I’m working on a planning a conference with a few other people around the world. It’s been interesting trying to figure out the best collaboration tools. For a while, we tried a blog. Although it worked okay, it wasn’t great. It kept the topics threaded by using comments, but it was tough to know what was recent. Also, it didn’t allow file sharing. This got us talking about other solutions. We ended up with a Microsoft solution that our ministry has rights to.

However, it got me thinking about the different types of webs and how to use a blog. I finally realized why using a blog as a collaboration tool was a bit frustrating. We were force-fitting a technology to do something it’s really not intended to do. We were taking advantage of the ability to get content up quickly, organized, collaborated, and even allow interaction.

We also have the conference website as a blog. This also has presented some frustrations, but it’s working okay also. What I had really hoped is that after the site was built out the way we wanted (mostly completed) and promoted, all new additions would be at the top. Kind of a “breaking news” from the conference. As I’ve mulled this over, I’m not so confident that’s a good idea, so we’re keeping the “brochure stuff” at the top.

After thinking through these some more, I’ve finally realized a few things about different kinds of websites…

A blog is like a seminar where one person speaks from the front then says they’ll entertain questions in the corner. Meanwhile, another speaker comes to speak. Interaction is encouraged after the talk, but it kind of fades away while the other speakers keep going. Most will just listen to the speakers and not be engaged.

A traditional website is like a conference speaker broadcasting a message to a lot of people, but once done, they disappear. No interaction unless you find their personal contact info. Your interaction with them will be removed from the context in which the content was delivered (email, snail mail, phone…not there on the site).

A discussion board is like a cafeteria (I’m working on another analogy here…any alternative ideas?) where you can sit at a table and discuss things, but can get up and move to another table and pick up a new topic.

An online community is like a reunion where people who have similar interests gather, discuss and receive the latest news, set appointments to get together over coffee, swap photos, and reconnect with others.