CHAPTER 4

Conferences are the areas for group discussion, the electronic meeting "places" of EIES^®, and similar to meeting rooms or classrooms. Conferences are generally used to work on projects or discuss certain topics with a group. Mail is normally used for private discussion between a few members.

4.1 Entering a Conference

To participate in a conference, return to homebase by clicking on the Homebase menu choice on any EIES^® screen. From the homebase menu bar, click on either Your Conferences (to get to the list of all conferences you belong to) or All Conference (to get to the list of all conferences on the system). You can also click on # Comments in # Conferences to get to the list of your conference that have waiting items in them. For demonstration purposes, please click on # Comments in # Conferences. You will see a screen called Waiting Conferences:

The Waiting Conference screen lists the name and number of all the conferences that you are a member of which have waiting items. It also lists how many waiting comments are in each conference.

If you are not a member of any conference it is probably a temporary oversight. Contact your group coordinator or account manager to find out which conferences you should join. To investigate other conferences yourself, see section {4.X}.

There are three fields on the table displayed on the Waiting Conferences screen. The first field, called Conference Directory, lists the conference number of your waiting conferences. If you click on the conference number you will be taken to the conference directory which lists information about the conference including the conference moderator and description.

To enter a conference click on the name of the conference which is located in the second field. Once you enter the conference you will be able to read the items that are waiting in it. The third field lists the number of waiting items in each conference.

When you enter a conference you will be taken to the Comments Waiting List screen. The name and number of the conference will be displayed at the top of the screen. You will also see a list of waiting comments in the content area. The screen will look like this:

Conference comments with decimal points are replies. For instance, in the screen illustration above, C35 was created with Compose while C31.1.2, C32.2, and C35.1 were created with the Reply command. EIES^® numbers them in this manner to indicate that they are responses to the original comment.

4.2 Reading Comments

As with mail, there are several ways to read your waiting conference comments. To read the items one at a time, click on the one line header of the comment you wish to view. To view all of your waiting comments, click on View All from the menu bar. This will display all of the items in one long page and may be slow if you have a large number of waiting items. The suggested way to view your waiting comments is to click on the one line header of the first waiting comment. Your first waiting comment will be displayed on a screen that looks like this:

Once you have read the comment, click on Accept to move the item to your accepted list and go to the next waiting comment. If you want to read that item again in the future simply click on Accepted. To go to the next waiting item without accepting the item you are currently viewing select Next. The current item will remain as waiting.

Some conference comments have attachments or activities associated with them. A button will appear after the text indicating that an attachment or an activity is attached. Click on the button to view the attachment or do the activity.

4.3 Writing Comments

When you wish to add a comment to a particular conference first enter the conference as explained in section 4.1. Then select Compose from the menu bar. EIES^® takes you to the Compose Item form. Use Compose if you are starting a new topic or conversation. If you want to respond to a comment which already exists, use Reply. The Reply option will automatically link your comment with the comment you are responding to.

The Compose Item form provides a number of fields for entering information. These fields are described below:

Field Name                         You type

Signature:                         The default signature type is your normal 

signature. If you wish to send the item 

anonymously or with a pen name, click on the 

arrow next to the word normal and select the type 

of signature you would like. Currently only 

normal and anonymous signatures are available.

Subject:                           The title or subject matter. Leave this field blank 

if you do not want to include a subject.

Keys:                              Words or phrases that might make it easier to find 

this comment later. If you have no keywords 

leave this field empty.

Please enter text below:           Type the text of your comment here.

Attached Item:                     Enter the number of any EIES® item you wish to 

include as an attachment to your message. All 

members of the conference will be able to view 

the item you attach. 

You may need to use your browser’s scroll bar to see the full text box where you type your mail and to see the Attached Item: field. Additionally, the text box for typing your item has its own scroll bar.

If you have made any errors in a field simply re-type the information in the field. If you no longer wish to submit the comment press your browser’s BACK key.

Once you have completed all the fields, click on the Submit Item button to submit your comment. EIES^® tells you that the item is being submitted into the conference. Note that you were not asked to name a person as recipient. All the members of this particular conference can see this comment. The comment is preserved in the system as an Accepted item. You may see this comment again by searching for it by the number it was assigned or by scanning through the accepted comments of the conference the item was added to. Important Note: You MUST click on the Submit button to send your item, otherwise it will not be sent.

4.4 Replying to Comments

If you wish to reply to a comment that another conference member has submitted, first view the item you want to reply to. Then select Reply from the menu bar. You will be taken to Reply form. This form is similar to the Compose Item form; however, the subject and keys of the original item (the comment you are replying to) are automatically filled in. You may change these fields by typing over the text that is in them.

