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Why haven’t more people heard of WebLab?

Created as a response to the partisan anger over the Clinton impeachment, WebLab’s Reality Check forum implemented Small Group Dialogues, which placed a few simple limitations on the interactions.

In the late 1990s, I had the privilege of participating in some special online forums. Created by WebLab, the first forum was called Reality Check and was a response, primarily, to the partisan anger over the Clinton impeachment. WebLab developed a kind of forum called a Small Group Dialogue, which places a few simple limitations on the interaction — size of the group, duration of the dialogue, accountability through login and introductions — to improve the quality of the conversation.

I may be a bit older than some of my classmates (and a few professors) but not so much older that I would have been the only one online in 1998. Even at WikiSym 2006, I got big blank stares when I mention WebLab. Frankly, it is mystifying.

Here are some other interesting links about WebLab, Marc Weiss and Barry Joseph:

By Kevin Makice

A Ph.D student in informatics at Indiana University, Kevin is rich in spirit. He wrestles and reads with his kids, does a hilarious Christian Slater imitation and lights up his wife's days. He thinks deeply about many things, including but not limited to basketball, politics, microblogging, parenting, online communities, complex systems and design theory. He didn't, however, think up this profile.

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