REPLY How to promote good work (SD6590)

[SDMAIL Tom Fiddaman]

Posted by  Tom Fiddaman <tom at ventanasystems.com>

It seems to me that improving electronic support for collaboration is a 
two step process: decide what we want, then find & implement software 
to do it.

For discussion (i.e. a possible successor to this list), there have been 
a number of wants expressed or implied so far, including:
- input from email-only users
- high discussion quality
- civility
- email distribution and digests
- more open discussions
- distribute moderation burden more widely
- search
- threads
- narrow focus
- minimal self-indulgent ranting
- cross-pollination from open to focused list
- easy/attractive to new users
- ad-free
(I took the liberty of adding a few of my own). There are some 
contradictions here, but perhaps solvable by technology.

A variety of collaboration and publication tasks also cropped up; 
a few that stick in my mind:
- shared knowledge base
- shared library of models or model components
- showcasing good work
- founding & managing new institutions
- attractive web front for the SDS

Clearly, there are options that integrate many of the needed functions 
(including apparently Sakai at the UMich site Wade linked). I'm 
personally not aware of a solution that satisfies all needs perfectly. 
I may be a Luddite, but I'm somewhat inclined to choose individual 
tools for discrete tasks (e.g. phpBB and MediaWiki) rather than looking 
for an all-in-one. The conference submission & review system strikes me 
as a good example: not sexy or versatile, but very good at its primary 
task.

Perhaps if we can collect a few more desirable attributes, and some 
_specific_ suggestions for preferred software or hosts, we can move on 
this in the same voluntary spirit that created this list.

Tom
Posted by  Tom Fiddaman <tom at ventanasystems.com>
posting date  Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:22:46 -0600