I’ve said before that I’m not a big fan of discussion lists. I think they have their place, and I check in about once a week to see what’s going on, but I do most of my professional online networking in the realm of blogs. Sometimes, a blog will point me to a current discussion on a listserv, and I’ll check in a little bit early. That happened this morning. So I checked out Web4Lib and found a discussion about women in library technology. As one who got nine hours into a minor in computer science in college, but left when I realized that I wasn’t going to feel like there was a place for me in the group, I really appreciated Karen G. Schneider’s final post on the discussion. Her last paragraph says:
Recently I have been writing about the trend toward modular, open, service-oriented architecture. I wonder if this doesn’t also apply structurally to professional discussions. The key communication technology of the 1990s was the mailing list, a humongous, turnkey silo managed by sundry Dads and Moms. Today we see forums, blogs, ad-hoc Facebook groups, other social networks… communication mechanisms with an entirely different Zeitgeist, diffuse, decentralized, ad hoc, specialized. Better? Not for all purposes — but it does provide alternatives where more, and more interesting, voices are heard than on the Father-knows-best catch-all discussion lists of yesteryear.
Amen. I am so down with that. I know that a lot of good discussion does happen in the discussion lists, which is why I subscribe to so many, but I also know that there is really good stuff going on in these different formats. In fact, I value those much more, checking in at least daily with a number of them. I think there’s something really interesting about the hierarchical, masculine style of a discussion list and the more collaborative, feminine style of many of the new social communication platforms. Thanks for the insight, KGS!
Related posts:
Comments 4
See also Why are there so few female computer scientists.
Posted 20 Dec 2007 at 11:37 am ¶Thanks so much for posting this link, David. The report looks very interesting (and lengthy!) so I’m putting it on my holiday reading list.
Posted 20 Dec 2007 at 11:57 am ¶Hey, thank you, Lauren… for proving my point! Also, I look forward to seeing you at the LITA Town Hall… my first ever.
Posted 20 Dec 2007 at 1:59 pm ¶Sure thing, Karen! I think it’s important to raise this point ever so often… David’s recommended reading is really interesting (in case you’re interested).
Looking forward to seeing you at the Town Hall… hopefully it’ll be a good one!
Posted 02 Jan 2008 at 10:57 pm ¶Post a Comment