eForum

Welcome |  Terms and Conditions |  Discussion Boards |  Chat with Our Guests  | Blogs |  Podcasts
Archives |  Glossary

Welcome

The internet is a place to share ideas, learn from each other, and challenge ourselves to grow. Perhaps an idealistic concept, but one Leadership Asheville strives to achieve on this site.  eForum is designed to be an interactive tool allowing members of our community to come together to share information, ideas and ask questions. eForum combines technology and dialogue to bring together opinions and perspectives as we all work towards creating a vibrant, thriving community.

To take part in discussions you will need to register and read and comply with the terms and conditions. If you are not registered and logged-in, you will only be able to read the comments posted by others and will not be able to post your own ideas, opinions and stories.

eForum is divided into four parts: Discussion Boards, Chat with Our Guests, Blogs and Podcasts. You can access a list of frequently asked questions about each section of eForum and if you’re new, you can go and read the glossary. If you have a question that is not answered in either of these areas please contact us.

Terms and Conditions

Leadership Asheville welcomes your involvement in its eForum discussions. If you choose to take part in these discussions there are some simple Terms and Conditions you need abide by. By posting comments you acknowledge that you have read and agree to these rules.

Originality: We ask that you vouch for the originality of any comment, opinion or article that you submit or post on any Leadership Asheville eForum discussion. We ask that if you make a quote that you provide the correct reference.

Relevance: If you wish to post a comment on any of our eForum discussions please ensure that the comment is relevant to the topic. The moderator may move your comment to another topic if it is considered more relevant. You will not be contacted if this occurs. If the moderator thinks that your comment does not comply with these Terms and Conditions it will be deleted. The moderator will not engage in further discussion about this decision.

Behavior: Leadership Asheville expects that all users respect the right of others to have differing opinions. Therefore, comments considered to be disrespectful, insulting or harmful will be deleted.

Responsibility: Responsibility for any comment, opinion or article you post on any Leadership Asheville eForum discussion rests with you. Any view, opinion or advice that appears on any eForum discussion is not the opinion, view or advice of Leadership Asheville, nor can it be assumed that Leadership Asheville endorses them. Leadership Asheville, its officers, paid and volunteer staff, are not responsible or liable for any damage, offence or harm which may result through acting on the content or the downloading of any content that appears through or in any eForum discussion.

Advertising: Leadership Asheville’s eForum is not the place for the promotion of publications or websites that have a profit motive. If any author, publisher or other person wishes to advertise or promote their own or another’s work through Leadership Asheville, it is suggested that he/she contact Leadership Asheville directly with his/her request.

Legal Consideration: In compliance with relevant state and federal laws, we ask that any comments, articles or opinions you make are:
Consistent with Leadership Asheville’s core values statement
Non-discriminatory, not defamatory, do not violate a person’s privacy, or transgress any law
Respectful of others’ opinions
Not obscene, vulgar or contain offensive material
Free of advertising or endorsements of commercial products or services

Complaints: If you consider that a posting or any material appearing on Leadership Asheville’s eForum breaches these Terms and Conditions you can contact us.

Discussion Boards

Introduction
Getting Started
FAQs
Our Discussion Boards

Introduction

In addition to private discussion boards, each month we will publish an article on community building and leadership. We would like to hear your perspectives on the subject matter. This article will remain open for one month and then a summary of the comments together with references and web links will be added to the article for your future reference. We will also have open discussion boards. Here you will find topics, threads and postings on community building and leadership. People are welcome to suggest new threads for discussion.

Getting Started

Before adding your thoughts and ideas for the first time you may like to take a look and read the comments posted on the discussions. The eForum is divided into 3 sections:

• The Talk to Our Guests section will take you to articles of previous and current discussions led by guests over a period of two days.
• The Article discussion section will take you to a page showing a list of opinion pieces with summarized comments, references and web links.
• The Open Discussion link will open on the list of topics. These topics may have threads which in turn will have posts/comments made (if you are not sure of some of these terms have a look at our Glossary)

To make your first post, follow these instructions:

1. First, you need to register (you only need to provide the information marked with an asterisk) When finished click on the submit button. An email will be sent to you confirming your email address. In the text of this email you will need to click on the LA web link. From now on every time you want to make a post, you need only login, you will no longer need this email. You are now able to post your first comment.
2. Go to the Open discussion page – scroll down to the thread that you want to join.
3. Open this thread and click on Reply to this thread.
4. Click to open the link, Post a message where you can type in your thoughts and ideas. The title and description fields are only used to create a new thread. Do not fill these in if you only want to add a comment to an existing thread.
5. When you have typed your message you can also choose to add emoticons – those little happy/sad faces to express a feeling. Click on the info icon at the bottom of your message for simple instructions – make sure you click the box include emoticons.
6. Click submit.
   Congratulations you have posted your first comment!
   Next time you want to post a comment remember to login – the details are in your registration email – you will need your email address and password.

