Competition

www.boatpeople.org
This site is the most visible on the web concerning Vietnamese boat people, however the information on it is very limited.  It has three pages:
    1)    a home page with a basic description of the plight of the boat people
    2)    a page with a story from a Vietnamese boat person
    3)    a page with an account from an US Navy officer.

http://boatpeople75.tripod.com/
This site differentiates itself from others by the large collection of photographs on the site.  However, these photos are not easily navigable as there is no sorting system in place for them.  The site includes a guestbook where some visitors to the site have left short comments.  While the site has links to some firsthand accounts, as well as news articles concerning Vietnamese boat people, many of the links are dead and the accounts are presented as large chunks of text that are difficult to read.

http://www.vnbp.org/
This site appears quite extensive, however it is only available in Vietnamese making it inaccessible to many of the descendents of Vietnamese boat people in America.

http://www.vietka.com/
This site poses the largest competition as it provides a collection of stories from Vietnamese boat people.  However, most of these stories are written as more formal prose and stories must be reviewed before they can be posted.  This limits the user interaction and accessibility of the site.  This site does benefit from strong credibility, as the creator is a Vietnamese Australian and a lawyer who is working to resettle the last of the Vietnam Boat People in the Philippines seeking asylum.  There are also a few images on the site, but none of them are personalized or accompany a specific story.

www.isurvived.org
This site is aimed at survivors of the Holocaust, a different sect of displaced people.  Although it does not pose competition to my site, it does address a similar issue.  This site is primarily focused on recognizing the history and the struggle of the Holocaust victims, with a strong emphasis on remembrance.  The site includes a database of survivors, both living and dead, as well as pictures, academic discussions and inspirational quotes.

Boatpeoplenetwork

My site differentiates itself from these sites in two main ways.

    1)    This site is a social network dependent upon user contribution.
                The site is less formal in terms of the types of stories and comments that may be posted and encourages widespread                                   participation. Also, the site plans on integrating an open forum in which users may discuss more salient issues to Vietnamese boat                 people adjusting to life in America.  
    2)    This site is aimed at the second generation as well as the first
                This site plans on targeting the children of boat people as contributors in order to gain a younger perspective as well as to                             encourage the youth to explore their heritage.
    3)    Organization of the site
                Most of the sites present today either suffer from a lack of maintenance or from a lack of organization.  A large percentage of the                 sites were difficult to navigate and had large chunks of text that made reading difficult.  My site will be succinct and well                             maintained for user ease.

Laura Chau  2008-05-23