Nancy wrote : "If my gut is right, cross cultural online facilitation is going to be critical in the coming years. If we are to realize any of our dreams for using the Internet to solve problems and build bridges, this is the key."

Nancy,

I think you are quite right in this but the implication for not getting it "right" (i.e. being able to effectively communicate and therefore facilitate across cultures) means that the medium will never be optimised for the purposes intended. There are a few questions I have about cross cultural facilitation:

1. To what extent is a party to a dialogue/facilitation disadvantaged when dealing in other than his/her mother-tongue? (Can a person whose mother tongue is say, Arabic or Hindi, effectively convey meaning to someone who's mother-tongue is Swahili other than through a "neutral" language, for whom neither are totally comfortable?)

2. What is the role of the third-party "facilitating language" and therefore the "facilitating culture"?

3. To what extent are the nuances of one's culture impacting on the effectiveness of dialogue? (i.e. addressing people in certain ways or "going through the social introductions before "getting to the business"?)

4. To what extent do non-verbal (written) communications impact of the exchange of meaning and intent? (i.e. to what extent is the "unsaid" as important as the "stated"?)

5. To what extent does a culturally determined perception of a facilitator as "leader" or "authority figure" compromise the facilitation when the other party perceives the facilitator as a "professional" or "equal"?

I suspect that these things are important but can't determine how important since their importance will vary depending on who's participating and which cultures are involved. As a way to facilitate (sic!) the cross-cultural facilitation process, it may be useful to:

1. Develop an "On-Line Culture Inventory" of those practices, terminologies, expectations, and nuances that are important to different cultures as they relate to the on-line environment.

2. If people in a dialogue have a "cultural" character that they consider relevant to themselves, then they should be encouraged to state it. Conversely some people may want to remain "culturally anonymous".

3. A web-based Cultural-Inventory site could be developed which can be referred to before people respond to postings to ensure they have suitable meanings and interpretations. This would certainly include written explanations, but could also include visual, pictorial, graphic, audio and video elements to the explanations to aid understanding.

4. The web-site would be developed with a search capability which would have each culture listed with a "one page" synopsis and then a search based detailed analysis of terms and concepts.

5. Where people, particularly those who feel "disadvantaged" by the language/culture of the facilitation, feel it is important for their and other's ability to understand the dialogue, then they can place in their signature to their post the web address of the particular page on the Cultural Inventory site that is relevant to them. In this way, they are presenting to the reader the appropriate "filter" through which meaning should be established. The reader can therefore go directly to the page that will enhance his/her ability to understand the poster's meaning.

6. I suspect that this could be developed as a Global project developed in stages:

Stage 1: Develop and agree workplan

Stage 2: Develop a site structure

Stage 3: Secure site sponsor

Stage 4: Get contributors from different cultures to identify the terms, issues, nuances, and practices

Stage 5: Develop and progressively load content

Stage 6: Maintain Culture Forums to continuously refine meanings and content

7. With the appropriate development and intent, I suspect that this project would be something that the United Nations would be interested in sponsoring. I also feel that the content would be suitable for development as a CD compendium.