This post is way overdue, both in terms of being timely and also in terms of giving respect to the amazing conference put on by the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation in Austin from Oct 2 – 5.
I attended this conference to learn more about how to create an online discussion forum that moves beyond simplistic argument and flaming, and results in legitimate dialogue and deliberation that can actually move an issue forward. I got much more than that. I met a community of people that are working on similar issues, and we are forming a group to share ideas and resources and work together to create better software. This is wonderful news. I see the goal of the Open Forum Foundation as providing a service. I am excited to work with the best minds in the field and utilize already existing solutions as long as they can fit into a seamless solution that provides extraordinary functionality. This is an excellent step towards providing a portion of that functionality.
In addition, I finally met Mr. Lou Klepner from GatewaytoGov. I was aware that Lou was out there working on a vision similar to mine, but we had yet to connect and compare our perspectives. As it turns out, we are effectively in sync on every aspect of what we are trying to accomplish. I see this as basically cutting my workload in half. Hi Lou!
All in all, an amazing weekend that I’m sure will yield many results down the road.
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Wayne Moses Burke
October 15th, 2008 11:15 am
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Much agreed and looking forward to the work ahead!