ReMag 5

[__earth]

As ReMag 4 gets into its editing stage, let's some of us start on the fifth issue.

There are a few new features suggested during Recom archors meeting recently. The following is the relevant part of the meeting minutes compiled by masterof_none:

asalamualaikum and hello to ReMag Teams

Some crucial updates during the meeting is the establishment of Co-Ed Panelists in ReMag.
a Co-Ed would decide what theme do they want to argue in a ReMag, and they would have a commitment to write in a certain topic.
(for example, War in Iraq, or Brain Drain in Malaysia)

Co-Ed : an Honorary Program
A Panelist must agree to write one article in one of the two issue of ReMag (or they can write in every issue).
we have Shien Jin to get the ball rolling, as our co-ed. I've been thinking of Charis (chqauyl ), Nik Nazmi and Hafidz as our Panelists. those are great writers. (we need more).

Our aim is to get as much co-ed as possible (star writers only). The benefits is three fold:
easier for editors to edit, we have a high-quality article, and reputation as the best magazine.

Co-Ed Honorary Page
We would describe who the writers is in this page. Pictures would be awesome.

Members discussion
we have to make sure that members can discuss about the issue being discuss (users response) by the Co-Ed.

Statistics
Just like what you suggested, we need statistics. To easily retrieve the statistics, we would incorporate ReMag into PHPNuke.
we would analyze this statistics in the ReCom Stats Department. (to be established soon).

HardCopy
About the hardcopy, we might have to delay until this program is successful. Once we have the base. we can always expand.
Around these times, we need more graphics designer for website as well as the page. We also need ReMag's own webteam.
I may not be able to heavily involved in the website anymore for the subsequent issue, but Ming Tea can always help. we would get more member from Recom Volunteer Programs.(RVP).

All other things remain equal. The ball is already rolling.. let's create an avalanche.

[topdog]

erm...by "co-ed" i'm guessing you guys mean co-editor. we need to call them something better...co-editor sounds really weird and "co-ed" evokes images of girls in sweatpants and tank tops walking around on campus:)

[masterof_none]

erm...by "co-ed" i'm guessing you guys mean co-editor. we need to call them something better...co-editor sounds really weird and "co-ed" evokes images of girls in sweatpants and tank tops walking around on campus:)

hmm, yeah. co-ed sounds weird. any opinion to have a better wording? Plus, do we have more Remag honorary writers ?

Thanks

[chenchow]

I would propose Jiin Joo (he is working with Amazon), Ying Ying (JP Morgan), and I am sure there are a lot of talents within ReCom... Nik Nazmi, Adrian Ow, Hafidz (Poen) etc...

[el_empty]

hi guys
i'm also coming up with a new look for remag5. watch this space for updates as i'll be putting up iterations for feedback.

co-ed sounds weird

if these articles hone in on specific issues and complements the editorial, why not take nytime's cue and call it an "op-ed". i think it suits perfectly.

more (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/01/opinion/01SHIP.html?ex=1092628800&en=ccdfbf948d5aaa1c&ei=5070) on op-eds.

[masterof_none]

ahha, it's op-ed, not co-ed. I think that's what Shien Jin wrote.
that sound better.
Any op-ed that you guys suggest yet?

[__earth]

How many people we want to invite for this op-ed?

I kinda think 2 or 3 are sufficient for the moment. We may be able to expand it in the next issue.

And, do you guys have any suggestion of whom should we call in apart from the ones mentioned?

Anyway, these are the ones mentioned earlier

1. Nik Nazmi
2. Hafidz Ismail
3. Shien Jin
4. Jiin Joo
5. Charis
6. Ying Ying
7. Adrian Ow

but honestly, i dont know who are the last 3 and i dont know how good they are. Chenchow, since you suggested the last 3 names, could you find out how good they are?

[chenchow]

_earth, I would describe Ying Ying and Adrian as much as I could. I think Syamsul could introduce Charis better.

Ying Ying - She is a ReCom member, 2 batches my senior. She did her double major in Electrical and Finance in Boston University. She went on to work as an Investment Banking analyst in JP Morgan. She is working permanently there now.

