E-community - Bringing communities closer

By Hooi You Ching

Daphne Oon has lived in Subang Jaya for 15 years with typical suburban neighbours. The acquaintances living next door or across the street are of the casual variety where conversations seldom go further than the occasional greeting of hellos and goodbyes.

But that was 10 months ago.

Thanks to the Internet, communication has become more personal. Quick nods linger into meaningful exchanges and the familiar but anonymous face of that smiling old lady whom you cross path with every morning now has a name. She's Madam Wong.

The Web has often been accused of producing a generation of anti-socials who are more in touch with their cyber surroundings and out of touch with the real world. But the progressive townsfolk of Subang Jaya think otherwise.

The Net has provided them with a creative avenue to open up to one another, the chance to strike lasting friendships, to share and care while instilling members with a sense of belonging.

"It's great to walk down the street recognising faces and knowing their names," says Uma Param who lives in USJ16.

For this residential area with a population of a quarter million citizens, networking is as much about getting to know their community circle as well as making decisions that affect their neighbourhood.

Mobilizing networks

For a start, usj.com.my is the first full-fledged electronic community in the Klang Valley that has gone a step beyond the usual definition of an online community. Created by the community for the community, the website would be akin to the eyes and ears of the community. Here, problems are listened to. And solutions appear achievable.

Modeled like a smart community, a team of volunteers, themselves residents, would maintain a digital community hall.

Senario 1: The closely-knit community is kept updated on the current affairs in their vicinity through bulletin boards, newsgroups, chat forums and the essential e-mail. Frustrations and feedback -- on issues ranging from the lack of pedestrian bridges to poor garbage collection system, to noise and air pollution -- are collected and immediately channelled to the resident municipal councillor's desk (himself an intrepid Net-savvy politician) via e-mail.

Senario 2: You have a business appointment at the Subang Business Centre but don't know how to get there. And you don't drive. No problem. Just download the entire map of USJ while you call the cab. But you're in a hurry and it involves an important contract. No sweat. Again, launch the map of major expressways and choose from 14 taxi services.

Sounds good in theory.

Well, the idea was put to test when residents from six areas were rudely slapped with a 240% increase in their housing assessments.

"We were furious. But before we could take up the matter with the council, we needed to gather and compile supporting evidence," said Jeff Ooi, the 40-year-old founder of the web community.

"Using the Internet, we set up a residential database to compile data according to the type of houses, the assessment rates residents were paying, their contact numbers and so forth.

"Within two weeks, 50% of the community responded. The collective effort yielded a 20% reduction across the board. That was one of the milestones that proved how effective the Internet was."

The success of the e-community has been successful enough to attract the interest of the National Information Technology Council (NITC). In August, the NITC initiated its USJ2005 pilot project.

The usj.com.my community has worked well in part because Subang Jaya has a large number of Internet-savvy users and sufficiently advanced technological infrastructure.

Up to 60 per cent of Subang Jaya, for instance, lies within Malaysia's foremost technological hub, the Multimedia Super Corridor.

Seeing the tremendous potential of the website in mobilizing the citizens, Jeff was inspired to set up an effective and fast platform that would enable them to voice their rights and opinions.

Then last year, one September evening, Jeff and Patrick Tan with several others met up at the Kiwi Express Restaurant for their first teh-tarik session, also known as Know You Better (KYB).

"The idea of a virtual community went down well with the folks. But it was also important to have face-to-face interaction among the online community.

"It is pointless to have an active electronic community when most of the issues that affect the residents are very physical problems," explains Jeff who lives in USJ8, "the Internet is merely a tool, a channel that works to complement the real community".

Then came the Neighbourhood Watches (NW), which were a spin-off from the KYB sessions. Following the spate of house break-ins and snatch thefts, security became a huge concern. Residents were at their wits end trying to combat crime in their neighbourhood.

One of the strong proponents of the Neighbourhood Watches is Raymond Tan, 40, who is also chairman of the first NW in USJ18.

"Crime happens everyday and everywhere. (So), the benefits of a neighbourhood watch cannot be understated. It reduces the opportunity for crime to take place.

"More importantly it reduces the fear of crime among the most vulnerable members of our community--our old folks, wives and children."

Following the success in USJ18, residents from the USJ and Subang Jaya - starting with USJ 16, 18, 20, 9, 11, 12 - also began to form their own Neighbourhood Watches to combat crime. Today, about 50% of the USJ district with an average of 1500 households in each section are fully networked in crime prevention.

However, fighting crime is not the only agenda of the NWs. It has also evolved into a community-based project that seeks to foster neighbourliness among the residents.

For USJ16 NW protem-secretary Uma Param, these NWs are not only confined to crime alerts.

"You can reach other web communities, newsgroup and web forums. Through our very own usjXpress news update, we are informed about current happenings in our community.

"You can also register yourself in the blood donor listings or ask for assistance from the blood donors," says Uma, 38, a mother of two girls.

Virtual blood bank

The idea of a blood donor list was mooted out of self-interest when a resident discovered that he had a rare blood type, which is "O" Negative.

"This blood group is so rare that only 15,000 people in Malaysia have it. I asked myself what would happen when the time came where I needed a blood transfusion," said Satish Janardanan who created the blood donor list.

When it was first launched in December 1999, the blood donor list only had six names. Today, it has 84 names. And how does he manage the database of donors?

"Any other medium would make the process of contacting potential donors very much slower. For instance, the Universiti Hospital keep their records based on a cardex cards system. Can you imagine having to manually flip through thousands of cards which contain details of potential blood donors!

"It wasn't difficult to compile information of potential blood donors. The information required is basically blood type, last donated date, his email and phone numbers," says Satish, an aircraft maintenance engineer.

A web-based method is used to compile the database. Here, interested parties can subscribe to the community's newsgroup called the usj_subangjaya@egroups.com newsgroup.

"Potential donors can add in their data themselves to our Blood Donors List. But sometimes people email me their details for me to enter into the database directly," he adds.

The 50-year-old engineer is always glad to volunteer his services especially when he knows that his contribution is all for a noble cause.

"I'm very happy that our list has been used to indirectly save human lives. Blood is a precious commodity, even the millionaire cannot buy (it) when he requires it.

"I think the web is still the fastest means of contacting each other. Like the other day when a message was posted that someone at Cheras Pantai hospital wanted my type of blood group. It took me nearly an hour to look for the hospital, but I think the blood recipient was glad I came.

"I was told it was for a lady who had undergone a womb operation," says Satish who has lived in Subang Jaya for 18 years.

The virtual blood bank is also maintained and coordinated by dedicated volunteers Ong Hua Meng a.k.a Count Dracula and Loo Chay Lin.

According to Loo who is actively involved in encouraging residents the importance of donating blood, the website has been quite effective in rallying support to increase the number of blood donors.

"So far, the response has been quite good. We now have over 70 names compared to less than 14 when we revived the blood donation campaign around April this year. The list is very useful because any urgent requirement for blood by any individual and hospitals or medical centres can be met quickly," says Loo, a sales director of an industrial chemical trading business.

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Brainstorming at a teh-tarik session.