10 Tips For Hosting On-line Discussions

An excellent set of tips gleaned from a number of clients that are dipping their toes into the "online/real-time discussions" (think whole company same time IM and/or blogging).

1. Ensure someone guides the group towards its purpose.
   What is the outcome we want to achieve?
2. Help create a sense of community at the beginning - introduce fellow members, introduce the topic (include some of your thoughts) and encourage people to share their thoughts
3. Acknowledge contributions and support discussions with further questions (eg how to achieve this etc)
4. Stimulate/throw open discussions.
5. Manage what's 'lost in translation':
• its much easier for things to be misinterpreted on-line - assume goodwill/positive intent in the first instance to avoid triggering conflicts
• check out assumptions being made in the discussion
6. Inclusion – appeal to both common ground and diversity e.g. "has anyone had any experiences/thoughts that have been similar/different?"
7. 'Moderating' - manage any 'over-contributors', ensure contributions meet corporate principles etc
8. Summarise and 'harvest' - close the topic off with a synthesis/summary of what evolved during the interaction.
9. Connecting people - Spot opportunities to encourage ongoing discussions after the on-line chat session.
10. Provide a visible closure for the event.
    Ensure the event doesn't dissolve into nothingness and dissipate group energy.

With all of these types of "hints and tips" I think we all agree that they are mostly comprised of commonsense and politeness. The only one that warrants a little extra focus is #5, we all know that sarcasm and ambiguity thrive in the online world, be careful. Especially be careful around the trap of thinking you are closer (emotionally) to someone than you really are just because you've had a long online chat with them - you don't, and witty and clever banter usually misfires.

I also applaud #9 - the best communities are those that exist and thrive beyond the on-line world.

In essence, be polite, be focused and act as you would talking face-to-face.

Is Your Intranet Full Of Broken Lego?

Here's one of the most awesome analogies I've heard for a while about "semantic web" (huh?) from an old TED Talk given by Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning:

XML is like the nubs* on top of Lego bricks that help you join it all together

And the nubs of a Lego brick is great example as they are standard in size, everyone knows how to use them and they are ubiquitous.

Taking that analogy a little further, I think that when we want to use information from a website or, more importantly to those within the walls of an organisation, the Intranet we experience:

• PDF/Flash/Silverlight - completely created toy, no Lego involved, it is what it is and there's not much anyone can do about it
• Bad HTML - a toy made out of specific/customised Lego bricks that aren't much good for anything except that one toy
• HTML - A box of Lego with instructions for 3 or 4 toys but you'll need a lot of skills to build your own creation
• XML - basic building blocks that can be put together however you want

What the techies of the world keep talking about is XML as the building blocks to free the data and let the world get creative. What I believe is still missing though is examples of what can be done and how to get there.

What is your site/Intranet made up of?

Are you stuck with content like this - something our of the box, does one thing well but there's not a lot more you can do with it?

Or do you have your information like this - everything build upon other blocks that can quickly be molded to whatever you need it to be.

From Nathan Sawaya, BrickArtist.com

* Yes, that is the technical term

Yes, I Am Going - NZ Open Govt Data Barcamp and Hackfest

I'm going are you?

FREE: Saturday 29th August: Barcamp - registration 9:15am+ / sessions 10am-5pm
National Library of New Zealand (70 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, 6011, Wellington - map

FREE: Sunday 30th August: Hackfest - registration 10am+ / into 10:30am-4pm
Southern Cross Bar (35-39 Abel Smith Street, Te Aro, 6011, Wellington - map

Sign up at http://open.org.nz/barcamp

Get your own website badge at http://groups.google.co.nz/group/nzopengovtbarcamp/web/yes-i-am-going---code-to-add-to-your-website