| A Muslim’s Guide to Knowledge Production over Internet |
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| Written by abdul baqi | |
| Saturday, 23 September 2006 | |
 Internet in a huge repository of knowledge. And it is growing exponentially. Everyday new information is being added to this database. In this article, I will try to guide a knowledge producing Muslim to some of the tools that can be used to spread the knowledge of Islam. All tools can be used by individuals, and little or no money is needed to use these tools. As technology advances and new tools emerges, I will update this article to include more tools as it comes to my disposal and mind.
The listings below never meant to be marketing for certain websites or products. It is meant to illustrate the idea only. As the sites are growing this list should also grow.
I encourage readers to inform me of new ways and tools to spread Islam. You can add them in comment form below.
Build your Website using Open Source tools
Building your own website seems very challenging. However, it does not require much technicalities. All you need is a domain name, a web hosting company, and one of those open source content management systems (CMS). All these will require more or less US$60 per year! Content management systems will allow you to organize your site and manage your contents, without knowing any programming skills.
For example, I registered this site with PagesGarden and used Joomla for content management.
Drop your knowledge at DroppingKnowledge.Org
DroppingKnowledge is a German production, where internet population post and answer questions. They recently held a forum of free voice where a round table was set-up and hundreds of questions were asked and answered by expert in a open forum. Anyone can go and ask questions, and answer or comment on questions or answers.
It is amazing how so many important questions are raised, and even more amazing how many difficult questions are not answered properly although Muslims have their answers clear from Quran or Sunnah. I urge Muslims to use this forum to enlighten the world by the knowledge we possess.
Publish your book at Lulu.com
You might have written a valuable knowledge in a word document. You wish you can publish this document in a book format and announce it to the world. You do not have experience or money to publish your book and enlist it in Amazon.com. Lulu comes to meet this need. All you need is to have a neat copy of your book in an electronic format. Then you will choose your cover design from various ready-made templates. Your will specify the price of your book and your royalty money. Lulu will sell the book on your behave and send you your due money. Much the same concept of amazon, but feasible for individuals.
Create Knowledge at Wikipedia
Wikis is a concept that gained much popularity recently. The idea is to have a document being build progressively by the greater internet population. Wikipeida used this concept to build a free encyclopedia build by mankind in many languages. Muslims should use wikipedia actively to either create new Islamic entries, or enrich the current entries with useful knowledge, or correct the existing knowledge on many Islamic issues.
It is important to include information in Wikipedia in a neutral tone which suggests no bias towards an ideology.
Spread knowledge through groups and mailing lists
Yahoo groups, or Google groups are very popular. You can create your own group or participate in an existing group. After creating a group, you invite others to join. Once you have reasonable number of members, you start posting valuable knowledge to them. You can moderate the postings and replies.
Dump your knowledge in Blogs
Blogs gained popularity. Technorati is tracing around 55 million blogs! Blogs are very convenient for busy knowledge producers. All you need to do is to register for your own blog with one of the sites like Blogger. Then post your assorted knowledge on your convenience.
Upload your Knowledge files to eSnips
eSnips is a place where you can upload your assorted files and categorize them into meaningful folders, and share them with the world.
Represent Islam in RelgiousForums.Com
ReligiousForums are having lots of discussion and debate on world religions. They have categorized discussion into meaningful and useful threads. Muslims should actively participate to present Islam in this forum and others. Convert Islamic Books into Audio Books in LibriVox.OrgAudio devices are increasing and becoming popular. We need to wait a lot in queues, hospitals, driving, etc. and it would be wornderful to spend that time listening to a book of value. The LibriVox.Org is a group which attempt to convert public domain books into audio format read by human beings. We Muslims have a huge library of valuable books - and most of these great books are old (which means they should be part of public domain). You may want to see some of my arabic book recordings. Participate in Social NetworksSocial Networks is getting popular over net. Muslims should participate heavily in such networks and promote Islam. Avoid those networks whose sole purpose is to faciliate illegal sexual relations, and concentrate on those where you can discuss issues of highter objective. I will just mention few: 43things.com : It works through tags of Goals and Dreams. Muslims have a rich resource to contribute some of the gifts which Islam give to the mankind to achieve happiness and peace in this world. Dandelife.com : It works like a shared biography site, where Muslims can contribute all towards a common story or subject. Muslims can relate their stories of religious experience of say, Hajj, marriage, at the time of prayer, etc. We should relate to the anxious materialistic west the peace and tranquility which Islam gives to it's adherents. Experience Project: Some how similar to the previous one. Subscribe and participate in creating experience of Islam in the daily life of Muslim, in their family, wife, kids, work place, and society in general. Let the west feel the beauty of Islam. FaceBook.Com : This one is getting popular. It has the general theme of college students making frieds, but through it's forums and innovative ideas a Muslim would not find it difficult to present Islam to a group of teens who have little interest amidst a busy materialistic life and (un)amibitious teen lusts. It's members are approaching 100 million soon! Besides the above, there are sites where you can drop your favorite links like Digg.Com and Deli.icio.us .
              
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 December 2007 ) |
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