First thing (for me) is to clarify where to post. Currently we are using emails, this blog, various CR4 threads, the Apix dedicated blog....I think someone needs to define a communication protocol, so that we don;t duplicate and can easily keep track.

Some moderators beg forum users to delete everything below their own replies - should this be a rule? when posts are copied and re-copied it becomes time consuming to keep track.

Could Blog contributors be directed to subject threads - I guess this is an iterative process.

Anyone with a google account can share documents and edit them online (a controlled intranet) but whenever I try this with a project group we tend to resort to email anyway, but it is a way to store lengthy documents and keep them accessible to groups as the library grows.

I'm trying to initiate some organization, by starting this thread.

Threads are easier to manage in my mind as the format oldest to newest, from top to bottom, removes some of the redundency, in the reply all method [email]

The replies are linked within the various "fibers" of the thread. The new comments feature lets you pickup the disscussion where you left off & batch delete using the "mark all comments as read" button.

much of the organization is automated in this way. The compiling of the posts of interest will be more straight forward, than using a email based system.

I would prefer to keep much of the work over here [cr4] since the chance of significent contributions by individuals outside the group is greater. We should certainly link to the work hari has already done on the yahoo site.

Since the blog isn't in a section, I would propose using the "manufacturing" section for our threads to limit the amount of searching interested members would have to do to find new or existing threads.

We can use the blog as a spreadsheet type organizational tool linking the threads together.

The internet has now become a colossal entity for storage and interactions without boundaries, where the available facilities are also varied. E-mail ID's and clients are excellent with own specific facilities; these discussion forums are another system of centers for uninhibited (off-course on subject matters) interactions; then there are specially dedicated groups such as Yahoo Groups; upload facilities ...the list seems endless. It is not that many of us may not be knowing how to organize ourselves...but look at this peculiar situations:

(i) I am from India... when I am on line from my 6 am to 12 mid night, half the time those in US are asleep, due to the world time lag. The difference between New Zealand and Alaska would be over 20 hrs!

(ii) We do not see each other, yet we converse and interact, often at real times; but there are certain protocols and other privacy matters that are to be protected, in many discussions

(iii) In our case, for example, although our ultimate Project would be Open Source, there may be various (interim) discussions and interactions (some may be even trivia), which need not all be presented at the Open forum

These are some of the specific cases that may need to be addressed, and we need to find appropriate and adequate solutions for these...so that we don't get perplexed and be totally at sea

I'd suggest posting specific portions in an apropriate forum (or general)...

I got bogged down with loads of PMs...

The general chemical stuff is waaay outside my field of expertise...but a general question/discussion about say gas storage, or squeeze rollers, would easilly get me (and doubtless others) onboard.

the problem with going private is you lose the input & experience of the bulk of the membership.

The individual threads can refer or be linked back to the main blog...where updates can be periodiacally posted.

Keep up the good work, but let us all share in it.

Del

Exactly del,

That would be the point of open source!

I was trying to pick a section to ease my burden as it looks like I may doing a bunch of the administraitive stuff.

Other than acceptance of members I'm not sure what needs to be private?

the pm system can get overwelming. I see you've avoided getting involved with the equally numerious email exchanges.

Hi Folks

There are a couple of CR4 almost-features that I might consider working on in my spare time and maybe one or two of them would be useful to you folks:

