[Winona Online Democracy]
As a follow up to the great points being made about
communication and the difficulty thereof I'd like to
say a couple of things.
Email is great but very difficult as a medium for good
communication. Experts have determined that about 80%
of communication is non-verbal, which includes
everything except the actual words - which is all we
have left in an email forum. That is a great
challenge. Especially when combined with the nature
of email communication being short and sweet; not like
the long letters exchanged on various topics in prior
centuries. So, we have a challenge and need to face
that without the non-verbals and the extra words we
need to be even more careful.
The other topic I'd like to bring up and perhaps later
start a thread on is that I do not believe
communication etiquette responsibility is an equal
two-way street when it comes to government officials
interacting with the public regarding official
matters. I am such an official and I believe I need
to separate my communication responsibilities between
matters of a work /government nature and those of a
personal / non-work one. I believe this relates to
what citizens in a democracy expect and deserve from
their government. I want to think more about this but
would welcome, on or off line, feedback, questions and
comments on this topic.
Craig Brooks
--- Dave Derks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> [Winona Online Democracy]
>
> Thanks, Ed for the candid and honest reminder that
> all of us have been on
> both the receiving and sending end of personal
> attacks. It's hard to define
> exactly what a personal attack is but to paraphrase
a
> famous quote personal
> attacks are like pornography, you "know it when you
> see it".
>
> Email is such a wonderful form of communication, a
> real enhancement to civil
> discourse when used thoughtfully. However, all of
> us know the feeling when
> our perfectly crafted email ends up sounding a
> little more personal than we
> intended it to. Unfortunately, we typically realize
> this about 2 seconds
> after we send the email. All we can do is continue
> the discourse and
> listen, moderate, and apologize when necessary. As
> someone else famous once
> said "let he who is without sin throw the first
> stone". None of us are
> blameless when it comes to emails we could have
> changed. So Ed, you are
> correct that sometimes the best solution is to just
> "put down the email" and
> not respond.
>
> Saying all this Kathy does an excellent job as
> moderator in meeting the
> intent of the term "moderation". Rather than being
> "Big Brother", imposing
> rules and regulations, the role of the moderator is
> to facilitate discussion
> while being the conscience of WOD and reminding all
> of us of the joys of
> democratic conversation, creating our solutions
> through interaction with
> each other. Thanks, Kathy for all of your hard
> work!
>
> A few other wonderful books on the creative art of
> conversation and
> discourse:
>
> "Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to
> Restore Hope to the Future"
> by Margaret Wheatley
>
> "Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture"
> by Christina Baldwin
>
> Dave Derks
>
>
=====
<(���)>
Craig
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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