1. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 1 Hermann Maurer Graz / Austria Chair, Informatics Section Annual Conference of Academia Europaea Leuven, September 2010 The new INFOrmation and COMMunication Server of the Academia Europaea

2. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 2 Part I: Main aims of the server (1)To present the achievements of Academia Europaea, its sections and its members to members, various GO‘s and NGO‘s, and the public. For this we need solid material, but also enjoyable to read stuff, not just dry data. (2) To allow communication between members, also in closed user groups for discussions, e.g in connection with nominations.

3. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 3 Part I: Main aims of the server (1)To present the achievements of Academia Europaea, its sections and its members to members, various GO‘s and NGO‘s, and the public. For this we need solid material, but also enjoyable to read stuff, not just dry data (2) To allow communication between members, also in closed user groups for discussions, e.g in connection with nominations (3) To allow communication between members and the public in a variety of ways: (i) someone wants to find a specialist in some area (ii) Someone wants to ask a question hoping to get a good answer (?) (iii) Someone wants to pre-publish a paper and learn from comments (?) In essence: a lively, informative and interactive server

4. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 4 Implications: Must be extremely easy to use (1)For reading only: no log-in (2) Clear structure (3) Powerful search function (4) Separation of general matters from sectional concerns and member presentation (5) Guides for newcomers

5. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 5 Implications: Must be extremely easy to use (1)For reading only: no log-in (2) Clear structure (3) Powerful search function (4) Separation of general matters from sectional concerns and member presentation (5) Guides for newcomers (6) For commenting (everywhere) or for contributions of own material or discussions in CUG login with username and password necessary, but must be very simple. (7) Username: First letter of first name, and family-name i.e. Hermann Maurer yields hmaurer. NEW: No need to remember the password. Type username, you get a new password.

6. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 6 Let us first look at the entry page of the new server www.ae-info.org If you forget the URL, go to the main server www.acadeuro.org and click there at the button: Part II: Some examples from the server: Next, we will see the start page of the INFO-COMM server a number of times. Each time we will explain some features. Explanations are in red.

7. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 7 Let us start e.g. with a click at Sections

8. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 8 Choose now one section, e.g. Informatics

9. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 9 You get information on the section committee, other infos (see later) and maybe some extras. Next, we show not extras for Informatics but for Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

10. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 10 The next page shows how much the fish population in the Atlantic has been reduced.

11. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 11 Taken with permission from Jeremy Jackson‘s talk at last year‘s general conference in Naples.

12. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 12 Let us look at one more Section, Mathematics

13. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 13 The information on each section also contains an alphabetic list of activities of members

14. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 14 Suppose we or someone in Brussels is interested in specialists in cohomological dimension, whatever that is: click at Go to and get on next page (an) expert(s) in the area

15. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 15 Here is a specialist!

16. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 16 We have tried out „Sections“ before, now let us try out „Forums“.

17. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 17 We will look e.g. at the Alphabetic list, but don‘t forget to check the other blogs at some stage!

18. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 18 Many explanations you might be interested in!

19. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 19 Also try out the other options, like this one!

20. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 20 On the main entry page there are many other options. Like you may want to look for some member or your personal area

21. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 21 Searching for a member or yourself : Buttom on start page: Click Click on Search Continued on next page!

22. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 22 Searching for a member or yourself : Buttom on start page: Click Click on Search gives alternatives if name is not found Click on Walløe results in: One more click gives next page

23. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 23 Click here gives new page

24. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 24

25. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 25 Let us try one more button

26. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 26 Note we also try to keep track of members that have passed away. We need help from members with obituaries!

27. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 27 In addition to highlights, this is also useful

28. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 28 Part III: Further examples and features Look at what you get here (shown on next page)

29. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 29 This is the upper part of the „Administration page“. If you click at the little red flag you get a map, of course, shown to the right.

30. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 30 This is the lower part of the „Administration page“, shows team in Graz/ Austria and the flag a map. Note the number of objects on the server Note the number of members with substantial information

31. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 31 This button can be used to search for a member (shown already before) or it can be used to find all members of a section, of a coutnry, or all members in a certain section and a certain country

32. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 32 Try out the many other features yourself!

33. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 33 Part IV: A short tutorial If you just want to read, you need not log in, just go to www.ae-info.org and use one of the navigational buttons or the search field. You can enter a full word, an initial part of a word followed by *, a phrase surrounded by “ and you can use logical connectives. Also, you can choose fulltext or not, and category or not. If filled out with nobel* as shown below all pages containing a word starting with nobel will be found

34. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 34 Why you should log in and how to log in You should always log in, because only if you do you can add a comment to anything you see (the person whose entry you comment will be automatically notified), and only if you are loged-in can you edit information in your personal area and contribute in one of the discussion forums/ blogs. So, how does login work? It is very easy, but you need your user-name and your password.

35. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 35 Why you should log in and how to log in You should always log in, because only if you do you can add a comment to anything you see (the person whose entry you comment will be automatically notified), and only if you are loged-in can you edit information in your personal area and contribute in one of the discussion forums/ blogs. So, how does login work? It is very easy, but you need your username and your password. Your username is the first letter of your first name, and then your family name. Thus, a Henry Brown would have username hbrown. In some cases, your username is a bit different, either due to letters not available on an English keyboard, or because two members happen to end up with the same username. In doubt, to find your user name, go to the button “List of members” and now either type in you surname (or select your country and section, giving you a list of all persons fitting…including you.) When found, click at your name. You will come to your personal entry page. The top of this page contains the information from the HQ database, including your E-Mail address and your user-name.

36. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 36 How do you get your password? … Well, one was sent to you at some stage, but you probably don‘t remember. On the entry page www.ae-info.org click at Get Password: Now you get: You type in your username and click at „Send me new password“. Now, a new password is sent to your E-Mail (to the one on your personal entry page)

37. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 37 Now you have a user-name and password. So now, on the entry page www.ae-info.org click at Login: Now you get: Fill in „Username“, „Password“, possibly click at „Rember me“ (so the computer remembers your Password for the next loging), then click at „Login“. The system will welcome you by name in one of the top lines. Note: Since the randomly generated password that was sent to you is hard to remember, once you logged-in, you may use the button „Change Password“ that is now visible where we had „Login“ before, to set your password to something you can remember.

38. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 38 When you are logged-in you can: --- make a comment to any page you see --- contribute to any of the Forums --- edit information in your personal area How to write a comment You just click at the button „Comment“. You now see an empty page. You can now type anything you want. At the end you click at „Save“. In this fashion you create a page with just lines of text. You can write fancier comments by using a few simple markups. This is explained under „Writing a Comment“ under „List of Topics“, to which you come by clicking at „Forums“. The top part of that page is shown on the following slide. For more „markups“ have a look at the Help function, always visible on the right side of pages

39. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 39 This is the top part of the page that shows how to write comments.

40. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 40 How to contribute to one of the topics under „Forums “ Just pick the topic you are interested in. Click at „Create a new page“. Now you have to enter a simple title (no special characters except spaces, - and _, please). After doing so click at „OK“. An empty page is now displayed on which you can enter information exactly as if you were writing a comment, hence I repeat from the previous discussion: You can now type anything you want. At the end you click at „Save“. In this fashion you create a page with just lines of text. You can produce fancier pages by using a few simple markups. A bit is explained under „Writing a Comment“ under „List of Topics“, to which you come by clicking at „Forums“.

41. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 41 How to edit something in your personal area If you want to change something on your personal entry page, just look at the page a bit carefully, and then click at „Edit page“. You will see now the code that correponds to the page, and you will find it easy by analogy to enter a new award, change an area of interest, etc. The same is true with your publication list, CV etc., with two exceptions: (1)If you want to change a PDF file, just delete the PDF file and upload the changed version. (2) If you go to „Highlights“ or „Other Information“ you can either „Edit“ a page, or you can „Create a new page“. Titles of such additional pages are listed automatically in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

42. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 42 Part V : The Future --- Comments will be replaced by full discussion forums that can be open for the public or just CUG‘S (closed user groups, like all members of a section, all council members, all members of a section committee, etc. ) This requires to edit user-groups and their access rights --- We will develop forms to be used for nominating new members with an associated „workflow“ --- The integration of data of new members will be more automated --- We will have a separate data-base for past members --- The presentation of activities on all levels in a way that is both informative and interesting to read, and the close collaboration with the E-Zine and other HQ publications and activities will have to be increased

43. www.ae-info.org The new INFO-COMM server: © H. Maurer AE Conference Leuven 2010 43 We have many further ideas what the INFO-COMM Server should be good for! Send us your suggestions, criticism and ideas to hmaurer@iicm.edu … or better yet, write a contribution in one of the blogs under Forums! And, please, send us news items, pictures, essays, reports on upcoming and past events, new and exciting discoveries or projects, and, and, and,… to make this server a truly spectacular presentation of Academia Europaea. Thanks to the many who have helped us so much in the first critical phase of the server! Hermann Maurer and his team