July 1997
Click here. Or point your web browser to the locationhttp://caucus.uwo.ca/
In the Caucus Start Page, click onCaucus CentreWhen asked for your username (User ID) and password, type in your normal panther account (also known as your Unix or e-mail account) and password.
The first time you use Caucus, you will be asked to type in your name and other (optional) details such as e-mail address and school or work phone number. This is your personal profile. You can change this information at any time by clicking on your highlighted name.
Click on thebutton to leave Caucus. VERY IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE USING PUBLIC LABS: also quit Netscape or whatever web browser you are using, otherwise the person after you is able to attend a caucus conference under your name!
On the Caucus Centre page, which is the first page you see after logging on, click onSee a list of all conferencesThis shows all conferences that are listed. (It is possible to have unlisted conferences which are only visible to those eligible to join them). You have permission to join any conferences that are clickable. Click on whichever conference you wish to join.
To start things off, you might find these general-purpose conferences useful:
- Demonstration - This is a read-only conference supplied by Screen Porch, which functions as a tutorial
- Townhall - start discussion items of general interest here
- Farside - for the wild and wacky
- Organizers - This conference is meant for discussion among caucus conference organizers.
To have a conference created, contact caucus-wg@julian.uwo.ca (but first read on).Sometimes it may be obvious that a new conference is needed, e.g. you need a class conference with restricted access.
In many cases, it's not necessary to create a new conference in the first instance. Start with a discussion item (which may be about anything) in Townhall (for serious subjects) or Farside (for non-serious subjects). If your discussion item takes off and there's a need to create multiple sub-discussions under it, it may make sense to convert the discussion item to its own conference down the road.
During the pilot-phase of the caucus project, only staff and faculty are eligble to create conferences. (Note this is just for creating new conferences - everyone can create items in general conferences such as Townhall and Farside).
Go into any conference, then into an item. Look at the beginning and end of whatever page you are at. There's always a line that reads something like this:Caucus Center => Demonstration => Item 2: Introduction to Caucus: Conferences, Items, &Responses.This tells you exactly where you are. To return to the start (perhaps to select another conference), click on Caucus Centre, or to return to the conference (e.g. Demonstration) containing the item you are currently reading, click on its name.
At the top and bottom of the screen, you will always see the words Caucus Center. They will be clickable if you are not already at the start. Click on Caucus Centre to return to the start at any time.
Before you can participate in a conference, you must become a member of it (or join it). At the Caucus Centre, click on see a list of all conferences. Click on the conference you wish to join. If you are not already a member, Cancus will invite you to become a member and add the conference to your personal conference list. Click on Yes.
If you no longer want to participate in a conference, you can resign from it. To do so, click the word resign in the sentence You may also resign from this conference that is displayed near the top of the first screen of a conference.
Conferences contain multiple discussion items which in turn contain multiple responses.After going into a conference:
- To read the new responses in one item, click on the number (below New) that appears beside the item name. If all items are new, you will see
instead of a number.
- To read all the new responses in more than one item, click on the link called all the new material (above the item names). It will show you what's new in the first item that has new responses. Click on
at the end, and it will show you what's new in the next item. Continue clicking on
until you've seen all the new material. At any time, you can scroll up to review previous responses in an item, or enter your own response, then continue by clicking on
.
- To review all the responses in one item, click on the item name. Then click on
to return to the conference to read another item.
- To review all the items in a conference, go into the conference and click on the
button. (Remember, by default, you only see any new items or items with new responses, when you go into a conference).
- The most efficient way to access all the new items and responses in a conference is to add the conference to your personal conference list.
If your response is relatively short, you can add your own response to an item simply by typing your response in the box beneath the most recent response. When finished composing your response, click on Post+View.If your response is in plain text, make sure the box that appears just above the area in which you enter your response, (as you are composing it) says Word-wrapped. If your response contains HTML, make sure this box says HTML.
If your response takes longer than a few minutes to enter, it is not a good idea to do it directly in the caucus response window. Your response is not saved to disk while you are typing, so if anything goes wrong you loose your work.Examples of things going wrong are a power flicker, your system or browser crashing for some reason, or the modem of your Internet Service Provider timing out. ISP's often have a maximum amount of "idle" time they allow before the connection gets automatically broken. While you are typing your response, nothing gets sent over the line, and the ISP's modem thinks (wrongly) that you are doing "nothing." hence the connection gets broken and you cannot post your response.
The way around all this is to compose your response in something like Notepad (Start->Programs->Accesories->Notepad). Save it to disk regularly. When it is finished, import it into the caucus response box using the
button above the response window.
