][<en annotates:

>** I believe the virtual community of preservation needs a water cooler,
>and that BP serves the purpose **

It's obviously delivering something stronger than water, too....

>_Forget the Formal Training. Try Chatting at the Water Cooler._
>NY Times, Sunday 5/10/98, By SUSAN J. WELLS

>At Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution in Wendell, N.C., a unit
>of Siemens, the big German manufacturer, it is just the opposite.

These sensible people are just 10 miles east of us here in Raleigh...must
be a disease infecting these parts....

>** the server for BP is sponsored by the psychology department at St.
>John's University

It's not entirely altruism...they're studying us.

>** co-workers… are we co-workers? Though we have individual differences,
>and different takes on preservation of the natural and built
>environment, in an office culture we would also develop relationships
>with co-workers who may have differing interests and roles than our own
>within the context of a larger organization – informal training as
>continuous if often unrecognized – idle chatter was actually good for
>business RIGHT ON! – on BP we can emulate the team approach of a more
>formal organization – can we do our jobs better? I think, in part, we
>can be more sane for supporting each other, and in turn we can do our
>individual jobs much better knowing that somewhere there is someone that
>we can joke with, complain to, and seek guidance from their experience –
>despite silliness on BP, whenever anyone has really been down I think
>the common action has been to provide support – how often have you heard
>comments about signal:noise ratio at the water cooler? **

This is so plainly obvious to those of us here -- the opportunity to enjoy
ourselves while learning something new or thinking about something we might
otherwise not have thought about.

>** what sort of training opportunities can be initiated on BP? **

I think it would be a mistake to formalize anything on BP.

>** where are our mentors? **

You, Ken.  You and the rocks.  Even if I _have_ learned more from the
rocks.  But that's because I'm inclined toward rocks, given as my head is
full of them.  My big head, in fact, is what gives me the unmitigated gall
to declare myself BP god.

My personal ISP, Mindspring, actually has an internal newsgroup called
<mindspring.watercooler>  It's the anything goes zone of silliness.  That
community had a pitched battle about what is appropriate in a general
discussion group, which subsequently led to the reorganization of their
newsgroup heirarchy and the establishment of *watercooler.  The parallels
of that firestorm and the one on P-L are quite uncanny, and it is most
interesting to see the similar outcomes.

"BP - Telepathic chickenf leave no tracef at the watercooler."

____________________________________________
Dan Becker
Executive Director, Raleigh Historic Districts Commission

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