[Air-l] where does the term "lurking" come from

[Barry Wellman]

As one of the age-oldest (64) and email-oldest (since 1976) members of
this list, I'd like to hazard a remembrance of where the term "lurking"
comes. (Speaking of which, where is Blair Nonnecke, because that's what
his diss was on?)

In times past, the vision was a small, tightly-knit virtual community all
communing with each other. (Think of the WELL). In that vision,
non-communicators were not playing by the rules of the game of the active
community. They were "lurking" while others were active community
builders.

Now, it's pretty clear that most people move among a bunch of partial
communities, participating to various extent in some but not others. They
are readers in some/many, and more or less contributors to others. This is
true online as well as offline. So "lurking" only makes sense in things
like a small workgroup or family circle, where all are expected to
communicate. It makes no sense for this large list, or for others.

PS: Thanks to James Whyte for his count of who participates. One slight
methodological flaw. If there are 1800 on this list now, there probably
are > 2000 who have been on at some point in the past 12 months in which
he counted participation. So the denominator is off. Hence the
proportion of contributors is probably low by 10 to 20%. But still, this
is an impressively active list.

 Barry Wellman
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  Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
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