Buddhist Discussion Mail Lists: Reflections on Prior Developments and a Proposal for the Creation of a New Kind of Buddhism Discussion List=電子郵件討論群作為佛學研究資源的種種可能性

Muller, Charles

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		Buddhist Discussion Mail Lists: Reflections on Prior Developments and a Proposal for the Creation of a New Kind of Buddhism Discussion List=電子郵件討論群作為佛學研究資源的種種可能性

Author	Muller, Charles
Source	The Fourth Chung Hwa International Conference on Buddhism: The Role of Buddhism in the 21st Century=第四屆中華國際佛學會議 -- 「佛教與廿一世紀」
Date	2002.01.18
Pages	15
Publisher	中華佛學研究所=The Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies
Location	臺北縣, 臺灣 [Taipei hsien, Taiwan]
Content type	會議論文=Proceeding Article
Language	英文=English
Note	The Fourth Chung Hwa International Conference on Buddhism：The Role of Buddhism in the 21st Century, Organized by Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, DDMBA; January 18-20, 2002, Auditorium of Acemic Activity Center, Acemia Sinica. 第四屆中華國際佛學會議 -- 「佛教與廿一世紀」, 法鼓山中華佛學研究所主辦, 2002年1月18-20日, 中央研究院學術活動中心.
Keyword	Buddhism in 21st Century=佛教與廿一世紀
Abstract	The usage of the Internet，along with other functions of computing，is gradually，but inexorably changing the character of Buddhist studies. The basic canonical literature of most of the major Buddhist traditions has been digitized，and made readily available for students of Buddhism around the world. In addition，there is a wide range of digital archives for art，research papers, related cultural information，along with a reference tools that are growing rapidly both in terms of volume and quality of content，as well as technical sophistication. Developments in the usage of the "other"Internet -- the domain of e-mail，and most importantly list-serve type mailing lists, have not necessarily kept pace with those on the Web. Although there has been no abatement in the continued profusion of startup e-mail lists for Buddhist-related information，this growth in quantity has not seen any sort of concomitant development in terms of real quality. The majority of e-mail discussion lists that deal with Buddhism have tended，for the most part，to end up being either undisciplined，unscholarly，unuseful，or unpopulated. However，this need not be the case，and there are clear reasons to expect that this situation will change in the future. First，the most fundamental cause for the present quagmire that constitutes, and is constituted by e-mail discussion lists is quite obvious：the medium is simply so new，so immature，having no real precedent，such that it has taken a good deal of experimentation simply to work out some of the more basic problems. But standards, even if at the moment only de facto，are clearly beginning to emerge. People who have had experience with participating in，or managing e-mail lists in the past are learning from their mistakes, and a new genre of scholarly e-mail discourse is beginning to emerge as a result. This paper will review the highlights of the historical development of Buddhist listserves, especially focusing on developments with Buddhism-related mail lists. I will look at a few of the most difficult problems that initially appeared，and what kinds of strategies, both successful，and unsuccessful，were used to deal with these problems. I will then outline the course of the development of the list Budschol/H-Buddhism，showing how it was designed specifically with the intention of treating many of these problems. Despite the apparent success of H-Buddhism within its limited mandate，it still falls far short of taking full advantage of the potential benefits of e-mail communication，as it，being a list of a primarily "bulletin-board"character，leaves no room for extensive，ongoing critical dialog，which could be of great benefit to scholars and students of Buddhism alike. There are many in our field who believe that it is fundamentally impossible to create a list that will succeed in involving a major portion of the Buddhist scholarly community，and at the same time encourage and allow extensive discussion. I disagree. It can be done，but its execution will require a clear awareness of what the pitfalls are，and what kinds of factors are necessary to draw enough of the right people to make it a success. Thus, my paper will conclude with a proposal for the creation of a new list，designed to serve as a widespread medium for conversation between experts and neophytes of Buddhist studies.
Table of contents	Introduction The First Models：BUDDHIST and BUDDHA-L Personal Observations on BUDDHA-L My Turn as Moderator：ZenBuddhism Interim Reflections Principles for the Operation of the List Dumping Yahoo's Commercials and the Move to H-Net Proposal for a New Buddhist Discussion List
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Created date	2002.02.15
Modified date	2016.08.18

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