The other difference between the Compose Item form and the Reply form is the anchor field. EIES^® allows you to anchor your reply within the item you are replying to. For example, imagine that you are replying to an item that your professor has submitted, inquiring about missing assignments. You can anchor your reply to the word assignment (additionally, if you have completed the assignment you can attach it to your reply). The following two screens illustrate this example:

To create an anchor, type the location where you would like the anchor to be placed in the Anchor at: field. The anchor location is simply the word (or group of words) contained in the original item. If you don’t remember the exact word or phrase, click the BACK button to return to the item you are replying to. Important Note: be sure to click the FORWARD button to return to the Reply form. If you click on the Reply button instead of FORWARD, anything that you typed in the Reply form will be lost. In the previous example, the student typed ‘Homework 4’ as the anchor location. If the professor (or anyone in the conference) views that comment the phrase ‘Homework 4’ will now be highlighted, and someone clicks on it, the student’s reply comment will be displayed.

If there are several occurances of the word or phrase you choose to anchor to, EIES^® will add the anchor to the first occurance. Additionally, a word or phrase can have only one anchor. In the above example, only one reply can be anchored to the phrase ‘Homework 4’.

When you have finished entering your reply click on the Submit Item button. EIES^® will add your reply to the conference and assign a number that will associate it with the comment you replied to. All members of the conference will be able to read your comment. A submission screen, indicating that the item has been submitted and the item number will be listed.

4.5 Accessing Accepted (old) Items

If you wish to see items that you have accepted or authored first enter the conference where the item was submitted. Then click on Accepted from the menu bar. A list of one line headers is displayed with the most recent items first.

You can perform the same actions on accepted comments as you do with waiting comments, such as view and search.

A conference usually has a number of different ongoing conversations. You may wish to read through an entire conversation. To do so, you’ll first need to determine the number of the item that began the discussion, this is called the root item. The root item does not have any decimal points in it. If you are viewing an item that is a reply (has one or several decimal points), the root item number is all the numbers to the left of the first decimal point. For example, if you are viewing CC25.2.1.1, the root item is simply CC25 (with no decimal point). To view the all the replies to the root item, first view the item. In the fill header of the item the word Replies: will be highlighted, followed by #/#. Click on the word replies to see a list of all replies that were made to that item.

4.6 Modifying and Deleting Comments

You may need to change or update some information you have submitted into a conference, or you may want to completely remove it. Only the author of a comment or the moderator of the conference may modify or delete an item. To change or remove a comment, you first need to view the item.

To remove an item from the system you must view the item you wish to delete from the Accepted List. Click on Delete from the menu bar. EIES^® will present a Delete Item form. The one line header of the item to be deleted will be displayed. Below the header EIES^® will ask: Are you sure you want to delete this item ?. Click on Yes to delete the item or No if you changed your mind or if this is not the item you wish to remove. EIES^® will indicate that the item has been deleted.

Click on Modify from the menu bar if you want to make changes to an item. EIES^® will present a Modify Item form. The subject, keys, and text of the item will be displayed in the text boxes. To make changes simply type over the information that is listed in the text boxes. When you have completed your changes move to the bottom of the page where you will see "Are you sure you want to modify this item ?" Click on the Yes button to go ahead and modify the item or click on No if you have changed your mind. Important Note: You MUST click on the Yes button to, otherwise the changes will not be made. After you click Yes the item will be displayed with your modifications.

4.7 Searching for Items

The EIES^® search facility locates an item based upon a criterion that you set. EIES^® will examine only the items within the conference where you execute the search. If you wish to search all your conference (and mail) for a particular item, use the global search offered at Homebase.

You can search for items by a particular author, keyword, date, text phrase, or item number. If you wish to locate a particular item in a conference, click on Search from the menu bar. EIES^® will take you to the Conference Search form which looks like this:

Click on the type of seach you wish to perform (the box or circle located to the left of the type of search should be filled in). If you want to search by keyword, author, or text, enter the specific information you want to search for in the field labeled ‘Search for:’. For example, if you wanted to search for all items in the conference that were written by Mary Poppins, select Search by Author, type Mary Poppins (or her EIES^® User ID) in the Seach for: field, and then click on the Submit Search button.

If you wish to search for comments based on the date they were submitted or the item numbers, click on the type of search and enter the range of dates (or item numbers) you wish to find. For example, to search for all items that were submitted to the conference during the first week on June, 1996, select Search by Date. In the Date From(mm/dd/yy): field type 06/16/96. In the To(mm/dd/yy): field type 06/0796. Note that the dates must be in the format numeric month/numeric day/numeric year.

If no items are found that meet the criterion you selected, EIES^® will display No items found.

4.8 How to Find a Conference

EIES^® has many conferences open to new members. To see a list of these conferences, go to HOMEBASE, and then select All Conferences. Every conference, including conferences to which you do not currently belong, is listed here. The table that lists all conferences looks like this:

The first column lists the number of the conference. Click on any conference number to get the description of that conference. The second column lists whether a conference is public or private. Public conferences are open to all EIES^® members. The membership of private conferences is controlled by the moderator. The conference name is listed in the third column, followed by the User Id of the moderator. Finally the last column allows you to join a public conference, or send mail to the moderator of a private conference requesting to be added to that conference.

4.9 Your Conference Colleagues

If you wish to see a list of the members in a particular conference, click on Members from any menu bar within the conference. The Conference User List displays all the members of the conference and keeps track of the number of waiting comments each member has yet to read. The nickname of each member is highlighted. If you click on a members nickname that user directory will be diplayed.

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