Naace, Email & Blogs.
Posted by Peter Ford in UncategorizedMar 28th, 2006 | 5 responsesAs a member of Naace, I am a part of the email discussion lists. Naace members send emails to the list and they are distributed to all the other members who have subscribed and they have a discussion of issues, bouncing emails back and forth. Some clearly get annoyed by the amount of emails they receive from the list but I actually love dipping into the views and expertise that regularly drops into my inbox.
I can’t link though to any of this brilliant commentary and vision from the educational ICT world in the UK because it happens behind closed doors without hyperlinks. I find it hard to get involved myself in the discussions because it seems somehow seems a waste to allow the records of these interactions to disappear into email inboxes, never to see the light of day again. You would not believe the extent of knowledge and discussion that is demonstrated for but a fleeting moment. Don’t try and look it up on Google. It is not there. It is at the bottom of an email box somewhere.
I genuinely don’t understand why these same members who expend so much energy and evident brainpower in writing about important issues, don’t just post it to their own blog and get people to comment or respond. That way they would have a lasting record of their ideas and interactions. Furthermore, the world at large could benefit from their knowledge and expertise. For me, this dovetails with the description of Naace on their website.
Naace is the professional association for those concerned with advancing education through the appropriate use of information and communications technology (ICT).
NaaceBlogs is open for Naace members to create their own blogs and let the open conversations begin. The debate about the future of ICT as a subject, or the value of touch-typing has recently produced some great debate behind closed doors. Unfortunately, that’s probably where it will stay.
5 Responses to “Naace, Email & Blogs.”
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I am Peter Ford and this was my personal blog.
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Naace’s value as an organisation is the knowledge and experience its members hold and share. Like any other association, being part of the Naace community enables members to both contribute their expertise and to draw from others. There is a tension therefore between making that information available to the wider public or maintaning its exclusivity to members. Indeed, it it were totally openly shared then the organisation would not survive, and the framework for the community lost. Those that have joined Naace, recognise the value of paying a membership fee to be part of the rich intellectual resources of the community. It is not true that debate on Naace’s listservs are lost, as all are archived and available to members. Over this coming year, Naace is further developing a system that will enable valuable discussion of this type to be distilled into briefing papers for members. Posting to individual’s blogs, while creating a networked discussion, is not the same as a ‘community archive’, in my opinion
Gareth (elected member of the Naace Exec)
I am well aware of the official line. I just think it is outdated. It is a shame that that the ‘rich intellectual resources’ of the community are exclusive and not available for wider impact except through the ‘high priesthood’ of members. For me, the future of organisations such as Naace is in wider inclusiveness rather than exclusivity.
As for the community archive – I did realise that it was archived somewhere but as to being easy available – you are having a laugh aren’t you?
Two points I’d like to make Peter.
Firstly, I don’t think it’s about any ‘official line’, it’s about common sense and the way of the world. If you join the local golf club, you join to play golf with others that are interested in playing golf and you decide to join in some or all of the activities the club organise for its members. These might be competitions, dinners, and social gatherings. You’d only expect non-members to be that these events if they were invited. Naace is an association of like-minded individuals who are interested in “advancing education through ICT”. You join because you can gain from others experience and expertise, and to contribute what you can. It’s not exclusive, because anyone can join – there’s no bar or qualification you have to pass, you just have to be interested enough to want to, and pay the membership fee. The Naace listservs are similar to meeting members in the lounge or ‘bar’ in the golf club, where you equally might exchange knowledge and expertise with fellow members. The reason you might prefer to go to the golf club bar rather than the local pub (which does not require membership) is because you know whom the audience will be and the conversation will be of interest to you. I can’t see how this is ‘outdated’ – listservs might be an older form of communication technology than blogs but that does not mean that they are not as fit for purpose.
Secondly, I think listservs and blogs are different ways of communicating, and the networks they ‘create’ are different in form. The essential difference is that a listserv is ‘push’ technology, while a blog essentially is a ‘pull’ technology. With a listserv, you subscribe and emails are pushed to you, and you push emails to those subscribed; with a blog, you post, and should someone wish to read your blog, they will find it, they might even comment, and a dialogue might ensue. With a blog, you ‘pull’ people to it if the content is interesting enough. As such the way in which you handle both are conceptually different. I would also say that the way in which you ‘write’ and ‘reply’ is different because your concept of audience is different. On a blog, I don’t imagine you would post a simple question like, “Who knows the best software for ….?”, and expect a dozen or so comments in reply giving you their opinions, whereas a listserv is an excellent tool for mass distribution of queries in this way, and getting answers back quickly.
As to ease of finding the archive, there’s a weblink at the bottom of every posting to the listserv, and you are sent a reminder of your password every month, automatically by the system.
Interesting one this – I think we have fundamentally different views on golf clubs
I don’t dispute the logic of your arguments though and I think it describes the current status-quo beautifully.
This is not a blogs versus the rest argument for me. My original point came out of the frustration of not being able to get ‘like-minded individuals who are interested in ‘advancing education through ICT’ and happen not to be members of the Naace club, to be able to enjoy and contribute to the excellent debate that often occurs in the members lounge. This probably also has to do with the fact that most of my ICT friends, (present company excepted
are not members of the club. I would quite like a regular round of golf with them on the municipal course.
What I’m proposing I guess, is the same as a golf club opening its doors to the public. It would definitely be less cosy and rewarding for the members but it might ensure that many more people played golf.
Oh yeah – got into the archive. It doesn’t appear to be searchable but I suppose as long as you remember the date or title or author of the post you are interested in then you can dredge through for what you are looking for