Re: [Air-l] we need a better word than lurking

On Thu, 10 May 2007, James Howison wrote:

So the lurking, and the learning by lurking, is crucial to the 'critical mass' of the list.

'Learning by lurking' is why usenet communities used to encourage(!) 'newbies' to lurk for a while before posting as it would help them they obtain a better understanding of the community, its topics and its discussion style. This is why I would argue lurking can be interpreted (to some extent) as 'peripheral participation' in the communities of practice sense. c. -- Dr. Christopher Lueg Professor of Computing University of Tasmania Centenary Building R451 Hobart, TAS, Australia christopher.lueg@utas.edu.au http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~lueg/ CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B