Bill and Nancy Preparatory Chat

Unedited Skype IM between Nancy and Bill (Nancy did the note-taking)- NOte there is a lot of context missing that was in the voice conversation!

Some generalization, reduction, abstraction

Some examples

How to "operate" in an us/them environment? In context of blogs and blog comments

Nature of blog ownership

As commentor, you are on someone else's turf

What are the boundaries?

Are they explicit?

What behaviors are adaptive as we move into this world?

what are adaptive behaviors?

Psycho analytical perspective: as we operate, interact with people, we either open up or not, defensive or defending certain ways. Some of that is adaptive. If in a highly politicized office, random gossip about anything is not a smart idea.

What sort of adaptive behavior shows up in blogging and commenting?

Us/Them is not adaptive for positive change

So do people want positive change?

I'm ok and your're ok? I'm ok and you're a jerk?

What does positive mean?

Who wants change?

Buffalo Springfield song - "everybody's carrying signs, mostly saying hooray for our side."

No change. At some level we need to get past that to find out if we can actually build things with others.

Recognize when I'm "us/themming"

AK Rice or Tavistock experiential groups: a certain kind of brutal honesty about interaction in groups. People got called on all kinds of stuff, even the leaders.

Are we ok when things aren't "pleasant?"

Tavistock - all set up, proscribed, F2F, people know they are there.

How can you ascribe intent?

How do we write to show our intent more clearly?

It is inevitable we are going to step on each others' toes.

(That may be a starting point)

Find a mechanism to make reparations to each other.

Find a way to understand each other.

Some of us care about the impact of stepping on toes.

I care if I step or am stepped upon

dissing people in wide swaths which removes their humanity - I find this really troubling

How or can I respond to this? Ignore them?

"When you speak like that, here is how it leaves me."

What are the functional uses of Us and Them?

Girding against the enemy, preparing response. (War language)

It seems/feels easier to figure out what to do when something is black and white (us/them) vs shades of gray. Human dilemna.

Freudian/Kleinian - groups - one of our Western Human dilemna. We live in groups, brought up in groups, but taught to be individuals.

Why we behave badly in groups. It is a problem for us. Freud: we are herd animals and hate that about ourselves.

The cost of consensus.

Are American blogs show more of this behavior?

ranking, top 500... more of the same kind of behavior. Take out a ruler, some people are taller than others. So what? Is it a problem?

Jimmy Whales: We believe more in the results than the process.

Does this mean the ends justify the means? That kind of statement oversimplifies.

Oversimplification

Another human behavior. Survival strategy.

What are the conditions for "truth" to be spoken? Are we ready for the effects? How can we take care of each other through this. Or an institution with boundaries so we can enter and leave. Ceremony, rites, ritual, magic, dancing. Create a space. Dance floor, you can go crazy. When it is over, it is over.

An in and an out.

Bounded places where people feel safe to go to unsafe places.

How would I prepare to discuss this sort of stuff with a blogger like Ambra Nykol?

Opportunity for changes, but no change unless we figure out what goes on with our personal interactions with each other.

Are blogs personal interactions with each other? BIll is not so sure.

People are open. They take things personally. Lot of defensive and ad hominem attacks.

Nancy: I think blogs are surprisingly personal interactions. Even if personal was not the intent, we are reading and writing individually so things are often experienced "personally"

Invite people to talk about how this question strikes them. Personal experience, what they think. Open ended. We don't know, so it is open ended.

Chat windo for note taking.

IRC?

Clock http://www.fullcirc.com/community/telephonefacilitation.htm

Foo and Bar - a whole nuther story

for an online community there are a lot of f2f events

Affiliation

Want to be Joi Ito and want affiliation w/ Joi

Doesn't scale

It's the A list all over again. Which doesn't scale. SO why get all heated up when people act like humans?

Bar camps fast evolution was due to the organizers' networks.

Last Tuesday's science times: Who Knew? Gossip might be good for you.

Should we save this chat and document as part of our prep?

Nancy do set up and facilitation. Nancy needs separation between faciltator and participant. So toss to Bill if needed.

introductions?

Get people's first thoughts on the table

Why are they interested in this?

Throw out ideas, what drew them, expectations, what they'd like to talk about.

Start then tackling that... look for patterns. May fall naturally into a flow.

If not, we can take it piece by piece

This is a smart, vocal bunch of folks!

8 people confirmed. So keep intros 1-2 minutes

This is just a start. It may lead to more/focused conversation

How important is it to reveal X or Y about ourselves. The role of introductions?

(Side conversation but interesting!)

So put a sentence about yourself in wiki. Instead of "introductions" ask people to throw up why they are interested in this stuff.

One liner on main call page. No need for separate wiki page

Bill will role model with an example.

Maybe don't really need intros.

Learn about each other as we speak. You don't have to create a story about yourself. You would not know what was appropos to this group at this point.

SO the starting point is WHY are you interested? Expectations? Something very brief. You have 1-2 minutes. Still keep the improvisational feeling. Not too structured.