Attending
the meeting were people from diverse backgrounds.
Mr. Maurice Gracias, an excellent sportsman from
Kenya, now an entrepreneur and investment adviser
residing in Oakland, California was invited to be
our keynote speaker. He graciously consented. His
acceptance letter is worth reading and is available
at: http://www.goanvoice.ca/2005/issue18/Maurice
Gracias letter.pdf. Mr. Gracias focused on doing
business with India and the hurdles and obstacles
that presented themselves to potential investors.
Nevertheless, he saw potential in India as "one
of the newest entrants in the reform process that
is sweeping Asia’s economies, once intensely
regulated for half a century or more."
The
seminar consisted of a live demo when a connection
(using dial-up, of course) was made to the internet.
Even though the internet was as slow as molasses,
everyone was enthralled as we "surfed"
the net connecting to various Goa related web pages.
The
principles on how the internet started was explained
even though terms like "internet backbone"
were lost on the audience.
E-Mail,
a brand new concept to the audience was of special
interest. It was now possible to an instant message
electronic mail to the President of the United States.
Wow! Or, maybe, just the president of a company
you’d like as a client. The ease and immediacy
of e-mail was explained and how they could get a
e-mail account and send/receive e-mail like a seasoned
user.
Goa-Net
had recently been started by Herman Carneiro and
was in its infancy. The audience was shown how they
could register with this mailing list to send/receive
posts from Goans around the world.
GOAWEB
was a Goa focused website started by Marlon Menezes
on the University of Illinois’ computer.
Web
pages and having a presence on the internet was
explained and demonstrated. Their businesses and
professions could now be show-cased to the world.
This concept seemed to mystify some in the audience.
"Why would I want to showcase by business to
the world?"
Following
the meeting, a simple survey was taken of the audience
to ascertain how many of them saw the internet as
a potential boon to their enterprise and would be
willing to try it out. There were no takers!
It
was therefore decided by organizers of the seminar
that they should set an example and start a formal
Goan presence on the internet. This party consisted
of three individuals:
Trevor
D’Souza
John
J. D’Souza
Tim
C. de Mello
The
obvious name for a domain that came to mind was
Goa.com. Unfortunately that name had already been
taken by the Guns of America organization. Since
we wanted this venture to be commercial, we considered
an acronym based on the words Goa and Commercial
and settled on the name GOACOM. Thus was born www.goacom.com.
GOACOM
was officially launched on November, 18, 1995, by
the Deputy Chief Minister of Goa, Dr. Wilfred de
Souza, during his visit to London (UK) at a meeting
of Internet enthusiasts organized by Eddie Fernandes.
GOACOM
was (and still is) a company formed to provide information,
business opportunities and communication services
to the world community. GOACOM was a natural addition
to the then fledgling Goa Internet Community, joining
the family of Goa-Net and GOAWEB. From the very
outset GOACOM conducted its operations as a Not-For-Profit
organization but based on a fee for service. All
revenue was to be used to enhance its services to
the Goan community. The long term aim of the organization
was to have a fully fledged information services
company, providing high-tech employment in Goa.
We
look forward to another ten fruitful years of serving
the community.
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