Virtual Homelands: Indian Immigrants and Online Cultures in the United States

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. A note on usage of the terms Web, Internet, and online: These terms are often used interchangeably.Insomepopulardefinitions,itmightappearthattheInternetcamefirst, followed by the Web and then social media. However, as is evident from current debates onWeb3.0orthesemanticweb(asapostsocialmediarevolution),theWebisatermthat can be applied to technologies that come after social media, as much as to technologies that came before. Moreover, as discussed in books such as Race after the Internet (Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow White, eds. [New York: Routledge, 2012]), Web History (NielsBrügger,ed.[NewYork:PeterLang,2010]),andInternationalizingInternetStudies: Beyond Anglophone Paradigms (Gerald Goggin and Mark McLelland, eds. [New York: Routledge 2008]), there isn’t such a clear-cut temporal sequence to the usage of these terms either in academic studies or in industry discourses. However, to maintain clarity in my discussion of the central issue of homepages as it relates to websites, social media, andnewmediaingeneral,IusethetermonlinemediainsteadoftheWebasageneralterm of description. When essential, I use the word Web in discussions that refer exclusively or historically to websites that do not include social media. This distinction between the specific term Web for discussions of websites and a more general term online media to collectively refer to the Web, social media, and mobile technologies is to ensure that the transitions between analyses of websites, discussion forums, social network sites, and social media are more reader-friendly. 2. Nonresident Indian, a category created by the Indian state in the 1970s, refers to Indian citizens who live overseas. I am drawing on Lisa Nakamura’s discussion of the 154 Notes to Introduction constructionofAsianAmericansasdigitaleliteandthereforea“wiredminority”inDigitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 173. 3. For recent examples, see Jeremy Quittner, “How Silicon Valley Is Transforming the Immigration Debate,” Inc. com., July 9, 2013, http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/ silicon-valley-immigration-reform.html, accessed July 11, 2013; Adrianna Gardella, “How theWebandanAttitudeofSharingHelpedaLawFirmTakeOff,”NewYorkTimes,June26, 2013,http://www.nytimes.com,accessedJuly11,2013;StephenCroucher,“Communicating through Social Networks Helps Immigrants,” Communication Currents 6, no. 5 (October 2011),http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=1792,accessedJuly11,2013. 4. Arecentexampleofthislong-standingnarrativeincludesNeeshaBapat,“HowIndians Defied Gravity and Achieved Success in Silicon Valley,” October 15, 2012, http://venture beat.com/2012/10/15/how-indians-defied-gravity-and-achieved-success-in-silicon-valley/, accessed November 20, 2012. 5. AdamTurner,“APlacetoCallHome:ASocialMediaGiantHasReinventedtheSmartphoneInterface ,”Age(Australia),April28,2013,http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/ mobiles/a-place-to-call-home-20130425–2ifn3.html, accessed June 1, 2013. 6. Michael Arrington, “Google Has Acquired YouTube,” Tech Crunch, October 9, 2006, http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/09/google-has-acquired-youtube/, accessed January 10, 2012; “Nokia and Microsoft Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Partnership to Build a New Global Mobile Ecosystem,” Microsoft News Center, February 10, 2011, http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2011/feb11/02–11partnership.aspx, accessed January 10, 2013; Chris Isidore, “Yahoo Buys Tumblr, Promises to Not ‘Screw It Up,’” CNN Money, May 20, 2013, http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/20/technology/ yahoo-buys-tumblr/index.html, accessed January 10, 2013. 7. Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web (London: Onion Business Books, 1999), 39. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. 10. Megan Sapnar Ankerson, “Web Industries, Economies, Aesthetics: Mapping the Look of the Web in the Dot-com Era,” in Brügger, Web History, 173–195. 11. Martin Lister et al., New Media: A Critical Introduction (London: Routledge, 2003), 245. 12. Nakamura, Digitizing Race, 2008. 13. Philip Elmer De Witt, “Battle for the Soul of the Internet,” Time, July 25, 1994, 144, 150. 14. Webindia.com, “About Us.” March 2, 2000. Internet Archive, https://archive.org. 15. DavidGauntlett,ed.,Web.studies:RewiringMediaStudiesfortheDigitalAge(London: Arnold, 2000). 16. I am drawing here on my printed pages and some online pages that I briefly collected in the early 2000s. 17. “GeocitiesShuttingDownToday,”Slashdot,October29,2009,http://news.slashdot .org/story/09/10/26/1359223/geocities-shutting-down-today,accessedApril12,2012.The 155 Notes to Introduction Internet Archive tried to generate a partial archive of the 38 million pages that were being hosted by Geocities when Yahoo shut it down in 2009. 18. Madhavi Mallapragada, “The Indian Diaspora in the USA and around the Web,” in Gauntlett, Web.studies, 179–185. 19. ArunA.Aguiar,“IndianInternetUsersMultiplyingFast,”NewsIndia-Times,October 22, 1999, accessed through Proquest December 20, 2013. 20. “Rediff.com Launches New Redesigned Website,” Hindustan Times, April 29, 2013, http://www.hindustantimes.com, accessed May 13, 2013. 21...