Date: Thu, 17 Nov 1994 10:41:04 -0500 (EST)
From: MCDONALDS-AT-CSUSYS.CTSTATEU.EDU
To: foucault-AT-world.std.com
Subject: Re: Glasgow, CNN, and the panopticon


In response to Jeffrey Steele's post about electronic surveillance:

What about those of us who are 'lurking' on this list.  I read the posts
because I find the discussion fascinating, although I'm far too busy to
a regular participant.  I'm sure this is the case for a great many
subscribers.

Now, you can check the majordomo to see who exactly is subscribed, so you
will have a general idea who we are, but besides the specific agents who 
might be monitoring this conversation (say, corporate cost-cutters making
sure employees don't waste time playing with Internet), you have this
unkown audience who may or may not acknowledge you.  I find this fascinating,
not as a lurker myself, but rather in the context of surveillance and the 
direction of theg gaze.  You send out your posts and you get your responses
and then there's that silent contingent who you know get the posts but 
never respond so you don;t know what they think or if they read it, or
hated it, or what...  

I suppose the effect of the lurkers on the discipline of the list is small,
and contingent on the extent that posters worry about them, and I suppose
that's not much.  Still, I find this to be an interesting topic in its
own right.

And perhaps I won't stay in the shadows any more.

Cheers
Steve McDonald
Univ. of Connecticut