Asynchronous Social Activity

Types of Asynchronous Social Activity (initially in rough chronological order):

• Art
• Writing letters
• Science
• PlayByMailGames?
• mailing audiotapes or videotapes
• ComputerProgramming
• e-Mail
• UseNet
• TelephoneTag? (Answerphone Conversations)
• The Memorial Aids Quilt (suggested by my wife)
• WikiWikiWeb
• PostalChess
• OpenSource
• leaving messages for other family members, maybe using sticky notes or a white board
• Many games (e.g. chess) can be played asynchronously by leaving the board in a common area, and having an "it's your turn" token. Players take their turn when the token is in their area, then move the token to the next players area.

Note that most of these are basically forms of writing. Which is no surprise. Asynchronous means you can't be interacting with the other person directly, and so whatever social activity you're doing has to have some persistent output and some meaning to the other participants.

Asynchronous implies some kind of persistance is used. Can anyone think of other AsynchronousSocialActivity that doesn't require writing?

Yes, I have had extended "Answerphone Conversations" with my dad. We are both out a lot of the time and end up leaving questions/answers on each other's answerphones "Thanks! -- I added it!"

Tracking people and animals is a form of reading asynchronously the signs they left earlier. The sentences are much shorter, and you have to supply the words.

 young buck stopped here, scratched antlers on tree
 two, maybe three coyote, ate a duck here

man, over 3' tall, of gnome class, walked with a limp, stopped muttered something about slaying dragons, turned and watched sunset then continued south along the beach

Grafitti is another form of asynchronous activity, so is littering.

Littering (and tracking) aren't social, but they are asynchronous. But I could be wrong; stalkers might consider tracking to be social.

I guess YouTube is another AsynchronousSocialActivity, that doesn't need written forms.

An AsynchronousSocialActivity, that doesn't need persistence will be communication with astronauts on their way to Mars.

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CategoryInteraction