=== Top of the Swiki === Attachments ===
Network
Welcome to the Network Taskgroup
This taskgroup is coordinated, in the interim, by Nick Moraitis.
Summary of the Network Key Element:
Discussion forums will form the core of Nation1, allowing citizens to contribute their thoughts on important issues. Top-level groups based around themes such as the health, education, peace, working children and the environment will guide the creation of sub-groups examining related but more targeted issues. Similar top-level groups will be formed to focus on regions of the globe. New sub-groups (or sub-groups of sub-groups) will be created upon the “petition” of a set number of citizens.
Based on our own experience so far, we expect thousands of citizens will participate in Nation1 groups. However, as regular mailing list citizens would recognize, even tens of people discussing an issue can become overwhelming. To provide clear summaries of the discussion and to allow easy archival access, innovative interface technologies such as “Conversation Maps” will be available. These will allow citizens to view a “mind map” of the discussion and even view human relationships in the conversation. Of course, citizens will also be able to access more traditional “by date” archives.
A key challenge for a global website is breaking down language barriers. Nation1's discussion systems will feature multilingual support, meaning that each e-mail, instant message or chat post sent will be translated using machine translation (MT) technology into a citizen's preferred language. While certainly not perfect, machine translation can provide a "gist" of the conversation. Initially, this feature will support full compatibility between English, French and Spanish with other languages, particularly simplified Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Hindi, coming online as soon as possible.