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Building stronger relationships in communities of practice AND lurkers
Filed in Communities of practice.
Nancy White points us to a short report developed and written by seven CPSquare community members. The topic is one that has interested me for a while—lurkers. Why has such a negative term like ‘lurker’ emerged as the way we describe legitimate peripheral participation (to use Etienne Wenger’s phrase)? Susan Huckson, from the National Institute of Clinical Studies, calls lurkers, travellers, which is a far more +ve view of this important community member type.
But this post is not about lurkers. This report is a great example of one of the ways to create new and stronger social networks in your community: identify an issue the community is interested in and find some members who want to work on it for a few weeks. Then provide the output back to the community.
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Comments
Interesting thought on the term "lurker". I fall into the said category in several of the IRC channels I frequent; idleing for weeks on end at times. Color me simple though, due to context, I never viewed it negative. As you stated, it is not about that.
The point that example makes is excellent. I do feel, however, there are far more important items we could work together to correct. For example, how about the fact that the CAN-SPAM Law did more to legalize spam than to protect our in-boxes, or how about the more recent intorduction of H.R. 2726?
I am not trying to belittle your very valid point. I, however, would sooner be lableled a "lurker" than have to opt-out of every unsolicited e-mail I receive.
Posted by: Lumpy at June 19, 2005 4:35 PM
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