Cyberspace_Great

Cyberspace, the Great Equalizer

Diane Howard, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2004

Conference Presentation-
National Association of African American Studies and Associates
(Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, National Association of Native American Studies, and International Association of Asian Studies), Houston, 2004

In the sphere of the World Wide Web (WWW), there is a qualitatively new, virtual dimension. Elements of the visceral world, such as those related to physical bodies, places, and cultures seem less significant and impacting in this new world. The WWW has created a dimension where our minds and souls can freely share, connect, and bond with people around the globe. Cyberspace scholar, Pierre Levy (1998), describes it as a deterritorialized world in which there is more of a sense of a global collective we who work, communicate, experience collectively in virtual communities, virtual corporations, and virtual democracies. The equalizing, leveling, anonymous, and disembodying aspects of communication in cyberspace can provide powerful opportunities for social justice, enfranchisement, inclusion, and equal opportunity. Skillful interactive communication techniques can supercede tendencies to diminish, dismiss, or stereotype others due to gender, ethnicity, racial, and cultural differences.

The contemporary world of the Internet is more than simply an information highway (Levy, 1998). It is a unique dimension, which affects almost every area of many of our lives, in which we are required to learn fresh techniques to effectively collaborate, instruct, facilitate, and cooperate. In order to positively enjoy the truly democratic possibilities that e-technologies can provide, we must acquire new skills to effectively foster civil and productive relationships and communities in Cyberspace. Effective distance communication, facilitation and moderating techniques via modern e-technologies can enhance personalizing, humanizing, equalizing, socializing, and therapeutic interactions. (Howard, 2000, 2002). We need to learn constructive communication skills in order to participate effectively and viably.

Distance communication technology is ubiquitous. It affects most everything that many of us do. It shapes interpersonal, group, and public communication. It has potential for empowering the marginalized and disenfranchised. It provides the opportunity for an equal playing field, when we can access the technology and learn to use it as effectively as possible. Computers, the Internet, and distance technology applications touch professional, personal, educational, economic, political, and social spheres of life. They can provide potential benefit for the globe, when we harness them and use them effectively, constructively, and positively.

E-technologies can provide limitless access to information and productive opportunities. Communication in Cyberspace, the dimension provided by a global network of connected computers, provides potential enrichment for people all over the world. The virtual world facilitates highly efficient mobility and portability of information dissemination and communication, which is supplemented by electronic multi-media (Havel, 1999). It provides virtual mobility and portability in interactive discussions, collaborations, and projects across national borders and time zones around the globe. Most obstacles specific to real mobility are absent in Cyberspace.

Through virtual mobility, real collaborative links become more efficient, time-saving, and cost-effective. Information and communication content is more portable. It can be transferred quickly and easily into different cultural contexts in a global setting. New computer-mediated, distance communication technologies do not replace older forms of onsite or distance communication, but add to, enhance, and expand communication possibilities and options around the world (Levy, 1998).

The fact is that people in many countries are rapidly using modern technological information and communication skills. Around the globe, people are involved in Internet communication. People around the world are participating in various kinds of
e-communities, due in part to the informality and free access of Internet e-groups. Virtual learning communities and the contents related to them are constantly developing and expanding.

Cyber communities are creating new and various cultures facilitated by emerging technological possibilities and norms. We need to pay attention to specific, concrete guidance as to how to communicate effectively via Web sites, e-mail, e-discussion groups, e-communities, message boards, audio conferences, and voice mail. Further, we must address effective e-teaching, videoconferencing, videostreaming, Webcasting, e-job hunting, and e-publishing. As we learn and master effective cyber communication skills, we can be enhanced personally and professionally, not diminished or displaced, by modern communication technology.

Pierre Levy (1998) contends that communication in the virtual world can cultivate collective intelligence, which can encourage the development of intelligent communities. He states that sharing of information, knowledge, and expertise in e-communities can promote a kind of dynamic, collective intelligence, which can affect all spheres of our lives. He contends that the virtual world can foster positive connections, cooperation, bonds, and civil interactions. In e-groups or communities, which are flexible, democratic, reciprocal, respectful, and civil, this collective intelligence can be continually enhanced and enhancing (Levy, 1998).

Researchers in science, education, business, and industry are pooling their collective intelligence, knowledge, and data in collaboratories. These are virtual centers in which people in different locations work together in real time, as if they were all in the same place. Science, education, commerce, and industry have become increasingly global. Collaboration, which is efficient, maximizing, and time-saving among distance researchers in these fields, has become more critical.

As distance technology has become more efficient and cost-effective, distance collaboration has become more common. The National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health have encouraged grant recipients to form collaboratories. These scholarly, virtual groups are cybersteps beyond distance sharing of asynchronous data when researchers individually take what they want from online databases. Collaboratories enable researchers at distant locations to interact, hold lab meetings, and work with data in real time (Buyya, 2001).

