Yes, Gabi Salomon's departure from ITForum has caused a bit of a stir among ITForum subscribers. I, too, was disappointed at his departure, And yes, we've become a little more "chatty" than when we started back in May, 1994. However, I don't think there's any real cause for alarm. In fact, I'm a bit elated by it all.
Let me explain why I have a warped sense of satisfaction in Salomon's departure. It wasn't too long ago that I was receiving personal notes from folks asking "what happened to ITForum" because they hadn't seen any posting for weeks at a time. Being new to listserves myself, I naturally found the frequency of postings to be an initial indicator of ITForum's success. My real hope was that ITForum could be a place for people to make more casual comments about issues confronting the field rather than a place for the usual hard-core (and often stuffy) scholarship. My personal mental model for ITForum has been the hallway chat with colleagues after hearing a really good presentation at a conference. I have always found such chats rough, unrehearsed, and boisterous, but also extremely stimulating and worthwhile as we tried to figure out what the talk really meant. Our comments and questions were ill-structured and ill-formed but necessary in our search for understanding. ITForum is showing signs of promoting such a dialogue while going several steps further by giving everyone the chance to discuss the talk with the speaker/s and with colleagues (especially those without a Ph.D.) with whom we are separated by space and time (and I ain't talking about quantum physics). I value this "casual scholarship" a great deal and hope that ITForum will promote it. I agree that we should resist posting chatty notes that are completely off-task (though I like Lola Smith's comment about how a little chit-chat goes a long way in personalizing this electronic beast). However, I don't want us to become a place where you have to labor days on a comment or question before you post it.
Yes, we've become a little more chatty, but honestly I've seen very few trivial postings. Frankly, I still find the total number of postings quite small (especially in comparison to other listserves I've participated in). I'm sorry we scared Salomon away (and I'd like to try to coax him back) but I'm much more concerned that we might scare folks away from posting their early, valuable thoughts on a subject because they might feel stupid or intimidated. I'm also worried that we will lose our sense of humor and become "stuffy."
Of course, I appreciate the comments and suggestions about how we can make ITForum better. Two ideas deserve special consideration.
First, Rob Phillips [30 Jan 95] suggests that we convert this into a true moderated list--that is, all postings first come to me (as moderator) and then I decide what to distribute to the list. Actually, ITForum started out this way but there was so little activity at first that I found myself just distributing every posting. If we find ourselves swamped with pure chit-chat, error messages, or dozens of "please delete me" notes, then this becomes a good option. I'd rather hold off for now. (Plus, since I'm also "overworked and underpaid," I'd rather not spend my day distributing 90% of the postings.)
Second, I've been told that there are other listserve "magic tricks" we all can use. One of these is asking the listserve to send you the day's postings in "digest" form--all the postings in one piece of e-mail. This may solve a lot of people's problems since they can simply scan the day's notes for substance. I'm checking into this feature and will report back to you soon.
The current paper by Bonham, Cifuentes, and Murphy, Constructing Culture in Distance Education, is well timed. It's been good to take a look at the "culture" that is ITForum. We all have our own ideas about what this ITForum "thing" should be and we obviously won't match anyone's ideal completely. Frankly, I fully expect a turnover of subscribers--I think people should come and go as ITForum does/does not match their needs.
Here is my take on recent lessons to be learned:
I invite you to add to the list.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast...