MiramarMike: Blog

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). Ensure someone guides the group towards its purpose. What is the outcome we want to achieve? 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 Acknowledge contributions and support discussions with further questions (eg how to achieve this etc) Stimulate/throw open discussions. 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 Inclusion – appeal to both common ground and diversity e.g. "has anyone had any experiences/thoughts that have been similar/different?" 'Moderating'

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 pu

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