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Site-Based Conference Permissions Version 1.0

Conferences are online forums for user collaboration, letting a number of users exchange information online. Conferences are often compared to electronic bulletin boards, making a conference an ideal virtual workspace for ongoing online discussions. Conferences offer subscribers a shared “public mailbox” as a repository for messages and documents on a particular topic. The threading of messages within a conference maintains the integrity of the topic, keeping all related correspondence in the same place. Using conferences can save maintenance time. It is possible to use a mail list for sending mail messages to the same group of people, however, you have to create the mail list yourself and update it as people enter and leave the group. There are several advantages to communicating using conferences: • A message sent to a conference can be read by many users • Conferences you are subscribed to do not count against your disk space. • Users are not burdened with the task of saving and storing messages • Conferences act as a repository for messages and can easily be accessed and

archived • Conferences are integrated with email functionality, so the user can simply click

“Reply” to respond to the conference • Staff become accountable to keep abreast of ongoing discussions, information, and

decisions, rather than an email list pushing out the information to staff • Some face-to-face meetings could be eliminated if staff utilizes the conference for

updates that would normally be given out in a face-to-face meeting. BEFORE permissioning your conferences and creating sub-conferences,

PLAN AHEAD- Create a Road Map! Meet with your administrator to discuss your site’s use of conferences.

Consider the following: • What do you want to accomplish through the use of conferences? • What is your conference structure? • What method will work best for your needs? Email? Mail Lists? Conferences? • What types of conferences are needed? • How many conferences do you need? • Who will have access to your conferences?

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• What do you want them to be able to do? • Who needs to be provided specific permissions? • Will the conference support document postings? Calendars?

CAB Administrator has assigned you the appropriate permissions as your site’s conference controller to create and control your site-based conference. This includes the ability to create sub-conferences and permission them accordingly for your site. In the case of your site conference, the job of making sure the correct people have access to your site conference is completed and up to date as the CAB Administrator adds your staff to the List of Subscribers for your site conference. To see your subscribers, click on your site conference on your desktop. In the menu bar, click on Collaborate > Permissions and the permissions form for your site conference will open. If you are the site controller, your name will appear under ‘Who”. Your staff will be listed under the “List of subscribers”. Shortcut: Click on site conference Command ; (Macintosh) Control ; (Windows)

What are the default conference permissions? By default, when a new conference is created every user on CAB has Contributor access. A Contributor can open a conference, send items to it, read items that have been posted, delete their own entries, view the conference permission form, and view the history of an item. However, if a user is not subscribed to a conference (allowing the conference to appear on the CAB desktop), the user will only be able to send messages to the conference.

Site Owner

Site OwnerStaff 1Staff 2Staff3

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What are the common conference permissions? Generally, each conference will have the following three permission combinations: Contributor, Reader, and Disallowed. Here are examples: A department team leader could be given either Moderator or Controller permissions to a sub-conference for their team. A clerical staff member could be given specific permissions to put events on a calendar within the site conference and all other staff could have read-only access. Some of the other conference permission levels:

Moderator or Controller – People who need the greatest amount of freedom over a conference are usually given either moderator or controller permissions. If you want the designated user to create sub-conferences they require Controller access; otherwise they may be designated as Moderator. In addition, any user who needs to create conferences requires the Create Conference privilege, which is assigned to their account centrally. Contributor – Users who need the ability to send messages to a conference should be designated as Contributors. Reader - This permission is suitable for people who need to see conference messages, but are not allowed to send messages. For example, administration might be given permission to post messages and upload documents into a Staff Communication sub-conference, but all other staff would have Reader access so they can view and open items in the sub-conference. Custom – Access is defined by the individual permissions that are selected. If you customize one of the other access levels, it automatically becomes the Custom access level. Disallowed – Users designated as Disallowed are prevented from reading messages or sending messages to a conference. If you want to prevent people from sending messages to a conference you have to explicitly take away send access. Use the “All Users” group to accomplish this.

