created 2004-05-21 11:51:28

OK, here's how I envision access to discussion in the future.

The current problem

Currently, on-line discussions are too fragmented. They take place in spaces that are dependent on protocols, e.g. mailing lists, newsgroups, web forums, etc etc etc. Each protocol has its own rules and functionality, and the nature of a discussion (see Conversation Is AFlow) is partially influenced by the nature of the network in which it is in.

This fragmentation also means that it is harder to integrate discussions across protocol. For example, a user cannot set up a formal reference from a web forum thread he/she is reading to a mailing list thread on a similar topic. Not properly.
It also means that the user's choice of interaction is decided by the initiator of the discussion.

Existing solutions to the cross-protocol gap

Currently, if a user wishes to reference a conversation on one protocol from another, there are a variety of low-tech ways to do it:

1. A URL can be put into an e-mail (or into a web forum) to reference a web conversation, and allow the e-mail reader to "jump" protocols.
2. Similarly, a URL must be used in order to reference an e-mail from anywhere, but this assumes that the e-mail list has been archived, and so tends not to work for most private e-mail conversations.

A step in a direction

In order to start integrating discussions and allowing more flow across these protocols, at least 2 things should happen:

1. Conversations need to be able to be accessed via a number of protocols. The main ones I can think of off the top my head are:

   • Web
   • XML feed
   • Some kind of e-mail access, e.g. IMAP

Or some kind of "bridging" technique that converts access from one protocol into a generic "data bin", even if not providing direct access to the conversation over a protocol (OK, I need to clarify that bit at some point). 2. Improvement in the way clients handle cross-protocol jumping. This could be improved through mark-up and machine-readable languages, e.g. to convert XML into an e-mail client readable format, and display it in a separate pane, or somesuch. For public mailing lists, messages could be given their own URI similar to a web archive, but that can be accessed via, say, an e-mail client.

After a while, the content of discussions will hopefully become a separate issue to the access to that conversation, much as web applications have developed into their MVC way of doing things.

Step two: Is it also possible to have AConstructive Argument Server?

Update 2005-05-11 GroupServer is released as open-source. This handles both e-mail and web posting, and has RSS feeds.

(See also: Ideas For EMail Client Integration )