis in Somalia. |
Note: This is a Beta Website under-going testing. This means that:
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the Discussion Groups are being activated initially without password control; |
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Members are not yet being solicited; |
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the Somali Civic Organization has not yet been founded and its charter has not yet been finalized; |
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the only language is English; and |
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communications are received temporarily only at the e-mail address of somalicivicweb@civicwebs.com . |
The steps for implementing this project include:
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developing this Prototype Website; |
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seeking funding for the project; |
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enlisting Members in the Somali Civic Organization; |
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allowing Members to finalize the Charter of the Somali Civic Organization; and |
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enabling Members to elect the first officials of the Somali Civic Organization. |
You may visit the draft web pages for the following topic areas and resources by clicking on the Hover Buttons (brown boxes with yellow text) below as they are available:
Areas: Goals / History / / / / Culture
Resources: / / / /
© Somali Civic Organization (in formation) 2002
Version P-1 - 13 October 2002