Adrian Ow - He is a ReCom member, currently at Harvard University. Sophomore. He worked with PriceWaterHouse Cooper this summer. He won an award from Tun Dr. Mahathir, not sure what's the award name, before he left for Harvard.

[__earth]

chenchow, i need to know whether they could write or not. Being successful doesnt mean being a good writer.

[phantom]

well defined good writer.becoz somehow most of the writers are not good writers.

[phantom]

plus,what is the theme for the remag 5 that you wanna highlight?well,if it is a free-theme then i can join.

i write fine.except i dont know whether i am a good writer or not.sounds interesting.might join if you are willing to take a writer who thinks he is just fine.

[__earth]

you may hand in contribution. Remag still accepts contribution from anybody.

what i am talking to chenchow was about the op-ed program, not remag on the whole. We are currently trying to increase the quality of remag by inviting some known good writers to write on an issue through this op-ed stuff.

[phantom]

i am sorry if i sound like a crap.as much as i respect u and ur hardwork for remag,i have this question:

did you notice some of the ppl in the op-ed are actually affliated to certain political parties?yeas of coz not officially,but their psyches tell e'thing.in this sense,do you think we will provide a balance remag?yes we might,if no-one talks about politics and being sarcastic or whatsoever.

plus,i have perused the works of one or 2 authors above and didn't even have the mood to read their endings as they were so so so dull.and i meant that for almost all their writings.being published didn't make u a good writer,did it?

well,can we have co-ed instead?

after all,some ppl care to come to recom e'day and e'night and then somehow... some ppl who seems to know about recom are here judging our minds instead.

i prefer the co-ed.after all the quality is still high.

[el_empty]

well you bring up a good point, if you smell a political affiliation here, there is no reason others won't. i guess it's up to the writers themselves to present a justified and balanced argument. if it's rational, why not?

what do you mean by prefering co-ed?

[__earth]

yes, i do notice their political affliation, especially nik nazmi and to some extend, hafidz ismail. the former is related to the opposition in political arena and the latter stands other side of the field.

I know both of them personally and they are both good writers and I believe, opinion may varies but quite a number of people do think that they are good.

I hope to make it a bipartisan thing so that we could see it from two opposite POV.

I don't know about jiin joo and shien jien but they seem to be about neutral. I have no knowledge about the others.

But if you want to even out the weigh if you think its uneven, be my guest to contribute. I trust the Remag would do better with more contribution.


and like el_empty, I don't really understand what do you mean by prefering co-ed. Care to explain?

[chenchow]

_earth, I believe Adrian can write well, since he writes for Harvard newspaper and other publications.

[__earth]

alright. that settles for adrian.

could you ask him to join us?

[masterof_none]

_earth, I believe Adrian can write well, since he writes for Harvard newspaper and other publications.

Chenchow, could you give us Adrian's email so that we could contact him?. I had his email but that was pretty old. ( last time it bounced.)
maybe Shien Jin knows his Harvard email?

Thanks.

[serenete]

I know Adrian personally and have read some of what he has written. If there is still trouble in reaching him I can have a go, just let me know who he should get in touch with.

It's freezing here even though it's supposed to be springtime in Australia :P

:idea: serenete

[chenchow]

_earth, what's the progress on ReMag 5? How many articles do we have for ReMag 5? How about the op-ed? When is the deadline for topic submission? ReMag 4 looks great~!

[__earth]

_earth, what's the progress on ReMag 5? How many articles do we have for ReMag 5? How about the op-ed? When is the deadline for topic submission? ReMag 4 looks great~!

heh, sorry sorry.

Got caught up with stuff. I'm sort of in a few committees with events coming and got into some campus wide environmental group. at the same time, trying to sort classes and job schedule.

But I'll update before thurday ends. probably on wednesday, Sept 15th.

I think we have three articles currently.

[__earth]

Sorry for being sloppy. Had to do some other stuff first.
I've asked serenete to contact adrian. I'll contact nik nazmi and the others later during this week.

But do you guys have any idea what the topic should be?

I am thinking about freedom in malaysia. That topic should be interesting since we have people from both since of the fence writing. what do you guys think?

If you are interested in contributing, please add the necessary detail below.

