[URBANTH-L]NEWS: World Social Forum Bulletin

[Angela Jancius]

World Social Forum Bulletin

December 14th 2007

Make it happen: wsf2008.net is online for the Global Day of Action

 1) WSF2008.net is a place for visualising, showing
    and organising actions
 2) Looking for actions and finding content
 3) Registering on the website
 4) Presenting an action
 5) Adding content, bringing people together and
    making your action visible
 6) Overcoming the language barrier
 7) Understanding Action Spaces
 8) Joining and contributing to an existing Action
    Space
 9) How to moderate an Action Space
10) Promote www.wsf2008.net


Make it happen: wsf2008.net is online for the Global Day
of Action 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

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.

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.

Each action can be "tagged", which means associating
keywords with the contents. A list of TAGs is available
at the bottom of homepage.

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.

a) Select CLICK HERE TO REGISTER;

b) 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");

c) 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;

d) Use the ORGANIZATIONS field to write the names of
   groups, networks, or movements which will be
   participating (separated by commas);

e) Add TAGS to identify the themes of your activities
   and interests (separated by commas);

f) 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).

a) At the home page, click on PRESENT AN ACTION;

b) Choose a TITLE and DESCRIBE your Action, including
   any external links you want;

c) If your action already has dates and a venue for
   taking place, choose CONFIRMED on ACTION STATUS.
   Otherwise, leave it as PROPOSED;

d) 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;

e) 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;

f) 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;

g) 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;

h) 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;

i) If you like, you can upload a PICTURE to identify
   your action;

j) Write the names of one or more ORGANIZATIONS
   promoting the action (separated by commas);    k)
   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.

  l) 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:

   - CREATE VIDEO: you can place a link from videos
   hosted by services like Youtube or Google Videos or
   upload your own directly to wsf2008.net (file size
   limited to 48MB);

 - CREATE IMAGE: insert a title, describe your image,
   choose a gallery, use tags and send your image.

 - CREATE A WIKI to build collaborative documents,
   pamphlets or even to plan action schedules or
   anything else you want.

 - 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)

 - CREATE NEWS about your action, publish it and make
   it visible on the home-page;

 - COMMENT on any document or action you wish;

 - INVITE A FRIEND to join wsf2008.net and your Action
   Space. Just place her/his email on the box and click
   on SEND INVITE.

 - PROMOTE wsf2008.net by forwarding this newsletter
   to your contacts or insert a WSF banner on your
   website (download 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:

   - Necessarily be connected to a city;
   - Have one or more related actions.

So, an Action Space can be used by:
   - One organization to build or publicize an action;
   - 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

a) Action Space names are located at each Action
   page, just bellow the "select your country/region"
   button;

b) 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:*

   - Publicize meetings and preparatory activities for
   the Global Day of Action;

 - Add an Action that will happen in the same town (as
   long it's agreed by Action Space moderators).

 - Publish and comment on texts, images and videos;

 - Build collective texts or discussions through wikis
   or write in existing ones;

 - Send messages to other participants;

 - 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;

 - 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.

a) Go to the selected Action Space page;

b) Click on the Edit tab on the top of the page;

c) 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.



WSF Office - Brazil
Address: Rua General Jardim, 660, 7th floor, Sao Paulo -
SP- Brasil, Zip Code: 01223-010
Website: www.forumsocialmundial.org.br


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