Module 7: Manage Content in a Group

A Group is a feature of the Portal designed to support members who have decided to work together on a mutual task or initiative. Setting up a group enables portal members to easily post, exchange, and manage folders, web pages, links, files (example: Microsoft Word documents, Adobe Acrobat documents, Spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and other file types), images, flashmovies, news items, and calendar events.

Group functionality also allows group members a mechanism to communicate in a centralized, organized space online. A group and all its respective members, share a common work folder with certain privileges to the content posted inside. Logged in Members outside of a private group do not have access to this private group folder or the content inside unless the private group posted the content as a public draft. Non-logged in members cannot access the private folder or the content inside the private group unless the content has been published.

The Brasil Environment Team is an example of a group folder. A portal member can belong to one or many different groups. A group can be designated private or published. A private group can contain private and published content. A published group can contain public or private content.

Private Group

• When a group is designated private only the portal members assigned to this group will be able to see the group folder and the content that the group members post privately.
• To assign a new member to a private group, email the portal administrator. When requesting a new member, include the member's full name (first and last), email address and group association.
• You can share private content through the sharing tab with Portal members NOT in your group. NOTE: Using the sharing tab does not give the member full privilege within your private group. See the discussion on sharing.
• A private group can post content for public view. There are two ways of posting for public view: post as a Public Draft, for logged in members to see, and for the greater portal community (non logged-in anonymous users), the private group can publish the content for global visitor viewing. In the RM Portal Conditions of Membership every Private group is encouraged to Publish a viewable abstract describing the Group, and share, where and when appropriate, content used during a Private group work session or content resulting from the Private work session.
• In a private group all members will assume the manager role.

Published Group

• When a group is designated published, all visitors, even those labeled as "Anonymous Users" (users without a login and password), will be able to see the folder and access the contents of the group, as long as the content is not private.
• A published group can ‘hide’ or make specific content ‘private’ inside its published group folder. However, this private content must be shared with the group via the sharing tab). See discussion / How To on sharing. When anyone not invited to share content attempts to open private content in a Published group they will get a message that tells them they do not have sufficient privileges to view the content and if they believe they received the privilege message in error, to please send an e-mail to info@rmportal.net.
• In a group designated published there can be three levels of Roles: Member, Reviewer, and Manager.

The following steps demonstrate how members can use and collaborate within a Group.

Steps for Using a Group

1. To use a group, login to the portal.
2. Click the group tab
3. You will be taken to a group page
4. You will see the groups that are published and / or groups that you are a member.
5. Click on the Group that you wish to enter. You will be taken to that groups’ folder area
6. Each group area may be organized differently depending on the needs and decisions of the group.
7. A very important point to note is that if your role for the group is MANAGER you have the ability to add, edit, and DELETE content in the group folder. Please be considerate of other member's activity in your group.

Setting Up a Group

A group can only be setup by a portal administrator.

To request that a group be setup, email the portal administrator with your request at info@rmportal.net.

Please provide the following:

• Name of the group requested,
• A description of the group,
• The full names and emails of each member you wish to include,
• If you want a private group calendar,
• If you want a private group news folder,
• The state of your group, private or published. We strongly suggest that your group be set to private.

Adding an additional member to the group

Additional group members can currently only be added by the portal administrator.

To request a new group member, email the portal administrator at info@rmportal.org with your request.

Please include:

• The new members full name,

• The new members email address,
• The name of the group that the new member will be associated with,
• The member's role, if the group is published (member, reviewer or manager).

NOTE: if your group is private, all added members have the manager role and privileges.

If you do not provide this information, we cannot add the member to your group.