@Forum Communications Functions

1. Group Email & Discussions:
   The @World Forum offers a flexible facility for immediately contacting and informing all group members of important information. Intended for focused comments and exchanges of materials on specific issues that will be of interest or use to the group as a whole.

   Kindly note this is not a "discussion list" in the sense often encountered on the Web. If you, for example, have a comment which is really intended for one or at most a few selected readers, or if you AR moved to write "I agree with Fred" or the like, then tell it to Fred in a private note (see below). If you have a complaint or question about the site, please contact the organizers directly. We must be extremely careful to avoid information overload or otherwise degrading the profile of usefulness of this privileged channel. By making a careful distinction between group and private mail you will do a favor to us all, including to yourself. Thank you.

   On occasions when you are addressing an issue which is of interest to the group as a whole, and if there have been any earlier exchanges on it, please consider using the same "subject line". This can come in very handy whenever anyone wishes to use the search function to pull together all past exchanges on any given topic.

   If you are not already directly familiar with group email practices, we would ask you to have a quick look at the explanatory notes and email procedures that have been developed to guide group members of one particularly effective discussion forum. You and the group will be much more comfortable in working in this way.

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2. Message Center Archives:
   This component of each site holds all past communications of and to the group under this Forum for convenient reference purposes. You can sort all messages by topic, author or date, simply by clicking the respective column head. For more information, consult Message Help here.

   This database is fully searchable. Let's take an example. Suppose you want to know something about carsharing in Australia. In this case you might go to the @World Carshare Consortium, click the @World Forum, then Message Center, then try placing the word Australia in the Search (this archive) box. At the very least that will reveal if the forum has given any attention to your topic, which may be a starting place for you. (A second option worth trying of course is to conduct your search via the main Search Engine on that particular site. You will find full Search Help in each case). For further information on searching eGroups, have a look here at eGroups Search Help.
   

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3. Private Mail:
   In addition to the global group communications, you will find that there is ample scope for private email exchanges . As indicated, this is the way to contact anyone when the exchanges are not of high priority for the group as a whole. So, if you have something that you feel the others need not be troubled with, please make use of the Private Mail icon and direct your communications for those who are specifically going to benefit from it. Please take great care in this. We all thank you.
   • Closed Email Groups: There is also plenty of scope to create closed email groups in support of some specific issues, projects or activities. If you are not sure as to how to do this, get in touch and we can provide guidelines. These various communications channels can work well in tandem, and not as intended as substitutes. All have their place.

   • Email as backup: Sometimes when the Net slows down to a crawl (toward the latter part of the weekday and early evening in Europe), you may find it slow going over in the Forum's Group Mail. It is here where the direct email shoot can be a real convenience. If you get stuck in traffic, try it.

4. Polls:
   This working tool offers a handy facility for charting the reactions of registered members on chosen topics. It is directly accessed thorough the Poll button either in the menu on your left or at the top of the @Forum home page.

   Any registered member can organize a poll which will be sent to all others on the list. Since this is the case, and bearing in mind people's busy schedules, they obviously should be used sparingly and with care. You will find easy to follow instructions on the main page for creating your own poll. In order to answer a poll and have your answer counted in the totals, you must respond directly to the letter which is sent to you by the robot. Alternatively, you can call up the Poll section and enter you answer directly in the requisite form. An email note to the organizers does not get entered into the accounting.

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5. Chat/On-line Meetings
   The Forum also offers a so-called "chat" facility for real-time text conversations between small groups of people. Messages sent to this chat room are visible only to the people who are currently in it. Private messages can be sent to another group member who is in the chat room -- just select their name and click "Private Msg". If you click Chat Help here, you can find further guidelines.
   • System Requirements: A Java enabled browser is required to use the chat system.
   • Corporate firewalls do not usually interfere with the eGroups Chat system.

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   Other @Forum Functions and Capabilities:

6. Member List and Profiles:
   This section of the @World Forum identifies all registered members. It also offers brief background data on those members who have been kind enough to provide it (see Sign In), with room for direct links to their full Vitae, group background information, and the like. This information is accessible to registered users only.
   • Why sign in? Well, it's a big world out there and it is a courtesy to the others, not all of whom may necessarily have read your last book, to have at least a bit of background on you and your past work and interests in this area. In a large conference, we usually agree to wear a name tag. This is a similar act of politeness and collegiality.
   • Privacy Protection: The system does a quite good job of privacy protection, limiting unauthorized access to its users, and to preventing Spam and other forms of e-abuse.
   • Note that you can also search the membership lists by either first or last name.
   • Go to Members Help in the @Forum for more here.

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7. Links & Media:
   This is arguably the most important sharing device that the @Forum has to offer. It is here where we are all invited to input hot links and information on sites, tools and programs that will be of especial interest to the group.

   We are putting especial emphasis on the collection of first-rate multimedia links -- that being one of the main objectives of this whole program. We are looking for graphics, audio and video files, including links to conferences and presentations that some of us may not have been able to get to for one reason or another. (If you look at the non-print Media file on the @Work on the Web site, you will see already some good examples of this.)

   In some cases, additional software may be needed in order to run them. In the event that this is not clearly explained in the linked site itself, further information is available in the section, Software Counsel and References Here

   For the most part, linked materials that refer to a given program area are filed under that section. On the other hand, as you will see when you go to the @Forum, we have also organized the materials so that it will be possible for you to swing easily between the various programs and Web sites -- which seems important since there are so many overlaps and synergies between the various programs. See Links Help for more here.

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8. Public Library/Documentation Center:
   The "Files" section of the site constitutes another of the central elements of our communications and support package. It is, in a phrase, an ftp site where anyone is the group can upload and access print materials, other media, etc. (Note: Each program vault has a 20MB limit, so that it is always preferable, whenever possible, to go to the Links section and place a hotlink to your document or item on its site of origin. All submissions over that limit will be refused by the robot, so we must be prudent in our use of this limited space.)

   For full details on how to upload and otherwise make use of the Vault, your are referred to its dedicated Help file. Please note that some of these documents may be quite large. The exact size is specified in all cases. It is advised that you look check out their size before downloading, especially of course if you have a slow modem or it's a busy time of the day on the Net.

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9. Group and Personal Calendar::
   This is a very handy utility of which we hope you will all make good and copious use. Overall, the calendar is an easy and effective way to organize and announce group events to members. It is available to post events of common interest, with provision for automatic notification and timely reminders to the group.

   You can also create a personal calendar. The group calendar is used to post group events while the personal calendar can be used for any personal and/or group event. When an event is posted to the calendar, the person who posted the event can also have a reminder message sent out to all the group members to remind them of the upcoming event.

   Go to Calendar Help for more here.

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10. Joining the eForum:
    Full step by step help is available to guide you in this by clicking (see Registration Help here). You can also go to Sign In in the @Forum for more here. These two help sources should be quite adequate; however if you run into troubles that they do not provide answers to, all you have to do is click the Post Office link right here and let us know about your problem. We will try to help out quickly.

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11. A Closing Word on YahooGroups For the better part of a decade we have been using YahooGroups and its antecedents as the supporting platform for this central communications and information storage function. We chose to do this because we felt they provided good functionality in support of our independent cooperative program, and because it was free (bearing in mind that we carry out all these programs under The Commons without any form of external financial support... so money is scarce). The only shortcoming of this arrangement is the publicity messages and the need to sign in, but this has been judged by most of our colleagues as a bearable inconvenience under the circumstances.

    On the other hand, you may have some better ideas for us. We know we can do better and want to hear from you. So if you have leads, free storage space or money to throw at the problem, don't be shy. We're ready to listen.

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    Updated 1 April 2005