Features of the ALA Online Communities

Threaded Discussion. Also described as bulletin boards, topics can be created by members and others can reply. Feature-rich discussions can accomodate emoticons, sharing links and images, avatars representing the member, quoting what another person wrote, and so on. ALA will be using Sympa for threaded discussion outside of the online communities; integration with Sympa would be an added bonus.

Shared Links. A section of each community should exist where members can share links to other web sites. Each shared link should have a URL, a name, and an annotation.

Shared Files. A section of each community should exist where members can share uploaded files. Each shared file should have a filename, a document name, and an annotation. ALA would provide the Consultant with a list of acceptable file types.

Event Calendar. Each event should have a date, a start and end time, a name, and an annotation. Users should be able to add events to a calendar at three different levels:

• Private: Events added with this status will only be visible to the individual user.
• Community: Events added with this status will be visible to everyone in the community currently being visited by the user adding the event.
• Global: Events added with this status will be visible to everyone in all communities. The ability to add Global events should be available only to Global administrators (see Security).

Chat. Similar to Internet Messenger or other chat systems, formal and informal discussions can be held online. Any community member should be able to initiate a chat with any combination of the following options:

• Private chat between invited members of a community
• Open chat for all members of a given community
• Save this chat's transcript
• Chat open to members of other communities
• Moderated chat Within a given chat session, the following options should be available:
• Block a user/Ignore a user
• Send working URLs within chat
• Find out who else is logged in
• Format text (bold, color, etc.)
• View a list of current participants in the chat
• Click on links to other current participants' profiles

Chat should not allow the inclusion of any files or images (for secruity purposes).

Archives. Archives of each community should be both searchable by keyword using Boolean search and browsable by either date or subject (ALA will provide a controlled vocabulary for subjects). The archives should include all threaded discussions, shared files, shared links, and chat transcripts. Users should be allowed to limit their search to a specific community, or to search globally across all committees, with the understanding that the user will not be able to view search results for communities of s/he is not a member. There should be some sort of visual cue or icon displayed to indicate that a search result is unavailable to the person searching.

Polling. Simple multiple-choice polls allowing only one vote per member can be created. Global administrators should be allowed to "push" a poll to all communities.

Member Profile/Business Card. Each member should have a profile, with the following fields:

• Username (this is the only required field)
• Image (.gif or .jpg)
• Email address (with option to keep hidden or display to all)
• Web URL
• IM screen names (Yahoo!, AOL, ICQ, etc.)
• Online status (with option to keep hidden or display to all)

The email address should be pulled from iMIS.

White Board. Group members are enabled to work together on a common document using file sharing and software tools.