If you have a question, it may be answered by the Discussion Board FAQs and of course all comments must be in accord with the Terms and Conditions of the eForum – accessed from eForum’s menu.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Why register?

If you register you have access to features not available to visitors. Visitors cannot add their comments to the eForum discussions. It only takes a few moments to register and your details are securely stored.

Q: Why can’t I login?

Have you registered? Login will only work if you have registered. If you have registered and cannot login then double check your username and password. Often this can be the problem. If there is still a problem click onto “I’ve lost my password” button for a new password (see below for further information). If there is still a problem contact the moderator.

Q: What is a nickname and how do I use it?

When you register you can choose a name that will be used on all your posts that is called your nickname. You can choose to leave that field in the registration form blank which means you will be prompted by a nickname each time you make a post.

Q: I’ve lost my password.

Your password can’t be retrieved, but it can be reset. To do this go to the login page and click I’ve lost my password. Follow the instructions and you will be back online in no time. You can then change your password by the ‘edit user details’ function.

Q: How do I comment on an existing topic?

Select “Post comment.” Remember, you cannot do this unless you have registered and logged on. If you have registered, you must login.

Q: How do I post a topic in an eForum discussion?

Select “Create new topic.” To do this, you need to be registered and use your username and password to login. If you have previously registered, you must enter your login.

Q: How do I edit or delete a post?

You can only edit or delete the comments you have written. You can edit a post by clicking the edit button for the relevant comment.

Q: Why can’t I see my comment or new topic?

All new posts are first approved by the moderator, therefore it may be a short time before your post is visible.

Q: Who is a moderator and what do they do?

Moderators are Leadership Asheville staff members. Moderators are responsible for the day-to-day management of eForum discussions. They can edit or delete comments and can move, delete or divide topics.

Q: What do all the terms mean?

See Glossary of Terms for this eForum.

Our Discussion Boards

Go to Discussion Boards

Our current discussion boards include:
Leadership Asheville 26 (Private)
Fellows Advisory Council (Private)
Program Advisory Council (Private)
Board of Trustees (Private)

Chat with Our Guests

Introduction
Getting Started
FAQs
Schedule

Introduction

There are many talented and knowledgeable people with experience and ideas on community building and leadership. Each month we invite guests to lead discussions on a particular aspect of these topics. For two days our guests will take part in a conversation with you. After that time, this conversation will form an article with a summary of postings, bios of the guests and relevant references and web links for your future reference.

Getting Started

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Schedule

Test Chatroom (PhPChat)

Blogs

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The term “blog” is a blend of the words web and log (Web log). We will be creating a variety of blogs on topics related to community building and leadership, as well as, inviting select individuals to periodically join the Leadership Asheville blogging world.

Goertz’s Gumbo
Quick hits from the desk of Executive Director Gerry Goertz.

Podcasts

Introduction
Getting Started
FAQs
Nonaffiliated Podcasts
Leadership
Community Building
Asheville Area
WNC
Education
Technology
Global Community
Humor and Entertainment
News and Information
Latest Additions

Introduction

Podcasts are audio or video files that are automatically delivered directly to your computer, and can be transferred to your iPod, Zune or other portable media player. So if you’re on the go, you can take free Leadership Asheville programming with you. You can subscribe to as many video and audio podcasts as you want — simply select the podcast below, subscribe to it in your podcast software and the audio or video will come to you automatically.

Getting Started

Once you’ve found something that looks interesting, you are ready to listen to it. Here are your options:

Listen on the Web

If you’ve found something you want to listen to right away, just click the “Listen” button to hear it on the Web. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe to future broadcasts.

Subscribe

When you subscribe to a podcast you’ll get the newest episodes delivered right to you as soon as they’re available. It’s almost always free. Just follow the directions. To subscribe, though, you’ll need to have some great music software. If you don’t have podcasting software, you can get it for free using one of these links:
iTunes (PC or Mac)
iPodder (PC)
Doppler (PC)
Blog Matrix Sparks! (PC)
iPodderX (Mac)
Playpod (Mac)

Once you subscribe, new episodes will show up there whenever they’re available.

