Web 2.0 - Policies and Guidelines

I've posted a few times about the project I am currently undertaking to build a web 2.0 community health site.

Progress has been a little slow of late due to a few factors. First of all, the two people who worked with me have moved on to new positions, I've taken time off for holidays and my work load has increased significantly, compounded by the fact I'm now working solo on this project. All in all, it's been a very busy time for me.

Now that I'm back and focused on the project, I've been thinking alot about the practical day to day running of the site once it's finalised. Specifically, what guidelines, policies and procedures will I need to have in place. I'd be lying if I said that some aspects of community social networking doesn't concern me. There are so many issues that could surface when people start communicating via the site.

With that in mind, I'm trying to formulate some general guidelines that will form the basis of the terms of use for the site.

Ideally, I'd love to be able to ensure that every comment and post from users is moderated and verified before going live. But I'm one person so this could become time consuming. The down side of that is that people have a very low threshold of the amount of time they are prepared to wait. Plus, social networking is normally spontaneous. You think it, you write it, the thing goes live for all the world to see.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has or is currently tackling these issues. I don't want to get bogged down in guidelines and policies. In my experience, projects can often get caught up in the endless circle of documentation.

No doubt, there is a need for policies and guidelines but it needs to be streamlined and sensible in it's delivery.

tags technorati : web 2.0, ehealth, Health