Tonight we're chatting with Liz Longsworth, the Senior Producer of Computing Central on MSN.COM.

We're here to bring you up to speed with what's new, what's changing, and what's next on Computing Central. You'll also learn about some of the vast resources that they have to make computing better and more productive for you!

Liz: Thanks, Tony! It's great to be here.

I'm the Senior Producer for MSN Computing Central. What that means is that I manage a content area — the Computing channel on Microsoft's MSN.COM.

Computing Central is an information resource, a community, and a place to get answers to technical questions. We've got a staff of forum managers and online managers out in the field (on the network, so to speak) as well as a home team and great content partners. I mix them all up to produce great information about computing for people of all skill levels.

Liz: That's a great question — because it has changed a lot!

Computing Central started off in August of 1995 as the Computers & Software category on the MSN 1.x service (MSN Classic). We had been putting a team together for months and we also had about 120 content partners involved — folks like Microsoft, Adobe, Lexmark, Dell, etc.

When MSN 2.0 rolled out, we changed our name to Computing on MSN. We shifted our partnerships away from vendors and towards world-class content partners such as Ziff-Davis, C|NET, IDG, and CMP. We continued to work with our online staff — which had grown a fair amount by then.

Our goal at that time was not so different from what it is today: offer a great information service to computer users of all skill levels. When MSN decided to cross the line and become an Internet-based free service, our team was at the front of the pack.

Liz: Hmm…. I see MSN sort of coagulating as a real service. In the beginning, MSN was a proprietary service and had a unified interface, tools, and business goals.

Over time, we pursued other directions — some call this experimental, others say it was the inevitable changes forced by the rapid growth of the Internet and it's evolving business models — and we spun out a number of unique "shows" and services, each with its own design, business model, etc.

Now we're heading back into a more unified era — where we are focused on services that have in common at least a unified design.

Liz: Well, the most significant change we just made was to adopt the MSN.COM design template. Adopting this template required us to make some changes in our content layout and structure — this is inevitable.

We used the opportunity to make some improvements, and we expect to continue making tweaks and improvements over the coming weeks. We have learned new things every step of the way. And at some point, we have to address larger changes, not just small tweaks.

So, over time, other changes will be coming down the pike:

• News brought front and center
• Search introduced into the shareware section
• New forums
• More targeted computer-shopping opportunities

Liz: Computer users with some experience. Most of our users have been on computers at work if not also at home. They are interested in the Internet and in computer technology for its own sake, but they also like mentoring and sharing their knowledge with others.

At the same time, we have lots of novices — these folks are great because they ask terrific questions and learn fast, like sponges. We really enjoy working with beginners!

Liz: Thanks for asking that, Tony — it is different now.

We no longer have a button called "forums," which used to be the main door into forums. It’s funny — but in our usability tests, the word "forum" was really recognizable to people who have been on the Internet for years, but it was confusing to newer online users.

So we decided to open up the doors a bit and provide multiple entries to our community areas — through the buttons labeled, "Chat," "Newsgroups," and then most importantly through the topical buttons on the vertical navigation bar.

So when you see "software, hardware, operating systems," etc., these all go to forums.

Liz: It's pretty interesting. Some that are popular are driven by topic — such as Computer Games, Shareware, and Windows 95/98. Others are busy with lots of traffic because the forum managers do a fantastic job, such as Multimedia, Bandwidth, Software Development, the MSN Forum, and Electronic Music.

Our all-time most popular forums are Windows 95/98 (no surprise there — after all, we are MSN), Hardware, Shareware, and Computer Games.

Liz: Great question. We hire forum managers who are experienced in managing communities. We also train them and guide them through challenging situations. We have a great deal of trust in and respect for these professionals.

They are experts in their topics but they are also experienced online community managers — with proven track records.

When there are conflicts between users and online staff, these are usually resolved amicably through conversation about the problem.

Liz: We have forum managers because we believed early on — and continue to believe — that experienced community managers would provide the best environment for users, both new users and users who wanted to stay focused on computing topics, and have technical discussions, and so on.

Some forum managers grew into the role of online manager, but most of our online managers joined us at that level.

Liz: Depends on the day! Seriously — in general we are continuing to expand and tweak our topical lineup. We're also getting smarter about how to do online communities, and we're adapting as the Web changes.

There are things that the online services used to do in the 1980s that are different now — and we're figuring out what kind of staffing model applies to our new circumstances.

Tony: Computing Central has some really vibrant communities in so many places. The newsgroups, for example... A lot of people consider MSN newsgroups to be the place to go for technical support because of the community and resources the community has.

Liz: The best way to get an overview of all of the newsgroups in Computing Central is to go to our home page at http://computingcentral.msn.com — and click on the button that says newsgroups. You'll see a complete listing by topic.

Forums that have only one newsgroup are set up that way because the forum manager has opted to have all discussion occur in one easy location.

Usually these newsgroups cover a range of topics and can be used for any kind of question relating to that topic.

In Forums where there are multiple newsgroups, the forum manager is usually trying to provide a place where people with specialty interests can focus on a specific topic.

In these cases, you can scan for the one that most interests you, or drop in on several of them just to keep up with the various discussions.

Tony: Yeah — that 24-hour time limit is many times beaten! I can vouch for that.

Liz: Another good question! Being the Computing channel on MSN.COM is probably the number-one way we are attracting new users. Our team likes to joke that we're the best kept secret at Microsoft — usually when folks find out about Computing Central they say, "Wow! I could use that!"

But being in the new MSN.COM site offers us a new level of visibility. The trick from now on will not be attracting new users but keeping the new folks who visit us. If we aren't able to get people to come back again and again, we're not doing our job very well.

Liz: There sure is! Downloads are one of the most popular activities on the Internet (second only to pornography, I'm told). We have always had an excellent shareware collection. The only problem was, it wasn't on the Internet — it was stuck on our old platform.

For those of you who are long-time MSN members, that wasn't a problem — you could still use it. But other folks couldn’t access it.

Well, we are proud to have launched our new shareware collection on the Internet just a few weeks ago. In it, you'll find up to 30,000 virus-checked shareware files. These are organized by topic, so it's pretty easy to locate what you want.

Nonetheless, we'll be introducing a search mechanism in a week or two that will allow people to find precisely what they're looking for, much more easily.

We also include, in Computing Central, the excellent shareware collections from ZDnet (ZDnet Software Library) and C|NET (Download.com and Shareware.com).

Liz: There are three ways to get to our downloads collection:

Liz: The MSN Forum is a great place for newcomers. The newsgroups there are welcoming to new users.

Also, you'll find folks there who can offer suggestions on where and how to get started on your journey through MSN.COM.

They are able to get to know people, make friends, answer questions in a speedy manner — and share some pleasant social time with people with common interests.

Liz: It depends on the chat room right now. People using Internet Explorer can get into any of our rooms. People using other browsers and chat clients can get into some rooms, such as "On Computers" and the Artificial Intelligence chat.

Liz: It varies from chat to chat and day to day. "On Computers" often has 60-70 people for up to four hours at a stretch. Other chats have a steady audience — same folks each week — of 15 or 20 people. Other chats host people who drop in and move on. It really depends.

Liz: Yes! New computer users will especially enjoy the news column on our home page. It's called News Briefs, and it's four short summaries of top computing stories in the general press (the New York Times, and other major publications).

These stories are not about technical things — they are about how computers are affecting average folks like all of us.

Tony: Thanks, Liz, for chatting with us tonight. And a big warm thanks to our members for hanging out with us, too!