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Features Members participate in their Association Commons through a World Wide Web browser and a Dialog Dashboard. The Dialog Dashboard is a comprehensive communications console with all the tools needed for meaningful participation in an Association Commons.
A Commons for All A Commons is an interactive social site for member of your association. The contents is created by and for the members and is accessible to all members and, optionally, visitors. A Linked Association Web Site Place a Commons link on your existing Association web site to enable people to log into the Commons from the Association Web site. People Directory All Association personnel are listed in the People directory with their photos and names. Only registered users have access to the addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. MyPage On MyPage, you create your public profile and a personal Blog. Blogs may include text, photos and videos and personal discussions with your circle of friends. If you’re comfortable with technology, you can volunteer to help others enjoy the Commons. “Helper” names have a blue background. People can say thanks by giving helpers a star. Help The Help guide sets out the contact information of the Commons moderator who will help you use Dashboard features and make changes or correct mistakes. There is also a list of “Helpers” and answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Tags When you create an item you may attach tags. Tags are keywords that are useful in organizing and searching for discussions, blogs, files, Wiki items, news and calendar events. Login/logout By registering, members can enjoy a personalized experience. Members login with an email address and a password. Tool Bar & Alerts The Tool Bar has the Wiki, Binder, Polls, Calendar and News icons. A tool’s icon will turn red to alert you when there is new information for you. Similarly, the page icons for new discussion posts are colored red until you have opened them. When you register for the first time, you may notice gold colored page icons for discussion posts that were created before you registered. They will remain gold until you open them. Wiki A Wiki is a collaborative database about topics of interest to the community. Any member can make a new entry or add, delete or change the text of an existing entry. The Wiki software keeps track of each entry and enables anyone to track the history of an entry, including the name of the authors and editors. Binder The Binder catalogues files of interest to the association. Members create folders to organize files into topic categories. Anyone can upload a file and everyone can download it, but only the moderator and the person who uploaded a file can delete it. All files are read-only and cannot be changed. The Binder accepts many popular file types, including Adobe PDFs and Digital Signatures. Polls Use polls to take the pulse of the Association or make group decisions. There are five kinds of polls: a single choice; multiple choices; ranking; rating and token distribution among a list of items. Any member can see who has voted. Voters see the results of the vote up to the time of their vote. Poll results are always the total of the votes except that rating polls will also show how individual voters rated an issue. Calendar A community Calendar displays notes for a day and details of events. Anyone can enter a new item. News The Commons News has continually updated lists of items that are the most recent, most viewed and highest rated. Threaded Discussions Discussions are organized into Categories, Folders, Topics and Posts. A community volunteer acts as the Discussion Moderator and creates the categories and folders. Any member can create discussion topics and posts. Discussion posts also have Tags for keywords. Discussion Rating Each discussion post may be rated by members. Along the bottom of each post is a rating bar that shows the rating consensus for that post and how individual members rate the post. Chat Up to ten members may engage in public, same-time, same room conversations. Members may chat in different rooms. Chat Rendezvous Members can post their plan to chat at a certain time and invite others to join them. Any member can indicate they intend to join the conversation. Chat Log All chat conversations are recorded in a searchable log. Creating and Editing Polls and Posts All posts are created and edited using “What You See Is What You Get” software. Enter your content, use bold, italics or underlined for emphasis, check spelling and grammar and click “Submit”. If you want to change anything, open the post, make your changes and click “Submit”. Folders, polls and posts can only be edited or deleted by the original author or the moderator.
The following options are available on payment of fees. Contact us for availability and see the Fees page. A Caucus for Groups A Caucus is similar to a Commons except that access is limited to invited members. It’s a good facility for a board, council, society, club or other group. An association has one Commons but may have many Caucuses. Search You may search the subject line and the content of all entries using the usual word searches. All data that a person has access to may be searched or the query may be refined by the user. A search can be qualified by place, section, author, tags or dates. Results are shown by place and section. Absolute Data Integrity The documents placed in the Binder can receive a unique, tamper-proof timestamp by Proofspace™. SSL User Authentication User login can require more secure authentication with SSL certification. Private Messaging Send and receive private messages to and from registered members only. Private messaging works the same as regular email but without the spam. A member’s regular email is notified when the person receives a Commons message. When a Commons has private messaging, members do not need to know the regular email addresses of other members.
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