The need for a few fundamentals

A connection to the Internet is more than just a connection to another source of information, it is a route into a completely different kind of environment where the rules and conventions of the world of bricks and mortar no longer apply. To understand and be able to make the most of this new world requires a type of thinking that is often at odds with not only conventional business practices, but, also with emotions and common sense.

Particularly will this be true in two important areas: obtaining knowledge and facilitating collaboration, where the required paradigm shifts are exceptionally difficult to make because they are counter intuitive.

In this chapter we shall start to explore some of the unique opportunities offered by Internet discussion forums (list serves). There is no historical precedence for this phenomenon, so, to escape from the confining concepts of conventional communication techniques and strategies, let's begin with a few fundamentals. If the reader is impatient with theoretical modelling, please bear with this for a while, as it may help to avoid later misunderstandings.