How To Make Discussion Forums Work on the WWW.

This paper discusses the technical features necessary for a good World Wide Web (WWW) discussion forum, the fact that it should be seen as part of a more general cooperative space, and psycho-sociological aspects that are essential for success. The first section introduces the paper and lists reasons why newsgroups are generally more successful than WWW discussion forums. The second section describes technological parameters, including purposes of discussion forums, approaches to the problem of cognitive overhead (i.e., difficulty of the user interface and learning of the system), and privacy. The third section addresses non-technological parameters, focusing on the role of the leader. The fourth section considers discussion forums as part of a greater concept: general cooperation tools (GCTs) and general cooperation spaces (GCSs). The final section summarizes the paper. (Contains 10 references.) (MES)