Specialised conferencing systems such as CoSy or Lotus Notes attempt to overcome this by structuring and storing responses in an organised way. Whichever system is used, however, a computer conference has some advantages over a personal contact conference. One does not have to travel to it, it is easy to organise and cheap to run. There is a convention against long-winded diatribes which, unfortunately, is not always followed by us. There are, of course, values in personal contact which cannot be supplied by any amount of electronic massaging and it is likely that the two forms of conferencing will complement one another.
Similar considerations apply to learning interaction using conferencing systems.
An electron conference for students can take learning beyond the classroom. The University environment currently provides a learning community for students in a highly structured way. The only opportunities for students to interact as a subject-based learning group are provided by the classroom. At other times students become individual learners although they may decide to work with their friends. Electronic conferencing by promoting active interaction outside the classroom helps to extend and restructure the notion of the learning community.