[...] they've set up a space for any Minnesota resident to create
an e-portfolio - listing things like education and current projects. Apart from
the arbitrariness of confining it to Minnesota, eFolio Minnesota is good because
it is a large-scale effort, not confined to a particular course or university.
Martin goes on to explain how to make this even better. I agree
with what he brings up; after going through the walkthrough, I'd push
for major simplification (or complexity-hiding) in order to enhance
uptake. (Though it may only be that the walkthrough is scary; Alan tried the system and says it's easy to use.)
Cliff Lampe and Paul Resnick have a paper out on the moderation system at Slashdot.
Haven't read it yet, but the findings reported in the abstract
corroborate my impressions. In particular, posting late is a good way
to get ignored - the herd moves darn fast from one post to the next.
Can a system of distributed moderation quickly and consistently separate high
and low quality comments in an online conversation? Analysis of the site
Slashdot.org suggests that the answer is a qualified yes, but that important
challenges remain for designers of such systems. Thousands of users act as
moderators. Final scores for comments are reasonably dispersed and the community
generally agrees that moderations are fair. On the other hand, much of a
conversation can pass before the best and worst comments are identified. Of
those moderations that were judged unfair, only about half were subsequently
counterbalanced by a moderation in the other direction. And comments with low
scores, not at top-level, or posted late in a conversation were more likely to
be overlooked by moderators.
