Goals vs. Objectives LO16384

Fred Nickols (nickols@worldnet.att.net)
Tue, 30 Dec 1997 12:11:15 +0000

Replying to LO16371

Ben Compton, replying to LO16347 and drawing from William J. Mitchell's
book "City of Bits," writes...

>...they argue that the most crucial task before us is not one of putting in
>place the digital plumbing of broadband communication links and associated
>electronic appliances (which we will certainly get anyway), nor even of
>producing electronically deliverable 'content,' but rather one of the
>imagining and creating digitally mediated environments for the kinds of
>lives we will want to lead and the sorts of communities that we will want
>to have."
>
>The last sentence is the one I wish to focus on. Here [on the list] we have
>an electroncially mediated learning environment. There are two thousand
>people in this environment. It borders on becoming a community, but, in my
>mind, fails to reach that status because of the lack of "action" within
>the group.

I think the main reason that we on the LO list do not constitute a
community is that we are, for all practical purposes, disembodied. Few of
us know many of the rest of us by sight nor have we had any direct,
physical and social interaction. In short, we're missing many of the key
elements that go into making a community. Most of us on this list are, to
one another, the language we use; more specifically, symbols on a CRT
screen. Our communications are absent the quick turnaround of spoken
words and the nuances and shadings provided by facial expressions,
intonation, body posture, gestures, and other nonverbal factors. In this
venue, at least, we are truly symbol processors.

I am assuming that what I've just written is true for some on this list
and not true for others; in other words, there are people on the list who
do know one another and who do, regularly or infrequently, interact with
one another in corporeal settings.

Ben continues...

>And so what better group of people to ask the question than us:
>What type of lives do we want to live in the electronically mediated
>environment? What types of communities do we want to have in cyberspace?
>And finally, how will the answer to both of those questions impact our
>organizations and our work life and the way we learn as individuals and as
>part of an organization?

>What have we learned by participating on this list, whether you post
>messages or not, that has gone unnoticed or unspoken? What have we learned
>about electronic communities that we are not aware we have learned? Has
>our experience on this list opened us u p to learning we simply don't know
>is taking place? And what does that learning tell us about the present?
>And what of the future? Are electronically mediated communities viable and
>sustainable over the long run? How do they differ from the more personal,
>face-to-face communities we've known all our lives? Do we really want to
>live in an electronically mediated environment? Is that our only future?
>What other futures might emerge? How would they be different?

I'm not sure -- at least from my perspective -- that a life spent 100% in
an electronically mediated environment is a life worth living. Nor do I
think we will be able to establish real communities in cyberspace (for the
reasons mentioned above). Direct interaction with other human beings
seems a vital part of the human condition, and so I'm inclined to believe
that electronically mediated environments and cyberspace communities will
remain metaphors and adjuncts.

One thing I have learned is that the notion I had of establishing a
distance consulting practice is proving much more difficult than I
imagined. I have more than 25 years of internal and external consulting
practice under my belt, and I fancy myself one of the best analysts in the
business. Much of the work of a consultant can be (and is) done at
distance. Not everything has to be done on site. Yet, without personal
contact and relationships, distance consulting is not likely to succeed --
except as an extension of a traditional practice. Physical networking,
perhaps through conference attendance, site visits, and other means seems
absolutely necessary. So, what I've found is that lots of people do
indeed seek my counsel and advice; however, like most other things on the
net, they expect it to be free. Strangely, perhaps that's the way it
should be. I firmly believe that most of us know good counsel when we
hear it. In the pre-net days, finding someone who could provide good
counsel was difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Now, it's
frequently a matter of posting a request for advice and having a wide
range of it in hand very quickly and at no charge. The business of
providing advice and counsel for a fee may very well be in its waning
days. Lawyers, physicians, and tax accountants aren't likely to feel the
pinch for a while yet, but general management consultants like me are
clearly on the hot seat.

Regards,

Fred Nickols
nickols@worldnet.att.net

-- 

Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net>

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