iSay - I always find it useful reading non-US news and weblogs to get the international P.O.V. But why is the internet only partly enabled? We could and should be having conversations on these P.O.V.'s. But what technology to use?
Newsgroups = Flames, high noise.
IM = high noise, try to follow a conversation when all are 'talking'.
email = time shifted, private and not threaded, try to follow who said what in an email.
Message boards = When moderated, a good solution.
Weblogs = another good solution some implementations better, more akin to moderated message boards.