Module 2 - Tasks

Lists

Email Lists enable people with similar interests on certain topics, to come together and discuss things relative to that topic. This is beneficial when the interest is not common or the person wanting to discuss the topic is isolated from the other people. The automation available for lists allows people to express their thoughts to many people at once. This makes it important to stay on topic when posting to a list. Although this form of communication is of benefit to some people we need to remember that anything that is put on the list is available to all people who are on the list. Members could be anybody from anywhere in the world. I consider Moderated lists a good option allowing some level of control of the list. Some people may argue this limits freedom of speech, however it protects users of the list, from reading unwanted material.

Discussion Boards enable similar communication between people however they need to be visited by participants rather than the message going to participants email. This means that participation may diminish with time as the users are not constantly reminded of new posts. I consider shorter posts would be more suitable for discussion boards rather than an email list as lots of Short posts to people's emails would tend to clog their in box. I would prefer to join a discussion board rather than an email list as I am a private person and would soon become frustrated if my email was bombarded with posts that I did not have time to read. A discussion board would provide me with the option of visiting whenever I had time to contribute and was in the right mind frame.

I found this task interesting as I was unfamiliar with this form of communication.