The Cocktail Party: The App That I Would Like to Develop

Discussions don’t usually happen in a linear, carefully delineated way.  Early bulletin boards had files (topics) and users could easily pick a topic and make linear comments to that post and further comments could go off from those until the discussion died off.  A good discussion board might have pages of topics, and over time these would gradually fade away.  It was very easy to program this type of interaction in the computer, easy to use, but it wasn’t very conductive for encouraging continued interaction. However, it is a very good system for developing a product, working on a team or tracking a response in a defined environment. It was about the best that could be expected for that time and that level of technology.

Times have changed, and the possibilities for discussion-assistive tools are comparatively limitless.  For developing my app, I looked at the natural, biological processes that seem to replicate how societies function.  There is often a central node (stalk, stem, host) that other, smaller nodes break off from.  These in turn grow, and they develop clusters of life that grow to the point where they break off and form new clusters. 

To see this demonstrated in the real world I like to think of a cocktail party—a place where people could go and mingle with many people, make connections and have some good discussions.  There is one central node, usually around the host or hostess; from that group smaller groups branch off to discuss other topics.  Some people work the room going from group to group before settling into one deep discussion.  My app tries to replicate this experience (without the alcohol—although users can add this if they want). 

The overall layout is a large central node, or discussion area, that has many discussions breaking from that main topic and further breaking into comments on comments.  The user can easily see the topic, and as they come into the room they can “see” where most of the comments are and join that discussion, or they can dig deeper into a tangent that they find particularly interesting. The goal of the app is to get the participants to move freely from group to group, to easily see the topics, to engage the participants, and to encourage participation at any point of the discussion. It is a more organic design than the traditional discussion board, it encourages a free flow of discussion and movement rather that isolating users into “rooms” or “chains”.  The initial view would be much like Prezi; the user can zoom in and move from group to group very readily.  The theoretical drawing I have included shows color-coding for each level of discussion; this could be one possible view of the discussion room.  Another possible view would be all the circles are color coded with each participant having their own color and pattern combination.  This way the group facilitator, as well as each user, can easily see who is participating and the level of involvement for each participant.

I think this tool could be extremely useful for education.  The instructor could readily observe participation levels, evaluate the subjects they are discussing, and contribute in areas as needed.  The circular and organic layout encourages more interaction and movement between topics and among the participants.  The circles would contain a box where the student could post comments, pictures or links.  The circle would grow larger as more people affix comments to it; this could also help users to quickly have a visual “feel” for the dynamics of a discussion.  For example, a second level comment on a topic might generate responses from many students, so it could potentially grow and draw even more attention.  I think that the students might enjoy seeing that their comments make a physical difference in the shapes and it helps them visualize how their input truly “expands” the discussion and adds value.  Instead of being a static comment in a line of comments, their comment gives growth and influence to the overall discourse. 

I could see this app as being part of a suite of applications used for online instruction; additionally, it could be used in any situation (business or education) where an online discussion forum would be desired.