Re: <nettime> Re: Community, what is it, and Nettime

[Ian Dickson <ian@iand.demon.co.uk>]

In message <200309301726.h8UHQjn25022@bbs.thing.net>, steven schkolne 
<steven@schkolne.com> writes
>>All that being said, it's clear why nettime can't respond to Beth, etc.;
>>there's no one, no/thing to respond - which is nettime's very strength.
>
>i think nettime *can* respond.  anyone can sit on their panels, give
>speeches for nettime, anyone who subscribes to the list can receive the
>oscar nobel prize for nettime.  nettime has no leader - i think anyone
>who represents it is just fine (as long as they are actually subbed to
>it).  whether it be berobed honored academic in ivory tower, founder
>moderator plower through emails and selector of content, be-pimpled geek
>with monitor tan and code flowing out of ears, foppish net artist with
>vector graphics always on the backburner.
>
>it doesn't really matter who it is now does it.... in my opinion, for
>this kind of thing, the less sensible the better.  can't someone just
>*volunteer*?  hell i volunteer.  beth, count me in.
>
>sorry to harsh on your soundbite alan, it was convenient, - respect.
>
I've been involved in online community since the mid nineties, including 
founding a mailing list in 1995, one that still continues. The consensus 
as I see it is that in these circumstances people do not place 
themselves as representing the group unless they are the driving force, 
and even then they restrict their comments as representative to those 
areas that they control. Anyone else is limited to speaking for 
themselves, but as a member.

Nettime cannot respond. Members of nettime can take part, and of course 
state that they are members of nettime, but they cannot state that they 
are representing nettime, because they are not. They are representing 
themselves.

The only people who I feel could say that they represent nettime would 
be the moderators - since nettime is their baby and they have, by their 
actions, a great deal of control over what nettime is and where it goes.

Even then they couldn't say that the Nettime view on X is Y, only that 
"on the basis of posts, it seems that most members think X about Y", 
though of course if asked how they see the future of Nettime, they could 
give a detailed answer - because if nettime goes in directions they 
don't like they will either steer it back, or, in extremis,  kill it.

(For example a post of mine got moderated out - I think - because of one 
paragraph attached to the end of long post responding to another. So 
they have clear views of what they feel is appropriate, and are free to 
talk about them).

Cheers
-- 
ian dickson                                  www.commkit.com
phone +44 (0) 1452 862637                    fax +44 (0) 1452 862670
PO Box 240, Gloucester, GL3 4YE, England

           "for building communities that work"

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