A Dialoggers Commons is a place where people gather to participate in
an online community through a World Wide Web browser, a Dialog Dashboard™ and a database hosted by Dialoggers. The Dialog Dashboard is a comprehensive communications console with all the social networking tools needed for meaningful participation in a Commons.

BASIC FEATURES AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE

OPTIONAL FEATURES AVAILABLE FOR A FEE

PLANNED ADDITIONAL FEATURES


FEATURES OF A BASIC COMMONS AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE

A Commons for All
The contents of a Commons are created by and for the registered members and are accessible to all members and optionally to visitors.

A Linked Web Site
A Commons may be linked to an organization’s existing Web site to enable people to log into the Commons from a familiar Web site.

People Directory
All registered members are listed in a People directory with their photos and names. Only registered users have access to the addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

MyPage
On MyPage, members create a public profile and a personal Blog. Blogs may include text, photos and videos and personal discussions with friends. Members who are comfortable with technology 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 helps members use Dashboard features and make changes or correct mistakes. There is also a list of “Helpers” and answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Tags
Tags are keywords selected by members that are useful in organizing and searching for discussions, blogs, files, Wiki items, news and calendar events.

Login/Logout
By registering, members enable a database to keep track of their activities and data and thereby 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 community. 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 community 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. Members who have voted can 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 are more transparent and 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 an open notice of their plan to chat at a certain time and invite others to join them. Others 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 a “What You See Is What You Get” text editor. 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.


OPTIONAL FEATURES AVAILABLE FOR A FEE

Support
Paid telephone support is available from 9am to 5pm, U.S. Eastern Time Zone, by calling (616) 335-2538 Extension 3#. The fee for telephone support is $10 per tenth of an hour or part of a tenth.

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. A community has one Commons but may have many Caucuses. The fee is $100 for setup.

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. The fee is $100 per year for up to 25 users.

Search
Members may search the subject line and the content of all database entries using the usual word searches. All data that a member has access to may be searched or the query may be refined by the user. A search can be qualified by tags and where, what, who and when qualifiers. Results are shown by where and what qualifiers. The fee is $100 per year.

Usage Logs
Users may order usage logs and statistics for each user. The fee is $50 per report or $100 to setup a continuous report.

Data Reports
User-generated data can be extracted and made available in various formats and media for a fee of $200 plus expenses.


PLANNED ADDITIONAL FEATURES
The following modules are planned and will require the payment of fees. Contact peter.hart@dialoggers.com for availability and applicable fees.

Reference Books & Library
Published and internally generated books with structured content may be converted into Hypertext books with a software module that includes:
• Indexing of full text and structural elements such as Table of Contents and Topic Index;
• Book browser with powerful search and user navigation data;
• Virtual Shelves of searchable books created by the user on the fly; and
• User created trails, tours, notes & a clipping board.

Absolute Data Integrity
The documents placed in the Binder can receive a unique, tamper-proof timestamp by Proofspace™ to evidence absolute data integrity.

SSL User Authentication
User login can require more secure authentication with SSL certification.

Document Management
An enhanced Binder with a document management module for creating and managing a large number of files and nested folders to 7 levels. It also features document filing forms and powerful search software for document retrieval.

Instant Messaging
Replace the Commons Chat module with an integrated, secure and extensible instant messaging system built on Jabber Foundation with the Wildfire Enterprise server and Spark clients.

Secure Personal Contact Management
Integrate security, SSL and the person directory for People, MyPage, Chat, Private Messages, IM and layered personal contact management.

Predictive Markets
A module that provides a graphical market board where members can post offers to buy and bids to sell units of information. The information units are designed to generate predictions about the future that are valuable to an organization. Examples are how many widgets will be sold next month, on what date will a new product be ready for market, what will the cost of a service be, how many people will attend a conference, etc.

* Prices and fees are subject to change without notice.