How are conference permissions determined?

• When a user opens a conference, CAB checks the user's permissions for that conference.

• The conference permissions determine the level of access for a user, or group of users.

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• To determine the permissions for the user, CAB automatically completes the following steps:

• Starting at the top of the permissions, CAB checks the first entry in the list to see if it applies to the user.

• If the permission applies, CAB assigns the permissions granted by that entry and stops checking.

• If the permission does not apply, CAB checks each entry in turn, until it finds the user's name or a group to which the person belongs.

• If no specific permission is granted the user gets the default permission, which is Contributor.

The names of the users and user groups for whom you want to specify levels of access are listed in the “Who” field. You must list users and user groups in the “Who” field in the correct order to make their permissions work as you want. Make sure you are familiar with the access levels available, before deciding on the order in which to enter your users and user groups.

How do I add entries to a Permissions list?

Before you change permissions or add sub-conferences and permission them, make sure your “Road-Map” is in place. (See page 1 of this document.) As the site conference controller or creator of a

Important Note:

Put individual people first, with highest to lowest permissions, then groups from highest to lowest.

If you use the All Users group, it should always be the last entry in the Who section of the Conference Permission form, because it has the lowest permission level.

individual user

specific group

general group

Site controller

Site group

All Users

PERMISSION HIERARCHY IN WHO FIELD

1

2

3

Site Owner

Site OwnerStaff 1

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sub-conference, you may use the Permissions list to more specifically assign rights to the site conference or a sub-conference that you have created. To give a user or user group permissions to a conference, add the name to the Permissions list on the Permissions form of that conference as follows:

1. Select the conference to which you want to give a user or user group a subscription.

2. Choose Conferencing > Permissions. 3. Click on an empty line under the Who field in the Permissions list

4. Type the name of the user or user group and press <Enter> or <Tab >

5. Click the drop-down list under Access; select one of the standard access levels (described above).

6. Close the Conference Permissions form.

Your changes are saved automatically when you close this form.

In this EXAMPLE: The site owner is listed first with the highest level of permissions as the conference controller. The site group is second with Contributor access. “Internet” and “All Users” are grouped third and fourth with no access- Disallowed. This will deny anyone other than the site subscribers to access the site conference via email.

What are the other icons on the Permissions form? About – Just as users may have a resume, as conference controller you may create a resume for your conference. This may be useful to let users know the intended purpose of your conference. To edit the resume for a conference, click the “About” button in the Permissions form. Message – You may generate a message using your conference name as the From: address.

Site OwnerSite GroupInternetAll Users

Site OwnerStaff 1Staff 2Staff 3

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Mail Rules - You can set up mail rules that tell FirstClass (CAB) how to handle mail received by a conference just as you would your Mailbox. The Rules for a conference are accessed via the “Rules” button on the Permissions form. Directory- All conferences and sub-conferences appear in the CAB Directory. Placing a check in the box next to ‘unlisted’ will not list the conference in the Directory. This restricts users from addressing an email to the conference via the Directory. A user can create an email and send it to the conference from within the conference or by Reply to a posting in the conference. Approval – To facilitate a moderated discussion, you may use the “Messages require approval” option. When selected, any messages posted by Contributors will arrive in an un-approved state, shown visibly by the sender’s name appearing in italics. A moderator or controller must be designated to approve individual messages by highlighting an item and selecting Collaborate > Approve. Only approved messages may be read by other users with Contributor or Reader access.

Limits/Handling– This option can impose size limits on messages and how to handle messages larger than the limit. Expiry – Messages may be set to expire after a given time period, or after a given number of messages are present in a conference. If you do not explicitly assign the message expiration time, messages in your conference will expire (automatically be deleted) after 400 days.

