EMAIL LIST PROJECT	Josh On. Jan/Feb 1999.
Proposal Research Design Execution

Proposal In this project I plan to look at Email lists as they are currently available on the internet. I want to consider their various purposes, forms, associated technologies, and context amongst other types of group communication on the internet. From this research I hope to gain an understanding of some of the strengths and weaknesses of email lists and the surrounding software and generate some ideas for possible improvements or additions. I would like to implement one of these ideas. The project will be in three parts; research, design and implementation. The research phase will consist of sourcing, reading, and documenting social and technical information on email lists and related phenomena. The design and implementation parts may happen in conjunction, as I want to have time to get familiar with the software to create a mailing-list server and play with possible additions. The aim of this project is twofold; to learn more about writing apps on the internet and to think more about the possibilities the internet provides for creating new or altered forms and methods of relating to one another. 1. The Project Description AUDIENCE: The users will speak english, have web/email access and some knowledge of email and computers. They may be of any age. They will be willing participants. Possibly bored browsing the web, or actively seeking correspondence/interaction with others. This project isn't audience driven so it is hard to say at this point in time who exactly it might be for. It may end up being for hosts or moderators of email lists, or even communities/or institutions wanting a better space for online communication. MISSION: Email lists are a very powerful and successful way for a group of people to communicate through the internet. They quickly evolved into a stable and workable format with little variation in structure from one peice of list software to another. I wish to look at why this is so successful and whether it could be changed in order to facilitate new or better types of communication/interaction. I would like to focus on group membership criteria, moderation, and feedback on group relationship patterns, as I think that these areas are underdeveloped in email list technology. NAME: The working title is Email Project. GOALS: The specific goals are not completely clear yet. I have some general goals about making something that might enhance communication or give new insights into group relations. I would like refer to Howard Rheingold's list of What an Online Host wants to Achieve. This can be found in his document "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online" at http://www.rheingold.com/texts/artonlinehost.html I think that these provide a good guide to the sort of thing that I would like to achieve. The ongoing goal is civil discourse: all kinds of people having conversations and arguments about a variety of subjects and treating each other decently. Authentic conversations -- from the head, the heart, and the gut. A feeling of ownership. Participants become evangelists. A spirit of group creativity, experimentation, exploration, good will. A shared committment to work together toward better communication, better conversations. If this is achieved, nothing else is needed. A system where people figure out where the conversation is going, by themselves, and settle conflicts among themselves A place where everybody builds social capital individually by improving each other's knowledge capital collaboratively. This has been written for hosts and not apps. It would be too much to expect an application to do all this but an application or website could encourage these qualities and behaviours.