[Air-l] Lurking

[Karim R. Lakhani]

I guess there are no costs involved in someone lurking on an e-mail list
but what about the opportunity cost to the community by that person not
participating.  Are they just free riding on the effort of the dedicated
contributors?  Would their participation and information provision help
the community members?  I think these are important issues to consider.
What would happen if those 15% started their own private list?

-K

Frank Thomas wrote:
> 
> michael gurstein <mgurst at vcn.bc.ca> wrote:
> 
> From the sociology of voluntary organisations, and from volunteering in Germany, I know that about 10 to 15% of members of voluntary associations actively contribute to the associations, by attending meetings, collaborating in committees, etc. The rest is just paying the contribution (BTW a very important "activity"). So these 85 to 90 % are "lurking". It is known that, among other resaons, people become association members because they want to support a cause, lobby for an issue, and to be heard in public debate, sheer numbers, i.e. a large membership , are necessary. So "lurking" has very positive effects. Or they want to know what happens in their city, their professional domain, their ...
> So they "lurk".
> 
> Demanding that everyone subscribing a mail list participates in discussions is just exaggerating. If this were the case, such a mail list would merit a research effort being a social outlier.
> 
> Frank Thomas
> 
> >
> >It seems to be my day for commenting...
> >
> >I think the term "lurker/lurking" is needlessly and misleadingly
> >perjorative--suggesting someone observing with potentially ill-intent.
> >
> >I much prefer the term "monitoring"... I "monitor" a lot of lists without
> >participating in them...reading them for ideas, references, trends.  That
> >is for me one of the special values of the Net and particularly email
> >lists--a way to observe the passing parade in a particular area without a
> >huge amount of on-going effort or resource expenditure.
> >
> >I'm delighted to have people "monitor" the lists I'm active in--sometimes
> >out of the blue they will make a very useful contribution, or they will
> >make a telling observation privately that they are unwilling to make
> >publicly, or just that they may usefully pass on to others ideas or
> >observations that they are gleaning from their silent "monitoring"
> >activities.
> >
> >Also, I know from direct experience that in many cases, lists are being
> >"monitored" by those, who because of their own situations or their
> >perception of their own situations, are unable to directly contribute--
> >people in government, or corporations, for example.  But they are certainly
> >"monitoring" the discussions and I like to think that this "monitoring" is
> >in some cases having a useful, perhaps even socially beneficial impact on
> >otherwise inaccessible policy or corporate strategy deliberations.
> >
> >regs
> >
> >Mike Gurstein
> >
> >Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
> >(Visiting) Professor:  School of Management
> >New Jersey Institute of Technology
> >Newark, NJ
> >> On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, robert m. tynes wrote:
> >>
> >>> Has anyone come across research on *lurking*? I'm looking for any
> >>> pertinent articles. Any suggestions?
> >>
> >> Jenny Preece has been doing some intersting work on lurking.  She is
> >> professor and chair in Information Systems at University of Maryland,
> >> Baltimore County.  Check out:  http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/
> >>
> >> david silver
> >> http://faculty.washington.edu/dsilver/
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Air-l mailing list
> >> Air-l at aoir.org
> >> http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
> >
> >> On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, robert m. tynes wrote:
> >>
> >>> Has anyone come across research on *lurking*? I'm looking for any
> >>> pertinent articles. Any suggestions?
> >>
> >> Jenny Preece has been doing some intersting work on lurking.  She is
> >> professor and chair in Information Systems at University of Maryland,
> >> Baltimore County.  Check out:  http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/
> >>
> >> david silver
> >> http://faculty.washington.edu/dsilver/
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Air-l mailing list
> >> Air-l at aoir.org
> >> http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> >
> --
> Dr. Frank Thomas
> FTR
> 34 rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
> 75009 Paris
> France
> 
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-- 
===================================
Karim R. Lakhani
MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Open Source Research Project
e-mail: lakhani at mit.edu
voice:  617-851-1224
fax:    617-344-0403
http://opensource.mit.edu
http://mit.edu/lakhani/www
===================================