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.