Notepad is a good choice because it produces simple ASCII text, which is what you need for caucus. You can also use MSWord or WordPerfect, provided you save your text as ASCII (File->SaveAs), using the appropriate save type.
When you go into a conference, if you are allowed to create new discussion items in the conference, you'll see a link called create a new item. Fill in the title and content boxes and click on the Create+View button.The absence of a create a new item link in a conference means the conference organizer is controlling the creation of new items, and you are limited to entering responses in items created by the organizer.
While you've been reading and composing responses and/or items, others may have been doing the same. To update your view, click on Caucus Centre, then press the Reload button in Netscape or other web browser. If you're still not sure you're seeing everything, quit Caucus (by pressing) and come back into Caucus.
You should add selected conferences that you wish to keep track of, to your personal conference list. When you first become a member of a conference, you have the opportunity to add it to your personal conference list. If you don't do so at that time, you can do so later.At the Caucus Centre, click on Personal Conference list. Click on all the conferences. You'll see a list of all the conferences.
In the box entitled Edit your personal list of conferences, type in the names of the conferences you wish to track. (Spaces and spelling matter, case doesn't). When finished, click on the Make these changes button.
Your personal conferences list will be displayed every time you log into Caucus and you will see which conferences have new discussion items and/or responses. It will look something like this:
This is telling you that, since you last read the conference Townhall, there have been three new items and/or responses. There is nothing new in Farside.Conference name # of items with new discussion Townhall 3 FarsideThe quickest way to look at the new material is to click on the number. Let's say you click on 3. It will show you the first new item or response in Townhall. Click on Pass and it will show you the next new item or response. Continue clicking on Pass until you've seen all of them. At any time, you can scroll up to review previous responses, or enter your own response, then continue by clicking on Pass.
Go to the <a href="http://caucus.uwo.ca/caucus/Townhall">Townhall conference</a>or like this:
Go to the <a href="http://caucus.uwo.ca/caucus/Townhall/2"> Some item</a>Some item is discussion item 2 in the conference Townhall. If a conference name has spaces in it, you use the underscore (_) in the URL instead.
In your response, type something like this:See http:/caucus/Help_on_caucus/3 for further information.(Note the single / after http:). This will establish a clickable link to Item 3 in the Help on Caucus conference.Or you could put this in your response:
See my earlier comments in http:/caucus/someconf/1:7(Again, note the single / after http:). This will establish a clickable link to Item 1, response 7 in the Someconf conference.How to Participate via Email
You can participate in a caucus conference via email. The organizer of the conference has to set this up for you.Once you have been enabled as an email participant, you will first receive the entire contents of the conference as email. Each item will appear (with all of its responses) as one message. The subject heading of the message begins with ::Caucus, and then shows the conference name, item number, response numbers, and item title.
Thereafter, as new items and responses are added to the conference, email participants will receive regular updates. All new responses to an item will be delivered as one message. Each new item (with its responses so far) will be delivered as one message.
An email participant may add a response by simply replying to the appropriate message. A reply to a particular message will be posted as a response to that item.
Email participants may post HTML responses, by making the first word of their response be <HTML>. (It must be followed by a space or a return.)
Email participants may post new items by replying to any message (from the relevant conference). You must change the subject field to remove the item and response numbers (i.e., the subject field should just contain ::Caucus and the conference name.) On most mailers, this can easily be accomplished by simply backspacing over the subject until the conference name is reached.
The first line of the message will be used as the item title. If the first word of the title is <HTML>, then the entire item text will be treated as HTML.
Managing a conference: Documentation
The following documentation, provided by ScreenPorch, will help those who manage conferences.
- Guide for Conference Organizers
This guide talks more about the why of organizing the conference, and the human issues involved.- Conference Organizer's How To
The person in charge of a Caucus conference is called the organizer. This guide details how to start and run a conference.- Conferencing On The Web : A White Paper
How interactive applications for communications and collaboration will transform the Web and the workplace.- How to Add an Email Participant
This document explains how an organizer can add an email participant.Acknowledgments
We have made extensive use of the Startup document of Simon Fraser University, which can be found at http://www.sfu.ca/acs-home/conference/.The home page for ScreenPorch can be found at http://www.screenporch.com/.
©1997, The University of Western Ontario. Permission is granted to copy in whole or in part provided that due credit is given to the authors, the Division of Information Technology Services, and The University of Western Ontario.Gerard Stafleu, ITS, UWO <gerard.stafleu@uwo.ca>
$Revision: 1.2 $ $Date: $Author: $