[Air-l] Lurkers, lookers, active observers?

Alexander Semenov semenoffalex at googlemail.com
Tue May 8 07:52:30 PDT 2007


Yes, but I think that "lookers" and "readers" are more methodologically  
neutral terms, than "active observers" on the simple base that it's rather  
hard to define the "activeness" of the observer. It's my "rough thought"  
?1.
Rough thought ?2.
The fact, that a person looks at a page doesn't mean that he reads it (for  
example in the office, when someone simulates activity) and if he reads it  
doesn't mean that he do it regularily (for example, a person simply  
followed a hyperlink from a page, friend, etc.), like observer. And even  
if he observes it that doesn't mean, that he actually think about what  
they are reading (for example, youth fun portals with jokes, pictures,  
videos etc. Such content itself doesn't leave "enough room" for thinking.  
Unfortunatelly I can give only Russian examples of such portals). So,  
following that improvisation I can suggest the following "topology":  
looker -> reader -> observer -> active observer.
That was just an improvisation. Don't take it too seriously.
Best wishes,
Alexander Semenov.

On Tue, 08 May 2007 18:34:55 +0400, Roxanne Hiltz  
<roxanne.hiltz at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I like both "Lookers" and "Readers" but also like for a more formal  
> term,
>  "Active Observers"
>   This means that they do read regularly, and that they think about
> what they are reading...
>
>   Roxanne Hiltz
>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>    1. we need a better word than lurking (Barry Wellman)
>>
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