The PEGASUS brochure and web site say:
>On the Internet, people are able to inhabit multiple worlds and
>explore multiple aspects of the self. For individuals, on-line life
>can serve as a sort of moratorium or "time out," a time of
>experimentation that facilitates the development of identity. For
>organizations, virtual communities offer a place for experimenting,
>working through new ideas, and for parallel play. Do virtual
>representations of real organizations help people cross organizational
>boundaries or help them work more effectively within them? Sherry
>Turkle addresses this question and others as she examines how computer
>technology is reshaping how we understand ourselves and the
>organizations we co-create.
>
>Sherry Turkle is Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and the
>author of Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. She
>specializes in the study of people's relationships with technology, in
>particular, computers. Her most recent research focuses on the
>psychology and sociology of computer-mediated communication.
I first heard Sherry Turkle at an MIT conference a couple of years ago
about "Kids and Computers." I agreed with her message that it was healthy
for kids to explore and experiment with their identity in games and on the
net (Her earlier book was "Second Self".)
I'm wondering now... While this kind of experimenting sounds important for
personal development and for health, aren't our virtual teams in the
workplace to serious, focused, and task driven for this?
The larger question I'm wondering about is where will this experimentation
occur for adults? And, with the time pressures for most adults today,
where's the time for experimentation and learning?
Please feel free to extend this question... And/or reply with comments
from reading Sherry Turkle or attending the keynote.
-- Rick
--
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | email: Richard@Karash.com
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