In the various forms of e-groups or e-communities participants are free to communicate ideas without the limits related to the physical body, i.e. appearance, gender, race, ethnicity, and status symbols. Levy (1998) suggests further that they are free to participate in virtual community and to add to the collective intelligence.

In Cyberspace…each of us is a potential transmitter and receiver in a space that is
qualitatively differentiated…constructed by its participants, and explorable.
Here we no longer encounter people exclusively by their name, geographical location,
or social rank, but in the context of centers of interest, within a shared landscape
of meaning and knowledge…Cyberspace provides large and geographically dispersed
groups with instruments for cooperatively constructing a shared context …
communication now involves participants in a form of interaction…This
dynamic …collective context serves as an agent of collective intelligence, a kind of
living bond…Cyberspace promotes connections.

Best-selling author, Howard Rheingold (2000), argues that the technology, which makes virtual communities possible, has potential to empower ordinary citizens at a relatively small cost. He suggests cyber technology can potentially provide lay citizens, as well as professionals, with leverage and power, which is intellectual, social, commercial, and political. He further insists that civil and informed people must understand the leverage cyber technology provides. They must learn to use it wisely and constructively, as it can not fulfill its positive potential by itself. We must appreciate, respect, nurture, and foster positive and meaningful relationships in our visceral and virtual lives. We must also learn to empower each other and to create constructive communities that wisely use their leverage and power.

We can concretely and basically begin by working at positive communication in our cyber communities. As we show respect for each other by observing etiquette in our personal and professional visceral worlds, we need to use n-etiquette in our e-groups. This e-community etiquette can facilitate civil and clear communication. It is also useful when e-communities have access to frequently asked questions (FAQ) in the group. Using FAQ in an e-group can assist participants to avoid unnecessary repetition and enable everyone to dialogue with some basic understanding of the topics commonly addressed by the group. Further, we need to empower other members of our e-groups (and thus our communities) by giving, when we can, helpful feedback, assistance, facilitation, and encouragement.

E-group communication is most productive when participants are truthful and honest, not deceptive. Communicators, however, should be careful not to disclose personal information, which may make them vulnerable to unethical, harmful others. All users of e-mail or e-group technologies need to remember that e-communication is public, not private. We should avoid giving personal information, which could be used to hurt us by unscrupulous people. We also need to guard again naively forwarding erroneous and deceptive information. We need to ascertain the truthfulness of material we forward.

In their book Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom, Palloff and Pratt (1999) suggest behaviors that facilitate developing effective e-communities. These are honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, openness, and empowerment. Just as we must appreciate, respect, and nurture face-to-face relationships and communication, we must do the same in Cyberspace. We need to conduct ourselves in civil and constructive ways to encourage satisfying, meaningful, and productive personal and professional visceral and virtual relationships.

Civil e-communication that can productively and constructively empower others most often utilizes effective e-mail skills. Effective interpersonal e-mail can be used powerfully to facilitate, empower, strengthen, and support in academic, professional, and personal communication. In interactive, e-communication, positive, others-centered skills, such as empathizing, "listening," looking for common ground, repeating/rephrasing what the other has said, refraining from attacking, and avoiding pre-mature judging should be common practices. Since privacy in e-mail is limited, caution in e-mail communication is justified, however.

E-mail communication must be considered as public. It is not truly private, as there are many ways in which e-mail can find its way into public view (Verderber, 2001). E-mail can be a valuable means for instructors, supervisors, administrators, and bosses to remind and/or reinforce students or employees (Hannon, 2002). E-mail may be best suited for quick updating, brief making of plans, and condensed sharing of ideas (Beebe et al, 2001). However, in some situations in which significant communication must take place at a distance, e-mail can be a lifeline for information and support. Some people are actually able to communicate more openly and effectively in e-mail than in face-to-face communication when they are easily distracted, intimidated, or hesitant to speak aloud. Since facial, verbal, and other sensory communication clues are often limited in e-mail, misinterpretation of e-mails can easily happen.

E-mail can be a useful and valuable tool of communication in our personal and professional lives; but it also has potential pitfalls, which we must seek to avoid if we are going to use it effectively. First, we must utilize basic good, interpersonal skills, which involve communicating positively, constructively, and respectfully. We need to empathize, "listen," look for common ground, repeat/rephrase what others say, refrain from attacking, and avoid pre-mature judging. We need to especially work at writing in a clear style to avoid possible misunderstandings.

Here are basic guidelines for clear, respectful e-mail, personal or professional, which guard against potential misinterpretation, confusion, and irritation.

· Use short, specific descriptions in subject lines.

· Use appropriate greetings or salutations, as in face-to-face communication
(San Diego, 2002).

· Try to use less than 65 characters in a line and no more than 25 lines of text
(Elam, 1997).

