Structured Discussions

What is Flow?
Flow is the code name for an ambitious project being started by the Wikimedia Foundation. At first glance, Flow is a next generation discussion system - but that is only one part of it. Flow is actually a rethinking of how we do work in the projects. Initially, the key components of Flow are likely to include:


 * The Feed module. This is a powerful way for users to have insight into their discussions and interests, and introduces several modern software conveniences (such as subscriptions and tagging)
 * Do we really want users to focus on tagging comments? Or do you mean automatic tagging? What's the use-case here?
 * The User Discussion module. We are starting our focus only on what we call "User to user discussion" as these discussion types are not overly complex.  As we learn more, we can expand the technology to cover additional cases
 * This doesn't make sense. All discussion is "user discussion" or "user to user discussion."
 * The Block module. This is an example of a specific user-discussion use case that is best solved in software.
 * What does "solved" mean? What's broken?
 * The Welcome module. This is an example of a specific use case that is best served in software rather than templates (think: welcome templates that are interactive and teach new users how to edit before they make mistakes).

In the future, Flow will grow to encompass all manner of tools, including:


 * A Watchlist module
 * A Wikiprojects module
 * Further Discussion modules to cover additional use cases (like !voting, noticeboards, the Teahouse, reference desks, article discussions, and so forth)

How will Flow be implemented?
FIXME.

How can I help?
This is a very tricky and difficult problem.