Brand new to this version of the site we are introducing basic social networking features. In this section, we hope to facilitate two functions: (1) finding other users and (2) tracking conversations.

Finding Other Users

All registered users (Free Account, Basic, Premium) will automatically start a profile. First, we recognize all users will not be interested in maintaining a public profile, so privacy control options are available. More sociable users will be able to personalize their accounts with a brief bio, photo, general personal details (city of residence, sex, age group, etc) and some personal interests. We haven’t been very ambitious with the feature set, but hope over time this section can evolve into a system that will support user meetups in various locations around the world. We are very interested in seeing how it develops.

Once profiles are established, lesson comments, user posts and user post comments will all be linked back to the author’s profile page.

Tracking Conversations

To help save time in monitoring site activity, we are using 3 types of conversations (Yours, Your Watchlist, All) that will list out latest posts and comments. As you find authors that you want to pay special attention to, you can save them to your watchlist so that they get more emphasis. All of these conversation types have RSS feeds as well to help save time by subscribing.

Future Developments

These 2 features are just the core plumbing of inter-user communication. Going forward, we would like to implement real-time AJAX-based chat or perhaps just leverage Skype. Communities of practice are a key element of learning for Ken and he will have more on this tomorrow.

Next Post: Communities of Practice.