The exciting bit: Forum topics

Now that we have our forum in place, it's time to start adding the questions and comments that will make it into a lively social discussion area. To do this, we first need to start using topics.

Topics are issues (or topics) that people want to discuss. A forum that works, remember, will usually be one where the group members have an extrinsic necessity (for example, part of their job role) or an intrinsic desire to engage with it (useful information to gain, important decisions to be made, fun and laughter to be had).

Forum discussion frameworks

A forum can be made up of many different topics with wide ranging issues. The best discussions frameworks are those that lead to some sort of "outcome" or conclusion. Some generically useful discussion frameworks include:

• Comparing: For example, "What are the similarities and differences between food we eat today and food they ate in Tudor England?"

• Detecting differences: For example, "What different reactions are there...