MelayuOnline.com Work Meeting: Achieving Dream through Action

Kaliurang-Yogyakarta (MO)-Saturday (2/6), 21 people of MelayuOnline crew gathered to hold unusual activity: work meeting (raker) in Wisma Bumiputra, Kaliurang, Indonesia. The choosing of this outlying area surrounding Merapi Mount as the place for coordination was to refresh the crew‘s minds after prolonged concentration on finishing their job before the computer. On Saturday noon, all crew departed together for Kaliurang, some of them by motorcycle and some by car.

The meting, which was arranged a month before, grounded on the deep awareness toward enhancing the quality of web content and appearance. As the electronic portal that holds strong commitment on maintaining both quality and quantity simultaneously, all the crew attempt to provide readers, observers, researchers, and people who have concern on Malay culture preservation and development the accurate information about “Global Malay World”. “Determination of MelOn (MelayuOnline) to be the most comprehensive, accurate, and the biggest reference website in the world is not merely a naked ambition without prompt action”, said Mahyudin Al Mudra, the director of both MelayuOnline.com and Center for Research and Development of Malay Culture (BKPBM). Therefore, the work meeting was held for discussion and preparation of the future work programmes (short term/middle term/and long term) to ensure the upcoming steps will be on the right track in preserving and developing the Malay culture. The meeting was intended to facilitate the crew in evaluating and monitoring the entire quality content of articles, crew discipline, and managerial system.   

The meeting was commenced on 7 pm, opened by Lomboknese, Hadi Kurniawan, a vice director of MelOn and head officer of BKPBM. The first agenda was MelOn management consolidation and SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), chaired by Mahyudin Al Mudra. Since it was the first meeting (MelOn launched on Muharam 1^st, 1428/January 20,2007), Mahyudin asked the crew to introduce themselves in two minutes. The director used puzzle, joke, individual and collective game as the icebreaker of the situation. From the games, some unique characteristics of crew, interaction models, and several critics on MelOn were discovered. This valuable information became the source for the SWOT analysis. The management subject and the SWOT analysis put something new such as optimism for the crew as both became the means for discovering the crew‘s “identity and personality” in terms of their strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threat. Like what Ali Haji said in Gurindam Dua Belas: Barang siapa yang mengenal diri sendiri, niscaya akan mengenal Tuhan yang bahri. (Who know themselves, know the God). The meeting which was interspersed by coffee break in 10 pm, was held until 2 am.

On the next Sunday morning, the crew woke up. Even though they took the rest for only three hours, their spirit still rose. It was evident when some of the crew plaid football, even in the cool weather, in front yard of the wisma BumiPutra. Small line remarked by two sandals became the gate. Some players widened the space between the two sandals to ease the goal. The “fraud” was reflection of intimacy and familiarity between the crew, not as the unfair game to win the game. 

Many programs and decisions made during the meeting. In terms of content, some of the decisions were crew‘s commitment to enhance the quality and the quantity of articles, and reviewing the entire article every three months for revision and updating purposes. From visualisation, some agendas such as redesigning some pages: Malay history page, culture, and literature to make them more attractive, attaching new polling facilities, restructuring library content, adding Malay journey menu, reposition of banner, giving gift e-book (poem) to the visitor and other important decisions were some of the examples. All of which were purposed to enhance the quality of MelOn to reach the ultimate goal: making the portal as the most comprehensive and accurate website about global Malay world.

“There is deep well but not wide, on the other hand, there is a wide lake but not deep”. The expression uttered often by Mahyudin Al Mudra to analogise the future of MelOn. He envisioned that MelOn resembles neither well nor lake, but rather similar to ocean. Is it only a dream? Considering the totality of the director and the crew, it seemed that the dream could come to real. In other words, the question is not about the possibility of MelOn to become the most comprehensive website, but the question should be raised is when the supper goal will be reached?. The participation of all party including the readers can support MelOn to reach the supper goal. (AR)*

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