Orientation for new users

Radio Authors (first group) by, Marc Pierson, July, 2002

Radio Userland is software desiged for communication within communities. It is open to the World Wide Web. Radio software is ideally suited for the "transparency" required by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Purusing Perfection Grant.

The material below is a brief introduction for first time users of Radio in our Pursuing Perfection projects. It is not a users manual for Radio. We will develop one of those soon.

Here is one example if you need to look before reading. Marc Pierson's Web Log 

• The big idea is that true communities need communication methods that support sharing  and open discussion. (Both through face-to-face  meetings and state-of-the-art web-based groupware.)
  • It is all about growing and supporting communities of learning
  • Radio supports "micropublishing" to the learning community through posts to the world wide web.
  • Sharing of ideas, hopes, dreams, experiences as well as sharing documents.
  • People who want a more interactive approach to our Pursuing Perfection work can join this electronic community by subscribing, reading, commenting, or having their own "newspaper" called a weblog.
  • The rest of the WWPP community has expressed interested in using this approach also: however, it seems inappropriate to roll it out there until we have worked out a general approach here.
  • Radio is more open than e-mail, more permanent than e-mail, and more reader selectable and searchable than e-mail
  • The content can be subscribed to, searched, categoriezed, filtered, and/or aggregated for readers.
• Key concepts (author, news, subscribe, category)
  • You do have an audience, people who want to know what you are doing.
    • Sometimes your audience is broader than our e-mail distribution lists (push).
  • There now can be a record of what you say and do for P2
  • People will be able to choose to subscribe to your "news" or not ("pull" rather than 'push" technology).
  • Eventually you should be able to subscribe to the news of anyone in WWPP.
  • There should generally be some news each week from each person or role who is actively engaged with the project.
  • Your news may be categoriezed so readers may choose to subscribe to only "sections" of your news.
  • Readers should be able to read, comment on, and/or republish your news. The connections (hyperlinks) to the original site go along when they are republish to another site.
  • You can e-mail links to your news items (push), or make a news item from an e-mail's body by cutting and pasting.
• Parts of Radio essential for starting (like Excel or Word there is a whole universe in there--later)
  • "News items"--weblogs (by author, by date)
  • "Subscription and syndication"--"news" (by author, by category if needed) Also the little orange coffee cup is the subscription link--RSS, real simple syndication.
  • "Comments" (either added at the bottomof the web post or by an e-mail reply) and discussion (by readers, by news item)
    • You will get an e-mail when you give a comment and when you receive a comment.
  • "Stories" (permanent, not by date, can be referred to, they are visible through "my stories")
    • Russ Lipton's explaination of posting stories to the WWW
  • "Shared active outlines" via the OPML coffee mug'
    • Must open the Radio Application from the "tray" at the bottom of your computer screen by right clicking on the little Radio icon.
  • The actual Radio application, is a world unto itself. You are only using a little web front-end for creating weblogs and stories. A programmer can make this puppy do real tricks. That is not for us now.
  • Search engine--Jack Mancilla and I are still selecting one. Hope to have it installed before your content requires it.
• Audiences? (=focus)
  • To start, write only for each other, the team
  • Then the people you are working with, within the community, within PeachHealth, within RWJF grantee community, especially the learning groups.
  • Especially, people who recieve healthcare in Whatcom County
  • And also, people who are interested in Pursing Perfection and the Chasm Report
• Content of your news?
  • What do people need to know?
  • Ask yourself does it need to be in context? Is it more meaningful in the context of the other things you have written?
• How will we begin?
  • We will load the Radio application on your computer. This is actually a web server that creates a web site and then sends the pages to a "community server" that others can access anytime they want, whether you are on line or not. They do not access your PC directly, ever.
  • We will set up custom features; eg, a custom "theme", some inital subscriptions, active renderer tool, etc. (we will create a detailed work list and instructions for those who have to set others up.)
  • We will give you some minimal/essential instructions, in person, and in writing,
  • We will all read each other's news feeds everyday and comment.
  • Jack Mancilla, Lori Nichols, and Marc Pierson will take your feedback and develop the sofware implementation and instructions to your liking. We will do this iteratively and continuously (PDCA).
  • Please be patient, forgiving, and forward-looking.
• We will show you Examples of:
  • News items  (weblogs )
  • Comments
  • Stories
  • News feeds (RSS feeds) subscriptions (a link that brings up your subscribed to news)
  • Radio application
  • Radion web front-end
  • Shared outlines
  • Active Renderer and active rendered outlines
  • OPML mug icon from which you subscribe to others shared outlines
  • Aggregated weblogs
• Help  by telephone, files, and links
  • Phones for now:
    • Lori--360-527-4535
    • Jack--858-278-7308
    • Marc--cell 739-2728
  • Avoid the help files and help links as long as possible, really. Have someone show you. It is easier.
• A start on the Simple Rules for Using Radio
  • Use e-mail when:
    • The communication is private
    • The communication is not useful for more than a day or so.
    • When you know who everyone is that needs to read it and you also know their e-mail addresses
  • Use IHI discussion groups when:
    • the rest of the broader community has no interest in the message.
  • Use categories when:.
    • You think that many readers would NOT want to read this information
• Wishes
  • Instant messaging through firewalls

© Copyright 2004 Marcus Pierson, MD . Last update: 7/26/2004; 9:31:58 PM . This theme was created for WWPP by Jack F. Mancilla