Advanced Techniques

Many online group activities are fairly modest in scope, and can be achieved within the framework already presented. However, some larger projects might require major brainstorming and planning. In this case more structure is likely to be needed in order to arrive at decisions in an equitable but timely fashion. One such structure is known as Delphi. Although it is a technique to facilitate discussion and decision making that originated with face-to-face meetings, Turoff and Hiltz have adapted it for online use. They propose a view of the Delphi method that they felt best summarized both the technique and its objective:
"Delphi may be characterized as a method for structuring a group communication process, so that the process is effective in allowing a group of individuals, as a whole, to deal with complex problems."

In most face-to-face approaches, the group is forced as a whole to take a sequential path through a group problem solving process. The Delphi process attempts to design a communication structure that allows any individual to choose the sequence in which to examine and contribute to the problem solving process.
It is actually easier to accomplish this process using a computer system than it has been with paper and pencil face-to-face meetings.

For more details on how to apply Delphi techniques to the online medium, read COMPUTER BASED DELPHI PROCESSES by Murray Turoff and Starr Roxanne Hiltz. This is a chapter that will appear as in Michael Adler and Erio Ziglio, editors., Gazing Into the Oracle: The Delphi Method and Its Application to Social Policy and Public Health, London, Kingsley Publishers (in press).