This ad-free communications platform (terms and conditions, privacy policy) features the most effective web-based communication tools for engaging all community members in highly interactive conversations:
- Discussions resemble brainstorming sessions in which topics are initiated and developed by anyone in the community while each topic has its dedicated visual space. As a result, the whole community benefits from collective and focused consideration of their interests and concerns.
- Blog posts are similar to workshops which start with domain experts' presentations (the posts) followed by Q&A sessions (the corresponding comments). Consequently, the blog authors get instant feedback from readers while the readers gets clarifications directly from the authors.
- Chats
facilitate quick information exchanges at both community and individual levels.
- Events calendar allows organization of synchronous communication space and therefore complete a nice set of community communication modalities.
As everything is written down and reorganizable in a highly searchable manner, the created content immediately becomes valuable references and contexts for more effective conversations in the future.
Content classification is facilitated by a compact system of self-explanatory and color-coded tags (as shown in the article image of this post). Discussions and Blog posts are the only obligatory tags which need assigning to original posts (OPs) at their creation. Authors of OPs can further characterize their key intentions using the second-level tags:
- Discussions
- ask
questions
- share
ideas
- report
issues
- Blog posts
- create
resources
- make
announcements
- publish
reviews
They can also use three types of nonhierarchical tags (not mutually exclusive) to better describe their OPs:
- relevance scopes:
GSAS, GSA, ISSO, library , platform (this communication platform), others
- feature restrictions:
no-viewcount (disable view count of particular posts), nonpublic (hide particular posts from nonmembers of this platform)
- experimental (preserved for newly introduced tags which may not end up being officially adopted):
test (posts created for testing purposes)
In addition to these pre-defined tags, you can create your own hashtags (e.g.
#getstarted).
🥳🥳🥳 Now, you should be ready to explore our space. Enjoy! 🎉🎉🎉
🗒️ All discussions and blog posts are listed on the platform's homepage, easily accessed by clicking Communications Platform for Brandeis GSAS Students (at the top left of the platform interface).
🗒️ Move your cursor around the platform interface to discover more handy features.
🗒️ Follow the discussions you are interested in to be notified (via email) about their updates.
🔧 If you need help, create a discussion about your question/issue. If you cannot use the platform at all, email me (alexluu@brandeis.edu).