Welcome back. I just recently re-gained my access to XMCA after changing
my e-mail (and place to live, I'm on the East coast now, I'm your
neighbor!).
Is it right that the meaning of our messages obtains in reply of other
xmca-ers? I think both Mead and Bakhtin would, probably, like that.
Anyway, this is my welcome reply.
Hear and, hopefully, see you soon,
Eugene Matusov
PS I also haven't received my MCA issue yet.
At 08:13 PM 9/25/97 -0400, you wrote:
>What a blast!
>
>Having made it - virtually anyway -- through my first academic
>hurdle (the major one to come) [& thanks to my mentors,
>with flying colors!!!] I can BE again an xmca-er; I can
>PARTICIPATE in my favorite PLACE.
>
>I have not yet received my issue of MCA (why NY FIRST?) but
>the discussion thread on the survival of settings netted me
>right away, since I have in the last 2 years launched TWO, now,
>virtual settings -- progeny of xmca -- two attempts to seed
>new sorts of interactions, to create the infrastructure
>for alternative spaces -- and questions about viability
>and sustainability are foremost on my mind.
>
>In the inaugural message of this thread, Eva wrote:
>
>>And
>>there, in the (virtual or real) vicinity of the hardware, is the x-family
>>of Wiz assistants tending to the functions of connectedness. Maintaining
>>the basics of the setting.
>
>The x-family is (in my view, not necessarily Eva's), all xmca-ers,
>& the Wiz assistants all those who contribute to the list, who "tend
>to the functions of connectedness. Maintaining the basics of the
>setting." Yes, the hardware, the technology, the computers screens
>all over the globe, but they are certainly not enough. With
>respect to virtual spaces like the xmca phenomenon, though the
>"durability of material artifacts is a factor" for sure, it's more a
>question of how the "networks extending in space and time" (as Paul
>wrote) get constituted/ constitute the space.
>
>And here is a key indice of sustainability, "the sense of
>dissolution I get when x-messages get few and far between" (Eva).
>
>I am extremely interested in the initial exchange after the X-lists
>were restructured (THANKS, Francoise). It's true that the question,
>"Is anyone here?" prompts communication in the virtual space (insofar
>as the space is a place for someones). But what's most interesting is
>what makes the placeness of this space possible, such that,
>on the tenth anniversary of the x-lists, after a long lull,
>a rush of interactivity swells up in response to the
>topic 'the survival of settings.'
>
>Here's my speculation on a semiotic condition that contributes
>to the xmca durability, since all the relevant networks of practices
>converge only by way of our participation on this list, and we can not
>be said to share INTERESTS or even GOALS but perhaps (imagined from THIS
>dot in the scheme of things) a commitment toward a social project,
>a meta-vision, if you will, of the possibility / desireability of a social
>project, a caring-about-there-being a possible beyond the expected and
>a desireable that can be realized through processes/practices that we
>participate in/affect. But this view underspecifies the role of one
>crucial artifact - CHAT, which undergirds that view and all the other
>versions of it from different dots in the xmca scheme of things.
>
>There are other discussion lists oriented to similar ideas, but that
>don't similarly ENACT them. Maybe it's that CHAT locates the issue of
>PARTICIPATION at its nub...
>
>In any case, of the two discussion lists I started, CHAT-like
>issues of participation are thematized, especially in the
>teacher-research project, but it takes a LOT of work to
>make the infrastructure VISIBLE and inviting so that
>subscribers make a place of it. Once conversation starts,
>I can back out, but a lull can virtually wipe it out so
>that I have to play the one and only lonely wiz.
>
>And this only works when the wiz has a bigger piece of the project
>in sight than the lurking others. But there are lots of wiz'es here,
>and in fact I've attributed Wizdom to everyone who contributes,
>including newcomers....
>
>Well, more later, I hope after hearing from others...
>
>Judy
>>
>>But I should think that only a minority of x-list participants have ever
>>laid eyes on the actual machine. Where we see the xmca setting is all over
>>the globe, on some few hundreds of screens. And we are certainly not _in_
>>the machine, even when our traces are. So, where's the setting? What holds
>>it together? I often think that the xmca messages do not function as
>>messages only, but also as the floor, ceiling and walls of a common space.
>>Virtual, naturally. By this metaphor, I think, I am trying to account for
>>the sense of dissolution I get when x-messages get few and far between. And
>>the sense of a "solidity of presence" when my mailbox fills up...
>>
>>All in all, it seems an intriguing task to pry setting and practices apart
>>in THIS activity system!
>
>Judith Diamondstone
> * NOTE CHANGE OF AREA CODE * (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
>MAILING ADDRESS:
>Graduate School of Education
>Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
>10 Seminary Place
>New Brunswick, NJ 08903
>
-----------------------------------------------
Eugene Matusov
Willard Hall Educational Bldg., Room 206G
Department of Educational Studies
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716-2920
Phone: (302) 831-1266
Fax: (302) 831-4445
e-mail: ematusov who-is-at udel.edu
http://www.ematusov.com
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