File spoon-archives/list-proposals.archive/list-proposals_2000/list-proposals.0001, message 5


Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 15:44:09 -0500
Subject: Long, Long, Long, Post
From: "Nathaniel I. Cordova" <cordova-AT-wam.umd.edu>


Dear Folks:

    Malgosia, thanks for your post. Mr. Beasley-Murray thanks also for your
contribution. This is a long, long, post about some of the issues your
thoughts sparked in my mind.

    Ok, to tackle this definitional issue let me clarify what I envision.

Substantive/Content

    My interest is in a forum where scholars (broadly defined) can
contribute and carry on conversations about issues of subjectivity, and the
subject from a variety of vantage points, disciplinary commitments, and/or
political standpoints. My desire is that the conversations contribute to the
understanding of what collective subjectivity is, can be, how various
fields, disciplines tackle those issues, how various scholars have described
it, connections and linkages between approaches, etc. I don't mind if people
want to theorize a divide between theory and practice and find the
"application" in that middle space, or if people want to talk about the WTO
and the protests in Seattle from the vantage point of collectivities, their
power, how they are constructed, induced and mobilized to act. Or perhaps
talk about identities and group membership and the emancipatory potential or
not of the same. 

    I recognize that the "subject" is a theoretical construct, a conceptual
scheme, and a large "structure" in social theory and as such very much an
academic topic. In my years working with various communities, we never
talked about "a subject" nor about "subjectivities" nor did we ever need to
understand any such theories in order to do what we needed to do. Thus, I
expect that membership for the forum would be mostly academics, although I
can envision friends who worship Saul Alinsky and whom are not academics who
would probably be interested. In terms of the knowledge generated I expect
that it will serve much more the ends of academic scholars. However, there
is no need to limit scholars to what is commonly understood as "scholarly"
activities. Scholarship is not all we do in our lives, and everything we do
can inform our various other practices.

    The right people are essential, but I do not want to set the success or
usefulness of the list or discussions to having some key players on board. I
admit that part of the reason for coming to the Spoon Collective is that I
think the Spoon lists have captured the attention and participation of folks
who are substantive scholars and who can drive and extend discussion, and
thus the list would benefit from those who might be interested. But I will
be very happy with a list who caters to those who while not luminaries,
still go through the everyday hashing out of the issues under discussion. I
am a member of a variety of lists, one of which has lots of key players in
my field, yet the discussions nor the topics are very compelling or
illuminating, perhaps as a result of much posturing, sniping, and
intimidation of others in the list who remain the silent majority. This is
a problem of lists in general.

On inducement to Action/Significance

    I mean inducement to action, and mobilization in a broad way. Inducement
to buy a chevy versus a Toyota is an interesting issue when looking at
culture and the various ways of building identification, constituting
subjects who fit a particular mold and so forth. I am not too interested in
how Cinnabon's advertising provides identificatory hooks for folks to be
recruited into a cinnabon consuming discourse, but rather I can see
discussion on larger cultural signifying practices. To a certain extent
these are issues that get hashed out with boundaries being delineated in
situ. The section on the technology below might also have an influence on
this matter.

The Technology

I crafted my proposal in terms of a new list in the traditional format
because I was looking for a forum in which folks could participate in a
fashion similar to listservs. That is, that they could post messages in
response to others, or to initiate conversation. I still would like
subscribers to have an searchable archive, and, if possible, to be able to
receive their messages via email, although I am not against other methods. I
would like the members to have the ability to get the info in digest format,
and to postpone subscription over extended period of time. Since all of
those considerations are benefits that traditional lists provide, I
naturally went with a traditional list idea.

    However, I am familiar with web based bulletin board systems, in
particular the Ultimate.cgi system and those provide a good alternative to
lists. They provide multiple forums for better threaded
conversations/discussions, it is web based so can center around a nice web
site with other information or resources, can be accessed or not depending
on participant's desires, members can avoid conversations they do not want
to pursue, it still provides email capability or announcements, and can be
much more interactive than a traditional listserv.  I have set up one of
these with 12 different forums. Each forum can have its own moderator, and
forums can be reserved for special discussions, intensives, or other special
events. Another benefit is that users don't have to fret too much about
subscribing or unsubscribing as they would now with a listserv. A
combination of listserv and this type of bulletin board would be a nice
combination. This is the option that I am hoping to implement for the
National Communication Association's Latino/a Communication Studies Division
list, where the list is used for general chat and the bulletin board is used
for substantive and/or specific topics in which maybe not all members want
to participate.

    Other benefits of the Ultimate bulletin board system include:

Integrated Search Engine
Lost password auto-email
Email notification of replies to topics
Option to email passwords to newly registered users (this ensures users
will have valid email addresses)
Private Forums 
Email Ban Lists 
IP Logging/Display 
Anonymous Posting Options
Email a Topic to Someone
Ability to close threads
Forum on/off switches
Support for HTML within messages and/or UBB Code
User profiles (can be updated by users)
Extensive administrative features (make changes through browser)
Ability to edit/delete/prune messages
Online FAQ 
Graphical alert for posts that are new since the person last logged on
Clickable "Hop Down" arrow that takes person to point in thread
that is new since last log on

    Now, I don't provide all of the above information to convince you that
this is the best option. There are negatives in terms of participation, it
is not as immediate, and it costs some money ($150 or so) to purchase the
software. But, if we are looking for alternatives to traditional list
approaches then this is one, and we might as well know what it does. It
might very well be the format I go with if I go solo.

    Does the technology make a difference? Like my friend from Minnesotta
says, "You Betcha." But we can discuss that later.

    Ok, long enough. Thanks again,

Best Regards,

N. Cordova
cordova-AT-wam.umd.edu



   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005