Please visit our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat
If you would like to hold a organized online discussion, limited to members, you should include live events (text or voice chat), related online reading material, and opportunities for members to contribute their comments/reactions/related thoughts bulletin-board/forum-style, either before or after the live event -- whenever time permits and the urge strikes.
The live events should have a preset duration -- an hour usually works well -- and should be scheduled at regular, memorable intervals, e.g., Thursdays at noon, every other Tuesday, or the second Wednesday of every month.
Each live event should have a related forum discussion area. And each topic should have an assigned expert. In some cases, the expert will lead the discussion (both in the forums and in the live chat). In other cases, the expert will play a role like the guest on a talk show -- interacting with the host/facilitator and fielding interview-style questions.
Whenever possible, participants should submit questions in advance. That will give the content expert a better chance to prepare and make it more likely that the answers and related discussion will meet the needs of the audience.
The live events should have a host/facilitator, who sometimes poses questions to the expert, sometimes prompts participants to help move the discussion along. In the first chats, before the members are used to the setup, they should address any questions about the chat platform to the facilitator, freeing the expert to focus on the content.
You may have used text-chat software that only lets you see what transpires while you are connected; so if you arrive late you could miss something important, or the discussion gets slowed down with newcomers making comments and repeating questions that have already appeared. Do not use that kind of software for any serious discussion. It is built and intended for transitory, one-liner, flirtatious interaction.
Instead, use a platform, like SiteScape Forum, that shows you everything that has been posted to the chat room, regardless of when you connect. SiteScape also automatically saves a transcript that you'll be able to access on the Web. That means that you don't have to scramble to both take notes and type your messages -- you can check back later. It also means that if something unexpected comes up and you miss a live event that's important to you, you can still read everything that was said at a more convenient time. Then you can follow up with questions and comments in the forum area, where the discussion will continue, without the constraints of a real-time schedule. The SiteScape platform supports both live text chat and asynchronous (post-whenever-you-want) forums.
Also, make sure that your software gives you the flexibility to set access controls, so, if you wish, you can limit participation to members only. Then members can be as candid and open as they normally would be at face-to-face meetings of the same organization.
At the beginning of each session, ask participants to quickly identify themselves and say something brief about their interests in/involvement with the current topic.
If you are using voice chat, your software should give you administrative capabilities, so you can mute individuals or everyone but yourself and other speakers/moderators. Voice is far more intrusive than text, and misbehavior, off-topic comments, etc. can be far more disruptive. Also, it can be far harder to follow the threads of discussion in voice than in text -- because you only are aware of one voice after another in time sequence; unlike text where you can read back and refresh your memory of what was entered before. Hence you need to be able to assert strong control.
Most text-chat software is peer-to-peer, without built-in-administrative controls. That means that anyone can post an entry at any time. Simply type you comments and questions in the chat box and submit them.
Text-chat software also usually refreshes everyone's screen either at fixed intervals or whenever a new comment is posted. Sometimes the user can select the interval. In any case, your users will be much happier if they have an on-off button (as in SiteScape). In that case, if there is lots of activity and hence the screen is automatically refreshing too quickly for you to read or for you to type your entries, simply click pause or turn off the screen refresh. Then, when you want to see new postings again, you can click to turn it back on.
Under normal circumstances, text-chat conversations move along smoothly without the need to impose any rules, beyond those of simple courtesy. Even when the discussion gets very busy, it can move along naturally, like at a crowded intersection with 4-way stop signs, where traffic can move smoothly if people take turns. That's ideal because some of the best discussion threads may take place among groups of participants following up on points of interest to them, while the expert may have moved along to field new questions. If and when the traffic gets so heavy as to be confusing, you should switch to a "hand-raising" protocol. The facilitator/host simply asks participants to submit messages consisting only of an exclamation mark (!) when they have questions to pose or comments to make. They should then wait to be recognized by the expert or facilitator. In the meantime they should go ahead and type in their messages -- waiting until recognized to click submit. (Tip -- if there are questions you know you will want to pose or comments that you know you'll want to make and for some reason you prefer to do so live rather than in the forum discussion area, type them up in a Word document, and copy and paste them into the chat box when the time is right.)
A few other tips:
1) If you are addressing your posting to a particular individual, begin
your message with that person's name. That will make it easier for that
person to see what you have to say in the midst of all the other messages.
It will also help everyone else following the threads of discussion.
2) With SiteScape, you can also use a built-in feature to clarify the
threads. To reply to a specific entry, click the entry's time stamp/title.
Then your posting will be marked as a response to that. (FYI -- for this
purpose, the first line of your message is interpreted as the "title".)
3) If for any reason and at any time, your screen does not refresh
automatically with new content at least once a minute, shut of the automatic
refresh, then turn it on again, or click on "Reload" in your browser.
4) With live events on the Internet, remind participants to always
expect the unexpected, and be prepared for it. For instance, they should
add the discussion area to the bookmarks/favorites in their browser and
have their username and password handy so they can easily get back in if
for any reason they get disconnected.
Also, because all members are likely to have busy schedules, begin and end your live events promptly. If members have more to say and ask, they can continue the discussion, at their leisure, in the asynchronous forum area.
This site is Published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. (617) 469-2269. seltzer@samizdat.com
Please visit our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat
Return to B&R Samizdat Express
Buy Richard's book Web Business Bootcamp (published by Wiley) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471164194/brsamizdatexpres
<
| Internet Business Showcase: | ||
|
|
|