Some unwritten pressupositions of OST

Chris Corrigan chris at chriscorrigan.com
Tue May 28 11:56:11 PDT 2002


Hi Artur:

I think your presuppositions are interesting and they lead me to think about how
people ARE in a digital environment.  After ten years of experience with BBS's,
Usenet, MetaNet, chat rooms, instant messaging, email, and listservs I can add the
following observations:


> Presupposition 1 - Human beings have volume!
>
> (The volume implies that they can be seen by others and by oneself; that when
> They enter (or leave) a room everybody will understand that this particular
> volume
> Has entered (leaved) the room.
>

Volume certainly shows up in a chat room for example, be the sheer numbers of
people.  The interesting thing is that often several conversations are going on at
once, and so within rooms, more than one thing might be happening.  This is
different from and OST meeting where a side conversation might be taken away from
the group so as not to distract others.  In the virtual world speaking all the time
seems totally acceptable, and some services, like Yahoo even have colours and fonts
so you can create threads within rooms, discussions within discussions.  I find
this very cool, and actually find it easier to be involved in two or three things
at once if they are all on the screen.

Sometimes servers get slow too.  That's REAL volume...

>
> Presupposition 2 - Human beings are animals
>
> (they can see the others, the others' movements; feel the warmth of others,
> interpret many signals that we transmit to each other  - as the other
> animals do
> to each other of the same species).
>

True.  The digital world has forced us to wonder about how we sort people out when
we can't see them.  I have developed some very good personal friendships that
started online, long before I met or even saw the other person.  OSonOS IX was
pretty much birthed that way (hi Laurel!) and the recent exploits of myself, Julie
Smith, Michael Herman and Judi Richardson in Alaska were all done that way too.

>
> Presupposition 3 - In OST the non-verbal signals that people transmit to
> each other
> are vital ingredients as important (more important?) as the law and principles.
>

Meeting people online and then in person turns on it's head the way we interact
socially.  Now the last thing we do is shake someone's hand.  We first get into
their brain, their thoughts and feelings, often hear them in a phone call before
meeting and then when we see them for the first time, we notice their physical
appearance and then we touch.  It is the opposite in many ways with how we are used
to relating, from the outside in.  In it's most benign form, this poses an
interesting challenge to our notions of bias, as skin colour, appearance, gender
and so on play less and less a role in building community.  It took me about a year
before I figured out that Chris Weaver was a man, for example.  ( :-) )


>
> Presupposition 4 - People (volumes) cannot be in two places (rooms) at the
> same
> time
>

And the neat thing about the digital world is that we "can" be in two "places" at
the same time.  Of course we are at our desks and in one physical space but we can
occupy a myriad of rooms and online environments simultaneaously.  I have carried
on three or four conversations at once with people without becoming overloaded or
people feeling like I was distracted.  This ability to disperse ourselves might be
related somehow to the recent thread on the collective Buddha.

>
> Presupposition 5 - To go from one session to another people have to LEAVE the
> first one (and that will be noticed by everyone that is there - and before
> leaving
> one knows that the others can see that), to spend some time WALKING from one
> place to another (they are NOT real bumblebees - the bumblebee metaphor is
> just
> that - a metaphor) and then ENTERING the new room (again, being seen by
> everybody that is there).
>

Still happens online, if indeed you leave a room.  What is a little creepy actually
is people who stay in rooms for a long time without saying anything.  One begins to
wonder if they are lurking maliciously, just listening, carrying on other
conversations or not even at their computers.  In that respect it can be
confusing.  Silence in real life is usually appreciated.  Silence online is often
treated with suspicion.

>
> Presupposition 6 - if one is speaking in a room the others must be
> listening - if not,
> no one will understand and everyboby will leave - if no one is listening
> there is no
> communication.
>

See above...

>
> Presupposition 7 - Each person that is speaking in a room can see the others
> and their non-verbal reactions.
>

Not always true in real life, but we do get a lot more clues than in the online
world.  Bottom line is that people can (and do) create entirely unique and false
online personas which do not reflect their real persona very well.  This is done
for reasons of prevarication, malevolent or not.

>
> Presupposition 8 - except in very special conditions, there can't be two
> different
> discussions at any time in one single "room"
>

That's one of the neat things about the digital environment.  It certainly requires
us to stretch a little, bit the fact that we CA stretch to accommodate both is
interesting to me.

>
> Presupposition 9 - The fact that a new break out session is scheduled for
> the same
> room implies that the current session has to stop (or be renegotiated). The
> principle "When its over..." is enforced by the physical conditions of the
> conference
> and the natural tendency to continue "saying nothing" (as it happens in many
> meetings") is impossible.
>

And one of the beauties of the internet is that things can happen in all kinds of
time and space.  There is almost unlimited "space" to meet, and conversation can
stretch for years asynchronously through forums like MetaNet ad other archives.

>
>
> PS: As Wurman once wrote, in the information age the main problem of any
> person is information anxiety, information overload, shat sometimes is
> called "infoxitation". We need tools that help us avoid infoxication.
>

We have those tools I think:  the delete key, the on/off switch and two feet.  Use
them wisely and one never gets overwhelmed online.

We we need more of I think is these kinds of conversation that raise our awareness
about how humans do conduct themselves online and in the digital world.  Even 15
years ago, we didn't know we could do all the things you point out in your
presuppositions.

Great conversation.

Chris

--

CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

(604) 947-9236
Bowen Island, BC, Canada

http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com

go leafs go

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