See
"Disputation Arenas: Harnessing Conflict and Competition for Society's Benefit," lead article in the American Bar Association Journal on Dispute Resolution (Ohio State University), V.15, N.3, pp 597-618, Aug.2000. Or see http://www.davidbrin.com/disputationarticle1.html
Alas, the online world has not yet developed accountability systems. See the article.
Thrive
db
......I've been so incredibly busy with work lately so I've been cutting back on posting "Scouted" stories to the list. (In fact, from here on in, they'll probably just wind up on my blog instead.) But I thought this might be of as much interest to brinellers as it was to me. It's an essay by Clay Shirkey entitled "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy"
http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html)
It's a rather fascinating analysis of the problems that can plague long-lasting and/or long term online groups. Discusses a variety of posting patterns and topics that elicit reactions, including broadcast vs., interactive online interactions, discussions about religion, the externalization of enemies to encourage group cohesion, censorship and free speech.
The reason I flagged this for you, Dr. Brin is I'm curious about your opinion of the author's premise: that many of these patterns are inherent to human interaction and are therefore unavoidable. What do you think?
Anyway, of particular interest to me was this section, which talks about a problem we've experienced here in the past relating to disruptions, censorship and free speech:
"And, indeed, as anyone who has put discussion software into groups that were previously disconnected has seen, that does happen. Incredible things happen. The early days of Echo, the early days of usenet, the early days of Lucasfilms Habitat, over and over again, you see all this incredible upwelling of people who suddenly are connected in ways they weren't before.
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