Submission deadline: Oct 11th 2004
Targetted publication date: Oct 31th 2004

Received Article:
God said "let there be recom" - debbie chow

Received Topic:
Comics - luke
learning german, final part - kelvin

[serenete]

Messages to Adrian have bounced, so I'm in the process of asking my mailing list and friends where he is, so hopefully I should hear from him soon.


:idea: serenete

ps why is it all the email notifications that I get of topic-replies have a "recom.homelinux.org" link that can't point to the topic? I have to go to the SIG itself to view messages. Is there something wrong or is it my mail program?

[serenete]

Messages to Adrian have bounced, so I'm in the process of asking my mailing list and friends where he is, so hopefully I should hear from him soon.


The good man has gotten in touch with me, I have passed him the message and as much info as I am able to, and we'll see what his response is.

As for the discussions on political affiliations in the posts above, the simple way to do it is to have the writers declare them. In Australia the community papers are strong on this and declare all and any interest they have in anything they write. Graphically it will make remag look interesting, e.g. picture bylines (byline: author's name, and if it has a picture on it, it can also unify the publication and add interesting graphical elements) with a short blurb on affiliation.

:idea: serenete

[serenete]

I've been seeing comments like the articles are boring, etc. Doing proofreading, I'm used to reading things that I don't think are particularly interesting to me, but instead I focus on trying to make the article cohesive without it losing the author's voice. We do what we can with what we got, and sometimes, that ain't much.

As I believe we have discussed, having themed issues will help draw each (incarnation of ReMag) closer together, and hopefully that ensues with the op-ed pieces. Rather like any magazine, whose layout and stories have been determined months in advance, we have to learn to anticipate as far as we can, what is topical. This can be achieved, slowly. And it doesn't have to be all about Malaysia, or being Malaysian, all the time. We have come further than that.

Sometimes I wonder whether we're preaching to the converted - that in the end ReMag, although it is intended to be the voice of the Malaysian students that make up ReCom, will be self-serving only to those who bother to contribute in some way.

My concern is that in choice of topics, this may alienate what the (silent) majority want. But who knows what the majority wants to read, if they care? Do they read ReMag at all? Are we giving them what they *want* to read? There has to be an end to self-lauding ReMag/ReCom articles. No disrespect.

Proofreading troubles: Has anyone yet volunteered to do the proofreading etc.?

Cross-posted to ReMag feedback.

:idea: serenete

[chenchow]

I guess one thing that we should work on would be to get everyone to share their comments on ReMag. How do people think about it?

[topdog]

why not have incorporate a feedback system into remag so readers can post comments on individual articles? bloggers should be familiar with this. no doubt flaming and mindless chatter will be an issue but we may be able to keep it from getting out of hand by limiting posting to recommers, like what we're doing for the poll.

[chenchow]

fully agree with what topdog has suggested!

[__earth]

If you are interested in contributing, please add the necessary detail below.

Submission deadline: Oct 11th 2004
Targetted publication date: Oct 31th 2004

Received Article:
God said "let there be recom" - debbie chow

Received Topic:
Comics - luke
learning german, final part - kelvin

Op-ed: Freedom in Malaysia

Two people have confirmed their intention of writing for this issue. One will hand in on Oct 18th and the other Oct 15th.
One person will confirm soon.

[serenete]

why not have incorporate a feedback system into remag so readers can post comments on individual articles? bloggers should be familiar with this. no doubt flaming and mindless chatter will be an issue but we may be able to keep it from getting out of hand by limiting posting to recommers, like what we're doing for the poll.

I think this is a good and necessary idea, would be useful to see what people are thinking.

:idea: serenete

[budakkerek]

i'm not promising anything, but i MIGHT write sthing up about my practicum last July+August. is that alrite? Kinda like reflection of how it's really is, theory n practise. Sthing like dat...
i;m so sorry havent been able to contribute much to remag..but as you know..stimes things get shifted to the back shelves..:P

anyway, anything else?

[__earth]

Please be advised, ReMag 5 is postponed till December and thereafter, it will be published once in every 3 months.

[__earth]

I've sent out an email to active remag crews. Check them out to the active remag crews.

[__earth]

I'm waiting for one last contribution before I hand it in to the editors. He promised to give us his stuff on Dec 19th

I know I had promised to hand it earlier but with less than 3 contributions, I had to go for more.

