Thought Experiment

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Comment by Jack Park on May 7, 2008 at 10:54pm

This seems like we are asking about one component of a larger entity. The opening question says "what would we need to do to make it a serviceable platform..." With a failing memory and absent going back to the larger map, I've lost context for the anaphoric "it". I'm wondering if we were talking about Ning. Maybe it doesn't matter. The larger question seems to be "What will the collective sensemaking platform of the future look like?"

My sense is that it will not be one platform; rather it will be a variety of platforms, some of which will still rely on linear talking-heads forums, email lists, and ordinary wikis, all coupled with people who are not literate in the use of such tools.

But the question asked specifically about 200 willing climate experts. That feels like a different crowd, one that, at the very least, is trainable. In that case, my intuitions could be set aside in favor of a single portal, or perhaps a composition of portals, each wired together with a coordination (read: federation) platform--if you guessed a topic map, you're reading my mind.