Dialogue Expt Here LO10161

jack hirschfeld (jack@his.com)
Tue, 24 Sep 1996 23:44:39 -0400

Replying to LO10141 -- Was "Learning to Dialogue"
[Subject line changed by your host...]

Replying to Sherri Malouf's proposal, Rick Karash suggested:

>One approach would be to address your topic here on learning-org, but with
>different rules and practices for the thread. Perhaps a designated
>thread-moderator (i.e., not me). Too many such "special" topics would get
>out of hand, but... Hmmm... This sounds like an interesting experiment.

I'd like to raise two issues: The first is to call attention to Chau
Nguyen's impassioned declaration that dialogue which begins with a
"subject" is not dialogue at all. I'm not sure whether this expresses my
feelings exactly, but if we were to proceed without addressing this
contribution, as so often happens here, dialogue would be down the tubes
before we began.

The second issue is: How do we indicate silence in the conversation? Is
there some sign we can create to indicate unspeaking presence? This is,
in my opinion, one of the obstacles to dialogue in an electronic
environment.

I'd like to add that in a sidebar conversation I have had with Prinny
Anderson, she raises the point that the absence of notes - while sometimes
leading to drifting and other maladies of conversation - encourages candor
which recorded conversations might inhibit. Obviously, writing for the
record is endogenous to electronic conversation, but perhaps it would be
worthwhile exploring antidotes to the inhibitions (and bad habits) it
engenders.

Rick, perhaps you might summarize some of the other dialogue experiences
you have had in cyberspace.

--

Jack Hirschfeld Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore? jack@his.com

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