I’d like to propose a form of online communication and solicit feedback on the concept. I doubt this idea is wholly original, so I’m hoping someone will point me to the place this exists. If it doesn’t, I’d love feedback on whether you think it would work.

Right now, blogs are solos. The blogger has a soapbox and says their piece at once, and then “the world” can participate in comments, which are of variable quality and length due to their openness. Sometimes, blogs are a shared podium (a la boing boing, techcrunch, etc), but then they’re still sequential mostly-unrelated posts because of the post-oriented structure of blogs.

On the other hand, there are many forums, both private and public, where people can participate in free-form conversation, either threaded or in-line. Forums tend to have a much lower signal-to-noise ratio than blogs and each posting has significantly less effort put into it. Current solutions to the signal-to-noise problem are moderation and karma systems, and the quality of the community is dependent on the shared vision for moderation.

In jazz, there’s a format called “trading fours,” in which soloists have a conversation on stage. The solos are a third as long as a traditional solo (four bars instead of twelve, hence the name). Soloists still have an opportunity to have the spotlight, but also can have a conversation instead of a monologue. This is similar to the format of a panel discussion. The output is still high-quality, since there’s an audience, but it’s far more conversational than a series of solos.

I’d like to see something like that for blogs. Here’s a possibility for how it might work: A discussion is arranged between a number of panelists, who take turns posting relatively short (one or two paragraph) thoughts. These are presented more like an interview / play, with clear identification of authorship. Public comments are time-ordered in a second column next to the panel discussion and arranged so as to line up with the panel discussion. In addition to a moderation system, public commenters keep their comments thoughtful and on-topic in the hope that they’ll be invited to participate in another (or the current) panel.

So, my question for you: Can you imagine using a system like this for blogging panels and duets? Do you know of anything like this that exists already? I’d love to build it if people would use it, but have learned that it’s incredibly valuable to ask people before starting in on the code.