The ears

The first part of my elephant I wish to understand is its ears. How does the community listen? Or more accurately, how do people in the community listen to each other?

They have many opportunities: journals and other publications; conferences and workshops; e-mail and list servers, discussion groups and bulletin boards; telephones, telephone conferencing and video conferencing; web-based systems of content management, instant messaging, and project management. And of course talking to each other face to face in pairs or larger groups.

I plan to invite people to capture their communications within their community, particularly those that relate to collaboration - working together in some way. And I also want them to tell me how they think they communicate, and see if is the same as or different from what actually happens.

The data should reveal communications activity across a range of media and opportunities; and I plan to follow the activity over one or two years if possible, as collaborative purposes change, to see if communication changes too.

My first blind man will be listening.