Spring 1995
On-Line
Two months after the Tallahassee Democrat launched its Public Agenda project to get citizens talking about community problems and possible solutions, they took the project on-line, on the Tallahassee Free-Net. After only a year in operation, the computer network, which provides free access to the Internet, already had 20,000 users.
By Bill Edmonds
Op-ed Editor
Tallahassee Democrat
For two hours on Dec. 14, the Tallahassee Free-Net’s regular operations closed down as the computer network initiated a so-called Internet Relay Chat. We told our readers when and how to participate, and citizens were eager to dial in.
Within minutes, dozens had logged on, said hello and started talking. Soon, there were a hundred citizens engaged in a cacophonous conversation. Then as many as 200. Then 300.
We had created a giant cocktail party and, like all parties, conversation quickly broke into specific subjects. Users could switch to different channels (or scroll into different rooms) to talk about crime, children, education or other issues identified by Public Agenda’s research.
Let me be honest — this was not “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” There was not a lot of careful deliberation. The talk had a life of its own — it veered here and there, started, stopped and started again. Some conversations — crime, for instance, and children — took off right away. Others needed encouragement; some a little discouragement, chiefly those who couldn’t resist yakking about rock music and, yes, sex.
All in all, people were thrilled by the prospect of doing something that perhaps hadn’t been done before and intrigued by the possibilities.
Those possibilities are…well, we’re not quite sure. Computer conversations on a community scale are so new — and so different — that we’re still sorting it out. But some lessons are obvious.
Digital dialogue is faceless and that’s a drawback. There is no replacement for shaking someone’s hand after the meeting and getting to know him or her better.
It also invites random thoughts. We recommend a structure that sticks to one subject and employs a moderator to keep the conversation focused and encourage civility.
These drawbacks aside, computer conversations do offer new ways of communicating that we intend to explore. We may, for example, let users comment on important televised events, such as a presidential speech. (During the Sugar Bowl, we let fans create their own play-by-play on Free-Net.) We may set up a chat session when there are major local news stories. Or we may bring in guests to talk to the community.
Certainly with the Internet, distance is not a problem.
For more, e-mail Free-Net cofounder Hilly Levitz: levitz@freenet.fsu.edu.
