BrainStormCentral.org User Guide

1.0 The community
BrainStormCentral.org is an online gated Community for Professional and Corporate Members of our BPM, SOA and BA peer-to-peer exchanges. BrainStormCentral is a virtual meeting place and conversation center for our Members worldwide.

2.0 Registration
Go to the BrainStormCentral homepage on the navigation bar on the left side of any community page. At the top of your Profile page are three links—“My Profile,” “My Media” and “Personal Info”—that permit you to change any information, including your photograph, that you’ve posted to BrainStormCentral.

3.0 Joining the discussion
BrainStormCentral members can interact in discussion groups, on blog posts and on the community’s wiki. The strength of the community lies in its ability to bring together the thoughts and experience of a number of people. Multiple members contributing to discussion groups, blogs and wikis increases the community’s collective knowledge.

BrainStormCentral’s groups are an excellent medium in which to carry on long-term discussions of complex topics. A group of people collaborating on a joint task can post notes, comments, questions and suggestions on the community, where the information is available to all other members of the group at their convenience. Use of the community can reduce the frequency of meetings and the need for group e-mails (and the necessity of responding to them).

4.0 Discussion groups
BrainStormCentral hosts direct discussion in the community’s Discussion Groups. The full list of discussion groups can be seen from any page by clicking the “Groups” link on the navbars. Each discussion group is dedicated to a single general topic.

5.0 Joining groups
To subscribe to a BrainStormCentral Group, click the subscription box just below the group title banner. Once subscribed, users will receive immediate notification (by RSS feed or email) of new posts to all of the conversations in that group. Users may also subscribe to any individual conversations within a group.

The strength of the community lies in its ability to bring together the thoughts and experience of a number of people. Multiple members contributing to discussion groups, blogs and wikis increases the community’s collective knowledge.

6.0 Post materials to a group
Files may be posted to any group by clicking the “Submit a File” button below the list of discussions on the group home page.

7.0 Wiki
The BrainStormCentral Wiki provides an easy-to-use interface for creating new pages and styling text. It is similar to using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word.

7.1 Editing a Wiki page
On any Wiki page, you will see "Edit Page" at the top of the web page. If the page is editable, you can insert text and style it using the controls under the "Edit Page" tab.

7.2 Creating a new Wiki page
The easiest way to create a new Wiki page is to start by creating a link to it from an existing page. For example: Click edit on a Wiki page. Type the name of the page in the page. Highlight the text. Click the link icon under the "Edit Page" tab. Select "Wiki page". Leave the "Select Page" option as is. Click the "Create Link" button. Click the Save buton at the bottom of the page. Click on the new link you just created. This will take you to your new page. You are ready to insert text.

8.0 Private Messaging
The Private Messaging system enables users to contact one another one-on-one without publicizing their personal email addresses. BrainStormCentral registered users have the ability to send and receive messages from one another within the community. When another member sends you a message, you will receive a notification of the message at the email account you provided upon registration. Private messages can be accessed at your BrainStormCentral Inbox, available on the My Community page.

9.0 Tags
Tags are a useful way to search for conversations about similar subjects. The tag cloud complements the normal search system, which searches only for certain words or phrases or posts by specific users. Tags are attached to each discussion when the group is founded.

Clicking on “Browse Tags” in the top of the menu will take you to an overview page with a “tag cloud.” This cloud allows you to see which tags are the most popular: The larger the word, the more times it has been used on discussions within the board. Click on the word to see all related posts.