While I agree that school has the onus of providing a platform for alumni, I am appalled and pained at the how these issues are being solved.
I started sujanians.org to bring all Sujanians together online back in 1998. For more than 10 years, this was the only Sujanian website run by ex-Sujanians on their own initiative and money. There was no school website and no school page. This website was intended as single online presence for alumni, school and students. There was some help from OBA in between for one or two years too. And we even talked about the possibility of having OBA take over the website and make it official school website. For a long time, this was where people connected online and built into the Sujanians brand. It was the de-facto school and alumni website.
Then came school website, almost as a surprise, out of nowhere. It was a surprise and let down because no one even considered for a moment that we could leverage sujanians.org website to be that website. Did any one get in touch with me or any of the sujanians.org members to ask whether this was a possibility? NO. I would have gladly passed over the ownership if someone had contacted me. Can I ask why this was not considered?
Anyway, the deed was done so we added a link to school page. A number of people asked questions about the admission process and we directed them to school website. Many times during the process, my browser reported that the school website was keeping malware and refused to take me there. It took a while for the website to become malware free.
Of course, facebook came along. Lot of groups got started. New ones emerged. Some died down. And this one isn't official facebook page for school. If things are any predictor, one of the school authorities might decide this isn't the official facebook page so they will create a new one. Is that the way we want things to go?
If we really want to see strength in our alumni, we need to remember that by creating new groups and websites, we are not going to get there. I already hear a number of stories that the OBA community is pretty fragmented. All these different facebook and mail groups are just an indicator that we are fragmented. And this is not how we will unite.
So before you start another group or community or alumin webpage, think again about the contribution you are making. Just because you see a problem with a website or a group doesn't mean you should create a new one. Instead, you should spend effort on thinking about how you can make the existing things right. Only then, we can stand tall and united. Otherwise, this OBA community isn't going too far.
Arvind, while I appreciate your thought, please think about the impact this has on OBA community. It's not too late to stop this effort.
And yes, please feel free to add to this discussion with your constructive criticism or support.
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