cyber-bullying - what to do?

In the wake of the Cathy Sierra cyber-bullying errrr... event. A lesser, but pertinent situation arose in the EDNA forums.

These forums are for people interested in online education ( the bit I'm referrring to is for vocational education and training. )

Unofrtunately while many were feeling quite sensitive to the issue of cyber -bullying a heated email exchange on the forum wnet nasty - which drew comments from many people in Australia about what can an online facilitator do when something like this happens.

Here is an excerpt from an email discussion I sent about the issue. : -

I had a look at the "web2.0 resources links" thread. From what I
could see the damage being done was from one guy
mouthing off.

I've seen his type before - (forgive me for pigeon-holing) but he's just a guy with poor people skills who's managed to wrap himself up into the technology and he now thinks the technology is more important than the people using it.

W3C compliance is a standard to make things easier for people , but he is using the guilt of non compliance to make people feel small and unthinking.

His verbal attacks reveal more about him - he drops a list of his credentials - indicating that he feels that he is not taken seriously - or that he is not given the prestige that he thinks he deserves.

He uses a form of discourse that looks like an attack to the gentle folk of EDNA forums - yet it is probably an acceptable discourse on some forums ( eg linux
) which are a mecca to nerdophiles who communicate in this manner.

I wonder why a clash of cultures like this hasnt happened sooner - I've come accross sites that push qualifications in "online learning" - but they almost wholly focus on the technical aspects of creating the online tools rather than the human aspect of teaching and learning online.

I applaud that jacinta tried to get him to modify his discourse - but it will take a whole lot more than a couple of posts to "educate" this guy - his verbal attacks
are really about his insecurities.


Getting back to EDNA - I think that EDNA has to have stronger moderation if they wish to promote a sharing-and-caring culture, but considering this type of problem occurs when you get any bunch of people together, it would be better to use it as a learning experience for all the budding online facilitators that are on EDNA.

Lastly -
we havent seen the offline emails that might have been sent to the victims of this abuse - the moderators of EDNA may have sent emails of support to the people that were targets of the abuse and hopefully these supportive emails would have helped them put this guy's rant into perspective.

We areall probably a little over-sensitive about cyber-bullying at the
moment. it only happens rarely lets make sure online facilitators have strategies in place to deal with it when it happens.