Proverbs

Just as real proverbs serve as behavioral guides in various societies, so let us offer a group of homemade, entirely non-traditional proverbs to remind us how the oAgora and eAgora share some similar dynamics. Originally formulated for understanding oral tradition, these eleven “pearls of wisdom” also speak to transactions in the virtual marketplace.

Several of the proverbs appear without change from their original form. Others have been slightly modified to accommodate virtuality alongside oral tradition.

1. OT and IT work like language, only more so.
Both media are special cases of language, with denser coding to serve the special function of the medium. OT uses structural patterning at many levels—phraseology, narrative, story-type, and so forth. IT employs its own set of structures and specialized codes within which programmers and web designers create pathways for web-surfers to navigate through.

2. OT and IT are very plural media.

3. Performance makes it happen, idiom provides the context.

4. OT and IT work through rather than in spite of their coding.

5. OT and IT function best without depending on published manuals.

6. The play’s the thing, and not the script.

7. Repetition is the symptom, not the disease.

8. Composition and reception are two sides of the same coin.

9. Read both behind and between the signs.

10. True diversity demands diversity in frame of reference.

11. Without pathways there is no language, without an individual there is no performance.

Add why they don’t work in the tAgora.