Over the weekend, I again bumped into Harvard Law's H20
project ... which is offering blogging space for courses
"taught" at other institutions as part of a creative
common approach to courseware / course content.

http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/index.jsp


The H2O project is building an interlocking collection
of communities based on the free creation and exchange
of ideas.


The H2O system consists of two components -- the Idea
Exchange and the Rotisserie. The Idea Exchange includes
all features necessary to host a course entirely on H2O,
including resource (readings, notes, videos, etc)
uploads and traditional, adhoc discussion boards. More
interestingly, the system now facilitates the
collaborative development of course syllabi, allowing
project leaders not only to upload course materials to
the site but also easily to browse, search, and import
the materials of other projects into their own projects.
Since all syllabi created on the Idea Exchange are
covered by a Creative Commons license, project leaders
are free to share their ideas with others and thereby to
create a community around the free exchange of
educational syllabi and content.

The Idea Exchange projects include support for
Rotisserie discussions in addition to traditional, adhoc
discussion boards. Rotisserie discussions represent an
innovative approach to online discussion that encourages
measured, thoughtful discourse in a way that that
traditional threaded messaging systems do not, in the
process solving some of the universal complaints about
online discussion boards: that the substance of
discussions is poor, that participants post quickly
rather than thoughtfully, that participation is uneven
(most people lurk, and a few posters dominate the rest),
and that discussion forums are segregated into
balkanized communities of people with similar thoughts
and beliefs.

The best way to learn more about how H2O works is to
join some projects and participate in the discussions.
Here are some interesting public projects that you might
consider joining:

Internet & Society Project

For more information about how H2O works, who is
responsible for H2O, answers to frequently asked
questions, and access to the H2O code, visit the About
section of the site.