LL-L "Resources" 2010.05.10 (03) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 10 May 2010 - Volume 03
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Resources

Dear Lowlanders,

Last weekend the old-timer actress Betty White (whom you may know as the
ditsy Minnesotan from the TV sitcom “The Golden Girls”) hosted the American
TV show “Saturday Night Live,” and it was a roaring success. She had
declined to do so on earlier occasions but she (at least her agent) was
finally persuaded by an enormous groundswell of demand on Facebook. In her
opening speech Ms. White (who’s 88½ years of age) wryly stated, “And I
didn’t even know what Facebook *was*. ... And now that I do, I think it’s a
huge waste of time.”

Be this as it may, and no one, not even the Kahuna himself (
http://lowlands-l.net/treasures/kahuna.htm), can compare with the great and
lovable Betty White. However, the moral seems to be “Never underestimate
Facebook!”

Yesterday, our old friend Antero Helasvuo (with whom I am connected) kindly
posted something like a “declaration of support” on Facebook with a link to
our default page (http://lowlands-l.net/). So I posted one for our
Anniversary page (http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/), and a handful of you
kindly commented on it.

Just now I looked at the visitors’ statistics of our web presentations, and
the Anniversary page had received more than four times as many “hits” as on
a good day! I strongly suspect this is because of the Facebook network (
http://www.facebook.com/).

I think it was our Tomás Ó Cárthaigh who once suggested that Lowlands-L be
represented on Facebook. At the time I didn’t see the point. Lately I’ve
been hearing people say things like “Whatever isn’t on Facebook can’t be
much to write home about.” This may or may not be fair, and in itself it
doesn’t move me one way or another. It just means that lots of people do
“hang out” on Facebook, and people think it’s “where it’s at.”

At any rate, I now think that Lowlands-L *should* have at least modest
Facebook representation. I don’t see it simply as a question of “more is
better” as far as a group is concerned. I just think that we have an
educational mission, to say the least, and it wouldn’t hurt if more people
heard and thought about some of the things we discuss.

So, I’m thinking of establishing a Facebook group dedicated to Lowlands-L,
probably “Friends of Lowlands-L”, similar to the Facebook friends group our
Ole Stig Andersen established for the splendid Danmarks Sprogmuseet
(Language Museum of Denmark, http://sprogmuseet.dk/).

At least at this point in time I would not want to completely switch from
e-mail format to a “fleeting” format like Facebook. The way we are set up at
the moment is that our postings are automatically archived for an indefinite
period of time, the idea being that we offer a lasting and growing research
resource this way.

The Facebook nook would be mostly for people to “meet,” connect and “chat”
at and for others to get a glimpse of what Lowlands-L is about. The format
is definitely not suited for long postings.

I wonder if any of you have any thoughts and suggestions in this regard. But
please bear in mind that I am not looking at an enormous effort here.

I am already personally connected with several of you on Facebook. Any of
you may feel welcome to come on board. Just search for my name. If you are
not a (frequent) contributor, I suggest you add a personal message
identifying yourselves to me as Lowlands-L members.


Thanks and regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA



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