Dear Colleagues, A debate on another list in which I participate occasional a post suggesting that there is something to be learned from the way that deaf email users communicate. The post stated that the deaf may use email in a way that has something to teach the hearing. I queried the writer on this, but I have had no reply. Is there someone on AIR-L who knows anything about how the deaf use email? Do they have some special habits or usage patterns that are instructive to the rest of us? If anyone here has some knowledge of this, I would welcome a post. If the deaf use of email is, in some way, different than the use of email by the hearing, I would appreciate a description of how the deaf use email. The deaf may well have some special culture of email use that enables effective social communication. Since the note argued that this involves the way the deaf use email, it means they are limited to exactly the same tools and skill sets available to the rest of us. This is what made the concept promising. At the same time, there would seem to be a limit on likely explanations. The explanations must either be technical or cultural. If the explanation has something to do with the culture of the deaf, there are several likely explanations. The deaf use of email may in some way relate to the development and use of sign among deaf. If this is the case, the applications to people from other cultural groups will be limited. The deaf use of email may in some way be related to usage patterns within small groups of people who already know each other in face-to-face meetings. If this is the case, it parallels the use of text email by hearing that already know each other through face-to-face meetings. Research in computer mediated communication shows that usage patterns and understanding among those who already have a feeling for each other is vastly different than between and among those who know each other only through email. Another possibility in the deaf use of email may involve some cultural phenomenon or social pattern that involves written communication by the deaf without depending on sign or face-to-face meetings. If this is the case, we may well have something to learn. If the issues are technical, the possibilities are not necessarily significant. An example of a technical solution would be the use of emoticons or shared symbols. These are, in essence, substitutes for words. What is to be learned from this involves learning to be clearer and more careful in using words. The problem with solutions such as emoticons is that they are symbols, just as words are. Emoticons do nothing more than can be done with words. They are simply compact substitutes for verbal phrases. Just as a computer program involves two levels of communication -- a what and a how -- so, written text can do the same. This requires careful writing, and it requires that one attend to every aspect of the written communication. Good writing often communicates on the level of feeling and intended emotion as well as on the level of content. This is common in writing known for its artistry -- Shakespeare, Ibsen, LeGuin, Hemingway, are all examples. You also see this in elegant scholarly writing by scholars who attend to the how of what they write as well as to the what. There is also the question of how much is relevant to scholarly and scientific communication. Much human communication is transmitted in non-verbal signals. Email is limited to words. This is also the case for scholarly and scientific communication. The goal of scholarly and scientific communication is to render information explicit to the greatest degree possible. This is how people are able to gather all the aspects and attributes of an item of information even at a distance, with enough clarity that they are able to transform it into their own knowledge. In this, I imagine that the deaf are very much like the rest of us. While I am no expert on the deaf, I have long been aware of the special nuances and subtleties of communication that are available in sign and the parallel series of gesture and physical tone that seem to accompany the use of sign. I first studied deaf communication in my doctoral work back in the 1970s. I have remained interested in some of these issues, at least from a distance. It would make good sense to me that the deaf culture may have produced a more sophisticated use of email than is common among the hearing. There is no way to know if this is so without a description. I am aware of the deaf culture and the subtleties of sign because people took the time to document, explain, and clarify it. If anyone who has this information could post it to the list, it would be a real contribution. Thank you. Ken -- Ken Friedman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Leadership and Strategic Design Department of Technology and Knowledge Management Norwegian School of Management Visiting Professor Advanced Research Institute School of Art and Design Staffordshire University