Our Purpose Here on LO LO9128

Richard Karash (rkarash@karash.com)
Wed, 14 Aug 1996 23:52:58 -0400 (EDT)

Replying to LO9104 --

Was: The Conversation Here, and before that Effective Conversational
Practices.

On Wed, 14 Aug 1996, I V N S Raju wrote:

> members like me ... would get caught in one of the
> threads that talks about things that matter significantly while dealing
> with current issues like (Resistance, Systems contribution to the change
> efforts, role of people at the top etc.,). Discussions like this on
> variety of subjects deprives the List of the Focus. The absence of Focus
> is so conspicuous that members of the List make their presence on and off.
> I have seen so many messages as evidence to this effect. So many members
> did talk about their unsubscribing and subscribing. I personally feel
> that the issue raised by Jyotsna is a matter of concern and needs our
> Host's attention.

Well, the quality of discussion on the list does have my attention...

Perhaps it's time for some discussion about the purpose of this list,
about our purpose here.

I created this facility as my pro bono contribution back to the field from
which I have gained so much. In '94, I saw a young field, people spread
all over the globe, without much infrastructure (journals, meetings, prof.
societies). I thought that the people trying to create learning
organizations in their own settings needed a net facility to bring them
into contact with others. Your feedback to me over the past two years
confirms that this benefit is being realized for many. One wrote me,
"Thanks... I don't feel so alone in this work anymore."

I was also moved by the spirit of sharing which I saw in evidence
throughout the internet. People contributing, exchanging, helping in a
very healthy way. Displaying some of the spirit of the learning
organization a lot of the time. (Yes, there is boasting, self-inflating,
flaming, SPAMing, and nastiness, but there is enough good stuff to impress
me.) For example, the world-class software that makes learning-org
possible is mostly freeware.

>From the beginning it has been clear that LO is not something to be
controled, managed, or driven by objectives. Early on, I was concerned
about getting the conversation started. I tried several different
initiatives back when there were 200 people subscribed None of my attempts
worked. Then someone (thank you!) said, "It a real party, we'd introduce
ourselves. I'll start..." and the conversation has been very dynamic ever
since.

I don't think this facility, this loose collection of 2000 very diverse
people, can focus too closely... Or work to very specific objectives, if
that's what I V N S Raju means. (I may be mis-hearing you.) I believe our
conversation here will be beneficial to a lot of people if it is both:

a) sufficiently on-topic so that people selecting LO out of the 20,000
different internet discussions will find a high "signal to noise ratio;"
and

b) sufficiently wide-ranging so that readers find it stimulating and
interesting.

In my activities as host, I try to nudge things to be in a safe zone
between being too narrow and too scattered. Our focus, to me, is learning
organizations... Some of our best threads, in my view, have originated at
the periphery of our topic area, not at the center.

I think it's time to address together -- What is our purpose here?

Please respond by saying what you would like this list to be. Please say
something of the vision for what it could be.

Instead of pointing out things you don't like, speak in terms of what you
would like to see if this were the perfect internet facility dealing with
learning organizations.

And, in accord with my sincere belief that LO is something I facilitate
and not something I control... I'll be going on vacation for two weeks
starting Sunday.

-- Rick

-- 
      Richard Karash ("Rick")    |  <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
  Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer  |     email: rkarash@karash.com
"Towards learning organizations" | Host for Learning-Org Mailing List
(617)227-0106, fax (617)523-3839 |     <http://world.std.com/~lo>
 

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>