Re: Mis-information !

Eva Ekeblad (eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se)
Mon, 4 Mar 1996 07:10:13 +0100

As has already been noted it was not even very clear what was referred to
as "very personal-oriented" messages (as opposed to "object-oriented"
messages)
-- if it was the occasional mis-sent private message or perhaps the flow of
self-presentations from new list members. OR if it referred to our informal
and personally-responsive tone in general.

In the latter case the orientation towards named persons fulfils many
functions simultaneously.

A) it actually serves the object-orientation of a discussion by making
clear WHAT recently-mentioned aspect of a topic (e.g. what sense of 'play')
that a message is further commenting on.

B) it serves a function of what Francoise Herrmann calls community-building
discourse. That is, it contributes to the constitution of a "virtual
community" of socially responsible people -- counteracting to the best of
our abilities the distancing and anonymizing effects of this asynchronous
and telematic medium.

C) it serves to model, on a meta-level, a dialogic epistemology: a way of
knowing that is constituted in polyphony and diversity -- what Eugene
Matusov has called intersubjectivity without agreement.

Eva