As I am going through the readings for Block 1, I have been taken back to the “good ol’ days” of IDEL. Actually, it wasn’t THAT long ago. But the reminders I am struck with are the concepts of space and presence.
While I have been working through the various apps and platforms we will be using in EDC, I am struck by the different spaces I occupy. I am a user of Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and Moodle, just to name a few. I have my own private blog and Twitter accounts that will not be part of this class as I am using my more public spaces for that. I also occupy space in a variety of Google apps such as Google Drive and Google+. I imagine those spaces and my online presence will be stretched even further as this course progresses.
I am also reminded that in each of these spaces I am required, sometime through simple default, to maintain a presence. Part of my personality, values, and even biases, are projected in one form or another, to one degree or another, in each of those space. This creates what others perceive as my online presence. And, rightly or wrongly, I am judged by others for that presence; not necessarily WHAT platforms I use, but HOW those platforms are used to establish myself in the online community.
As I then look externally from the point of view of the world, it is not the amount of space I use that draws others users to me. It is rather the same quality of use that causes others to step outside of their own space, so to speak, and spend time in mine. in short, it is the quality of my presence (as determined by someone else) that is a factor in how much time they spend with me, in my space.
So, that being said, and I am well aware not very academically, is what I begin my journey with in this space, this blog, this lifestream.
#mscedc
Interesting reflection, Philip. Made me think of White & Le Cornu’s V&R typology (2011). It might be an interesting activity to map your own online engagement prior to #mscedc and post- certainly I think my own map will change significantly as I’m generally much more of a lurker (elegant or not;).
While I can see how your blog is ‘your space’, and how people might cross from their ‘own’ spaces into each other’s spaces (maybe like you’d pop over to a friend’s for a cup of tea?) I wonder about beyond that. i.e. Twitter does not ‘belong’ to any of us, yet our posts under #mscedc create ‘our’ space. Communal space, if you like – where people with less immediate connections to the tag can drop in/drop out/be invited/elegantly lurk. Perhaps this (communal) space is inferred when you talk about using platforms to ‘establish myself in the online community’.
This element of ‘presence’ is key to me. #mscedc forces me to become an active community member, due to the publicness of the platforms utilised. White has suggested that early engagement such as mine (and others within the course who have been less publicly active previously) marks a transition point, from knowledge consumer to community participant: ‘It’s the point at which they are exploring their ‘voice’ within the discourse’ (White, 2015).
This has got me thinking about what creates ‘quality discourse’ – and the impact of being required to demonstrate regular engagement (for the course grade) on that discourse (a point @Eli_App_D, @c4miller & @Digeded touched on early in Twitter). I don’t suppose it helps that IFTTT posts each Tweet separately from all but the preceeding tweets in Twitter conversations – rather than capturing conversations wholistically. Makes us all see a bit shouty! 😉
Thank you Renee, very interesting and compelling comments. As I was reading I thought of another example of the space-presence concept. Since we have been Tweeting about Blade Runner, I have been reminded of the Star Trek series. As the Enterprise moves through space, it simply occupies a given point at a given moment of time. It takes up space, nothing more really. It is only when the ship or its occupants interact with that space, or with other objects or entities within that space, that actual presence is felt.
I find this a difficult idea sometimes, especially when my brain tries to interject all kinds of possible exceptions and scenarios. But, I still like to think I’ve got a decent concept going that is workable.
In any case, I like your statement that you must become an “active community member”. To me, and perhaps to oversimplify, this means I must make my presence in space known in some active, overt manner (quantitative), in order for my presence to have any qualitative meaning.