The first quarter of this year is going to see quite a few upgrades to one of my long-term social networking projects — CaribHRForum.
Here is where we are today. The forum has 180 members, and has been around since 2003. All the interactions today take place around a single discussion list in which all members participate.
Unfortunately, a discussion list is a difficult thing to describe to someone who has never participated. It’s virtual nature makes it tough to comprehend. A newcomer would have a hard time joining if they were an infrequent and unskilled user of internet technology.
This reality led me to think that the Forum needed a visual presence, and that a blog would fit the bill perfectly.
Perhaps the blog could be staffed by a rotating board of writers who all come from the Caribbean. They would write for 3-4 months stints, once per week.
Also, there could be other information that would be available including links to other sites, information on conferences, downloads of different kinds, message boards and other ways to assist in social networking.
Also, to fund all of this, CaribHRForum would need to start generating revenue of some kind, including paid advertising and information products sold for a price. While membership would continue to be free, the other activities that people use to reach members would not be.
Those are the ideas to date — any others out there?