I am going to break a lazy habit with this contribution.

Most often what I do is pick an interesting contribution to
whichever mailing list I'm on  and reply which leads me to remain on
thread but  quickly leads me along the path already set by the
content of the contribution I reply to.

The reason I'm breaking with this lazy habit is to highlight the (I
was going to say disjunctive character of the virtual space of
mailing lists) inconsistency of language and voice and disrupted
conversations on a mailing list.

Many of us who have been participating for a number of years have
grown accustomed to this distinctly computer based method of
communication. We have learnt to not be disconcerted by the
importance of some contributions and look for those snippets of
conversation and information that convey meaning to us.

Many of us lurk unwatched, reading and gaining confidence. Waiting to
realise that this is a virtual space without some of the constraints
of the literal world so that I could in fact contemplate questioning the
language of some contributions as being overly academic and distant.

In so doing I can start to create my own virtual space. I can start
my own thread of discussion, using my own language and voice and know
that there is a place for my language and academic discourse and that
they can follow each other on a mailing list without undermining or
disparaging or devaluing the other.

In fact that is one of the positive aspects of this virtual space.
This threading business that is. You can watch and particpate in a
number of conversations at once. You can overhear (lurk)
conversations. Its a bit like being able to rush around at a
conference and talk to everyone and listen to each conversation after
the main lecture.

But I reckon the most important thing to learn is how to relax in the
virtual world. To do this you need to learn three  important lessons:

1/ You can never keep up with it all

2/ It doesn't matter if you don't

3/ its OK to delete stuff

The best mailing lists I participate in ebb and flow, they rush past
me when I don't have time, only to grab my interest when I'm tired of
the project I'm working on.

They provide a familiar place where I recognise the names and can
chuckle at the known quirks of participants.

One thing I really enjoy is reading something I can immediately
dismiss as rubbish and exercising the old delete key. Very satisfying
Please do so now if you wish to.

So I suppose I should make an incisivie comparison about the literal
world and the virtual world now. But I'm not sure that its as
important as I should think it is.

Why is it important to make the distinction? Both are a part of my
workspace, my life.



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Craig Silva, Electronic Outreach Program Officer
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, Melbourne Australia
e-mail: [log in to unmask], Tel: 61 3 9345 3211
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