Maintaining Hungarian Culture on the Internet

Presented by Lél F. Somogyi at the 42^nd Hungarian Congress, November 29, 2002

< Internet creates opportunity to get in touch and exchange information anywhere

< Unfortunate effect is that there is too much information – information overload

< Most people don’t know how to become actively involved, so they remain passive

Information on the Internet:

· Essentially all information is equal and all of it is free

· Immediately available anywhere

· Anyone who knows how can use the Internet to publish information

What is needed to maintain Hungarian Culture on the Internet:

1) Cultural “librarians” to organize and evaluate available information

2) Writers to digest and summarize, and create new content

3) Publishers to create and maintain websites and “portals” of information

4) Audience of individuals who care about information that is provided

Issues facing the Hungarian World Community on the Internet:

o Use of multiple languages – not just Hungarian

o Technical hurdles to using the Internet and publishing on the Internet

o Competition from everything else

Some of the hundreds of Hungarian links:

http://directory.google.com/Top/World/Magyar (Magyar Google to hundreds of sites) -- http://directory.google.com/Top/World/Magyar/T%C3%A1rsadalom/K%C3%BClf%C3%B6ldi_Magyarok (Hungarians outside Hungary) –

www.hungarianassociation.com (Hungarian Association) --

– www.magyarpark.com -- www.hungary.com -- www.gotohungary.com -- www.hudir.hu -- www.hungarianjazz.com --http://www.mybackyard.com/current/211p1.htm (Hungarian cooking) -- http://www.hungarianfilm.com/ --

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvsgen/html/hunganotat.asp (Hungarian notation article from Microsoft)

-- http://www.net.hu/corvinus/ (Hungarian history books) -- http://www.arpad.com/ (portal concept) -- www.hunet.hu (portal concept) -- www.aha.hu (computers) -- http://www.hungarianaupairagency.com/ -- http://www.hungarianvillagefinder.com/ -- http://www.americanhungarian.com/ -- www.holidayhungary.com -- www.blue-danube.com -- http://historicaltextarchive.com/hungary/jewels.html -- www.hungarianairlines.com -- http://www.gksoft.com/govt/en/hu.html (many government sites) -- http://www.hungariansoup.com/play/cardg.html -- http://www.hungarianmodels.com -- http://www.hungariangoosedown.com -- http://theonlinebible.com/bibles/hungarian/genesis_4.html -- http://www.heliconsociety.com -- http://www.hrfa.org/khsc/language -- http://www.magyarkronika.com (portal site) -- http://hungary.org/hungary -- http://www.hungarian-composers.com – (and so many more, in no particular order…)