E-conference, chat, instant messaging and blogging facilities

Chat, instant messaging and blogging facilities have been at the core of the communication revolution that the Web has engendered. THDL sees such capacities as being essential in the following contexts:

• Instant messaging can facilitate discussions across national boundaries, and especially with partners in the Tibet and Himalayan regions, without incurring large phone bills; it is designed more for individual-to-individual communication
• Audio/Video conferencing can serve as a fee-free substitute for long-distance phone calls. Read documentation on using MSN Messenger’s audio conferencing function
• Chat rooms can facilitate open on-line exchanges of serious issues; it is designed more for multiple participants to communicate, and to facilitate happenstance encounterse based on an interest in a given chat room's theme
• "Blogging" facilitates the easy creation of a personal Web space for one's reflections, while also allowing for others to comment on those reflections from outside
• E-conference facilities, essentially applying a scheduled timetable to the use of chatroom technology, can be used to facilitate on-line gatherings and formal conferences that otherwise could cost thousands of dollars and lost time in travel

THDL is working with the University of Virginia Library's Information Community project to provide dedicated e-conference facilities, but at present there is no concrete timetable for implementation. We are also interested in establishing multi-lingual support so that Tibetans, Nepalese, Bhutanese and other ethnic groups of the region can use their own script for digital communication.

In the meantime, we suggest using ICQ Lite for instant messaging and chatting (click here to download and set up a free account). ICQ exists in multiple language environments, and is probably the most popular such protocol used in Tibet itself. Yahoo Chat is another site offering free chatrooms and instant messaging. In India and Nepal, Tibetchat appears to offer a popular forum for casual chatting. Please note that the THDL Community Roster offers the means to record instant messaging and chatroom IDs, if you are interested in being approachable through that avenue.

We are interested to offer a detailed account of popular communication facilities used in Tibet, Nepal, India and Bhutan, as well as by experts and organizations concerned with these parts of the world. Please contact us at thdlcommunity@virginia.edu to offer information we can incorporate into this site. As we accumulate more information, we will provide an organized guide.