[Oe List ...] Some thoughts about the future

[Timothy Wegner]

Hi Marilyn,

Sorry I got my quote attribution confused, glad you forgave me. :-)

I have personally been committed to keeping our connectivity going for more
than twenty years. I pay for it, and on a daily basis I support people who
need help. I approve postings from people who have forgotten which email
they subscribed and posted from the wrong one. I am happy to do this, and I
have the right skill set to do this obedience without too much effort,
though it does take steadfastness.

Long ago I decided to take a view of Buddhist acceptance of the content of
the two lists. It's all perfect. The lists are an evolving organic entity
that have a mind of their own. Of course I have my own interests, I read
what interests me and skip what doesn't or what exceeds available time. The
only exception is I intervene about once a year when the eternal virus
thread surfaces, then my Buddhist calm fails me <grin!>

It is easy to be critical of mailing lists. The medium is clunky and old.
The content is unmoderated. Our community members have varying
sensibilities about what makes a good post. Many of us struggle with how to
manage the torrent of email. Some of us (as we have seen) dislike the
political tone of much of the discussion on dialogue, others love it. That
said the mailing lists seem to me to be a miracle that just keeps working,
and is full of unexpected treasures.  This imperfect medium is going to be
around a long time.

I am also working behind the scenes with others on other forms of internet
community (currently supporting the Archives effort). I am glad that some
among us yearn for more. The technical possibilities are endless and are
evolving at a breathtaking rate. However building online community is 10%
technical and 90% organizing and facilitation. David Dunn (bless him!) has
been a restless soul who set up numerous forums using different
technologies, but his efforts failed to gather the necessary and essential
community support (not his fault, in my opinion). Gordon Harper, Len
Hockley, and I worked to set up wiki.wedgelade.net. There's a lot there
now, but it needs a bit more ongoing attention, which I am intending to
give it. The current Archives effort (not public yet) has a strong team
behind it, and gets energy from physical meetings in Chicago. It has a good
chance to succeed at some level.

The lesson learned (among others) is that creating internet community is
not primarily a technical problem. Waiting for the technical savants among
us to usher in the true and beautiful will be a long wait. But any small
group among us with a vision and tenacity and willingness to put in long
hours over a long time can create effective community online. The technical
ways to do it are legion.

Tim
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