Discussion Groups

Texas Instruments needed moderated discussion groups available through their Web site on a variety of topics. We created a very flexible discussion group capability that will support all of TI's divisions and an unlimited number of subject area partitions within each division. The same discussion group system has been used internally by TI on their intranet.

Message databases The Web discussion system works off a series of databases...one for each division. Message entries and message reads as well as navigation is handled through database operations. This simple yet powerful approach has enabled TI to customize the discussion groups for each division as well as customize it in different ways for the intranet applications.

Moderator functions Discussion groups may be configured as moderated or unmoderated. Moderators can be assigned on a per-division basis. Moderated discussion groups require that each newly posted message be reviewed and approved by the moderator before appearing for public view. Unmoderated groups allow messages to appear immediately after they are posted by site visitors. Whether moderated or not, the groups can be configured to automatically send out email to the moderator whenever a new message is posted. This is particularly helpful for groups with relatively infrequent entries. Moderators can also reconfigure their discussion group by adding, deleting or reordering subject areas, deleting messages, editing page headers and footers, editing the text which appears in the left column area, specifying whether approval is required for messages, indicating where and whether to send notification email and specifying message aging--after which time old messages are automatically deleted.

New Relationships Online discussions is an example of one of the strategic benefits of the Net for business: the ability to forge New Relationships throughout the marketplace. These discussions offer the opportunity for a company to be in daily contact with its market and for the market to maintain a dialog with the company. When applied by the best companies, online discussions lead to a deeper understanding of market preferences understood earlier and understood better throughout the company...particularly by those who may otherwise have very limited personal access to anyone who buys or needs the products they sell.