· End lines with a carriage return (Elam, 1997).

· Use appropriate grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

(1) Don't use all capital letters. This is considered "shouting," or "yelling."

(2) Don't use all lower-case letters. This makes you appear uneducated, unprofessional.

· Choose language carefully.

(1) Use informal language in personal correspondence.

(2) Use formal language in business correspondence.

(3) Use short, concise, clear language and sentences.

(4) Simplify messages.

(5) Choose words and write the message carefully.

(6) When using the reply button, include, restate, or paraphrase the sender's language.

(7) Break down messages into simple components.

(8) Compensate for the absence of non-verbal language by adding more adjectives.

(9) The longer the message, the more it needs to be broken into "sound bytes."

· Don't blurt a message impulsively.

(1) Use appropriate etiquette.

(2) Don't say anything electronically that which would not be said face-to- face.

(3) Don't vent emotions.

(4) Be careful of what might be offensive to other cultures.

(5) Be careful of the tone of messages.
(a) Don't be so short, concise, or direct that messages sound brusque or rude.
(b) Use adjectives or adverbs to clarify tone.
(c) Avoid sarcasm, which could be misinterpreted (Fielden, 2001).

(6) Refrain from pre-mature judging or attacking.

· Re-read messages and use spelling, grammar checks before sending.

(1) Re-read what the message says and how is said before sending it.

(2) Watch for possibilities of misinterpretation.

(3) Avoid using abbreviations, which can be misunderstood or not understood at all.

· Confirm, empathize, and sympathize in e-mail communication.

(1) When disagreeing, try to respect the other's position and look for common ground.

(2) "Listen" and pay attention to what a correspondent is saying.

(3) Don't "flame" or use aggressive language (Fielden, 2001).

· Consider the correspondent.

(1) Analyze how that individual has presented himself/herself.

(2) Match a correspondent's level of language and communication behavior.

· Respond, at least briefly, to e-mail from personal or professional contacts.

· Little can be assumed about respondents (their frame of mind, interpretation of your message…), so be gracious and careful in wording and phrasing (Elam, 1997).

· Practice civility, utilize good manners, and use please or thank you (San Diego, 2002).

· Consider re-writing or not sending a message, which is not fair, honest, or constructive.

· Protect against computer viruses, which can be delivered through e-mail.

(1) Avoid opening attachments from unknown sources.

(2) Install virus protection software.

(3) Keep the anti-virus software updated.

· Protect against from unwanted e-mail by using a spam blocker or blocked senders list.

· Don't send unwanted, unsolicited e-mail messages.

(1) When it is received, request politely to be removed from the sender's list.

(2) Don't forward e-mails without the understanding or permission of the sender.

·         Be very careful in forwarding messages.
(1) Make sure that any forwarded message is truthful and accurate.
(2) The truth of alarmist e-mails, such as rumors, virus warnings, pleas
      for help, prayer requests… can be checked out on sites such as
      TruthOrFiction.com.

· Use appropriate closings.

· Place messages for references in well-organized folders.

· Carefully decide when to use e-mail and/or the telephone.

(1) It is sometimes best to follow-up e-mail with telephone communication and/or negotiation.

(2) Communication, which needs to take place in real time, should take place
over the telephone, since e-mail is asynchronous (Conrad, 2002).

In addition to suggestions for constructive e-mail, here are some further basic guidelines for fostering effective communication in e-communities.

· Newcomers to a group should introduce themselves.

(1) Before participating, take time to study an e-community's postings or work.

(2) Welcome newcomers.

· In a synchronous group, participants must commit to time set aside for the group.

· Use appropriate salutations or greetings.

· In subject lines include brief descriptions of postings.

(1) This is a courtesy to readers, who may or not be interested in some messages.

(2) In replying, keep the subject description intact.

· Post messages to appropriate individual, groups, or lists (Fielden, 2001).

· When replying to an individual from a message received on a listserv, be careful to respond only to that individual and not to the whole list.

· Post messages respectfully.

(1) Observe the n-etiquette, which is posted for the group.

(2) Utilize precise and concrete language.

(3) Give specific details and examples.

(4) Participate with civility and respect in an e-group.

(5) Be honest but proceed cautiously with self-disclosing, so as not to be hurt by
unscrupulous group participants.

E-technologies provide wonderful potential for leveling the playing field around the world. The equalizing, leveling, anonymous, and disembodying aspects of communication in Cyberspace can provide powerful opportunities for social justice, enfranchisement, inclusion, and equal opportunity. Skillful interactive communication techniques can supercede tendencies to diminish, dismiss, or stereotype others due to gender, ethnicity, racial, and cultural differences. However, we must harness
e-technologies and practice effective e-communication, e-education, and e-collaboration skills in order to maximize the positive, constructive, and productive potential available in Cyberspace.

References

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