Albert’s php discussion board is very cool, and might be a good venue to discuss the plans for next year. It is kind of interesting to me to compare the Web log to the forum…definitely a nicer interface than Manila’s, but as Pat says, we could still do a Manila site and achieve basically the same thing all in one place. Frankly, I kind of like that idea simply because it would push my experience with Web log discussion and collaboration. At some point I need to write about the differences pro and con of forums vs. Web logs since that has been a discussion in some circles at my school.
Yeah, I’d rather use a blog, but too late now I think. Maybe as we get into actual planning (if there’s any to do) we can break off into topic-specific Manila sites. If eB2003 takes off, though, I think phpBb might prove more manageable. Simple instance – I can never get new Manila users to uniformly select the bulletin option. So I can never depend on that form of communication. phpBb makes mass mailings, to the whole user group or sub groups, a dream, including I think members ability to send e-mails themselves. In fact, my guess is that the board is way more manageable for large groups of users at varying levels of proficiency, just like Blackboard. Manila works for a group, usually small, that knows how to work it.
That said, maybe we should consider a joint newspaper presentation at NCTE? It might be a way to get Sebastian paid to come over by his university. We can maybe hook the mlk and hchs kids up with each other this Spring and show what comes out of that in addition to what we already have in the way of independent practice.