Discussion Areas

Tired of talking to yourself and your dog? Find that no one understands your business or what you do? Go chat with other professionals.

The best place to interact on a live, global level is IRC. The IRC is a multi-channel, multi-user real-time "chatting" network. However, for those who want to chat within their graphical browsers, there are web forums and message boards.

Now, to find them.

A search for "professional discussion forums" on Dogpile brings up myriad matches. Cardiac surgeons, cinematographers, and even dog training professionals each have their own venues for discussing their business.

Make it easier on yourself. Limit your search to the type of professional discussion you want to participate in. For instance, let's say you're into knowledge management. A search for "knowledge management professional discussion forums" provides considerably fewer results. A search for "employment recruiter professional discussion forums" brings up virtually no matches.

So, to get you started, we've listed a few easy ways to find what you want.

• Search 96,000 bulletin board discussions
• Excite's People and Chat Channel also allows you to search a variety of message boards
• iChat's directory of business chat groups is worth looking at
• Business OnLine provides access to several chat rooms of interest

We've also listed some of the professional forums that are out there.

• The Virtual Recruiting Network chat site
• A small Directory of discussion forums, primarily for education professionals
• "http://www.mcb.co.uk/apmforum/nethome.html"Asia Pacific Management Forum
• Web 4d professional discussions
• Yahoo! has an extensive listing of internet relay chat forums arranged by subject matter.
• US Online Chat is not just for professionals. It is however a pretty decent semi-subject listing of chat rooms. It also includes links to MOOs and MUDS.
• Planet AEC discussion forum and resources for architects, engineers and contractors
• WorkForce Online's message board forums for human resource professionals
• Hotwired Threads
• Advertising Age Digital Media Forum is not heavily populated, but quite interesting if you're interested in people's ideas about the effect of the internet

And, if you want information for the IRC or need the software, look here:

• Short IRC Primer
• Configuring Your Browser to Work with IRC
• Download mIRC 5.1 released 8/28/97
• Search for IRC Channels allows you to search thousands of EFNet IRC channels by name or topic and is updated hourly

The next article offers even more insight into using discussion areas.