For a few months now this post has been bouncing around my head. It's been through a number of diferent forms until earlier today I read a science article that brought it all together for me. The article I read was titled, "Step-wise evolution of stable sociality in primates", I'll provide the link at the end of this post for those inclined to dig a little more deeply.
There was one particular finding that resonated with me, and it was represented nice and simply by the following diagram:
Put very simply, the study found that primates went through a series of steps in forming the social groups that are found across all species of primates today. That is from living as solitary animals, through stages of loose connections until stable social groups are formed. As I read the study, and this point in particular, this blog post idea came back in focus in my mind.
So, with this little introduction in your mind I'll now go back into my original thinking for this post - and I'll tell it in three parts.
- Learning when flying solo
- Lurking in an open plan office
- Part of the furniture
OK, let's get into it!
Part 1 – Learning when flying solo
I work as a freelance learning designer with assignments typically lasting from just days through to weeks and occasionally months. Mostly I work alone in the relative calm of my home office.
I enjoy what I do but working solo is by definition solitary. This means that it's more difficult to keep my own learning going – I need to actively seek out learning, and social contact.
The internet is my window to the world of knowledge and learning, I surf the internet, its blogs and communities, finding some content interesting, some less so. Without a doubt the internet helps me to learn, you can’t help reading something that’s interesting. I surf the internet to learn whatever I need to, whether it’s how to build a website and upload it, writing blogs, presentation design ideas, cooking, gardening and on and on and on and on................
So, while on one hand I’m busy working away on the other hand I’m learning by reading...and participate, but not always because sometimes I lurk. I’ll jump into an online conversation when it really interests me and I might ask a question or put forward my thoughts. A good deal of the time however, because I'm working and seeing heaps of stuff, I filter what I read and decide if and when to participate.
So, I work solo, I participate in online conversations and I also lurk.
Part 2 - Lurking in an open plan office
At the moment I’m doing a fair bit of work embedded in the offices of a large Australian company designing a range of business leadership programs. So whilst I normally work from my office at home my current environment is a change from this.
The office itself is very large and open plan; you hear people talking .... you learn things. I’ve got work to do so I don’t always jump in when I hear something interesting....and to be honest when I first sat at my desk I didn’t really know people very well anyway. But I’ve got ears and some things you hear are either relevant to what you’re working on or just interesting.
So, while on one hand I’m busy working away, on the other hand I’m learning by listening...and not (always) participating, I still do some lurking. Of course I’ll jump into a conversation every now and then to ask a question or put forward my thoughts but mostly I work away, hearing heaps of stuff, filtering and deciding if and when to participate.
So, I’m a visitor working in an office. I do some socialising and some lurking.
Part 3 – Part of the furniture
Now let’s look into the crystal ball, at least a year into one possible future. In this future I’ve become more a ‘part’ of this office environment (this must mean i've done some very good work!). I’ve got to know many more people and they know me too. I still hear heaps of stuff and choose when to participate, but I do more participating and probably a bit less lurking, I’m more comfortable in the environment - I’m becoming part of the furniture.
I’ve made quite a few connections now; I’m included in the social goings-on. People drop by my desk to ask questions and I drop by theirs too. I’m socially comfortable and this changes how I learn - I participate more and lurk less.
What does this all show?
Let's go back to the diagram from the primate study. In it there are three steps in the evolution of sociality. I like this stepped approach as a way of describing how people build sociality on the internet.
What it tells me is that we should expect that learners themselves will be at different steps in the evolution of their own internet sociality. It is probably also helpful to imagine that people move through these social steps at different speeds - what is fast for some seems recalcitrant to others.
It is here where undersatanding needs to kick in, you cannot expect all people to interact in online social communities just like you do. Some people jump right in confidently expressing their views and questioning the ideas of others. There are other people who will choose to lurk in the internet shadows, listening, dipping their toes in occasionally and building confidence in the whole thing.
If you examine the actions of the lurker through the stepped evolution model it becomes clear that they have moved from the solitary world to the unstable social. They may decide to take the next step to the world of stable social if they see a reason for doing so, it can be OK to 'just show up'. What others in communities can do to help lurkers participate more is to accept that participation styles vary - there is no 'one size fits all'.
Links:
I came to the Stepped Evolution article via the BBC website that ran a report summarising key findings, then followed the internal link to purchase the full article in the Nature Journal of Science.
I've also read a number of other blog posts on lurking, particularly these three articles:
Lurking is Learning by Dan Pontefract
Lurking and Loafing by Steve Wheeler
Lurking or Peripheral Participation by Christy Wheeler
Where to from here?
Let me know what you think, that is if you're not lurking!