Web414 - Milwaukee's Web Community

Hi all,

Here's a neat idea for how to hold a discussion with a large group of people without it getting out of hand (aka say-your-piece-itis). It's called a fishbowl. Chicago blogger Kesa describes how it was used in a user group meeting:

The room we met in was kind of an atrium type of space. Everyone arranged themselves into a circle, and at the center of the room there was a smaller table with 6 chairs. The function of the central table was for this discussion game called fishbowl. Basically there are 6 seats, and any 5 people can sit in them at any time (always leaving one chair open). People start talking about stuff, and if at any point someone wants to join the discussion then they sit down in the empty seat, and someone who no longer wants to talk can get up and leave. At all times the 5 seats needed to stay filled.