08 May 2008

Communications

A topic I deal with every day is how to communicate information when it is just a computer screen in front of you, but another person or group of persons is reading what you have written.

It is too easy to be quick to write something down, as the author of the piece you know what you mean to say and the rational behind it, but as the reader can only go on the written word there is the potential for a disparity about what was said and what was meant.

Certainly on discussion boards, it is sometimes necessary to have rules in place for the fellow team members to privately question what is in a response to ensure that 'flame wars' do not break out.. and adults are as easily riled as their younger counterparts.

So how best to manage the use of new technologies, and this includes blogs and wikis as well as discussion boards? There is no right or wrong way, only that care needs to be taken, and rules defined (preferably by the group using it) to ensure that any problems are minimised.

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies such as Second Life, facebook, bebo, IRC etc the problem can and will be an issue as we are only human after all.

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