Hi,
I'd like to make one qualification to the rules thread. Beyond the three that Bruce suggested (repeated below), there is a lot of room for us to create not only an optimal environment that not only satisfies our individual needs and interests, but also constitutive of a collective object that Eva has suggested:
"Thus what motivates the activity in this system of xlist community building is the enduring concern with the transformation of the changing subscriber collective into a collaborative community of people with some measure of commitment to the virtual environment they share, some awareness of its anchoring in wider offline academic networks, and some competence in the shared field of CHAT research, theory and applications."
It is the recognition of our individual goals in the context of our collective efforts that I'd like to address -- we each have our own interests dear to us, and we rely upon all others tolerance to and acceptance of what we have to say when we compose a posting. I believe that we in turn are bound to try to do the same for others, as our exchanges otherwise become far less than optimal, and in the worse case fail entirely. I come back to the golden rule as something to ponder and apply with all seriousness and honesty.
Devices as patronization and sarcasm (mea culpa) do not work, but again, it is in the interpretation and in tolerance -- was that really patronization or an clumsy attempt of politeness? Was that really sarcasm or an attempt at finding humor in the situation? The medium being only text driven screens out all of the other cues that we would use face to face to mediate our responses to each other. Compounding this is that our collective object is amorphous in contrast to those we share day to day and face to face with co-workers, and in comparison, affords only the weakest of ties, whether affective or substantive. Like children in the dark, it is easy for us to imagine and summon demons.
I assert that our multivoicedness is materialized in our division of labor -- in who is writing messages. I cannot come up with any other thermometer to measure our multivoicedness with any reliability. When conceptualized in this manner, the playing field of xmca is far from flat: the ratio of people posting to those not posting is small. Some who are readers-only would prefer it this way. So be it. But I think it is in our collective best interest to provide audience to every person who ventures to write. There are constant tensions in our discourse: some peoples voices will intimidate others into silence, voices will be ignored, some voices will command more of our attention than others. Sometimes what someone writes will simply cause the reader to pause and think for a moment.
Sometimes xmca is like a large classroom in which there are only full class discussions. The ecological constraints on floor time in xmca are mitigated due to the asynchonous nature of email, but the other problems of discourse and power are still here with us, as several folks here have been commenting, over and over. The social designs we use in the classroom to reduce these problems include small group discussions, and the related strategy has been applied with the old xlists. But it is behooving to consider other ways to regulate our communications with each other, with the hope of supporting the multivoicedness that is a fundamental element of what makes xmca work.
Practically, I see a two-sided bottom line:
1) Golden rule applies at each of our terminals.
2) We attempt to design in, and explore, some other ways of interacting.
bb
Bruce suggested:
>- Sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism and other forms of discrimination are
>not to be tolerated;
>
>- Ad hominem / feminam argument (i.e. argument aimed at the person /
>personality of one's opponent rather than their substantive positions),
>abuse and threats are not acceptable;
>
>- Everyone has a right to take part in any discussion and equally to ignore
>any discussion.
Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Lesley College, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]
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