• Send a Private Message to the "editorial team" associated with a blog
• So, in the PM you address "the blog" and all of the official team members get the PM, and when they reply it goes to all of them
• This is currently available for user groups, so maybe the smart thing to do would be to make a UG for you folks. (We can make UG's "invitation only", so you guys can control membership to the UG yourself, inviting only the people you want.)
• This might be a good idea anyway because you could add users more casually (and with different "membership types") without giving them access to the blog (which all blog editorial team members would have)
• A semi-private forum associated with a User Group.
• Hmm, there seems to be a trend here with the UG focus, but you could certainly imagine why a semi-private forum for a UG would make sense in general.
• The "semi-private" nature of the UG forum isn't fully-baked yet, but I thought it would make sense to allow non-members to view a UG forum, but maybe not to post to it directly. There could be a mechanism for a non-member to making a "pending" post that the UG admins could approve or not... this would allow a non-member to ask the group something without joining.
• FYI, posts to the forum would not go out in the Daily Digest, but members of the UG would be notified some other way (email, most likely).
• "Bookmarks", so a member could maintain a list of urls (with tags).
• You could all agree on a tag or set of tags that you want for your project and add urls to resources on the internet that you wanted the other folks to see.
• FYI, you could do this today with del.ico.us.

Anyway, these are features that I wanted to explore one day. If you have other ideas, let me know. I do know that we don't want CR4 to be a document repository, so storing files here is probably not in the cards any time soon.

Allowing people to collaborate on "projects" (with or without a blog) is a really cool idea so do come back to us with ideas or pointers to other sites you find that you find helpful.

Thanks
- Mark

Thanks Mark

You can probably tell the direction I'm leaning towards.

Could we use UG's to notify? sort of like a subscription for all things Apix so the membership could be open, only the blog would need membership control. This would allow individual threads to be posted to the proper section & keep the UG members informed & involved. The best stuff condensed, compiled & published on the blog.

I would prefer if the threads hit the daily digest, for maximum exposure.

Unless we end up with too much fluff [otp], we could then move to the private forum [assuming you want to set it up]

we are using Adrive for outside document storage. The hyperlink setup on the cr4 editor works fine.

We are grateful for any & all cr4 resources you have allowed us to use.

Unless we end up with too much fluff [otp],

I'm sure a politely worded request for minimal or zero fluff would be respected in a serious thread.... it's the 'pleas tell me everything about nuclear power' ones that get the crap (also suggest avoidance of the words 'Bath' 'cat' & 'squirrel')

Del

Actually I don't expect any problems, I was just trying to turn down the option of a private forum, while leaving the possibility as an option for the future. We have other threads to act the fool on.

I'm trying to prioritize the items I mentioned based on your reply and it sounds like a UG-specific forum would help the most (which assumes that there is a UG). I'll put on my thinking cap...

In the near term I don't think we'd have any problem with you folks using an open forum ("General") for posting Apix-related discussions. You could use an Apix user group and the UG PM feature to broadcast a notification of such a thread thread to UG members. I'd also suggest tagging such threads (like this one) with a special tag... this would allow all of the discussions to be tied together as if they were a forum. (The site search feature can be used to return all threads with a given tag.)

Ok, I just created an APIX user group and made you the admin of it. Contact me via cr4admin@globalspec.com for help setting it up; if nothing else you can use it to make communicating with the current members via PM a bit easier.

Thanks
- Mark

Your right Garthh. If this subject is not cut up into small pieces for debate, many will move on because of the train station atmosphere. Each individual will have an area that is of interest to them. Can you and Hari break the process up into modules? Remember Lego toys, each block connects to the next. You could assemble blocks and build anything. If each area had it's own blog, chemical, mechanical, ECT... and the right question was asked of each.....

How much could we accomplish?

James

I am an old man which makes me something like the absent minded professor. I tend to forget things easily and rely heavily on text materials to remind me of what I said yesterday. As for using tools for communication, I rely heavily on e-mail and HTML with links and bookmarks. I will do my best to adapt to whatever you guys come up with. After all, I am a dinosaur and an alien (to the computer at least). My first love it to the physical sciences and am intrigued by how God put together the universe.

Hi friends

It is gratifying to note that very serious efforts are being taken to bring out a system of appropriate communication for all of us, within the available facilities, and taking into consideration the various types of interactions that we need to engage in

I hope that the initiative of Garth and further supported by Del and others would soon deliver

Best wishes... and as expressed by chtank, would accept your lead in these