February 27, 2008
On Lurkers and Readers Comments
As I browse the world of the Internet trying to soak in as much content as I can without my head exploding, a thought dawned on me today about readers comments. This is the functionality of a site that allows you to comment on a content node, be that a BLOG or article, or anything for that matter.
What I have noticed is that -- once you travel past enthusiast sites where a community really pitches in -- the reader's comments drop off to the point where there's little contribution.
Then I thought about all the meetings I have sat in -- one big one this morning at a huge company in Islandia, NY. Of the 20 some-odd participants, there were maybe 3-5 active speakers engaged in the meeting and the others just sat silently. You'd think they were thinking about lunch or how the humidifier's doing at home, or some other subject, but my honest feeling is that they're fully rapt and engaged in whats going on. They just don't speak.
A few years ago I wrote an article about risk management and nominal group technique. In my work with the Project Management Institute, I had uncovered some recent research that suggested people were afraid of sounding dumb or being shot down in risk identification sessions. Also, some people just aren't talkers -- they communicate very effectively in other ways. In any event, the nominal group technique is a wonderful way for people to 'voice' their input in the risk identification process in a very structured, rapid-fire written way.
Back to reader's comments. So many of these tech posts that I'm writing or those of my colleagues -- or those on other tech sites across the digital planet -- they can be intimidating. How many times have you thought that you wanted to respond to a BLOG or an article, but then you hesitated because you were afraid it wasn't going to come out right, or, worse, you'd be dead wrong? We all get that quick reaction, and a Web site is easy to cut-and-run from, isn't it?
Anyway, this is just a thought -- I could be dead wrong, don't you think? :-)
Posted at 10:38 pm by Joseph Bachana
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