Judith's comments about lurking really made me think about the
nature of participation.
>I also notice that for several weeks certain participants will be heavily
>represented and then they fade away and another group comes to the fore. We
>all have our rhythms of participation. If all the lurkers all posted all
>the time no one would have the time to read all of it. (Which is pretty
>much the case now.)
If only those who posted regularly were on this list I doubt the
list would last - it exists, and grows, because of something else.
I post fairly regularly although I expect Judith could spot rythms
in my postings... they are to do more with the nature of the
conversations than how busy I am. I have been known to post things
at midnight - much to the annoyance of my family. I know people
who have tried other lists and come back to this one. There is
something in the nature of the dialogue which IMHO makes it easy to
read as well as post to. The diversity of participation is very
rich and I have learnt about many areas of knowledge I had never
heard of through this list. I like to be active in my
participation - it means I am sometimes threatened by people who
are less obviously active - there is something disconcerting about
the thought of all those people 'hearing' what I say and not
commenting and yet as Judith says it would be unmanageable if they
did. And why do they need to - is it my need to be affirmed - or
an opportunity to explain my underlying assumtions if the
misunderstand etc.. ? Perhaps it is the potentiality of their
contributions I am yearning for? - but can I cope with them? In
some way they contribute a great deal by being here and staying
and listening this is participation to....
So if as an organisation (is this list one??) this list needs that
type of participation - ie self-managed and fluctuating with
different styles of participation - how do we develop and allow
for that in organisations (and why do we bother to measure numbers
of staff suggestions - for number of contributions would *not* be
a good measure of contribution to this list...
Sorry folk - long and rambly...
>
>I get a lot out of this list just by reading it, and I don't have to prove
>what a "change-agent" I am by posting. Maybe the REAL change-agents are too
>busy to post, ever think of that?
and maybe none of us are real?
Julie Beedon
VISTA Consulting - for a better future
julie@vistabee.win-uk.net
--Julie Beedon <julie@vistabee.win-uk.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>