FW: Why Lurk...

From: del Valle, Rodrigo Tomas (rdelvall@indiana.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 05 2005 - 14:00:38 PDT


Hi,
 
 There are several threads going on now and this one seems to be dying,
but anyway....
 
Considering Mike's question about why people sign up for the list when
the discourse is so wonderfully googleable, I think one answer is on why
distance education, e-commerce and so on use both push (email) and pull
(web) technologies. Email comes to me I don't have to go anywhere, don't
have to remember to do it, don't have to remember URLs, passwords,
etc... and you can always filter or delete them :-) In my case I would
rarely visit the web threaded discussion, and even if I want to do a
search I can use Google Desktop Search to search the XMCA mails I have
received :-) For me lurking in this list in a daily basis is a great
experience that I wouldn't get just by knowing I have access to the web
version of the list :-)
 
Grandson Rodrigo :-)
====================
Rodrigo del Valle - rdelvall@indiana.edu
IST ABD :-)
Center for Research on Learning and Technology
LTTS - http://ltts.indiana.edu
School of Education Indiana University www.iub.edu
====================

        ----- Original Message -----
        From: Mike Cole <mailto:lchcmike@gmail.com>
        To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
        Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 3:40 PM
        Subject: Re: Why Lurk...

        Dale, Fern, Heather et al--
        
        My question about those who read but do not write or otherwise
make their presence known on xmca was a little
        different than the one answered. In seeking to fix a whole in
the (always holey, never holy) xmca infrastructure (e.g. the
        people who one sees listed under members are mostly not and the
only way to find those who are is to act like you are signing up) I was
fascinated by how many people took the trouble to sign up, sort of
describe themselves, but never posted a question or observation.
        
        This interested me in particular because I get a lot of email
and I think the threaded discourse data base for xmca, which is updated
daily, is a great way to follow discussions. Why, I wondered, would
anyone want to go to the trouble of signing up just to read? I figured
some people might not like using the web and prefer to get stuff through
email. But its so difficult to keep the threads in mind! (Witness the
discussion on development, learning, breaking away, etc.).
        
        I appreciate the replies to the question of why people like to
read but don't post-- lots of different legitimate reasons. I personally
benefit from the diversity that sometimes blossoms on xmca to beat down
the myths of orthodoxy that over-representation of specific people (I am
far and away the worst offender over-reprentation-wise) engenders (a
word chosen not at random).
        
        So, I'll keep mixing it up as best I can, as you will see. But
it still puzzles me that there are so many signed up members when the
discourse is so wonderfully googleable.
        
        Cousin mike
        
        
        
        On Apr 4, 2005 1:21 PM, hpleasa@udel.edu <hpleasa@udel.edu>
wrote:

                In response to Mike's and others' postings about
lurking.
                
                First of all, I really don't like the term lurking...it
                sounds too predatory to me. And, as a lurker, I don't
see
                myself as carnivorous at all in my reading of other's
                postings. Okay, well, maybe a little bit. It's delicious
                stuff! Anyway...
                
                I think of the XMCA list as sort of like a family
reunion.
                When a family gets together, there are all different
kinds
                of networks and relationships that become relevant as
people
                interact with one another. Cousins and "play cousins"
                interact with each other, Aunts and Uncles, Uncles and
                nephews, etc. The family reunion metaphor also throws a
                dimension of temporality/spatiality in there that I
think is
                important. There are different generations present, and
                people "living" in different places who come together at
the
                reunion.
                
                Many times, I envision myself as one of the "youngins"
                listening to the words and stories and ideas of the four
or
                five or ten old folks (I mean that in the most
respectful
                and caring way) who I consider to be both more
                knowledgeable.
                
                But...while I'm in the circle of people listening to
these
                conversations, I'm also doing many other things that
young
                folks do, and I don't want to be disrespectful to other
                people who are more thoroughly engaged in the
                conversation/literature. And I don't want to appear
foolish.
                In "real" family reunions, there are ways to cover up
what
                might be construed as comments that are not quite at the
                same level as that of the grown folks, but
email/threaded
                communication has a kind of linearity and reflective
delay
                embedded in it that doesn't allow for that.
                
                So, that's my reason for not contributing more.
                
                Take Care,
                
                Heather
                
                



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