Hi Jamie, this is a very interesting observation. I love the idea of starting conversations between people who are interested in a given topic. Certainly things like the MIX Mashup are good ways to get in person conversations going, but could we extend these events and allow MIX users to set them up locally? Or could we create a way for people to set up discussion groups on topics that interest them on the MIX website.

For example, say there is a group of people interested in reinventing the performance management process. We could create a space on the website for them to get to know each other and interact, with the outcome of their conversation being a hack or set of hacks that solve key performance management issues.

I agree Jamie, post, read and/or comment is short.
I need mixers to react to bold ideas, and I want to be able to really add to the ideas that I find innovative.
No need to get finished squeaky clean proposals.We need to consider some a s raw material.

To that end -- is it possible to generate more blogs that really do engage others in exchanges.

If all bloggers at the Mix responded back to thoughtful and challenging comments made - that communication would transform "delivery" into active communications that grow and expand thinking across diverse thinkers.

Communication at every interaction changes the "sage on a stage" roles into "guides to the side" roles where people stay in the race and offer novel innovations.

Others may have better ideas about how to diversify through conversations and relationships -- with evidence of novel results that get applied:-) Thanks Jamie for raising this:-) Ellen

It would bring readers back -- if their efforts and talents were addressed in MIX blogs where comments are invited.

Hi Jamie, this is a very helpful point. We can certainly do more to encourage greater collaboration/connection on the MIX, but I'm thinking we shouldn't try to do everything on our platform--or even on other on-line platforms, for that matter. For instance, openideo makes collaboration/brainstorming kits available on their site (as PDFs), with the assumptions that people will find the right venue/group of people for figuring out solutions. The output of these sessions is then uploaded to Openideo where it can be used by others: http://www.openideo.com/fieldnotes/openideo-team-notes/openstorms-the-lo.... Is an approach like this something that you think we should try to develop further?

thx

M

A simple action that would make a big difference for encouraging greater collaboration/connection on the MIX is making the comment URLs easily extractable (e.g. by turning its date into a link to its URL). That would allow us to reference and build on each other's ideas more easily.