Naming and Presence

RantWoman is so grateful for Liz Opp's post http://thegoodraisedup.blogspot.com/2009/11/visibility-of-established-friends.html because it speaks to many of RantWoman's concerns.

RantWoman is new to blogging and newer to Quaker blogs. There is an access to technology / digital inclusion angle to this problem. Until now, RantWoman has been completely unschooled in other Quaker bloggers' practices about using names. More to the point, RantWoman has a different view.

Perhaps it is because RantWoman is writing a lot about people including herself who may not be at their best at the moment or whose gifts the Divine has wrapped in very challenging packages. RantWoman is treating her blog content the way our Meeting treats many sensitive concerns in our minutes which is to provide enough information that Friends understand the sensitive point but usually not to attach a name. Of course, when the summary minutes of the October business meeting behind the Compost thread appeared in our newsletter, one Friend who had not been at business meeting called RantWoman and knew immediately who Dear Friend is. RantWoman is pretty sure that people familiar with our meeting will also know almost immediately who Dear Friend is and if they do not already know who RantWoman is MAY also be able to guess that as well.

Robin M mentions that using names helps people connect at Quaker gatherings. RantWoman definitely does not suggest Friends adopt a practice RantWoman observed at a local social gathering of people who use Twitter. There everyone was asked to write their Twitter handle as well as their name on their name tag. Unless nametags are written in giant magic marker, RantWoman usually cannot read them anyway. RantWoman thus winds up relying on other strategies such as conversation in worship sharing and attention at meals or interest groups as far as making connections.

Right now, RantWoman's perspective is that she is searching online for material about how to do Quaker basics like Clearness Committees, eldering, the Good Order of Friends. Part of the reason is that Dear Friend's proddings have caused RantWoman to take responsibility for finding things out herself, and preferably online where she can scream over it with Mr. JAWS rather than cope with dust and a human's schedule to read out of print classics at our Meeting's library.

Here RantWoman's goal is to find good material, preferably more than one strand of thinking efficiently. RantWoman was thrilled to find a pamphlet of Lloyd Lee Wilson. RantWoman is also formulating a mental list of Friends she knows of with concern to and capacity to help her think about this in a broader way.

RantWoman here confesses an interesting grumble. RantWoman asked her clearness committee for comments about the Clearness committee guidelines she found online including a process question because of what is involved. RantWoman got back a nice scan of some material from our Meeting written by a dear and fondly remembered member who passed away more than two decades ago. Much as RantWoman appreciates the reminiscences of those who knew this beloved member, RantWoman thinks it is just possible that our Meeting might better expand the pool of people who know how to do Clearness Committees with some updated guidelines and MAYBE more talk about the work of such committees by people who have been through them. RantWoman just wanted to be able to read something in advance. RantWoman realizes maybe she should just pick up the phone too but at this point RantWoman is just going to let things play out and use alternative strategies of her own as far as interacting with whatever people come up with.

RantWoman means to post more detailed comments about her emerging questions about how to ensure the web provides the content we want and a zillion other web-related publications issues.
Two points stick out. First, traditional search engine rankings based on things that have a lot of links to them are not entirely on point if they put info one most wants several screens down. This is where knowing whose blogs are there and then using bloggers' tags or the search bar just within a single blog is probably a better approach. Or perhaps we also need to exchange information about which search engines and methods we like best.

Second, RantWoman is meditating about reading in the moment compared to thoughtful review at points in the future. RantWoman really likes the option easily of reviewing people's material from many years online but imagines that Friends need to become more systematically mindful about historical perspective. Our history is not just our minute books, which RantWoman might like to index and make availabe electronically just so she can read them anyway. Our history is also increasingly electronic content. It seems to RantWoman that the possibility of creating great volumes of content can be tremendously powerful for expressing our own spiritual journeys. However, it can also create a flood of flabbily constructed pieces that can be a lot of work to read or to reconstruct meaningfully for historical purposes. (RantWoman is conscious of being a case in point!)

RantWoman is in the midst both of seasoning a conflict with Dear Friend and trying to be present worshipfully as our whole Meeting works on aspects of that conflict. It is clear to RantWoman that people of different generations in our Meeting use the web differently or in some cases not at all. One wonderful weighty Friend in our Meeting still does everything on a manual typewriter. RantWoman so enjoys the tactile sense of this Friend's documents even though if she actually wants to read them, she either gets to have someone read it aloud or subject it to technology to read it herself.

On the other hand, RantWoman is HOPING others in her Meeting ARE reading her blog. Well, if they are, RantWoman would be glad for them to ask her questions or talk in person....