[chenchow]

_earth, mind share us how many articles and what articles you have for the december edition.

[topdog]

earth, may i suggest you pass whatever you already have to the editors now so they can start working on them asap? no need to wait to hand them in all at once. also just so you know, i will be away from the internet from dec 25 to jan 5.

[digimushu]

i will be away from dec 22nd to jan 11 as well. Just send me the stuff you need to get done by email.

[__earth]

Goddamnit. I can't sleep and I need to see my professor in like 5 hours.

Anyway, this is the email I sent to the editors earlier.

Hello people.

I'm sorry. There are two more. I somehow overlooked these two submissions. So, the attachment contains 6 articles:

1. Nik Nazmi's Case against the ISA (op-ed)
2. Debbie's poem
3. Kelvin Learning German
4. Sawittri's Levi
5. Sawittri's food
(Sawittri has two submissions. Might save one for the next article.)
6. Shien Jin and Charis' Research U
(this one still need Charis permission but I don't see any problem in obtaining the permission since Shien Jin has given a green light. Plus, probably doesn't need any edit.)

Finally, like I've mentioned in the last email, we'll get one more article for our op-ed section from Mr. Sim. He promised to hand in on the 19th.

And it would be nice if we tell each other which article each one of us are editing. =)

Thanks people. Let's beat the deadline.

[sanghanuman]

hi guys,

I edited the two articles by sawittri:

Levi
Taste of Malaysia.

Will do more this weekend.

[__earth]

Edited. names in parenthesis are the editor(s).

1. Nik Nazmi's Case against the ISA (__earth)

2. Debbie's poem

3. Kelvin Learning German (__earth)

4. Sawittri's Levi (sanghanuman, __earth)

5. Sawittri's food

6. Shien Jin and Charis' Research U

7. Student freedom. (brendan)

As a reminder, please click "reply all" when sending the edit version out so that everybody knows which is done and which is not. And I keep the latest version of each edit at at my varsity space (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mnoorsha/Archives/remag/)

p/s - sanghanuman, i know you told me that you've edited the food and student freedom but I didn't receive it. Probably you forgot to attach it.

[__earth]

Alright. I did recieve the articles from you hanuman. my bad.

Update

Let's try to push remag 5 out on the 15th. We are already late by a few months! :oops: Let's do this while things are not hectic yet.

Edit

name(s) in parenthesis is/are the editor(s).

1. Nik Nazmi's Case against the ISA (__earth)

2. Debbie's poem

3. Kelvin Learning German (__earth)

4. Sawittri's Levi (sanghanuman, __earth)

5. Sawittri's food (sanghanuman)

6. Shien Jin and Charis' Research U

7. Student freedom. (brendan)

As a reminder, please click "reply all" when sending the edit version out so that everybody knows which is done and which is not. And I keep the latest version of each edit at my varsity space (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mnoorsha/Archives/remag/)

[__earth]

New Update

Edit

name(s) in parenthesis is/are the editor(s).

1. Nik Nazmi's Case against the ISA (__earth, james)

2. Debbie's poem

3. Kelvin Learning German (__earth)

4. Sawittri's Levi (sanghanuman, __earth, james)

5. Sawittri's food (sanghanuman)

6. Shien Jin and Charis' Research U (james)

7. Student freedom. (brendan, james)

As a reminder, please click "reply all" when sending the edit version out so that everybody knows which is done and which is not. And I keep the latest version of each edit at my varsity space (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mnoorsha/Archives/remag/)

[__earth]

aight. I've sent almost all of the articles back to the authors. Let's hope they like the edit.

[debbie]

Wait .. wht Debbie's poem is tht?

[debbie]

Oh the Malay one? Is it too late to send in another article? None of the articles for this edition are literature stuff... you know. It's all just factual and info. What do you think? Should there be at least one literature related article?

[__earth]

I'm sorry. I don' think there's time anymore.

But you may submit for the next issue =)

[__earth]

I've sent all except one article to masterpf_none and el for publication.

The one article is the student freedom. The author hasn't finalized it but I believe it would no be a problem. I'll hand it in to the webmasters once it's done.

[__earth]

this should be out soon. hold on.