Download

If you just want a copy of a particular episode, you don’t have to subscribe. You can just click the “Download” button to save it to your hard disk. Then, manage it and play it like you would any other audio file.

Take It with You

If you want to listen to a podcast on your MP3 player or iPod it’s easy. Just download the episode to your computer, or subscribe to the series, and use your music software to transfer it to your MP3 player or iPod.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What’s podcasting?

According to Wikipedia, “Podcasting is the practice of making audio files available online in a way that allows software to automatically detect new files and download them.” Technically, this is accomplished using RSS 2.0 news feeds to provide information about a collection of audio files in MP3 format. In common use, podcasting is often used to refer to independent audio shows that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Q: What’s cool about podcasting?

Podcasting lets anybody with a microphone, a computer and an Internet connection publish audio shows that can be listened to by people anywhere in the world. Because the barriers to entry are very low, podcasting is rapidly becoming a popular way for people to share audio shows. Podcasts are free and can be automatically downloaded to portable media players, so you can listen to them whenever it’s convenient. Coolest of all is that if you’ve got a great idea for a podcast, you can probably do it!

Q: What sorts of shows are available as podcasts?

There are already many types of podcasts, including audio books, music shows, news, humor and sports. Most podcasts are created by amateurs, but there are also commercial podcasts and independently produced podcasts. There are podcasts in Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Mohawk, Spanish, and many other languages.

Q: Do I need to have an iPod to listen to podcasts?

No. The first podcast clients were designed to subscribe to audio shows, automatically download them and sync them to iPods. As podcasting has evolved, podcast have become available that work with most portable digital audio players. Many podcast sites support downloading shows directly from the site, and many directories support playing podcasts directly.

Q: Do I need special software to listen to podcasts?

No. Many podcasters and directories let you listen to podcasts as streaming media, directly from the site. Podcasting clients are used to streamline downloading podcasts and copying them to portable media players.

Q: Where can I find podcasts?

The most popular places for finding podcasts are the directories at iPodder.org, PodcastAlley and Podcasting News. There are many other podcast directory sites. Many podcast applications also include a list or directory of podcasts.

Q: Do I need to use a Mac?

No. You can create and listen to podcasts using Windows, Mac OS X and Linux podcasting software.

Q: What can you do with a podcast?

Browsing through a podcast directory shows the variety of podcasts that are available. Here are just a few things podcasting can be used for:

• On-demand versions of radio shows
• Personal audio blogs
• Audio books
• Music shows
• Audio tour guides
• Educational content that depends on audio (language, music, etc)
• Marketing for musicians
• Distributing sermons and other religious content
• Storytelling
• Sports coverage
• Distributing/synchronizing audio and video files for business.

Nonaffiliated Podcasts

Archives

Introduction
Discussion Boards
Chats with our Guests
Blogs
Podcasts

Glossary

eForum
An eForum is an online discussion area, where individuals make comments and answer other comments.

eForum Guest Conversations
These conversations led by guests focus on issues on community building and leadership. This is an opportunity to join an on-line network where invited guests are answering questions and discuss their area of expertise. Guest conversations will be promoted through the Leadership Asheville website. Guests will be available for discussion over a two day period. The discussion thread will remain open to eForum visitors who wish to continue the conversation.

eForum Opinions
Every month an opinion article on Leadership Asheville’s website will be linked to eForum with readers and guests invited to have their say in response to the opinion piece. The opportunity for voicing an opinion will remain open until the next opinion piece is published.

Posters/Commenters/Participants/Users/Visitors
All are valid ways of referring to people visiting and using eForums.

Topic
A topic is the area or subject that the discussion is about. A topic can have multiple discussion threads. Topics are generally chosen by the site moderator, but we welcome suggestions from posters for new topics.

Discussion
The description of what happens in an eForum. It is the result of multiple posts and threads between users.

Thread
A more focussed discussion on the topic. It is usually a new direction for the discussion. Threads are started by posters and do so by clicking on the “start a new thread” option within a topic.

Post
A comment or opinion provided by an eForum user that has been approved by the moderator and has been added to the conversation thread.

Comment
It is a submitted opinion that may or may not have yet been approved by the moderator.