public(MIND)

There has been a lot of posts lately about ethics, passionable writing, corporate voice and so on. Have you ever thought about how to ignite conversations? A real conversation? With a lot of comments from a lot of different voices in the blogosphere?

It’s a difficult task - not easy when posting several times a day, holding track on different pieces of information, trackbacks, pings, link’s what-so-ever.

In fact I experienced a few guidelines my self - not only in my “digital life”, but also IRL.

When you write a post on a weblog, when you try to ignite other peoples thoughts, ideas and motivation for further conversations you could use the following guidelines.

First things first - are you sure that you want the conversation? If not - don’t take any notice on the following, just use you weblog as a message board, but please don’t complain when you find you self sitting in the bar - lonely .;-)

Here it goes:

1. Please write to inspire people.
Be as much forthcoming as possible. Try to ask why and what - use “?”. Try to avoid “!” and sentences like “I know”, “the only truth is” .

And don’t pull rank!

2. Please open up the dialogue.
Try to broaden the discussion. Ask for perspectives. And try to remember that It’s not a battle on right and wrong. Try to ask your self - “What can I in fact give the conversation which makes it a fun talk - for everyone?

3. Don’t “close” too early.
Don’t conclude TOO early. Be open minded. Try to understand you “opponent” From which “frame-setting” does he come from? Try to understand why he is saying what’s he is saying. Accept it.

I’m sure there are many other useful guidelines in conversation theory - no doubt. The above works for me - I think :-)

How do you experience conversations?

UPDATE

Danah has some very very interesting points which I definitely will ague is worth reading - She says:

In blogs, the reader is never permitted to post, only to
comment and there is a clear distinction between the posts and the comments. Herein lies one of the essential communicative features of blogging - a clear distinction between speaker and listener. With this, the speaker has a sense of ownership over their blog and a strong desire to frame the norms. Consistently, bloggers speak of it being their blog. The speaker controls the style, access, and whether or not listeners can comment.