Information InFiltration. Pronounced: "Discordia r us."

front page???E.A.Dobbsreview-a-rama
secret room upstairsFilterItYourselfwhatever
Sort:
Display:
Making books and meeting deadlines | 10 comments
[new] Plain-text relationships (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#9)
by Aileen on Tue Jul 29th, 2003 at 07:56:40 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
(User Info)

with all the focus on telecommuting, there seems to be little general comprehension of this type of activity. and if i tried to explain it, most people would call me a disembodied virtual geek, sucked into the computer at all hours of the night, disregarding the fact that there are other humans on the other end of the mails, and that actual work is taking place. ... is it more social to work alone?

That is something I often find hard to explain, too. There are authors and artists that I have worked with for years now, I know what kinds of books they read (at least the ones they quote), which issues they are involved and interested in (the ones they write about), I have the feeling at least that I know how they think (because I have to follow their thought processes to do a good translation) ... I just wouldn't recognize them, if they walked into the room, because I have never met them "in person". Does that count as knowing someone? Conversely, I have sometimes enjoyed long, interesting correspondence with someone, but when we met "in person", we somehow found it hard to find things to talk about. I'm not convinced that face to face encounters should necessarily be given priority. Personally, I prefer writing to talking.
Nor do I feel alone when I am working, since I have a permanent Internet connection and am constantly in contact with various people. Sometimes, though, it can be a shock to walk into a room and suddenly realize that I have not been in contact with anyone outside my extended household in the form of physically embodied presence for weeks or even months. That always requires a period of adjustment, before I remember how it works.


[ Parent ]


Making books and meeting deadlines | 10 comments
Sort:
Display:

Menu


[- CREATE ACCOUNT
so you can post & vote!

[- how to post and vote
[- faq (discordia q&a)
[- faq en español
[- search
[- send feedback

[- sick of english?
[- multi-lingual babelfilter

Login


[- Username
[- Password


Make new account >>

Stories, articles, images and comments are owned by the Author. The Rest © 2003 The Discordants under the Gnu Public License

submit story | create account | faq | search