Stereotypes
Monday, November 06, 2006
I hope this does not bore you too badly, but it really helps me exercise my brain and is also part of my therapy. :)
One of the most interesting things I came across during my fieldwork is the issue about how developers see or portray themselves. The typical stereotype of developers is that one of low interpersonal skills, lack of verbosity... inarticulate techies with the verbal communication skills of a mime... geeks interested in computers and code and living semi-autistic lives. I know many developers who fit this description (I won't mention names :p I'm a nice person). However I also know developers who are quite the opposite. Actually I think I belong to this second group :D... just kidding, (I think I have something of both, whether good or bad I tend to keep my feelings to myself.) More communicative and sociable developers are usually the ones who get to deal with users because they are able to speak their (any) language and then articulate technology and software needs if not programme them. Anyway... my point is that although there exists a stereotype of a developer (the autistic mime) in fact there are different kinds of people working in the field with different skills who are able to specialise in the different aspects of the process.
I did my research on the internet. I collected data from online forums and weblogs where software development is discussed. I.e. where developers - autistic mimes and the others - can have their say. Taking in mind what I said above I was trying to decide whether this stereotype is in fact reflected or manifested in the online world. Some people would say that there are not enough tools in the online media to verify this. The reason is simple. We can only see the contributions of people who "communicate" their ideas online. There is no way for us to know who is online just reading but not communicating. We call people who don't participate lurkers... so the question is are lurkers autistic mimes?
From my experience as an online participant and as a software developer I would say that the answer is yes and no. YES they are online autistic mimes, cos in the online world they don't speak to the others and they don't interact/socialise with the others. And NO because being an online lurker does not mean that you lack communication and interpersonal skills off line. So this means that there are communicative developers who somehow don't feel confident at writing posts online, so it's sociable offline, not interested in online media or lurkers online (Chata, 2006).
Seeing this from a different perspective, Are autistic mimes always lurkers? hmmm I have read a respectable amount of literature (more than 2 papers :D) about CMC (computer mediated communication) and online pragmatics (which studies the ways in which meaning is conveyed through online media). Ok, you don't have to read this literature to know that online communication could be anonymous or that in fact in most types of CMC people can use false names or nicknames. However what this literature does is help you to understand that a consequence of this anonymity is that participants in CMC are likely to be more self-disclosed than in face-to-face conversations as "there is very little chance of anyone ever linking them with their statements" (Parrish, 2002). Also the fact that other people are not physically present helps the online participant to relax and convey their ideas clearer, especially if their written speech is better than their oral one (Beto, 2006). What this tells me is that there may be developers who are not able to communicate face-to-face but who have no problems at expressing their ideas online. For example by discussing topics in online forums or what is more likely, by projecting their real selfs through their weblogs (Chata, 2006). So here we have autistic mimes off line turned into communicative and sociable entities online.
Conclusion: perhaps what we need in the development field is to adapt the environment to the needs, characteristics and skills of developers so they can do a better job. For example one time technical support was about to install a network point in the toilets to help a developer - who was spending most of the time there - do his job. (this is a true story)
now with wifi there is no need for such thing!
One of the most interesting things I came across during my fieldwork is the issue about how developers see or portray themselves. The typical stereotype of developers is that one of low interpersonal skills, lack of verbosity... inarticulate techies with the verbal communication skills of a mime... geeks interested in computers and code and living semi-autistic lives. I know many developers who fit this description (I won't mention names :p I'm a nice person). However I also know developers who are quite the opposite. Actually I think I belong to this second group :D... just kidding, (I think I have something of both, whether good or bad I tend to keep my feelings to myself.) More communicative and sociable developers are usually the ones who get to deal with users because they are able to speak their (any) language and then articulate technology and software needs if not programme them. Anyway... my point is that although there exists a stereotype of a developer (the autistic mime) in fact there are different kinds of people working in the field with different skills who are able to specialise in the different aspects of the process.
I did my research on the internet. I collected data from online forums and weblogs where software development is discussed. I.e. where developers - autistic mimes and the others - can have their say. Taking in mind what I said above I was trying to decide whether this stereotype is in fact reflected or manifested in the online world. Some people would say that there are not enough tools in the online media to verify this. The reason is simple. We can only see the contributions of people who "communicate" their ideas online. There is no way for us to know who is online just reading but not communicating. We call people who don't participate lurkers... so the question is are lurkers autistic mimes?
From my experience as an online participant and as a software developer I would say that the answer is yes and no. YES they are online autistic mimes, cos in the online world they don't speak to the others and they don't interact/socialise with the others. And NO because being an online lurker does not mean that you lack communication and interpersonal skills off line. So this means that there are communicative developers who somehow don't feel confident at writing posts online, so it's sociable offline, not interested in online media or lurkers online (Chata, 2006).
