Today I came across a very interesting web-based online community project called Barbelith.

Barbelith is an experimental online community centred around unique message-board software. The aim of Barbelith is to create an online space where the standard of conversation, discussion and debate is higher than anywhere else online and in which everyone has a say in the running and management of the board.

Learn more about Barbelith at their FAQ which is implemented using MediaWiki.

An interesting aspect of Barbelith is management by Distributed Moderation.

I'm interested in this model of aspects of it for the eXtension initiative.

Community Server is an interesting open source initiative - at least I'm still trying to figure out if it is really comes under the open source model.

Regardless, I'm intrigued by the community approach with tools for blogging, discussions and sharing photos.

It would be cool to add a few new tools such as a Wiki and a chat capability.

The eXtension project is also working to develop community support models for their Community of Practices (CoP). I think what Community Server has created could be an interesting model to consider. It isn't as structured as something like CommunityZero or SharePoint Services. It could provide more of a creative environment better suited for open collaboration.

It might also serve local state programs such as 4H.

I ran into a new Podcasting Aggregator called PodNova. Pretty cool. I'll need to give it a try and see how it compares to standard RSS aggregators.

In addition, I see under "Agriculture" our friends in Texas are on the Map. Way to go.

I think Iowa will be there soon? We are Podcasting, but need to get registered.