The Asian Community Online Network (ACON) was founded in 1995 by Oliver Wang originally as an outreach project of the Institute for Global Communications in San Francisco. ACON is now based in Chicago and operates with the fiscal sponsorship of the Asian American Institute. The Asian Community Online Network (ACON) brings together Asian American and Pacific Islander non-profit organizations and concerned individuals to share news and information about the community.

The foundation of our network is a series of regional Email/Web Networks so that each group can focus on where its members live. We do have two national groups; one each for news and jobs, to centralize rather than duplicate those resources in our network. With a combination of national and regional groups, we are more able to deliver information to the right audiences.

ACON groups are volunteer-moderated and free. Volunteers from the community give up time and effort to serve as moderators for their city. We are able to offer this service free of charge thanks to our volunteers and advertising-based YahooGroups.

ACON groups are "one stop shops" to get a broadbased view of the nonprofit and community based events without the information overload. They are especially helpful to those individuals who have recently relocated, are discovering the community for the first time, or are limited by the lack of community resources where they live. Organizations are able to access an audience of new and old community members in ACON groups who are not yet on their mailing lists as well as receive information that may be relevant for forwarding on their lists.

By organizing regional and national groups together, it is possible to disseminate news from one particular region to national and other regional group quickly and efficiently if needed. Also, it is possible for anyone to obtain a fairly broad picture of what is happening across the nation at any given time.

To complement the email side of our network we also work through the web. Thousands of postings from our Email/Web Networks are archived on the web and searchable. Our website at ACON.org provides additional direction for visitors to find the resources they need with our growing Directory of links to community organizations.