Our ISM project - online communities, blogging and whatnot

I thought I'd share an interesting experience I'm (about to) undergo at Babson. In our ISM class we're going to be having an online class - we've been split into a number of study groups and our study group has been assigned the topic of "online communities" - specifically social networking communities such as www.myspace.com or www.friendster.com, as well as online forums such as the www.espnstar.com sports site, as well as blog sites such as THIS site (though there's not much to it), and the concept of RSS feeds. Our study group is composed of Mike, John, Eyal, Stef, Salomon and yours truly (Mario). Surnames have been omitted to protect the guilty!!



It's interesting having an "online class" - I've participated in a number of online forums (I moderate the espnstar.com forum and the kiwirugby.net forum in my spare time and also contribute a number of articles to the www.silverfern.co.nz rugby site but I've never actually had an online class. I'm interested to see how it works - will we as a class be able to facilitate an effective discussion where we're not able to influence proceedings by physically being there? Will Professor PJ be able to facilitate an effective discussion among participants who in all likelihood have little experience in "live" online discussions? Will all of us even be able to log on?? How will we be graded for participation?

We will answer these and other questions on Thursday. One thing's for sure, the Babson experience keeps on maintaining its capacity to surprise (in a good way). Go BEAVERS!!!!