Okay. That sounds sarcastic, and I don't mean it to.
In my last post, I declared my intention to post a question to the Weaving Today website that might elicit responses from other weavers using the site. What I had in mind (and still plan to do eventually) was to post a picture of some gorgeous mixed fiber yarn my daughter gave me and ask for ideas from the Weaving Today community for projects that would be an appropriate use of this imported-from-Italy, hand-spun, delicious resource. So far, I have been unable to get a picture of the yarn that does it justice, and I'd really like to have suggestions that are specific to the yarn, so I haven't posted it yet. What I did was post a short paragraph on the "introduce yourself" thread letting people know that I'm involved in finding out how weavers use digital resources. Within a few hours, I had an answer from MADELYN VAN DER HOOGT!
Madelyn is the editor of HandWoven, the magazine for which Weaving Today is the companion website. She is the person who answers most of the weaving questions posed by users of the website. Well before I became involved in this process, I mentally signed up for the M van der H fan club because of her analytic turn of mind with weave structures and her designs, which combine solid understanding of materials and tools with a turn for the creative and wondrous.
This highlights what I think may be the most attractive feature of digital spaces--it makes available a body of expertise and a community of practice that might not be physically available. While I tend to think of digital spaces as just another social necessity, they also make available a community you can access in your jammies, and from a distance.
The Weaving Today website has been, it tells me, accessed by 45,452 users, who have contributed 2,521 posts to 2.285 threads. In any given day, 150-300 "new" users participate, some of whom may be members who don't bother to sign in. A very few users are signed in at any given time. While there is a location on the site that is set up to list most popular thread and thread with the most posts, and thread with the most replies, no data has been listed in those spaces in the time I've been visiting the site. Typically, there will be a bare handful of new threads or new posts on any given day. But . . .
Today I "talked" to Madelyn van der Hoogt. WOW.
OMG! I love this post! That too sounds sarcastic, and I too don’t mean it to be. I truly enjoy reading your unique style, and I appreciate the voice you infuse into this blog.
ReplyDeleteThis blog presents several fascinating aspects of digital literacy. One element is identity. You mentioned that you posted a paragraph “introducing yourself.” I think this aspect of identity development would be interesting to follow. How did you introduce yourself? Did your introduction consist mainly of words or did it include images, hypertext, and other design elements? How do other users introduce themselves? Are these introductions prominent on the site or something that has to be searched for? Lastly, how did Madelyn introduce and present herself? What signals indicate that she is the expert? How does she construct her identify, and how does this compare to the identity that is projected in the HandWoven magazine?
I really appreciated your discussion of the affordances of online communities. I too appreciate an online community that I can participate in while wearing my jammies. I am wondering if there are any other features of this specific community. Since it is an affinity space centered on weaving, I would assume the dominant discourse also revolves around weaving. Is there evidence of a dominant discourse? Do all users participate and contribute to this discourse? Is a complete novice able to enter the discourse or does one have to have a background in weaving to participate?
Again, I enjoyed reading your insights. Happy weaving!
What kind of discussion did you have with Madelyn van der Hoogt? I’m wondering about the shape the discussion took—it seems like a good way to explain ‘embodiment’ in the context of an online community. If many people use the community as a resource (affinity space), it sounds as if you’ve already gone beyond what most participants sign up for. Can you establish a dialogic discussion with Hoogt, or other individuals considered to be expert resources? It would give you a way to explain your relationship to the community, and its relationship to you: I like the ‘affordances’ word Melissa used in her comment to explain the nature of a virtual community. It’s a special thing when your participation is valued and the so-called stars of an online space respond directly to questions and concerns. The social pressures of face-to-face public spaces often stop individuals from questioning an expert resource for a variety of fears.
ReplyDeleteI’m throwing this out there, but weaving seems like a natural fit for ‘intertextuality’; many designs can feature aspects of other designs, especially in discussing how particular yarns are best employed. Or maybe I’m wrong. Or maybe I’m thinking of quilting. But I was originally thinking of music and sampling—sometimes the same sample will be used by many different musicians in remix projects. Your question regarding the appropriate uses of the Italian yarn casts a delimiting frame around the object: this yarn is used for these purposes. Can the use of a yarn be an intertextual reference if it’s commonly employed to do a specific task?
Like I said, throwing that out there—I don’t weave. But I’m guessing that weaving can employ a mix and match of styles, or available designs (in keeping with digital literacies). It’d be interesting to see how those designs are disseminated online, how the work of one informs the other.