The website www.wsf2008.net is on line. From now until January 26th, the Global Day of Action, it will be the main communication tool for organizing actions as well as the main source of information about the World Social Forum 2008.
Unlike previous editions, WSF 2008 will not have any centralized events, but will be composed by thousands of actions around the world, organized by participants themselves.
This edition of the WSF Newsletter contains a user guide to www.wsf2008.net. Read it, visit and join the website, present your action, participate in an Action Space, and get ready for WSF 2008!
1) WSF2008.net is a place for visualising, showing and organising actions
Any group, organisation or movement can present actions on the website. Actions can be proposed by one or by several organisations together.
It's not necessary to have your program for January 26th already set. Proposed actions and preparatory meetings can also be presented.
The idea behind the website is to provide an easy way of putting potential participants in actions in contact with each other, making it possible to build powerful and visible actions for WSF 2008.
2) Looking for actions and finding content
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Use the MAP to find countries, cities or even more precise locations. Each red balloon represents an action. Click on any balloon to read titles and a brief summary of each action. Click on the title of an action and you'll be redirected to the action page.
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If you click on a COUNTRY name in the homepage, content in your main language will be displayed. You can refine your research using the FIND AN ACTION button within each country page.
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Each action can be “tagged”, which means associating keywords with the contents. A list of TAGs is available at the bottom of homepage.
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Use the FIND AN ACTION button to make a full search of the website.
3) Registering on the website
The first step for participating and joining Action Spaces is register on the website.
1.
Select CLICK HERE TO REGISTER;
2.
Choose a USERNAME. You should register as a person, not as an organization. References to movements, entities, organisations, groups or networks to which you belong can be made at a further stage (see item “d”);
3.
Complete the remaining fields (EMAIL, PASSWORD, COUNTRY/REGION, PROVINCE/STATE, TOWN AND ZIPCODE) and if you wish, leave a message in the field COMMENT OR STATEMENT OF INTENTIONS;
4.
Use the ORGANIZATIONS field to write the names of groups, networks, or movements which will be participating (separated by commas);
5.
Add TAGS to identify the themes of your activities and interests (separated by commas);
6.
If you represent an organization, click on “CHECK THIS BOX TO FILL OUT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION YOU REPRESENT”.
4) Presenting an action (registered users only)
To present an Action in as a stand-alone event, follow the instructions below. If you prefer to present your action next to an existing one in the same town, you need to enter their Action Space first (see item 8).
1.
At the home page, click on PRESENT AN ACTION;
2.
Choose a TITLE and DESCRIBE your Action, including any external links you want;
3.
If your action already has dates and a venue for taking place, choose CONFIRMED on ACTION STATUS. Otherwise, leave it as PROPOSED;
4.
Choose the name of your ACTION SPACE (see item 7 of this guide for more info on Action Spaces). If you think other actions will be added to the one you're presenting, choose a name than will be able to cover several actions. If you think no actions will be added, you can repeat the title of your action;
5.
COUNTRY/REGION and TOWN fields of your action will become your Action Space's location. If you're planning activities due to happen in cyberspace, choose “internet country”, which is a special item displayed in the list of countries/regions;
6.
On VENUE, write the name of the space where the action is scheduled to take place (e.g.: square, auditorium, avenue, theatre...) and for STREET, fill in the exact address;
7.
It's very important to SELECT YOUR VENUE ON THE MAP using the map's interface. If you fail to present your action's venue using the map interface, no balloon will be shown on the homepage, and it will prove harder to find your action;
8.
To choose your action's location, click once on the map. It wil zoom in and centre on where you clicked, and a red balloon will appear. Keep on clicking until you find the exact location of your action;
9.
If you like, you can upload a PICTURE to identify your action;
10.
Write the names of one or more ORGANIZATIONS promoting the action (separated by commas);
11.
Classify your action with TAGS related to your action (separated by commas). If possible, you are welcome to use your native language as well as an international language.
12.
Click on SUBMIT.
Done! You'll be taken to your action page and you will see your Action Space menu on the right-hand side of the screen. If you want to modify anything or if you forgot to select your location in the map, just click on the Edit tab on the top of the page.
5) Adding content, bringing people together and making your action visible
Each Action Page includes the possibility of adding multimedia content. Check the right-hand menu which bears the name of the Action Space to:
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CREATE VIDEO: you can place a link from videos hosted by services like Youtube or Google Videos or upload your own directly to www.wsf2008.net (file size limited to 48MB);
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CREATE IMAGE: insert a title, describe your image, choose a gallery, use tags and send your image.
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CREATE A WIKI to build collaborative documents, pamphlets or even to plan action schedules or anything else you want.
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CREATE A MESSAGE that'll be sent by email to all your Action Space members (except the ones that choose not to receive email from the site)
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CREATE NEWS about your action, publish it and make it visible on the home-page;
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COMMENT on any document or action you wish;
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INVITE A FRIEND to join www.wsf2008.net and your Action Space. Just place her/his email on the box and click on SEND INVITE.
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Promote wsf2008.net by forwarding this newsletter to your contacts or insert a WSF banner on your website (down-load banners from the Promote section of the website).
6) Overcoming the language barrier:
We strongly recommend that you present actions, tags, Action Spaces and activity descriptions in an international language as well as your own language (e.g.: an Italian group could use “azione per silencio / action for silence”).
7) Understanding Action Spaces:
Actions and activity proposals are strictly connected to Action Spaces. These spaces provide an easy way to bring people together who share an interest in building an action or to share related documents, pictures and videos.
Actions Spaces allow contact between people, groups, organizations, entities or movements around one or more actions located in the same town. Every Action Space will:
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Necessarily be connected to a city;
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Have one or more related actions.
So, an Action Space can be used by:
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One organization to build or publicize an action;
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Several organisations willing to share the same space while co-organising one action or several actions that will happen in the same geographic area;
8) Joining and contributing to an existing Action Space:
1.
Action Space names are located at each Action page, just bellow the “select your country/region” button;
2.
After finding the desired Action Space, just click on Subscribe and confirm to join it. Note that some Action Spaces are moderated and don't allow people to join (see item 9 for more info).
Participants in an Action Space can:*
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Publicize meetings and preparatory activities for the Global Day of Action;
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Add an Action that will happen in the same town (as long it's agreed by Action Space moderators).
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Publish and comment on texts, images and videos;
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Build collective texts or discussions through wikis or write in existing ones;
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Send messages to other participants;
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Help organise an Action in your city or exchange information and ideas with people of Action Spaces located in cities far from you, linking your actions at a global level;
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Send messages to other participants to start discussions;
* Some of these options might be unavailable in a given Action Space, depending on the configuration set by its creator.
9) How to moderate an Action Space:
Some Action Spaces can be restricted to members only. The person who creates the Action Space by presenting the initial action can change its status.
1.
Go to the selected Action Space page;
2.
Click on the Edit tab on the top of the page;
3.
By clicking on SUBSCRIPTION REQUESTS you can set the access to OPEN (anyone can join), MODERATED (administrators have to approve requests to join), INVITE ONLY (administrators can send invitations asking possible members to join), CLOSED (administrators are the only ones responsible for subscribing or unsubscribing members)
10) Promote www.wsf2008.net
The PROMOTE button opens a page where you will find some banners to promote www.wsf2008.net. Save the pictures on you computer, and use them in your emails, blogs or websites. Spread the idea of another possible world and make it real on January 26th.
If you want to subscribe to the WSF Newsletter, please send a message to gerente@forumsocialmundial.org.br with the subject “SUBSCRIBE”. |
