January 14, 2008

Whither Singapore's Internet grassroots organisations?

Yuhui said:

After attending the Singapore PHP User Group meeting, I started thinking, "What has happened to all of the other Internet grassroots groups?" It seemed like such groups, or at least the ones that I knew of, had either died or gone into extended hibernation. Which is a shame because it doesn't bode well for the future of such organisations.

Recommended by yuhui: "A thought on the current state of online grassroots organisations."

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Submitted by yuhui on January 12//10:51pm and published by jseng, tinkertailor :: 791 reads | trackback
Comments 1

For a grassroot organization to thrive and grow, it must be run by and populated by people who have PASSION for something.

These people fall into several categories:

Car enthusiasts -- Honda Club, Toyota Club, Vios Club, Hyundai Getz Club, SG Evo Club, Subaru Club and all the sub-clubs around them.

Technology geeks -- Singapore Palm Users Group (SPUG), PPCGSG (PocketPC Group, Singapore), Singapore Newton Users Group (now-defunct), etc

Sadly, in all seriousness, the one thing many old-timers believe is that today's generation of Singaporean either lack passion or initative to start, or worse, care enough to share knowledge and experience in grassroot organizations.

I just had a friend come back from a visit to Singapore, and she had an interesting comment:

"Singapore is such a fun, vibrant place, but the people are so alike. A utopian environment populated by the Borg"

I didn't know whether to smile or cry when I heard that.