I first proposed these Ground Rules in Feb. 7, 1994. I began working in virtual teams in 1988 and as the concept of "Making Meetings Work" evolved I became aware that we were participating in online meetings. These meetings benefited from agenda development, active facilitation and ground rules.  Face to face ground rules did not cover the possibilities of what could be seen as a violation of process, so I started work on this concept.

 The Environmental Education Network adopted the ground rules as a basis for their online learning environments.

Using Computers in Environmental Education:
Interactive Multimedia and On-Line Learning

On-Line Learning Ground Rules for On-Line Conferencing from ConflictNet

Here is an example of a set of rules from an on-line conference. Every conference is different, and the rules should fit both the purpose of the conference, and the individuals involved.

We are trying something new here, so I am very open to reactions and responses. Electronic conferences have some interesting aspects and I would like to begin to develop some relevant ground rules. 

• Make the effort to add a response to the "Sign-in" topic. If you do sign in, we will make the assumption that you are in the room with us and will check in periodically. 
•  If you make comments in the discussion we ask that you make a commitment to staying with the conference. Passing comments are disruptive. If you are leaving or unsubscribing from the conference please let us know. 
•  Be concise. Lengthy postings are difficult to follow. This is seen as "taking too much air time" in a Face to Face (FTF) meeting. 
•  Stay on point. If you introduce many varying ideas,it is difficult to track conversations and it is easy to lose ideas. 
•  If a relevant topical area/discussion is available, try to make your responses to that topic. 
•  If you are posting a resource rather than a discussion, create a new topic and use RESOURCE: as a header in the title. i.e. RESOURCE: Consensus Guidelines. 
•  If there is valuable information in other conferences, post a topic with a title POINTER: good story (or other appropriate words).
• There may be additional ground rules and I will use this topic to add new rules as needed. I would also encourage you to make comments, add to, or critique this list.
• One last request, please sign your postings. We can look up your login in the user directory, but it is preferable to let us know your name and how you wish to be addressed.