Cerita Kedaikopi #92-22/07/2002

(This was wriiten for my school alumni members, but others are welcome to read)

SDARA NETWORK

Let me begin with a disclaimer. I am no computer network engineer or a social scientist to claim authority of what I am going to write. First, it is a subject that I did not study at all during my formal education. Second, it is just based on my observation without a proper study at all.

The reason why I am writing about it is for me to understand what it is and how best we could use it for the benefits of sdara. SDARA in the capital letters refers to SDARA Alumni Society and sdara in lowercase letters refers to the sdarians and ex-sdarians. It is not an academic paper; it is just to probe deeper to have a better understanding of what it is.

I joined SDAR in 1965 and left at the end of 1968. Then a few of my classmates joined TIKL in 1969 until 1972. In general , most of us went our own separate ways to pursue our higher education and then got employed all over the country. I guess, mine is a typical story where many of us only stay connected with our family members,neighbours office-mates, our classmates/formmates university mates after we graduated and began our careers in government or private organisations. Off and on, I took part in SDARA activities but I still did not as much contact with my fellow sdara fraternity as compared to my business associates and personal friends.

Some time around mid-90’s I began to feel lonely. There is the urge to connect back to my old friends at SDAR. Sad to note that I lost touched with most of my classmates, not to mention sdara community as a whole. In July 1995, I got to know Internet and then three years later realised that I could use it to get my sdara friends online so that we could stay in touch. In 1998, I set up sdara egroup mailinglist and now we have almost 300 subscribers. From my observation, about 10% are active participants in our daily emails. If I assume there are 3000 sdara out there, then we have only about 10% of sdara subscribed to sdara mailinglist.I understand certain sdara batch has its own mailinglist but my guess is that not more than 20% are connected only line or by other means of connectivity like telephones and personal contact. The Pareto principle may apply here..

Now, let me get back to Sdara Network. I think every sdara thinks we have the Sdara Network. I believe it is there some where, but I don’t know what is its structure and topology like. How big it is? How many of the nodes (sdara) are connected or linked. Is it centralised, decentralised or distributed? Where and who are the hubs and what are the connectors? What are the links made of and what flows through them and how often? Honestly, I have more questions than answers. May be someone should do a study about oldboys networks. I heard there is a lot of power in some oldboys network but I don’t know about Sdara Network. Lately I bought a book on network entitled Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi – just to undertand the meaning of network.

For the purpose of the discussion, let me confine to sdara in Peninsular Malaysia. Where are the sdara? How many of them in each state? Are they linked? Does a sdara community really exists in all the states? If it doesn’t exist at the state level, then obviously it does not exist at the national level. From my observations, we do have sdara community in most states, the only differences are their sizes( no of nodes and degree of linkages) and level of activity. I have noted that Kelantan, Penang/Kedah(North) and KL/Selangor are quite active. Pahang used to be very active when we have one sdara who was the state secretary. Actually, we used to have quite active Sdara at national level when our SDARA Alumni was active a few years ago. The last four years were really very quiet. This is the result of a centralised SDARA official network. When the Centre became dormant or inactive, the rest of sdara that depends on the centre fade away..

To fill the void, I used sdara egroup ( a mailinglist for those who have access to Internet). I initiated Sdara TT(teh tarik gathering). It was quite popular event where some 10 to 20 sdara will attend and talk about old time. It is a quite useful forum where we can meet again after years of ‘no talk, no see’ for many of us. It is one way to be connected again…in person.

The way I see it, sdara community or sdara network exist in pockets and clusters all over the country.The way I understand it , it looks like a decentralised network. In term of structure and topology, it is quite weak. There are a few weak links to other clusters but if the hubs become quiet, then every nodes will go to sleep mode.

Recently, I heard the new SDARA Alumni committee is building up the web-based SDARA database. It is move in the right direction, This, I hope will be the launching pad to really rebuilding our SDARA NETWORK. We need the database that is accessable to all members. Without the database, we will go back like before where there is very little communication and interaction between members. Worse still if the SDARA Alumni is not active or fails to function.

At the moment, I observed a little anxiety and impatience among sdara because they do not know what SDARA Alumni is planning and doing. I suggest SDARA should sent a newletter to all sdara informing them of their activities since the new leadership took over and also their plan at least for the rest of year 2002. In the mean time, sdara themselves should take their own initiatives to do what they want to do within their own capacity and resources.

Just imagine what we could have done if we could marshal all sdara individual resources( physical, financial, intellectual, power etc) for a cause?

To have and mobilise that capacity, all of us must contribute in what ever way we can. We need a group of dedicated volunteers to plan, execute and manage the SDARA Network into such a model that it is self sustaining for the benefits of the present sdara and the future sdara.

This short note of mine is not a blue print of what SDARA Network should be. It is just to provoke serious thinking on SDARA Network for all to contribute ideas and resources.It is not my intention to blame anybody,past and present AJK SDARA for what had happened or what had not happened.

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