Abstract

ListServer Communication: The discourse of community-building.

CSCL'95 (Computer Support for Collaborative Learning).

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The purpose of this paper is to bring out some characteristics of on-line communication in a Listserver context, and in particular, functions, features and structure of community-building action. Findings are derived from a three-year ethnographic study of ten, subsequently five, electronic mailing lists supported by Listserver technology. Action on these lists was subsumed by the activity of an international academic community based in Southern California. Soviet Activity Theory and a Conversation for Action discursive model of communication were combined as framework for analysis.

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