Friends,

Here goes the first Sampada Newsletter. Please read it and make it a point to forward it across to all your friends who might take interest in the initiative and take part in it.

Welcome Note:
Welcome to Sampada. You're now part of the fastest growing Kannada community. A community that was started more like an 'experiment'. A community that has proved to the internet world that Kannada language is very much there and can attract activity on such large scale, as well.

The Initiative:
Sampada, as you might all know, is an initiative to bring about more enthusiasm towards writing in Kannada, exchanging thougths in Kannada and Kannada literature. The focus is to build a unique podium for everyone interested in literature, learning - to share their thoughts, views and work in Kannada.

The Technology:
Sampada makes use of Unicode technology. We do know that most of you folks have had difficulty enabling it on your systems. But there are people who have enabled it - taking all the trouble, for the sheer joy of sharing their thoughts in Kannada. Please enable it on your system too, if you have'nt already.
http://sampada.net/fonthelp

P.S: Even some of Win98 users and Win2000 users have reported that they could read and type Unicode. Please see the above link for the documentation on it.

Until now... :
Sampada has had 186 users in just a span of more than two weeks. We have had close to 150 posts on Sampada, and the number has kept increasing.
(Visit http://sampada.net/hof for more information on stats and stuff)

New interface, changes:
On popular request, the interface of sampada has been changed and made more colorful. Keep your feedbacks coming:
http://sampada.net/feedback

Coming up soon on Sampada...
* A Kannada News section similar to slashdot- news submitted by users.
* An ebook of collection of creative poems that have been added to Sampada exclusively for Sampada members.

Invaluable assets:
Special, heartfelt thanks to Shri O L N Swamy, Ismail, T V Srinivas and Pavanaja for participating with great deal of interest in this initiative and showering loads of encouragement. Without them, Sampada wouldn't have been what it is today.

Donations, Funds:
Donations from members are welcome. The funds generated thus would help us provide more features on Sampada for users. To donate funds, visit:
http://sampada.net/donate
Special thanks to Maanya T V Srinivas, who donated right during the initial days of Sampada - reducing the weight of expenditure that was on my shoulder. His contribution would remain as an invaluable one.

Participating:
We would like to invite all of you who would like to participate in this initiative. You're invited to come up with articles and write-ups in Kannada. We're also looking out for volunteers who can get themselves involved on a regular basis on this initiative. Please let us know:
http://sampada.net/getting_involved

Spread the word about Sampada as much as you can, and lets get more action on it!

And a last note:
Get Firefox. Get the standards compatible, free, open source browser for secure browsing. http://getfirefox.com/
Sampada is best viewed on a standards compatible browser.

on behalf of Sampada Sysops team,
Webmaster,
- Hari Prasad Nadig.