Download - Using Dgroups in all its features
DCommunities webinar series
25 March 2015
Using Dgroups in all its features
Meet the facilitation team
Pier Andrea PiraniEuforic Services – Dgroups Coordination Support
Lucie LamoureuxKM4D Associates
Ivan KulisECDPM
Why DCommunities webinar series?
Response to Dgroups partners request
Engaging members requires care, skills and time
Pilot - 3 free webinars to learn
Dgroups platform
Online community building basics
Facilitation tips and tricks
Today’s programme – 90 minutes
• What is Dgroups
• Communities and sub-communities
• Users, members and admins
a. Background and key concepts
• Moderation 101
• Useful tips & tricks
b. Using Dgroups email • Main group settings
• Appearance
• Email settings
• Membership
• Library
c. Using Dgroups website
Dgroups is…
A partnership
A web based
platform
A global public good
Dgroups partnership
Dgroups platform – Key data 700+ active communities
150,000+ active users, working in International & intergovernmental organizations Government agencies National and international NGOs ICT- and knowledge focused institutes Interested individuals Professional groups
400,000+ email messages delivered each day over 50% of emails exchanged with & within African
countries
Dgroups platform – Key features
Simple
Multilingual
Flexible and scalable
Non commercial
Respectful of privacy
Targeted at low bandwidth users in the South
Hosted, maintained and developed by WA-
Research in Switzerland
Dgroups as a global public good
Dgroups make platform available to actors across
the development sector
Dgroups hosts a large 'family' of discussion
groups related to international development
Key concepts – Email and web
Core technology
Most effective way to contribute
Discussion archive
Members’ profile
Administration and settings
web space
Key concepts – Communities
Community (or group)
Members + content (discussions and resources)
Unique email address and web address
dgroups.org/groupname)
Short name = email subject prefix [groupname]
Moderated, unmoderated, invisible to other system
users, invitation only…
Key concepts- Hierarchy
Parent and sub-communities
Main
Sub1
Sub-sub1
Sub2 Sub3
url organization
dgroups.org/main/sub1
Membership goes
up-stream
Administration goes
downstream
Key concepts – Users, members and
admins
• Person with a profile on dgroups.orgUser
• User with access to a groupMember
• Member with full control on a groupAdministrator
Your turn now!
B. Working with email
Email moderation
Core email commands – Mail or no
mail?
To stop receiving email from one group
To start (again) receiving emails
Core email commands – email
digests
Core email commands –
Unsubscribe and contact admin
To unsubscribe from a group
To contact group admin(s)
Is it possible to insert pictures in the
text body of an email message?
How you do it?
Send from your email client
Make sure the size is < 300KB
How does Dgroups handle
attachments?
If < 500 KB
– delivered as normal email attachments
How does Dgroups handle
attachments?
If > 500 KB
- removed and substituted with a link
- document is uploaded in the library
Note: Depending on your group settings, users may need to login to view the document
Your turn now!
C. Working with website
What will we look at?
1. Your account
2. Main group settings
3. Appearance
4. Email settings
5. Membership
6. Library
7. Discussions
1. Your account
Your account - Preferences
2. Main group settings
Edit community settings
● visibility and
contributions
● documents
download
● list of members
and email
addresses
Tabs and moderation
RSS and sharing
3. Appearance
Upload banner image
Image size: 1100 pixels wide - 280 pixels high, or
a multiple of these dimensions
The system will proportionally resize the image to
fit into 1100x280, center it, and pad with white
background if the resized image is smaller
Edit welcome message
● Message that members will see on group
homepage AFTER loggin ino to explain group
purpose and
scope,
provide useful
links, etc…
Edit public homepage
● Text that users will see on group homepage
BEFORE loggin onto the group
Privacy policy
4. Email settings
Email footer - Example
Edit email footer
Edit welcome email
sent to a new community member when that
person accepts an invitation, or a request to join
is accepted
View all emails - Dgroups InboxWhatever messages the Dgroups email server
receives for a specified group, Dgroups will
list them in the Inbox
Your turn now!
5. Membership
Add vs. invite new member
Add member Invite member
● Silently add member ● Send out email
invitation● Users have to
accept it
● Usually takes longer
Share “join group” link
Each group has a join group link
https://dgroups.org/groupname/join
Members tab - Overview
Members tab - List
Members tab - Invitations
Membership request
6. Library
Folders, documents and links
Open, edit and move files
7. Discussions
Edit, move, delete messages
Moving messages
Select the thread you want to move the message
to
Or start a new one
Confirm move
Pending contributions
Useful pages commands / Stats
Stats download - /admin/stats/downloads.csv
Moving a sub-community
Moving a community/sub-community
http://dgroups.org/[top level community]/[sub-community]/move?to=/[top level community]/[destination sub-community]
Your turn now!
DCommunities webinar series
25 March 2015
Using Dgroups in all its features
