Comments on: What I Learned About Networking From WoW

By: Denise

Denise — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:03:08 +0000

I read this several weeks ago, and I can’t get it out of my mind. Such practical advice for all of us. This needs to be shared…big time. I’m thinking particularly about sharing it with my mentor group and maybe with the staff…with your permission, of course. Thank you for writing it.

By: Dee

Dee — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:37:54 +0000

This was interesting. I never “dugg” and article before and I think I need to work at creating a better lead. I found it kind of difficult to figure out where an article needs to go.

I don’t think I will ever be active on twitter. I have an account but the plain truth is that I don’t want to be quite that networked LOL. I just never thought before about how interconnected we have all become in the virtual world and how that relates to relationships in the real world. We make friends through blogging and may never meet those friends face to face. I spend hours reading without ever having a book in my hand. I know that the old saying about the more things change, the more they stay the same but I think we really are changing as a culture and while it is exciting to see information alive and available and relationships growing through mutual interests and values I wonder what we will be giving up? My high school age children whine and complain about the waste of their time to read a classic novel that I have loved for the sheer beauty of a phrase or the picture the author paints for me - words on a very real and personal level. Will my grandchildren even be introduced to some of that or will it be lost?

I have friends that I have known for years that I can visit with and the conversation picks up right where it left off years ago with jokes and references that are understood because of a shared history - people I may see once in five years but I know they will come to my funeral. Will there be a bunch of screens around the coffin when one of my descendents pass with people who attend virtually?

I want my technology but I sure wish I could see into the future.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:03:01 +0000

I don’t feel ignored when I notice we’re both online and you don’t contact me. To me being connected is a lot like having a cell phone. Everyone knows that if they need me I’m a phone call away, but that doesn’t mean they have to call me every day just to say hello.

The “visual cues” you mentioned sound exactly like a Twitter feed to me. If I was active on Twitter you would know exactly what I was doing and whether it was OK to contact me right now or not. I could also set my status as Away or Busy in iChat.

I hope you enjoyed TCEA. You’ll have to tell me what I missed next week.

By: Dee

Dee — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:01:35 +0000

I love this post - very well said. I have been thinking about online communication lately. You and a few others that I know (including myself) are very “visible” online. I suspect this may become more and more of an issue for people who have much of their lives online.

I may breeze through checking email and notice that you and others I know are online. If I physically walk past you I may see visual cues that tell me an interruption is welcome or the timing is poor and I should keep walking.

Those visual cues are not available online and by the same token if a friend is online and sees that I am also online - they may perceive it as being ignored if I do not contact them.

In our culture people usually have a comfortable amount of living space that serves as a buffer between them and the rest of the world. That buffer exists less and less online and I wonder how we will all deal with it.

Rambling thoughts that may be a partial product of being at a conference with something like seven thousand other folks!