What is happening on lists like MBU?
Fred Kemp answered this recently, and I hope he doesn’t mind me quoting him: Information distribution. The people who got the info provide it to people who don’t got the info, much as happens in paper media. Lurking (lurning or learking) simply provides the necessary and honorable receiving end of the info distributing process. No one can blame the person who doesn’t know the answer for not speaking up. The forming of a learning community. Regardless of what information is sought or provided, if the majority of talkers on a list imply a common set of beliefs and values, then a group, however loose, begins to coalesce, and all the dynamics of group formation begin to occur. On a national list, a group identity begins to be asserted, one that people can tap into and employ in their professional and personal pursuits in complex but important ways. Although the social element of learning is much talked about these days, how this is manifested over the Internet is not well understood. Givin
