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Monday, June 16, 2003

Weblogs and Threaded Messaging

• the competitive nature of public discussion forums
• the need to promote active reflection
• the usefulness of bridging private, semi-private, and public discourse

JournURL. JournURL: More BBS/Blog Fusion. Another entry in the fusion of the BBS and Blog patterns, JournURL, an attempt to create a CCMS (that'd be Community Content Management System to you and me.) The focus here is improving on the model of simple comments for supporting real discussions in weblogs: "Robust threaded and linear discussion that encourages extended conversations and debate. No simplistic comment system here, folks. No anonymous spam."

JournURL recently launched a way to use its comments system from 3rd party blogging tools:

As I've said in the past, blog comment systems generally suck. They're fine for "me too" responses and the occasional one-liner, but they quickly show their limitations when put to the task of managing large, intense discussions. ... Meanwhile, here I am, sitting on what is probably the most robust, blog-friendly discussion app anywhere, and all of those people out there using Movable Type and similar apps can't take advantage of it. [...] [Corante: Social Software]

Roger Benningfield has appeared on the ThreadsML list and showed us all his JournURL. I wonder if he knows that Steve Yost is about to unveil QuickTopic Pro -with QuickThread - the first implementation of ThreadsML?nbsp JournURL would be cool to be the second product to support ThreadsML.nbsp Then we could......

[Marc's Voice] [via Conversations with Dina]

Isn't all this really just moving right back to basic threaded message forums -- with the added ability of highlighting a post, binding it to its own URL, grouping it with other highlighted posts on a web page, and displaying them in reverse chronological order? (BTW, a complete implementation of this mechanism already exists in the Conversant groupware platform.) Isn't the locus of conversation going right back to threaded messages? Are weblogs now little more than HTML advertisements for discussion groups? Maybe that's what they've been all along, but it seems like we took an awfully circuitous path to get here.

And what of the cultural and personal barriers that exist for many people when it comes to speaking in a competitive environment. Make no mistake -- public discussion forums are comptetitive. Is that what we want from weblogs?

What of privacy? Many discussions can, and should, occur within private communities. But often one or more of the emerging ideas needs to go public. Can those ideas be made public without a wholesale rebuilding of the discussion?

Below, George Siemens and Jim McGee emphasize the need for active reflection in order to fully absorb, understand, and learn.

Active reflection, managed learning, and organizational change

Organizational learning.

Organizational Learning is No Accident makes an important point: effective learning requires time to reflect...and our "right now" form of communication (email, IM, etc.) doesn't allow reflection time...making it difficult for people and organizations to change (time being an important component to acclimate to changes).

[elearnspace blog]

Excellent material on the challenges of building in the necessary time for reflection to power organizational learning and change. One interesting aspect to this line of thought is that reflection has to become an explicit process for it to work at the operating pace of today's economy.

It's a bit of a paradox. When we had time for reflection to work at its natural pace, we didn't have to depend on learning to keep our organizations aligned with their environment. Now that we need the learning, we can't rely on unaided reflection. [...] [via McGee's Musings]

Dumping everything into a publicly indexed, unrestricted message forum does not necessarily promote active reflection, or provide an opportunity to learn it. Weblogs were interesting because they limited the amount of feedback -- people had to be very motivated to institute a conversation on a weblog. Lowering that barrier might be a good thing, but it might also take away the insulative quality that allows participation by some who would never speak up in a forum.

The need for a private-public interchange point -- or some structured release mechanism where messages can be gradually be released to broader and broader audiences by using the same tools/systems -- might also be significant. Active reflection requires a sense of safety, and safety is the last thing one gets from public forums.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:19 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Saturday, June 14, 2003

Microsoft to Cease Internet Explorer for Macintosh

Microsoft to Cease Making Versions Of Explorer Browser for Macintosh

[...] It makes more sense for Mac users to use Apple's Safari Web-browser, she said. Although still in beta testing, the browser has already gained attention for its speed and some of its features. [...]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 4:36 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

FCC Says No to Independent Producers

[...] As gatekeepers to the airwaves, the FCC said, the networks decide what goes on the air no matter who produces it. [...]

Whether or not the http://www.fcc.gov/">FCC ruling on requiring source-diversity in programming would have benefited the public or not is moot. What is important, at least to me, is the idea that the FCC has apparently decided that four commercial entities are rightly and justly entitled to act as "gatekeepers to the airwaves".

