trouble completing a task they volunteered to do (due to lack
of time, lack of expertise, or any other reason), they should inform
other group members. If some group members communicate privately
about a group matter, they should inform the rest of the group about
the outcome of their discussion (being careful to say ``we recommend''
rather than ``we decided'' unless the group has given them the
authority to make the decision). It is especially important for
anyone in a leadership position to communicate with other members and
make sure that the members are communicating with each other.
4. Establish a mission statement and set of operating procedures for
your group. Depending on the size of your group and the duration of
your project, this may be a short list of ground rules or a formal
constitution. You should have guidelines and rules that cover the
responsibilities of the leaders, the responsibilities of members,
procedures for making decisions (including what to do in the event of
a deadlock), procedures for appointing and expelling group members or
leaders, and procedures for changing these rules. When working on a
long-term, open ended project it is best to keep the ground rules
somewhat flexible so that unanticipated ideas are not precluded and
new group members don't feel stifled by a framework established by
members long-retired.
5. Whenever a new and likely controversial topic is introduced to the
group, have people respond to the original poster rather than to the
entire mailing list. Then have the original poster collect all the
responses into a single message (and if possible prepare an executive
summary) and send that back to the group. You may want to repeat this
for several rounds of discussion before opening the topic up for
general debate. The idea here is to put all the issues on the table
at once so that people don't start a debate before they have all the
facts and a general understanding of the concerns of other group
members.
6. Hold periodic virtual meetings. This can be done through a
conference call, audio or video online conferencing software, an
online chat room, or even an agreement that everyone will be online
and checking their email at a specified time. Any of these
formats should allow for a more or less synchronous debate followed, if
necessary, by a vote.
7. If your group has trouble making decisions and is unable to get
group members together for a virtual meeting frequently enough, try
resorting to an electronic equivalent of Roberts Rules of Order in
which the rules of debate are spelled out in great detail. (The nice
thing about Robert's Rules is that they have been well established and
thus groups can agree to adopt them without arguing over what they
should be. Adopting a set of electronic rules for debate may be
tricky if your group has to write these rules from scratch. But you
may be able to get your group members to agree t
Kelby W on 24 Oct 12We need to be more alert about who we chat with how we use the internet. "The Internet brings us great websites full of information and entertainment, and email and chat have revolutionized communication. But there's a dark side, too, as Internet users are increasingly concerned about how much of their personal information they're giving up in exchange. VOA's Art Chimes reports on the debate over Internet privacy. As more and more people are realizing, we often reveal a lot of information about ourselves when we go online, information we may not realize we're disclosing, but which advertisers and commercial websites can use to sell us goods and services. Sometimes the information is openly requested: you register on a website and you fill out a form. Next time you log into the site, you find ads for sporting equipment if you registered as a young man, or maybe cosmetics if you're a woman. Other times, websites and advertisers seem to magically know our interests. They can do this because of cookies, little text files created on your computer that contain information left there by the websites you visit"
