As a novice to on-line communities I can only second your observations
about variability as we newbies learn to navigate. Private e-mail isn't
such a problem - in my case I tend to go to spoken phone style with
friends and revert to "business correspondence" style with unfamiliar
people, and move closer to spoken discourse as I get to know the person
better.
But what is the proper way to address a community, particularly if I've
never - literally - seen any of its members face to face, and in fact
don't know who most of them are? Obviously many members of xmca know
each other from other contexts, but what about newcomers? I feel the
tension very clearly, and also feel a difference between posting a
general question to the list (pull towards formality/written style) and
replying to a particular posting from a named individual
(conversational/informal). How does one learn to interact in such a
situation, where immediate feedback is minimal and usually limited?
(Think of all the nuances gleaned from non-verbal cues in FTF
interaction.)
Considering the fact that, as Mike has observed, there are a large number
of grad students joining, could someone post us a kind of FAQ on
participation? (And perhaps include a list of short definitions of some
of the most used terms, for those of us coming from other academic
backgrounds. I, for one, am valiantly trying to read up on the relevant
material so I can participate on a more informed basis, but like many
other people, my time is limited, so it's going more slowly than I would
like).
I also belong to a very lively list for flute players, and the owner has
developed a FAQ which performs similar functions for newcomers to the
list and/or the activity which is the focus of the list.
Rachel Heckert
On Sun, 11 Jan 1998 17:11:19 +0100 "Greg Ball" <g.ball who-is-at fsw.ruu.nl>
writes:
>Charles and Carol,
>cut>>
>The genres and activity structures in electronic communities seem very
>variable and sometimes incoherent, seemingly integrating activity
>structures from different areas of users' personal experience. This
>includes both writing and speaking in working, learning, or informal
>settings.
>Our experience is that that students are very insecure when they first
>start participating in an electronic learning community, because they
>are
>not familiar with activity structures and discourse genres which are
>appropriate in this medium. We first have to spend a number of weeks
>dealing with these issues before we can begin learning about other
>things.
>
>