A "lurker" exposes herself... I've subscribed to this list for a while, and I even did contribute once, so I guess I'm not an utter lurker, but this thread has gotten me thinking about a number of things (which often happens with this list). First, by way of introduction, I am a Ph.D. candidate at UC San Diego Communication Department, in my 7th year, and desperately trying to finish my dissertation (so I really, really should not be writing this email, especially since I'm nearly done with a chapter). One of the reasons I "lurk" is that I don't have very much time (I'm also a single mom - but that's truly invisible work in the academic world), and composing emails takes time. Another reason is that my main research is only tangentially related to topics I've seen on this list - my dissertation is on famine early warning systems, and I did my fieldwork in Ethiopia, and while the Internet plays an increasing role in these systems, most of my research had to do with the face-to- face interactions of early warning experts in Addis Ababa, and other- than-electronic communications. I'm not up on things like blogs, but I'd like to be, which is one of the reasons I subscribed to this list. I also value the CFPs and conference announcements. Once I finish the Ph.D., I am planning to do more work in the area of information technology (including the Internet) in humanitarian planning and response, and this list may become more immediately relevant for me then. For me, subscribing to lists is one way of finding out what conversations are going on in a particular field or area of research, and deciding if I want to move into them. This may seem opportunistic, but I suspect it's how a lot of people learn about fields other than the one they are immediately participating in. So now you know who I am (partly). Anyway, I've been thinking about the "lurker" discussion, and the idea of intent and assuming intent, and perhaps the reason "lurker" doesn't seem to fit right to me is because the initial definition of it is to remain hidden with evil intent, or to lie in wait. I don't feel that not contributing to lists is particularly evil (though I do feel that not replying to personal emails is). Perhaps this connotation can't help but carry over into the Internet usage of the term because the word did exist before and many people initially became familiar with it in its traditional context (as in criminals lurking in the darkness and that sort of thing). Just a thought. At any rate, for those who are worried about presuming anything about list readers' intentions or expressing unwarranted aspirations for them, "lurker" would seem to be a particularly bad choice of label. (For me, the term conjures up images not of passivity but of waiting for the right moment to attack.) There are a number of reasons why I haven't posted much to this particular list (yet) - most of the time it's because I don't have much to contribute about a topic. If there is a more general topic about which I have a strong opinion (such as academic publishing), I feel that since I haven't contributed to the list otherwise, my participation in these discussions would be less than legitimate (my own personal hang-up). If someone asked about something I knew something about, I would respond. And if I had a question that I felt people on the list could help me with, I'd certainly ask it (and in fact probably will when I revise a paper to submit for publication this summer). Sometimes I will talk with a colleague about something I've read on the list, but I've never felt compelled to report these conversations to the list as a marker of my participation in the exchange of ideas related to the list (no doubt to many subscribers' benefit). Perhaps I am a free rider or dead weight in this particular arena, but that fortunately is not true of others. Best regards, Jericho Burg Ph.D. Candidate Department of Communication University of California, San Diego http://www.communication.ucsd.edu/people/g_burg.html