ABSTRACT
Not long ago I became involved in a debate about the governance of a web portal in Subang Jaya, the Kuala Lumpur suburb where I carried out fieldwork in 2003-2004. The portal, named USJ.com.my, has had a brief but eventful history. Founded in 1999, its main community forum boasts close to 3,500 discussion threads and some 30,000 posts within those threads, virtually all in Malaysian English, or ‘Manglish’. It is arguably the busiest and most influential forum of its kind in Malaysia. To me as an anthropologist – and to any other computer user with web access and knowledge of Manglish – the lively forum and its archive are a treasure trove of local knowledge and activism. From traffic woes to classic jokes, from governance to gossip, from eating out to campaigning for Chinese schools, there is no dearth of topics at USJ.com.my.
