Is the 'content generation in the form of articles and tuts' from "the extended discussion format" automated? If not what is the process for converting one to the other?
The content generation consists of using the thread contents as source material from which an editor and the contributing Mentors extract the the essence of solutions; explorations of technologies; and ideas, re-organize it to be logical in presentaion sequence and put it in the form an article or tutorial using loose templates. By loose I do not mean the templates are sloppy, but rather that they have multiple stylesheets that can be applied to give a look to the presentation appropriate to the academic level of the content, so a serious highly technical and challenging piece could have the look of a thesis while a light howto could be more pop-culture and dynamic in presentation. While editing tools will be used, it still comes down to the decision making and choices on the selection of words and phrases being a manual thinking process; and the editor is critical in bring together the work of more than one Mentor and making it a seamless collaboration.
Am I corect in assuming that what is being worked on now is the "the extended discussion format"? Is it a highly modified version of phpBB?
The extended discussion format is more a form of discussion rather than page presentation. What is being worked on now is an enhancement of the PHPBB software for additional features to support partner sites, internal bookmarks, linkages to internal content etc. At the same time the developers are building the foundation for the OO version of the site that will allow the user a great deal of flexibility in how they organize and filter the information in the discussion.
The key to the extended discussion format is the motivation of the Mentors and the member seeking a solution. On a conventional forum the format is Q and A. On ERT a discussion will start from a question, but the goal is not just an answer. The goal is finding a broader solution that teaches the questioner the underlying principles or philosophies so that they leave with a new skill and ability to solve related problems. The discussion does not have to stop at some arbitray point because the member is satisfied with an answer. If the topic is interesting or the Mentors involved have a difference of opinion on the best solution, dicussion and debate can continue, and members can join or leave the dicussion as they choose. In some cases multiple threads may be exploring similar issues and there is no reason they cannot be merged. There is also no reason the subtopics or off topic discussions cannot be spun off.
To some limited extent we had started to use this kind of format in some of the web topics at EE. There are threads that go on for weeks and some where the best part of the thread is a week after the user has accepted an answer and moved on. There are some where the flow is difficult to follow because there is a discussion, sometimes several across 3, 4 or 5 threads. The participants understand the comments but reading one of the threads out of a set may be quite confusing. The problem at EE was that they did not support the kind of merging, spinning off, and off topic undertone that was needed. Proposals to produce article content from the threads deadended because the only articles they were interested in were puff pieces for themselves and for the products advertised on the site. As you know finding solutions often starts with harsh criticisms of what is wrong, and they were not interested in criticism; only praise was acceptable.
If we are successful here what will result is the bringing together of experts from many different areas of IT technology and siphoning off the result of them interacting with each other during the search for solutions. Sometimes it will result in dull, run of the mill stuff. Most of the time it will produce good quality solutions. Occassionally magic like the day that Sean demonstrated, explained, and presented a workaround for a CSS bug in Opera, that even Opera did no know how to get around; or the day that I discovered how to communicate the concept of 4 dimensional web pages. There are days when you get the greatest gift; when another highly respect expert says "wow, great piece of work". When that happens it should not be buried among 10,000 meaningless posts in a collection of threads that are 60% redundant. It deserves to be presented in a high quality manner. That kind of content is what we are after and what will be the centerpiece of the site. The forum is just the generator of discussion that gives us the chance to develop synergy among a group of qualified professionals.
That is what extended discussion format is about.
