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"Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation?" Guy de Maupassant

Tuesday, April 8, 2003

Serious Play

Ryze has added a new functionality ... network message notification via e-mail.  If you want to activate this feature (or if you've activated this feature and you want to turn it off), visit your network preferences.

I think it is a great option to have. Yet it was annoying this morning to wake up to 28 messages in my inbox from all the networks i belong to ... and i quickly went and turned off the feature.

Perhaps it will make me more discriminating in selecting the networks i really want to be on. I seem to have lost interest in most of the networks on my list. Some started off so wonderfully, yet today they're just surviving on ritualistic repetitive rambles from a handful of active members, rather than 'playing' or sowing new seeds.

Some issues that come to mind ... what sustains a person's interest and participation in a network? Is there a natural lifecycle to them ... do they naturally run their course? Are they short-term bubbles? How can we keep the momentum going, and the sharing, learning and growing? What is the role of the moderator? Should there be 'soft' rules (a paradox, i know) for the players? Who 'owns' the network? How does the community build it together?

These questions go beyond the 'networks' on Ryze or 'clubs' at Ecademy ... meanwhile, i'm happy to see the Serious Play network rocks again !



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