Debate Coaches Online cont'd some more

Here’s some more of my thinking on Debate Coaches Online, which needs a name better than that. And while I’m fine with debatecoaches.org as the hub, that’s not a great name either. Maybe a name will evolve from the concept I’m going to preach; I certainly don’t have one to offer at the moment.

So here’s what we’ve got. We’ve got some coaches who blog. We’ve got some coaches who occasionally comment on other people’s blogs. We’ve got some coaches who are plugged in up the wazoo. We’ve got some coaches who don’t understand the use of computers in the activity, period. Let’s make one assumption about all of them: they care about the activity. (This is a reasonable assumption, because if they don’t care, they’ll be gone soon, and we don’t have to worry about them.) And let’s set a simple paradigm, that whatever we do is online, for reasons that don’t require explanation (e.g., look at the calendar: it’s 2009).

Here’s what else we’ve got. We’ve got a world that actually has no center to it. I would suggest that this is true universally, applicable to any social universe. It’s nice to think that this site or that organization has more social importance than any other, and certainly perspective is everything on an individual basis, but overall, there is nothing as democratic as the internet. Theoretically someone could have, or could in the future, carve out a central position online, but they haven’t yet, and no one gives any indication of doing so in the near future. But that’s only half of the equation. If you really wish to do something plugged-in nowadays, you need to be a holistic agnostic. Anything short of holistic agnosticism is not enough.

What does this mean? Simple. You have to do whatever you’re doing in as many channels as possible, with no belief about which channel is best. To this one must add some corollaries, such as doing it right for the channel on the particular channel being used, but that’s simply common (or, unfortunately, often uncommon) sense. But the key thing is, spread it around. For example, Amazon sells the Kindle and has a Kindle app for the iPhone and has bought Stanza which produces free iPhone content: can Jeff Bezos spread it around or what?

The holistic agnostic is not totally devoid of belief, however. What the holistic agnostic must believe in is the goal of the product/service/idea at hand. A clear goal must be set, and then all the media go into service of achieving that goal.

Our goal is simply stated and understood. We want to connect concerned coaches around the country in energetic communication. That is our goal, our mission statement, our underlying purpose. There’s nothing to argue about there, and there’s need for it regardless of how much we’re already doing it, which means that it will have ongoing value. Our holistic agnosticism, therefore, is all in aid of that goal.

So how do we apply our holistic agnosticism? I see one two three four ways off the top of my head, all woven together into one neat interwebbian whole. Explanation follows next time.