ChatLectures

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Something you might find on InternetRelayChat (IRC) or on MultiUserSharedHallucination games (MUSHes -- multi user text-oriented roleplaying games) are lectures.

Somebody will announce a lecture on some topic, and then people can join the channel or enter the room where the lecture is held. One person talks, the others ask questions and comment.

Benefits:

Interactive
Direct talk, less lag than via MailingLists, UseNet or wiki page editing
Demand-driven: people ask questions and direct the talk
Automatically generates short messages and pragmatic explanations
Easy to include examples from all over the web
International, not limited by physical distance

Drawbacks:

Little theoretic background
Logs are hard to read; transforming the logs into a reference text is hard work
With lots of active people, lots of noise and sidetracking (but many online communites have strong traditions in this respect)

Examples:

http://www.linuks.mine.nu/irc/ by Gürkan Sengün

CategoryChat

The idea of lectures also develops in BBS systems. Lecture topics are gathered and get priorities. Referents are assigned. The lecture is posted and discussed. In one case I know the lectures are refined and published in an associated wiki. -- HelmutLeitner

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ChatLectures

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