on 10/1/07 4:34 PM, Debbie Garside at
debbie(a)ictmarketing.co.uk wrote:
OK... Forget the question :-) I just realised
there were another 30 emails
above the one I responded to ;-)
Thank you for responding, Debbie. What I am interested in, generally, is the
state of online collaboration and community building; and I am particularly
wanting to study interpersonal dynamics, conflict resolution and identity
within the Foundation's projects. In other words, I would like to take a
Project's emotional temperature.
In the English Wikipedia, for example, there are those on the Mailing List
who say, we're fine, the culture's fine - don't mess with it.
However, there are also enough posts from persons who say they are feeling
abused, ignored, and not being treated fairly in the Project. And, when
these persons do post, they are usually portrayed as whiners, malcontents,
and as persons who "need to get with the program".
In short, people simply don't seem to know how to talk with each other
without being extremely defensive, or grossly offensive. This severely
inhibits and degrades the quality of collaboration.
I have some ideas on how to improve some of this, but first I would like to
conduct an honest, objective survey to see if this is simply my imagination,
or is actually a true picture of the state of things.
My field is Clinical Psychology. I could assist in analyzing such a survey,
but I am not schooled or experienced in actually creating one.
My thoughts are to present the findings to the Foundation itself. There is
plenty of time to work within here. I would like to do this right. I welcome
your input.
Marc Riddell
Mark, I would just like to add my strong support of this notion. I am
very interested in seeing a survey done of both of the contributors and
the readers. I don't think we have the internal capacity at the office
to start really thinking about this until (I am guessing) the spring.
But setting aside capacity issues, I completely agree that your premise
is worth exploring.
If you manage to make any progress, I would be very pleased to see the
results. And if I make progress first, I will get you involved :-)