Seeing this from a different perspective, Are autistic mimes always lurkers? hmmm I have read a respectable amount of literature (more than 2 papers :D) about CMC (computer mediated communication) and online pragmatics (which studies the ways in which meaning is conveyed through online media). Ok, you don't have to read this literature to know that online communication could be anonymous or that in fact in most types of CMC people can use false names or nicknames. However what this literature does is help you to understand that a consequence of this anonymity is that participants in CMC are likely to be more self-disclosed than in face-to-face conversations as "there is very little chance of anyone ever linking them with their statements" (Parrish, 2002). Also the fact that other people are not physically present helps the online participant to relax and convey their ideas clearer, especially if their written speech is better than their oral one (Beto, 2006). What this tells me is that there may be developers who are not able to communicate face-to-face but who have no problems at expressing their ideas online. For example by discussing topics in online forums or what is more likely, by projecting their real selfs through their weblogs (Chata, 2006). So here we have autistic mimes off line turned into communicative and sociable entities online.
Conclusion: perhaps what we need in the development field is to adapt the environment to the needs, characteristics and skills of developers so they can do a better job. For example one time technical support was about to install a network point in the toilets to help a developer - who was spending most of the time there - do his job. (this is a true story)
now with wifi there is no need for such thing!
So to turn our autistic mimes into sociable persons online we'll probably need to let them become virtual entities and reconnect to the matrix...
ZZZzzzzzzzzz I'm tired.
----------------------------
Parrish, R., (2002), 'Conversation analysis of internet chat rooms' < http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/~rdparrish/Chat%20Rooms%20for%20Web%20Site.htm >
Beto (2006) MSN conversation with Beto on a sleepless Friday night... talking about transcendental issues. Thanks Beto!!
Chata (2006) MSN conversation with Viviana (a.k.a Chata) talking about food, friends, life and weblogs. Chata you are the best!
Labels:
online communities,
software development
Posts
Way to go WiFi. Now that poor developer has no excuses to wrap up his project and start a build in PRD.
Question: How come can you get ideas about CMC when talking with the Chata about Tapas, wines and crèpes?
Me, no comprende, no hablar Holandes!!!
I thought you had already left the matrix but it seems now you are talking about the people being enlightened and taking evasive action against matrix effects. Perhaps we can then design a cyber-software developer who can switch between the virtual and the real and become adaptable in both. We will need to call in Neo to see how he handles that (apart from fighting and downloading programmes).
I suggest you review the trustworthiness of your references (Chata, Beto), they could have been lost animated programmes you encountered. Have they transformed on something else?
El pato
Dear el pato,
Actually, I am really concerned about this reference (Beto, 2006) that mutant used in this philosophical and theoretical post.
Beto is an ad-ware exhabrubt.
I will encourage his developer to off-line him and compile him again.
True.
oye chino... xq no pones tu nombre? como es eso q no podemos hablar d comida y d software "at the same time"????
somos multitasking... podemos hacer procesos en paralelo... da la casualidad q tu perteneces a otro genero humano, x lo tanto.. no conoces en la practica ese termino... :D
p.d. ah y estabamos hablando d aji d gallina, tacu tacu y su frejolito mas! jajaja
Chata,
No menciones esos platos, que gracias a ellos, soy famoso por mi punto de red en el Toilete.
Quiero un Brownie de la Cabania!!!
- Beto
Developer in the toilets, downloading data in different formats
cool!
Are there toilets in the Matrix?
I'd rather go to Neverland ;)
And I agree with Beto (2006). I am writing this only because I am on my own and you can't see my green tights.
But
But,
we should call Wolverin (X men), I am not sure that he has social skills, maybe he was a software developer before?
hola mostrisima...intersante el blog, me gustaria saber mas de comunidades en linea...podrias pasarme una copia de lo que has escrito?
Con respecto a lo de las identidades, puede ser tambien que los estereotipos precedan la identidad...me explico, el modelo geek, popularizado por la TV (e.g. the beauty and the geek, the nerds, etc) es claramente una exageracion de rasgos que pueden o no exisitr en una persona...igual la personalidad es un asunto diverso y se usan muchas mascaras, entonces, digo yo, el geek es otra mascara, te ayuda a identificarte a ti misma, y a que los demas te identifiquen... pero tambien puede ser una trampa pues no es facil salir de alli... como se configura esa imagen, quien la crea, como se transmite, como se adopta, etc... bueno, en fin.. mas prguntas