Journal of South Asia Women Studies

This paper maps major events of the electronic and networked history of Asian Studies. Also, it tries to identify those restless and imaginative individuals and teams who in the not-so-distant past struggled to make sense of the latest technology. First, they focused on the computers. Next, on the network itself. Thirdly, on the best ways of turning those exotic technologies into an everyday tool. Sometimes such inspired experiments were about accelerating one's analyses, or facilitating access to information. Occasionally these explorations have led people to a discovery of new ways data could be managed and interpreted. At other times, or in other places, such experiments resulted in new publishing techniques, or in a new vehicle for long-distance contacts with one's fellow colleagues and students.

This paper will look at the early examples of these three scenarios - electronic/networked research, publishing and communication. Furthermore, by taking multiple snapshots of the history of online Asian Studies, it will try, like a brave squad of the proverbial blind men, to get a better - because a more complete - picture of the equally proverbial elephant. In other words, this paper attempts to put together a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces have been scattered over the last three decades, and all over the globe.