I’ve often talked about the power of online organizing for the desi community. There have been many sites (besides our much loved Sepia Mutiny) that have attempted to faciliate this for our community; The now defunct DesiOrgs.us, the weekly profiles from The Desi Connect, and the still beta networking site Desi Page. Last month, a new site hit the inter-desi-networks, the South Asian Forum.

The South Asian Forum aims to tell the story of South Asians through the lens of its organizations and organizing work. From one-one-one interviews with community Youth Solidarity Summerorganizations to an extensive history and framework of South Asians in the U.S., this Forum hopes to capture the deep and rich history of South Asian collective action in the U.S.

In addition, the Forum brings together a collection of various resources and tools, such as an online directory of organizations and a census fact sheet, to aid those working in or interested in the South Asian community.

Through the collection of data, sharing of resources, and storytelling we can identify current and emerging issues, barriers and gaps, and develop sustainable strategies for the future. [link]

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p>This website has a lot of potential, and is a wealth of information for anything related to the South Asian American diaspora. The website is well divided into different sections- such as the history of South Asians and South Asian organizing in the U.S., to the voices of our community with interviews and surveys that have been done, all the way to Census resources. Most importantly, at least when it comes to building networks and coalitions, is the South Asians Organizations Directory — a database of various types of organization serving the brown community. This fabulous online resource was put together by a task force of leaders in our community.

The National South Asian Task Force is a group of local community-based organizations and individuals that work on labor, LGBT, women’s and anti-violence, Youth Solidarity Summer and civil rights issues. The task force had initially come together in the winter 2002 to discuss the impact of September 11th and its accompanying policies on South Asian/immigrant communities.

[The work] culminated into the development of a documentation project that would highlight the history, work and issues as well as provide resources for and about the South Asian community and organizations. [link]

Check out the site, and tell us what you think. I think the user driven site has a lot of potential. If you work for a an organization that you feel should be in the database, you should add it in. Sites like these come and go, but it seems the ones that stick through are the ones which have the most community involvement. So get involved.