This is absurd. Ludicrous. Breathtakingly stupid at a scale rarely seen in human history. Gateway to the airwaves? The public airwaves? The radio spectrum that nature provided to all mankind? The FCC thinks that spectrum belongs -- lock, stock, and barrel -- to the four television networks?!

Who the hell is in charge up there?! How can they say that with a straight face? I feel like I'm back in the 1890's when John D. Rockefeller was running rampant over an ignorant populace of laborers.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 4:05 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

Islam Unveiled

The book is both enlightening in its detail and frightening in its implications. It has made explicit things which I suspected but had never bothered to study. I did not grasp the magnitude of the cultural battle that is brewing. It really is an East vs. West global conflict, and among my friends, family, and associates only the military historians actually seem to understand the full scope of the problem and what is at stake.

This book has just gone onto my gift list for friends and family. Anyone looking to understand what is in store for the next 30 years should take the time to read this book. Its exploration of Islamic culture exposes a fascinating problem and a potentially disastrous future.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:28 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Books

Friday, June 13, 2003

MozillaFirebird 0.6 - What Happened Here?

But now I've upgraded to the Firebird 0.6 release. What a crapper. Isn't there a sort of progression that's supposed to happen here, like each version gets a little better than the last, not worse? Maybe that's just my unenlightened view. In any case, getting Firebird to run is a pain, and the prefs screen that allows you to set all the default applications has disappeared. What?!

I can set Firebird as the default but Radio can't find it on start-up, and neither can anything else. And there is apparently no way to make it the default app for opening jpg files, xml files, or anything else (save worming my way through some Windoze file preference.)

Beta software. Ugh.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 5:23 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

OneSuite.com Long Distance for 2.5 cents/min

Dial-around means that I have to dial an access number before placing my call. If I use a local access number the rate is 2.5 cents. If I use the OneSuite 800 number it's 2.9 cents -- still a good deal. Dial-around services can be a hassle, but OneSuite has features that minimize the hassle and add some things I like. First, all the account management is handled on-line via credit card. They claim to have 24-hour live customer service but I've never had any trouble with the on-line setup or account management features and have never tried it.

The system is pre-pay via credit card -- in other words, I buy a certain number of minutes in advance. I can buy as little as $5, or as much as $100. But by prepaying there is no chance that I can get stuck with some enormous long distance bill. I like that. When I started I bought $5 at a time. I have confidence in the service now and usually buy $20. That lasts me 4-6 weeks, and I call long distance all the time. The company also offers some pretty good international rates for certain countries.

Other features include:

• ZipDial - eliminates the need for me to dial PIN numbers by pre-programming my primary phone numbers into the system in advance. Anytime I place a call from my residential or home-office phone I get immediately to the "Please enter the phone number" prompt. This lets me program the access number into my telephone SpeedDial, meaning I have only one extra button to push to make a long distance call.
• RapiDial - basically speed dial within the LD service. Lets me preprogram up to 50 numbers and call them with a two-digit code
• Message options -- I do not want to be delayed by messages on every call describing how many minutes I have remaining or how much credit I have left. I can turn these messages off.
• Subaccounts - I haven't done this, but you can create up to three subaccounts so that people in your company, or family, get different PINS and can place calls, but it is all managed under one account.

The only downside is that I occasionally get poor line quality. I'd say about 1 in 10 calls have some sort of echo, static, or other irritating acoustic anomaly. Usually I just call back and it clears up. Sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't happen often enough to be a real problem considering I'm saving 50%-70% off my long distance bill each month. But it can still be irritating.

OneSuite.com. Recommended.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 12:21 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

123teleconference.com

With the service I get a permanent 800 dial-in number, ad hoc access (no need to call and schedule a conference in advance), simple procedures, basic features (like mute for people on cell phones), and a rate of 9.9 cents per caller per minute.

I used the service for the first time this morning -- holding a three-way call with the pseudo project team for my Conversant intranet development. The service worked great -- excellent call quality, no problems getting in or out, and I had a confirmed invoice delivered via e-mail within minutes of completing the call.

This is the way outsourced office services should be -- convenient, quick, hassle-free. 123teleconference.com. Highly recommended.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:48 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 

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