Iranian World Wide Web activities

         Sportestan Publishing is the company behind the Iranian Sports Homepage (ISH) at http:///www.sportestan.com . The homepage is served by Anoosh Hosseini the owner of Global Publishing Group (http://www.gpg.com). Hooshyar also mentioned Anoosh was generous not to charge Sportestan as long as they operated as a non-profit homepage. At current load demand, this amounts to $150 a month.

Iranian Sports Homepage has two objectives:

• 1- To archive the Iranian sport history and statistics in the last 100 years.
• 2- To broadcast sport news from Iran on a regular basis.

         The first issue went on-line on April 4, 1996. They have published four issues so far, and the last issue will be published in December to close the calendar year with an average of one issue every two months.

         ISH has about 8,000 readers overall, has been visited over 25,000 times, and it generates a hit range of over 135,000 per month, all of that in a mere 7-month period it has been on-line. Still thousands of Iranians with access to internet don't know about the existence of this sport homepage.

         Hooshyar soke about sport publications in Iran. He displayed samples of Keyhan Varzeshi from 1960's, 1970's and the present time -- three distinct periods. He explained because of issues in Iran a good portion of our sport history has been neglected. ISH tries to preserve that history with respect to the Iranian culture.

         He justified why the web page is published in English. It is to serve the new generation of the Iranian youth who are more familiar with reading English than Persian. Also, he aims at attracting foreign readers with special interest in sports news and history. For example, he said a football coach from Brazil had seen the homepage in Sao Polo, Brazil and sent his resume to Sportestan in the hope of securing a coaching job in Iran.

         The youngest ISH reader is a 14-year-old teenage boy from England and the oldest reader is a man in his late 70's. Hooshyar shared the fact that parents write to Sportestan and claim they have found a place to encourage their young children to go to learn something positive about Iran. This is the most important reward to Hooshyar and Ali in the last seven months.

Current Issues:

• 1- Need to translate first then publish as opposed to other on-line Iranian homepages whereby their articles start with English. This is time-consuming. Professional Editors are sought by Sportestan. If you know of somebody, let Hooshyar know.
• 2- Lack of funding. There are more news and data to be published than time permits. Hooshyar said he possesess all the sport magazines from 40 years ago to today. His aim for 97 is to publish the CD-ROM of Iran sports.
• 3- He does not like to sell advertising space. He feels this will derail the ultimate goal of Sportestan which is content publishing. He would have to concentrate on selling space than publishing high-quality content. He rather secure two or three major sponsors who would offer a grant for a specified amount of time.

         He passed around a page from Guy Kawasaki's book called "Selling Your Dream." It is a flowchart of how to go about fulfilling your business dream. Hooshyar said this has been his "programming tool" to do what he always wanted to do: sport publication. The only required tool, Guy and Hooshyar believe, is to possess some passion and guts.

Doostan,

Due to the extreme fluctulation in the number of people who show up to our Doreh events (40+ last time), we need to update our invitation process. Our next Doreh will be at Mina's place, and we can accommodate around 25 people. Please try to rsvp with me (nima@mipos3.intel.com) by Nov 19 if you are planning to attend.

Date: Nov 21, 1996
Time: 7:30 -> 11:00
Topic: Iranian World Wide Web activities

Given the past history of attendance, here is my take on the next gathering :-)

• Inside the House: For those of you who show up because of an interest on the posted topic (10->15 people).
• Behind the House: For those of you who show up to socialize and check out the new members (bring a warm jacket and your cigarettes, 5->10 people)
• In front of house: For those of you who don't RSVP but show up anyway (bring a warn jacket + lawn chair and Ashe-Reshteh, 1->30 people)

• 70% anti-social or socially retarded < as we explored in the last doreh >
• 20% socially advanced (backyard,frontyard/etc..)
• 10% clueless- partly in house, listening but not getting it - partly

Nima Jan,

I believe the purpose behind your group's invitation is not just to hear what I have to say about THE IRANIAN magazine. I assume the real interest is in the general presence of the Iranian community in the Internet.

If this is the case, and I hope it is, it would be much more interesting to invite other Iranian "Webmasters" as well and present a much wider picture to your group.

I'm sure you know that all the major Iranian Web sites are created and maintained right here in the Bay Area. So it would not be too difficult to invite them to the program. The individuals below not only have major Web sites but have been the earliest Iranian pioneers on the Net. They are:

• Anoosh Hosseini (owner of Global Publishing Group)
• Farhad Shakeri (Tehran.Stanford.edu)
• Ali Moayedian (Payvand.com)
• Hooshyar Naraghi (Sportestan.com)
• Shahrokh Mortazavi (Nakisa.com)

Qorbanat

jj

---

Doreh Events Home Page