Do you feel that weblogs are bad models for debates? I think they're pretty good least-common-denominators. I would probably prefer the kind of annotation-based thing i described in my last message (and began to sketch in the WikiNG proposal) for collaborative generation of documents, but i can see the place for weblogs, just as i can see a place for network chats. With adequate integration of email (for notification and response), i see them as better than just email...
I like the email list proposal of Martijn Faassen earlier on this list. I added some comments to the Wiki discussion page, where someone proposed using XML for Wikis: I agree with Peter that the proposal is practically shouting XML all over the place. In a Zopish way this would mean dividing up a Wiki page in different objects (say Topics or Paragraphs or whatever). So a Wiki page would become an XML document, consisting of Wiki node documents. The advantage is that this would allow for a presentation in the form of - one or several continuous pages as in the OFWikis (OF=Old Fashioned as opposed to NG). - a presentation with 'folded' nodes (like in a folding editor) - a threaded discussion a la S[qu|w]ishdot or the Discussable thingy - an XML document (for who would want it) The editing could be in the form of Martijn Faassens XML Widgets editor: put a node point in front of a 'discussable' node, promote that one to the top when the 'node point' is clicked on and allow for editing. An example below, in which the o stands for an editable (=clickable) node point (for wiki reasons I have not put blank lines between them. <pre> o this is the first editable node
(user::time) this is a comment to it (user::time) and another comment to that (user::time) this another one (user::time) more comments o this the second one this one is not editable o this one is (user::time) a commennt to the last node </pre>
alternate view (in threaded discussion mode - probably know to all): (- is foldable; + is expandable) <pre> -This is the first editable node + this is a comment to it - this another one - and another one to that - this the second one this one is not editable +this one is </pre> another 2 cents Rik