Site How-To

Ok.

So, here are first some thoughts about how things should flow process-wise on the site, as well as some simple how-to to get you going.

I want to keep the site as open as possible. Everyone should have as much editing power for the website as possible. This distributes power and increases the feeling of ownership.

I understand this might make some of you edgy, but I have the utmost confidence in this method.

So.

In general I see the workflow as:

1. Chat up an idea in the new initiatives forum.
2. create a forum for an idea that seems to have support.
3. continue the chatting.
4. when an idea seems to have critical mass (this could be right away) create an initiative page for it.
5. DO IT.

Initiatives

Initiatives are probably one of the main parts of the site. What projects are we working on and what's the status. Anyone can start a new initiative and I encourage anyone to do so the moment it appears that there is enough support for an idea- or if you're just so smitten with an idea that you really want to see it done. We can always shoot it down later :).

To start one:

Click on the blue "Create Content" tab at the very top of the page. Select "Initiative". Fill in the details about the initiative in the body, and put the initiative name in the Title field. Hit save.

You're done. It will now show up in the Initiatives menu. You and others can now go to the page you've created and edit when necessary.

Forum Topics

This is kind of the pre-stage for initiatives. anyone can also add a forum topic area for an initiative (or any other forum topic you think is appropriate. Under the "Create Content" tab, you'll find a type called "Forum Topic". Guess what that's for. You'll Find that the layout for creating that is similar to the Initiative.

Doubtless you'll have more questions. There's a little chat feature at the bottom of the page that works pretty much just like to facebook chat. I'm usually on and happy to engage.

Dates

Dates will and an event to the calendar... make sure to select the "Event" calendar when making a date. In addition to picking the time (and setting repeats if necessary) you can associate the date with an initiative. That way all dates related to an initiative will show up on the initiatives page. (webmancery!)