Learning and problem solving groups like virtual communities of practices use electronic media to share knowledge and communicate. The more diverse or distributed a community is, the more important it becomes to carefully plan, moderate and post-process electronic discourses in order to reduce process frictions and improve outcomes. We sketch a framework to characterize platforms for electronic discourses for communities of practices. In this framework, e-moderator, discourse ontology, discourse meters for discourse awareness, discourse flow and discourse management are important notions.