Heather+Reply2

From: **Heather Curry ** Date: **Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:18:39 -0000** Local: **Mon, Nov 5 2007 3:18 pm** Subject: **Re: $40M Sprawl Magnet?**

I think the potential benefit of all of us doing the same readings is that we see the iterative process at work. What I glean from a particular piece may not at all be the same as what another person sees, as, of course, we each filter our understandings through the particular fog of our own lenses. Additionally, we may each value a different reading, a lucid example is the vastly different take on McKelvey's work. Hearing your perspectives helped me find tremendous value in a set of works I might have otherwise discounted because I reacted to the language. ' On the other hand, I do agree that sifting through the readings as a collective may produce some that didn't resonate with any of us, or that did with all of us. It seems we all find Agar's work both enlightening and accessible, for example. Or Al Wolfe's piece an approachable work on SNA. I think it's a question deserving of our collective attention, to be sure. Finally, I hesitate to say that even those posts that go without reply are useless. And I don't say that just because a good many of mine fall into that category :). I think what we end up with is a picture of our group interests. What is it emerges when we look at the whole picture and then narrow our gaze to focus on those posts which have generated a great deal of debate and conversation? There's some good stuff there! Moreover, even those without replies inform our understanding of each other. And when we're working to build community among ourselves, there's nothing so valuable as that.