RoundTableFormate

RoundTableFormate is a theoretical data representation and presentation format intended to capture round-table discussions, brainstorming sessions, and collaborative meetings. It emphasizes the circular layout and relational context among participants and ideas, offering a structured way to preserve dialogue topology alongside content.

The core idea of RoundTableFormate is to pair content with spatial positioning around a virtual circle, enabling viewers to understand order, proximity, and dialogue flow. It is agnostic to a specific platform and can be serialized in common formats such as JSON or YAML for interoperability and tooling flexibility.

Data model elements typically include a topic, a center concept, a participants list, a contributions array, a positions mapping, timestamps, and tags. Each contribution carries an id, author, time, text, and an angle or seat index, with optional references to related ideas. A visualization layer can render participants around a circle and connect related contributions, highlighting conversational relationships and emphasis shifts.

Typical use cases include preserving meeting transcripts with topology intact, logging decisions with provenance, and guiding ideation sessions where the spatial arrangement aids comprehension. It also supports multilingual discussions by attaching per-contribution metadata such as language and translation notes.

Implementation notes acknowledge that RoundTableFormate is lightweight and extensible, suitable for integration with existing meeting tools via APIs and for accessibility features. Limitations include potential verbosity for large meetings and the need for consistent seat indexing to maintain meaningful visualization.

History and status: RoundTableFormate emerged as a design concept in early 2020s collaborative tooling discussions. It remains a niche specification without a formal standards body but has informed prototype tools and templates. See also data formats, JSON, YAML, and round-table discussions.