How do I create a sub-conference within my site conference? If you have been designated as the site conference controller, you may set up new conferences within your site conference. Creating sub-conferences within the Site Conference is the proper way to create other conferences for your site to access. It does not take utilize space from your personal disk allocation. To create a sub-conference:

1. Open the site conference

2. Choose File > New > New Conference.

3. Open the conference's properties by highlighting the conference icon and

selecting File > Properties (Windows) or File > Get Info (Macintosh)

4. Type the conference name in the “Name” field. Adhere to naming

conventions using the ship-to code at the beginning of the conference

name. Example: A conference for the Lauderhill Paul Turner

Shortcut: Click the name of the New Conference icon twice to make it editable, type the conference name. Press the <Tab> key.

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administrators would be named: LHE Admin

5. If desired, type a short description of the conference in “Subject”. Click “OK” to save

changes.

6. Sub-conferences will inherit the permissions of the site conference unless permissions

are otherwise applied.

REMEMBER: Conferences that you create within your site-based conference do not take away from your own disk space allocation. Helpful tip: Post an “About this conference” document in the main window of the conference to briefly describe the purpose of the conference and how to use the features. If there is a conference moderator, it could also contain moderator information and how to contact them, as well as information on conference netiquette. A conference icon is red flagged when the conference contains unread mail, just like your personal mailbox. However the site conference will not be flagged if the new mail or document is sent to the sub-conference.

How do I subscribe a user to a conference and how does a user get a conference on their desktop? Subscribers vs. Permissions As indicated previously, the permission’s form List of Subscribers field lists the

Additional information is located in “Get Info” for the conference. Unread Indicates the conference contains unread messages. Protected Prevents the conference from being changed, moved, or deleted. Auto open Makes the conference open automatically if it contains unread messages.

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names of users who have that conference on their Desktops. The Who, Access, and Permissions fields determine the access rights of individuals and groups.

By default, every user has a copy of their site conference directly on their desktop and that user will appear in the List of Subscribers for the site conference. NEVER delete user names from the List of Subscribers for the main Site Conference. Any sub-conferences you create within your site conference are housed within the site conference on the user’s desktop. If a user wants to add a sub-conference to their desktop, they should highlight the sub-conference and click on the menu Collaborate>Add to desktop. As conference controller, you may explicitly place a conference on another user’s desktop by adding the user’s name to the subscriber list; likewise, you may remove your conference from a user’s desktop by removing the User name from the List of Subscribers.

Conference Permissions icons There are 17 possible permissions that you control. Edit Permissions The most powerful permission. It grants the user the right to edit the

Permissions form, and the right to add new users into the Permissions list.

Moderator Indicates that the user is a moderator of the conference, but does not assign any permissions.

Delete any item Allows user to delete any item, even those sent by other users, and to drag items into folders.

Create Items Allows user to create documents and folders within a conference. It also grants the power to drag items into a conference.

Edit read only items

Allows user to edit all messages, even messages sent by other users. When a message is edited, an entry is added to the history log of the message.

Edit items Allows user to edit documents in the conference.

Save window & view properties

User can move, resize the conference window, and move the split bar position. These changes will be saved and will apply whenever another user opens the conference. Also allows the user to set the view properties for the conference.

Approve items Allows user to open unapproved items and approve them. Items sent by users with this privilege are automatically approved.

Delete own items Allows user to delete messages he or she has sent.

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Open conferences Allows user to view the initial list of messages in the conference. If a user does not have this permission, he or she cannot open the conference.

Search items Allows user to search within this conference. Note: User must also have the

Search privilege enabled in the User Information form or user group form.

Send items

Allows user to send to the conference. Note: User must also have the Conferencing privilege enabled in the User Information form or a User group form.

Open items Allows user to open messages and files.

Create sub-conferences

Allows user to create sub conferences within this conference, if their account is enabled with the Create Conference ability on the User Information form or User group form.

Download files & attachments

Allows user to download files and attachments from the conference. Note: User must also have the Download privilege enabled in the User Information form or User group form.

View permissions Allows user to view the Permissions form.

View history Allows user to view message history.