What is Xahitya.org?

Xahitya.org is a website committed to enrich Assamese content in the Internet, and to achieve the same by encouraging more people to write in Assamese. To achieve this, Xahitya.org takes an innovative approach different than the traditional emagazines. Xahitya.org harnesses the power of social networking to achieve its goal.

Xahitya.org is an intellectual movement by the common Assamese people for the common Assamese people dealing with all kinds of new writings in Assamese Unicode script on the web. It is an ICT based unique platform aiming to give all budding Assamese writers an opportunity for creative development and an aid to get their voices heard easily by readers from across the globe free of cost. Xahitya.org also aims for digital preservation and free distribution of, historical, literary heritage of Assam and NE-India. The group has been involved in Unicode conversion of Assamese masterpieces for free online access. Another recent project of Xahitya.org is “First ever Community based Assamese Audio Books”, to create audible versions of Assamese masterpieces of all times. This will be of tremendous importance as a multimedia tool for visually challenged students.Three such audio books have already been released. XAHITYA.ORG can be a role model for developing ICT based community project for digital collection,preservation and distribution of cultural heritage of other ethnic and linguistic communities of NE-India.

How Xahitya.org works?

The popular social networking website Facebook has a huge number of Assamese users and most of them frequently use this website to stay connected with their friends and professional colleagues. ‘Axomiyat Kotha Botora‘ is a group in Facebook that unites some like minded people and is the backbone of Xahitya.org. The members of this group are encouraged to write Assamese in Unicode and the group tolerates almost anything written in Assamese as post by any member. Other members read the posts according to their interests and add to the post with their comments. Thus the author gets a direct feedback from the readers, which makes writing an interactive exercise for the author. Apart from usual literary contents, the topics range from linguistics,culture, music, travel, science fictions, current affairs, politics, technology, humor, education, current investment and financial trends, career etc.

Community participation:-

The group has 10000+ participants till date(01/06/2013), who contribute regularly to Xahitya.org though our facebook group Axomiyat Kotha Botora. The number of actively contributing members is exponentially increasing day by day. Comments, bouquets, brick-bats lead to further spin-off writings and the cycle repeat itself. The cycle thus attracts more and more people to the group and more writings follow. Besides the writings the group also acts a platform to discuss new ideas to promote the language and depending upon the feasibility some of them are taken up eventually. The officially registered body of xahitya.org – ‘Bhaxa Xahityo Xonmiloni Axom’ is a non-profit organization under the Societies reg. act XXI of 1860, Assam; with the Reg. no : KAM(M)/263/A/373.

Editing and archiving of materials by dedicated editorial team:-

One active member of the Axomiyat Kotha Botora group is selected by the administrators as the Editor in Chief of Xahitya.org for a month. He keeps track of the posts in the group and selects the best writings posted in the group, which then he edits if necessary and publishes in Xahitya.org. The technical aspect of the website is maintained by the administrators of the group. Other than that all decisions are taken by the editor in chief for the month. He is the sole authority to decide the content of Xahitya.org for the month. The editor in chief also asks volunteers to come forward for purposes of illustration, proofreading etc. The team selected by the Editor in Chief works for a month and when the articles, illustrations are ready he hands it over to the technical team, who then updates the Xahitya.org, and a refreshed issue of Xahitya is published. The same procedure is followed for every month with a new editor in chief.

Innovation provide interactivity and ease of use to the users:-

Xahitya.org emphasizes on the active reader-writer interaction. Comments on the content enable reader writer direct communication. It has been observed that such blog-like feature opens a door for new genre of interaction based community communication along with literature practices. The writers often find this interactive feedback mechanism quite inspiring.Keeping the present scenario of not so rich Unicode contents in Assamese, the interactive mode is an inspiration for the newcomers. The innovative editorial approach of Xahitya allows writers to get over with the process of submission and such nitty-gritty and simply to focus on their writings. The selected editor in chief for the month keeps track of all new posts and selects them for inclusion in the monthly edition of Xahitya. The best works are collected and archived each month in the webpage of Xahitya. The main purpose of Xahitya is thus well served, as even without being pushy on its members and without publication cost, it encourages its members to contribute in Unicode Assamese and archives the same in the internet, thus increasing Assamese content in the net. Also, small written contributions of ts members in various projects become part of Assamese canon in the net.

ISSN 2321-5097

Publisher:
Bhaxa Xahityo Xonmiloni, Axom
H. No. 106, Bylane No. 5
Bishnu Path
Nandanpur, Japorigog, Guwahati 781005
Kamrup(M), Assam, India