some benefits of virtual communities

. . . like the tuesday cafe

The advantages of the Tuesday Cafe have mostly to do with the ways in which it represents what Howard Rheingold has called a "virtual community."

The Tuesday Cafe connects professionals, many of them separated and working alone in their various schools, to each other, so they feel part of a community of (generally) like-minded people.
(For postmodernists) the best thing about the Tuesday Cafe is the fragmented, multi-threaded, allusive, playful nature of the conversation.
For people new to MOOing, the Netoric Cafe is a good place to learn how to act in this kind of environment and a good place to sharpen e-discourse skills.
For schmoozers: sometimes a Big Name shows up at the Cafe, and sometimes People Working on Books show up looking for contributers.
Most important, the Tuesday Cafe is filled with warm, intelligent, talented teachers who are generous in their talk about using technology, especially new technology, in classes.

For me, the difference that the Netoric community has made is quite striking. When I lived in Massachusetts (15 minutes from Harvard Square, not counting parking, teaching at U Mass Lowell, a technologically oriented university), before the Netoric and before I had easy access to the Internet, I was more isolated, more on my own, than I have been since I began going to the Cafe (that is to say, before moving to central Minnesota, where the winters go on for, well, never mind).

Introduction to the Tuesday Cafe.
What is the Tuesday Cafe?
What are some of the disadvantages of MOO discussions?
How do people get to the Cafe?
Works Cited

Last updated: 10 June 1996. Questions and comments? Please e-mail Sharon Cogdill at scogdill@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu.