BroadVision e Gruppo Reti ti invitano a partecipare al workshop

   Trasforma la tua azienda grazie al Social Networking
(Social Enterprise Transformation)

Giovedi 12 Aprile 2012 dalle 10.00 alle 12.00
(inizio registrazione ore 9,30)
Blend Tower
Piazza 4 Novembre, 7
Milano

Uno scenario economico sempre più complesso e competitivo, evoluzioni nel campo tecnologico, nelle aspettative dei lavoratori e nell'ambiente di lavoro stanno portando le aziende a dover affrontare nuove sfide.

Questo contesto impone alle aziende di introdurre processi di innovazione anche attraverso nuove pratiche collaborative supportate dagli strumenti Social.  Tuttavia molto spesso si realizzano progetti di Enterprise Social Networking senza chiari obiettivi di business o una strategia per migliorare le performance dell'organizzazione. E questi tentativi sono destinati a fallire.

Se anche voi state definendo la vostra strategia o avete avviato dei progetti di Enterprise Social Networking, BroadVision e Gruppo Reti ti invitano ad un incontro di approfondimento sulle tematiche relative all'adozione in azienda di strumenti Social. Inoltre potrai ascoltare alcuni casi reali di aziende che hanno migliorato la comunicazione e la collaborazione proprio grazie all'utilizzo dell'Enterprise Social Networking.

(Version française)

BroadVision will participate to the event "Solutions Intranet et Travail Collaboratif" from March 13th to 15th 2012 in Paris (Porte de Versailles). We will be happy to meet you at booth C53 during all the event duration, and we will take part to the following:

• Workshop: How to make your ESN essential to your business ? Wednesday March 14th, 12 to 1 PM
• Round table: The ESN on the french market: compare and chose. On which criterias ? Tuesday March 13th, from 3:45 PM to 4:45 PM, with our partner SDE and the CNEH
• Round table: Do you need to manage your e-reputation internally in the intranet and the ESN of the company ? And how ? Thursday March 15th from 11:45 AM to 12:45 PM

The most recent release of Clearvale introduced the idea of an activity point goal for all network members. For those curious about how activity points work, I just posted a Feature Spotlight document that talks about why you should set a network activity goal and how to earn more activity points. You can find the document here.

We are planning to complete some maintenance work on all clearvale.com networks later this week. Clearvale networks will be unavailable on Friday, February 3, 5:00-5:30 PM, PST (Saturday, February 4, 0100-0130 UTC).

We apologize for any inconvenience. 

Awhile back we had a contest, asking our customers: how has Clearvale helped you and your company? The purpose of the contest was to better understand how our customers are using Clearvale and what we can do to improve it. We picked our favorites from the first round of written responses and asked them to send us a video based on their submission. Entertaining, thoughtful and educational, the videos were fun to watch and really helped us understand all of the different ways Clearvale is helping people and organizations get work done.

We're grateful for all of the hard work the entrants put into this contest and are very happy to announce the winners of the Clearvale Success Awards (in alphabetical order):

Gemeente Tilburg
A municipality in the Netherlands that manages the City of Tilburg as well as providing support for the surrounding towns and villages within the wider region of Brabant. Using Clearvale, Gemeente Tilburg has seen increased collaboration among businesses, the public and government organizations. It has also proven useful in their "Twinning" work with the Same District in Tanzania, in which the two municipalities share knowledge and collaborate on projects.
 
Gruppo Reti
An Italian IT consulting agency with more than 160 certified IT professionals, Gruppo Reti covers four main areas: business solutions, infrastructure and networking, business analysis and project management, and home and building automation. Using Clearvale, they have seen an increase in company performance and better collaboration and knowledge sharing among departments and employees.
 
People Tree Education Society
People Tree Education Society in India helps create new entrepreneurs. Relying on an active, participatory approach to education, PTeS connects students with industry professionals. With Clearvale, they have created Virtual Campus, a user-friendly site that is attractive and easy to navigate. Student and faculty are able to share notes, upload exam papers, and stay up to date with news and events.
 
TechTree IT Systems
Specializing in building high-performance business applications for mid-market companies in the Asia-Pacific region, TechTree IT Systems is a growing company that is adding customers, partners and employees at a rapid pace. Clearvale has helped their large, mobile, geographically dispersed workforce to coordinate their efforts working towards new leads who are often on the move themselves.
 
QuickLogic
Based in Sunnyvale, CA, QuickLogic provides semiconductor solutions to handheld consumer device manufacturers. Using a Clearvale network for internal collaboration, QuickLogic now has a centralized location for marketing materials, meetings minutes, design files and more. Employees in the field can easily share and retrieve information, helping them quickly respond to customer issues.

For more customer stories and case studies, please visit: http://www.clearvale.com/mkt/en/customers.php

If you are using the Clearvale iPhone App, please take the time to ensure that you have updated to the most recent version, v1.05.  We are planning to implement an upgrade to the Clearvale platform in a mid-September patch.   August 19, 2011 patch (approximately one month from now).  However, the patch is incompatible with earlier versions of the iPhone App.  As a result, if you choose not to upgrade your app to v1.05, you will be unable to utilize the Clearvale iPhone App after the patch has taken effect.

Please take the time over the next few weeks to update your Clearvale iPhone App.  This will ensure continuity of service on your device after the August 19 mid-September patch.

(Note: The original post stated that the patch would be applied August 19.  However, due to popular request we are holding off on this patch until mid-September, to provide users with more time to update their apps.)

We plan to roll out the July Release of Clearvale in the later half of July.  Here is a quick peek at the new features.

Groups. Anyone in the network can create groups of users. Groups of users are simply a collection of network members that you can treat like a single member. For example, you can invite a group to a community, assign a group a task, or share a file with a group. Groups are personal to you. You cannot use a group created by another network member.

To create a group, click the Members tab and then click Add in the Groups area:

Once you create a group, the group name appears along with the names of individual network members in places like the Choose Members popup window:

Note that while the group name appears in the Choose Members window, it does not appear in other places in Clearvale. For example, if you share a file with the Sales group, and then look at the share settings for the file, you will see the individuals that comprise the group, not the group name.

Tasks

While tasks are not new in this release, you will notice that the UI has been improved and some enhancements have been made.

When creating a task, you can specify whether the task needs to be completed by all assignees or just one assignee:

When viewing the list the tasks assigned to you or the tasks that you have assigned to others, the UI has changed a bit. For example, if you hover over the Assigned To field, you will see a list of the specific people assigned a task.

The filters on these pages have also changed. The old filter New is renamed as Assigned.  And a new filter is provided for viewing declined tasks.

When viewing the detail page for a task, you will see more information about the task. For example, you can now see the status of the task for each assignee, and when it was last updated.

Private Access Mode.  In the past, network owners, administrators, and moderators saw all content in a network, even content where the owner set the privacy to Me.  In the July release, the default behavior for these administrative members is for this content not to be visible. If they need to see private content, they can choose to show it by selecting Enter Private Access Mode from the drop-down menu under their name at the top of the screen. (Hover the mouse over your name to see the menu.) 

When you are in Private Access Mode, your name appears in red:

When done viewing the network in this mode, select Exit Private Access Mode from the menu.  

Notifications. The July release offers additional notification settings on the Edit Settings page. These new settings include:

• The ability to receive a daily email digest of notification messages. The network administrator determines at what time of day you receive the email digest.
• The ability to receive email notifications regarding the communities that you are following. In particular, you can now choose to receive email notifications when new content is added to these communities or when content is updated in these communities.

APIs. Lots of changes planned for the APIs for this release. In particular, we are adding APIs for:

• Tasks
• Wikis
• Polls
• Bookmarks

And the APIs for Blogs, User Profiles, and Analytics are being expanded. We are also modifying several other APIs to fix inconsistency issues. Stay tuned to Clearvale Connect for more information about the API changes as the release gets closer.

We introduced tasks as a new feature in Clearvale Enterprise networks a couple weeks back. Here is a quick overview of how to use the feature.

What Are Tasks?

Tasks may be assigned from one member to another (or to multiple members). Tasks may or may not include attachments (files). If you are assigned a task, you can either Decline it, Re-assign it to another member, or Complete it. When you assign a task, the task is only considered "complete" if all of the assignees complete it. The task creator can, at any time, change/remove the assignees or delete the task.

How Can I Access Tasks?

There are two ways to see tasks:

• Click the My Page tab to display your personal page and then make sure that the Profile Directory widget is visible.  You'll see Tasks listed on there along with all other content types.

• You can also see tasks that are assigned to in your Action Items inbox on your personal page.

The Tasks Page

When you click the Tasks link in the Profile Directory widget, the Tasks page appears, where you can view both tasks that you have assigned and tasks that have been assigned to you. You can also create a new task and assign it to others.

Adding a Task

When you add a task, you provide a name, an optional due-date, a description, assign at least one member to the task, and optionally include an attachment.

Completing a Task

After you have completed a task, mark it Complete in either your Action Items inbox or on the Tasks page. By default, the Tasks page shows all new and completed tasks. To see just new or just completed tasks, change the Filter setting from All Tasks to New or Completed tasks. 

Email Notifications

You will also be notified by email when you get a new task, or when someone comments on a task that you're working on.

Want More Information on Creating Tasks?

For a short video on how to create Clearvale tasks, click here.

Hot on the tail of last week's E2.0 Conference, here's a roundup of some of the great media coverage BroadVision has received:

14 Social Media Experts React to Facebook’s New Messages

Social Times

CMO Giovanni Rodriguez give his two cents on the new Facebook features

Broadvision Launches Clearvale 2.0

TechCrunch

Clearvale, the DIY model and MyStreams

Broadvision Relaunches Clearvale, Takes on Jive Directly...

Silicon Valley Watcher

No Jive Talkin and the new Clearvale

Borrowing a Page from Facebook and Ning, BroadVision Bets the Company on the “Social Business Cloud”

Xconomy

Coverage of Clearvale and insight into our founder and CEO Pehong Chen’s inspiration for the future of BroadVision

Broadvision Claims to Rival Jive in Social Business Software Market

CMS Wire

Covers MyStreams, PaasPort and No Jive Talkin

BroadVision Offers Platform For Social Media In The Enterprise

Network Computing

Coverage of the release of the new BroadVision Clearvale

Getting Social Networks Down to Business

IT Business Edge

Covers PaasPort and the release of the new Clearvale

Microsoft gets another competitor in SoftBank

Linux World

The possible implications that BroadVision’s partnering with SoftBank may have for Microsoft

We added a couple new feature spotlights on Clearvale Connect recently:

• Clearvale roles
• Clearvale file permissions and sharing

Take a look and let us know what you think!

The workforce has been changing for decades. In the United States, more women work outside of the home than at any other time, baby boomers are retiring, and a new generation has grown up with social networks. In such an environment, how do you make sure to use your talent in the best manner? How do you influence your staff members, minimize “brain drain,” and leverage the talent of the millennials? These questions are crucial, because answering them well can impact an organization’s financial health.

For example, a recent article by Brian Solis discusses the influence of each gender on Twitter. While the information on gender intrigued me, it also made me wonder in a more general sense what would happen if organizations better leveraged all of their influencers with an Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) tool. Traditional mechanisms to exchange information in the workplace, such as email, perform a specific task. However, they don’t necessarily allow room for “influence.” Using the right people to influence others—whether it is to read specific technical journals or pay more attention to customers—can contribute to an increase in knowledge capital—a valuable company asset. These “influencers” need not consist of executive staff members, either. In fact, your most influential employees may include the people in your rank and file who enjoy blogging and sharing their knowledge.

Then there are the baby boomers leaving the workforce and taking their knowledge with them; the recouping of this knowledge can cost an organization a lot in time and money. Certainly, some knowledge that these departing staff members possess is documented someplace. Unfortunately, it may reside in a series of private email threads or in some share drive to which only limited people have access. With an ESN, however, knowledge exchange takes place as part of everyday interactions. For example, a community to which you belong can contain all relevant information pertaining to a specific project. As new members join, they see a contextualized setting for all data related to a specific project.

What about the younger generation? While it might tempt some folks to dismiss workforce newcomers’ ideas and attitudes about work, doing so can alienate an extremely powerful segment of your staff. (Remember how young the founder of Facebook was when he began his successful ascent?) The millennials can offer us innovative ideas. An ESN can encourage the nurturing of these ideas by giving members an open place to brainstorm and potentially contribute to the success of a product—and your company’s bottom line.

The workforce constantly changes, and the challenges that exist today will likely continue to haunt companies for years. Looking back at how things “were done” or “should be done” can only result in lost productivity, creativity, and ultimately revenue. Using a flexible ESN to help you move through these changes, though, can make your upcoming transitions easier.

Clearvale provides a full suite of functionality that lets you quickly and easily create a world-class enterprise social network.

	Collaboration. The world of enterprise social networking is rapidly embracing a wide range of tools that radicallly accelerate knowledge sharing, group collaboration, and project management. In Clearvale, you have access to dozens of features in an easy-to-customize, drag-and drop environment.
	Ecosystems. Start small and build your way up. Create an intranet space for internal collaboration then expand your world with extranets for customers, partners, and support services. Ecosystems radically energize your online presence via your very own network of networks.
	Networks. Clearvale Enterprise Social Networks offers a secure environment for sharing valuable information with specific individuals, such as customers, company employees, partners, suppliers, counterparties, and so on. You can share  company documents or discussions within a Web 2.0 platform that leverages social tools (blogs, wikis, videos, discussion forums, and so on) and is business user configurable as an option.  Networks can be set up as public or private; additionally, they can be open or require an invitation or approval for access.
	Communities. Form groups around departments, projects, general interests, and more, enabling staff to share information and ideas with each other, partners, and customers.  Also known as team workspaces, communities provide a  secure and easy way to collaborate with the right people.
	My Profile Page. The personal dashboard provides a way for you to track your contacts and bookmark important information and topics that are important to your role and responsibilities.  The personal profile page also helps let other company members stay informed on what you are working on, who you are, what your interests are professionally and personally, and how to reach you.
	Activity Streams. Keep an eye on what what matters to you within your network by using the activity stream. Filter exactly what appears in the stream--all activity, just status updates, just updates from people and content that you are following, and so on. By default, the activity stream appears on your personal page. Your network administrator can also place this widget on the Network page if desired.

Most Popular Tools and Widgets Included with Clearvale

	Profiles, Member Directory, and Contacts. Turn your workforce into an online community, giving your company another tool for collaboration and team development. Members can post and share information with one another. Find out what others in your company are working on, so that you are always in tune.
	Blogs, Wikis, Forums, and More. Share information, news, and more faster than ever before. Enable interaction via ratings and comments. Allowing your workforce to share information freely at all times means that they can learn and apply that knowledge much more quickly.
	Tasks. Assign tasks to other network members as a way to streamline your collaborative processes. Not the right person to handle the task? Reassign it to the right person. Mark it complete when done.
	Files Widget. Clearvale enables you to easily share files with a robust document management and file storage system. Clearvale also provides versioning support. All previous versions of a document are retained until you delete a document.
	Teamwork. To supplement your network's communities, check out Teamwork. Teamwork is a flexible, integrated project tracking tool. Team members can create, assign, and monitor goal objectives and complete projects more efficiently. Place the Teamwork widget on the home page of your network to track a network-wide project. Place the widget on a community page to track a community-wide project. See the Teamwork Quick Start Guide for more information.
	Freeform Widget. Get creative with the Freeform widget by presenting custom content or visual images, and as a tool for connecting with other systems. The Freeform widget is a flexible widget that lets you embed HTML, Flash, URL, graphics, and other elements into your Clearvale experience.
	RSS Feed Widget. Use this widget to import valuable news items and helpful content, such as specific websites or blogs, that are of interest to you personally or to members of a specific community or overall network participants. Feeds are provided by various news sources.
	Twitter Widget. This widget tracks tweets by person, topics, sent by criteria, and received by criteria without having to register for Twitter or sign in for important updates. Using the Twitter widget is an easy way to integrate consumer feedback regarding your company's products and services into your Clearvale network.
	Feed Widget. The Feed widget lists not only what you have been doing on the network, but lists updates from your contacts and provides notification of files or blog posts that are shared with you. This feature is used most commonly on the home page as a way to keep you in the loop regarding what is happening on the network that pertains to you.
	Newest Items Widget. This easily configurable widget gives the network administrator the ability to pick the content type and the number of the "newest" items that it contains for updated content/widgets. In addition, this widget  includes more useful information and quick links for common functions (such as "Download").
	Most Active Members Widget. Displays the most active members within a given network. Activity is defined as creating content and responding to forum topics. Finding the experts in the crowd has never been so easy and you can even track activity points for top contributors as a way to incorporate an awards system, for example.  The network activity widget tracks user events like adding or commenting on content for a certain network.
	Event Calendar and Event Countdown Widgets. Track events and details like date and time, location, key contact details, and more.  Use the Event Countdown widget as a measure of time remaining until important events or due dates in order to meet deliverables and gauge where you are at in terms of meeting deadlines.
	Message Board Widget. The Message Board provides a convenient way to share information with a community or a particular network member.  The Message Board widget provides a personalized way for communicating with community members and key contacts.
	Polls Widget. Create a poll within minutes as a valuable tool for learning the preferences of your network or community members.  Flexible options such as one vote per member or multiple selection options, and showing real-time results are available.
	Videos and Images Widgets. Use images and videos as a way for creating a more graphical Clearvale network.  Videos can be embedded within a video widget to help with training and accessing the latest company news as examples. Images, such as photos, can personalize the network and are especially useful when you have a distributed staff.
	Bookmarks Widget. While the Contacts widget allows you to track specific members of a network and community, the Bookmarks widget allows you to mark important Clearvale web pages containing content that is important or of interest to you.  You can use bookmarks to easily access blogs, wikis, forums, and other content within Clearvale.
	Communities Widget. The Communities widget list the communities (workspaces) to which you have access. You have access to communities that you have previously joined or that are open for you to join. Communities that are by invitation only and are private do not appear in this widget. The Community Activity widget is a related tool for tracking participant activities within specified communities. The Community Member widget lists members within the community.
	Community Directory Widget. The Community Directory widget provides a quick link to the following widgets within  a community:  Members, Blog Posts, Files, Forums, Wikis, Polls, Calendar, and Teamwork (free trial or premium service). A Network Directory widget for the network home page and Profile Directory widget for your profile page are also available.
	Quick Stats Widget. This widget provides instant and updated statistics about network usage, for example, number of network members and communities in your network as well as total active members within the last 24 hours.  Administrators of Clearvale also have a view under the Administration tab that provides them with additional statistics about the network.
	Mobile Support. Have an Apple device? Use the Clearvale iPhone app to access your Clearvale network. Not using an Apple device? Clearvale is also supported on mobile browsers. Clearvale makes it easy to collaborate with your colleagues while you are on the go.

When I took a project management class a few years ago, I remember the instructor emphasizing the importance of certain principles—a clear scope statement, an agreement from all parties regarding the scope, and so forth. With a recent project that involved a lot of very busy people, many details, and several key dates I kept these principles in mind. However, in the past, I used tools such as MS Project, email, and calendaring systems to help me with project management. This project, nicknamed “CESNA,” was the first one where I used Clearvale specifically for project management purposes.

According to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge[1], a project is a “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” What I needed was a place to organize all aspects of the CESNA endeavor, so I created a Clearvale community on our company intranet network. This virtual space immediately set this project apart from others I’ve worked on, for it created a central location for all team members to find and share key information in multiple formats, including schedules, scope information, deliverable details, contact information, required data, and so on. I really liked that the community remained accessible at all times, too. When team members missed our weekly meeting, they could easily find information in the community at any time and obtain a fairly good understanding of what has been happening. If the person worked from home, he or she did not need a VPN connection to access a file server to obtain the latest information; additionally, I did not need to send separate emails to update people who missed meetings.

For the next step, I invited the team members to the community and posted our project scope in a community forum so that the team could comment on it. Additionally, the community contained a link to the list of our deliverables—a presentation and a functional set of working networks for a demonstration. This project, like many, contained some unknowns, and requirements changed. However, with the community, team members easily stayed informed.

One of the challenges with CESNA included the amount of files to which team members needed access. In some cases, we had to update files many times, too—we were building intranet, extranet, and internet sites. With the DocuVault feature, we found it easy to see the latest changes to key documents. Moreover, we didn’t need to send large .zip files to one another across our email system and wonder which versions were the most up-to-date.

Alongside our files, the community included a message board. Like other projects, we ran across some hiccups. The message board allowed each team member to ask questions or mention problems. In one case, several of us experienced the same issue; we found this fact out quickly because of the message board and eliminated the wasted effort of several people trying to solve an identical problem.

Another feature that I personally used for this project is Teamwork. I found that using Teamwork to help me manage objectives relieved a lot of anxiety. When an item on my Teamwork list became due soon, I received a message in my email box to remind me of the upcoming deadline.

I just mentioned email, didn’t I? With this project I still used it, but far less than I would have for a similar project without Clearvale. Instead of email messages, the team had the organized project community to share information with one another. No one had to worry about leaving a key member of off an email distribution list.

I was lucky to have a fantastic team. However, I also had to contend with busy schedules, an aggressive deadline, and some roadblocks. People could not always deliver as expected, and schedules changed. Using a tool that helped me to see everything at a glance simplified a process that could have quickly become much harder to manage. At the end, we finished the project on time, producing a comprehensive demo and presentation. We all worked hard—Clearvale doesn’t change that—but we expended our efforts on producing the deliverables, not on project processes.

Last week BroadVision officially launched Clearvale. Read the announcement here.

Part of the launch was a revamped  www.clearvale.com website. Visit this site to create a new network or to read blogs
about enterprise social networking and Clearvale.

We will be refreshing Clearvale Connect over the next few days to match the new Clearvale look. We hope you like it!

Keep an eye on the Clearvale Product Updates blog for details on upcoming Clearvale releases. We'll be adding blogs over the next couple of weeks with more details about the upcoming May release.

Clearvale offers organizations extreme flexibility and scalability. But what about security?  Here are some measures that Clearvale takes to protect your information:

• Secure Network Access: You have full control over who can access your network. You can require that network members be invited to join, are approved before they can access the site, and provide a specific email domain. Additionally, you can ban certain email domains.
• Multi-tier Entitlement: Your data is protected from unauthorized members in your organization. The members have privacy/security controls at the network level, at the community level, at the intra-community level, and all the way down to individual documents within the system.
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology: This ensures server authentication and data encryption. With premium service, we can support up to 256-bit encryption (SSL).
• Full firewall protection and virtual private connections: We rigorously guard our system from security risks via publicly accepted internet technologies, such as firewall and security auditing. Virtual private connection can restrict the access only within your workplace.
• Safe use of cookies: The browser “cookie” doesn’t contain personal information like user profiles and passwords.

If you have questions, please visit the Clearvale Developer Forum community. We’ve started a forum thread dedicated to Clearvale security.

We published a new feature spotlight on using Clearvale notifications. Read about how you can configure your notifications so that you don't miss new or changed information on your network.

Groups offer us many benefits: People in organized communities exchange ideas, learn from and offer help and support to one another, and act as each other’s advocates. It makes sense, then, that students often form their own study groups when taking classes. Where one person is weak another might offer insight, and everyone can benefit. Additionally, the feedback we receive from peers can reinforce new concepts and correct wrong assumptions. However, with the popularity of online education today, students might not have the opportunity to leverage group culture effectively to enhance their learning experiences. For example, while the utter convenience of attending class at your own desk at any hour is wonderful, you might have found that many online courses offer only very circumscribed methods of interacting with other students—or even with the instructors. This is a shame, because a key finding in an October 2008 Gartner report states that educators “realize that students who study in groups are more engaged in their studies, better prepared for class and learn more than students who work alone.”[1]
x

Online education does not have to rely on a Web 1.0, one-way communication model, though. With Facebook now possessing the honor of number one US site, many people are very familiar with the interactive, community-centric paradigm of Web 2.0. But would you use a social networking site to enhance online learning? Probably not. An Enterprise Social Networking product designed with organizations in mind, however, can help improve students’ online learning experiences by encouraging interaction and community building within a network created for a specific purpose.

Where the students reside does not hinder a community from forming, either. The Gartner report states that a “learning community is a group of people linked by a shared interest that work collaboratively to fulfill the learning needs of the community members.” A logical approach to online learning, then, is to leverage the natural affinity of the learning group; using a tool designed around communities can be an important element in harnessing the value that comes out of group culture.

For example, if a college or department already has a Clearvale network, an instructor teaching an online programming class could create a community named “Java Programming 101: Fall 2010.” The community would be a location dedicated to the class—a place to which classmates can come and easily exchange information with the teacher and with each other by using a variety of mechanisms: calendars, files, forums, photos and images, message boards, presentations, and even video. Additionally, students could create profiles that include photos, interests, and so forth so that classmates are not mere names on message boards. The following sections describe some of the community building benefits of these features.

Calendars

Listing important dates in a community calendar that students can see at any time is a simple way for instructors to help their students. And if students live near each other and want to meet or simply coordinate online activities, they can use the calendar to schedule these things.

Files

In an online environment, instructors and students rely on technology to post class information and homework assignments and to turn in completed projects. Using something like Clearvale’s DocuVault feature can make uploading and accessing files easier—right from within the learning community. Instructors need not worry about sending messages with assignments to incorrect email addresses or receiving bounce replies. And when a file is uploaded, community members can comment on or ask questions about it for others to see. For example, if an uploaded assignment is missing a page, a comment in the community can alert the instructor, who can fix it before receiving numerous emails stating the same thing.

Forums

Forums offer an easy mechanism for students to exchange information with each other and to ask questions. Students can post comments or ask questions, and classmates can even rate the questions or responses. What is nice about having forums reside within a community is that students must go to the community to obtain class information anyway; not having to login to a separate forum to participate in class discussions can help encourage students to contribute to the online conversations; they can even view a video in the community and simultaneously comment on it in a forum.

Message Boards

Message boards are useful for short notes. For example, the instructor can use the message board within the class community to remind students about an upcoming holiday or a change in assignments. Message boards may not be the most crucial feature in a community, but they serve a community-building role—much like the bulletin boards in many neighborhood businesses do.

Photos and Images

Depending on the topic taught, photos and images can be useful learning tools. For example, an instructor teaching a Java course may want to post an image to illustrate the concept of object oriented design. Once posted, students can directly comment on the image and even start discussions.

Presentations and Videos

An instructor might want to use a PowerPoint presentation for some of the online class lectures, and Clearvale offers the ability to view presentations from within communities. Additionally, posting videos is easy too, so an instructor can create a video lecture and upload it for class members to see. Instructors can even give students assignments in which they must make their own videos to upload.

Personal Profiles

Personal profiles in Clearvale allow class members to post their photos and include information about themselves; rather than signing into an online forum to become “virtually” introduced to other members, students can look at photos of class members and read about their interests. They can subsequently contact members through Clearvale’s messaging feature, or they can post comments to someone’s profile page. When classmates are geographically dispersed, using mechanisms such as personal profiles (with which many people are already familiar because of social networking sites) can encourage a sense of belonging.

The ability to interact in so many ways within a Clearvale environment contrasts with the approach where student “interaction mostly occurs through an online threaded discussion that allows students and instructors to interact in asynchronous time.”[2] And while an online class cannot completely replicate a classroom setting, where people sit next to and speak with each other, it can offer students a more compelling learning opportunity than what is sometimes offered today—but only if community building tactics are smartly leveraged.

Check out our new Feature Spotlight on using communities. Read this document for guidelines on creating and managing a community.

If you are creating a community or have recently created one, here are some tips to help it run effectively:

-Include a description of your community. If you already created a community, click Edit under your community name to add a description. A description that includes the community's purpose can alleviate confusion regarding the community's goals. For example, you might create a community named Marketing Materials. While this name is specific, you could include more detail in the description: "Use this community to find our most recent logos, press releases, articles, and positioning documents. For competitive information, go to the Competitive Library Community."

-Only include the widgets that your community needs. Using only the widgets your community requires helps to keep your page clutter-free and the community focused. For example, if you have a community named 2010 Q2 Marketing Budget, you might not need to include the Photos widget on the page. To edit your page, select Edit page layout near the top right of the community and select or remove the widgets you need.

-Use the Community Directory widget. This is one of my favorite widgets because it acts as a shortcut to community page information. Instead of scrolling down to see, for example, a forum widget, a member can go to the community directory widget and simply click on Forums. Additionally, until you configure a widget, you might not see anything in it, even if content exists (see next point).

-Configure individual widgets. To configure widgets, click EDIT near the top of the widget. Each widget can be configured differently. For instance, you might want to display several Twitter feeds but only the latest DocuVault file. Additionally, you might only want community members to see certain information, even if your community is open to all. You customize what and how much your widgets display and to whom.

-Decide who can join your community. Click Edit under your community name and scroll down to Membership. If your community exists for a specific group, select Invitation Only. If everyone on the network can have access to your community, select Open.

-Monitor your community. Just like in any group, discussions may get off topic. Check your community to see how people interact, if they have questions, and whether or not the community organization needs adjustment. You can always drag widgets off of your community page or add new ones.

-Consider file organization in advance. If you use the DocuVault feature, you probably know that you can organize files in many categories; the flexibility makes this feature powerful. However, consider how you want your categories and sub-categories to appear and what purposes they serve

-Participate in discussions. Sometimes people are shy about participating in a community. As the community owner, make sure to participate yourself and to encourage discussion.

-Manage members. Select Manage Members to see if anyone is requesting to join your community or if you want to invite new members. Additionally, to remove someone from your community, go to the Members tab, select a member's icon, and use the drop down arrow that appears in the lower right corner to choose Remove from community.