Forums:
"virtual" meetings in the comfort of your home or office.
Electronic
forums (virtual meeting rooms) are one of the most cost effective
and efficient ways to assemble and collaborate with people from
anywhere around the world. A forum can be quickly and easily
created, or a search engine can be used to find one from among
hundreds of thousands that already exist.
1. Electronic forums in general
A
short definition of an electronic forum is a type of mailing
list that permits a group of people (who share a common interest)
to use one e-mail address to discuss their topic of interest.
It
is very easy for people to join and leave a forum, and manage
how they participate.
I
have created six (6) forums for ACSCI and seven (7) forums
for NCDA using the very popular Yahoo! Groups: http://help.yahoo.com/help/groups
. The service is free because it is advertiser-supported with
small advertisements inserted into the e-mail messages you
receive from your forum(s).
Worldwide over 16 million people are subscribed to and use
more than a million Yahoo forums.
Each
message posted to a forum is automatically added to a searchable
archive, and each message in that archive is addressable for
easy reference. For example, here is a message where I asked
members of the NCDA-New-Forums forum for help creating this
article: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NCDA-New-Forums/message/89
2. For those
of you with concerns about forums
Some
of you may be hesitant about joining a forum. Below, are
seven (7) of the most common concerns, followed by a brief
note that I hope will put you at ease. If I have not listed
your concern, please
send me a note so I can discuss it with you.
-
-
Fear that this may be one of the sources of junk
mail.
-
-
I don’t like the advertisements.
-
Bad experience with another forum.
-
No time to learn about forums.
-
No time to create and manage a forum.
- Privacy
1)
No one has told me (after 5 years, 40 forums, 3000 members) that their privacy
was compromised because they subscribed to a Yahoo forum.
See Yahoo’s privacy policy at http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us
. A forum can be public or private, and membership can
be open or restricted.
2)
Members viewing a forum’s Membership listing will not be able to see a member’s
complete e-mail address because Yahoo truncates it.
- Fear that this may be one of the
sources of junk mail
- Too much e-mail
When you join a forum, your default e-mail option is to receive
each individual e-mail message. You can change the option
(anytime, and as often as you wish) to DIGEST (receive
e-mails grouped together) or “NO MAIL”. The latter is
good when you go on vacation.
- I don’t like the advertisements
Initially (for new Yahoo forum members), the small ads inserted
into the e-mail messages and on the website are a distraction.
But you soon get used to them. Of the 3000 members I support
in other forums, only a few have commented about the ads.
- Bad experience with another forum
Sometime, a rude subscriber will cause problems on a forum.
People (like me) who create Yahoo forums automatically
become “owners/moderators” (O/M). Yahoo gives O/Ms authority
and tools to approve or reject posts for an entire forum
or just one or more individuals and to unsubscribe and
ban members.
- No time to learn about forums
Once you have subscribed and become a member of a forum, the
only thing you need to do to participate is to do a REPLY.
It is exactly what you do when you reply to e-mail you
normally receive. Based upon my six (6) years of experience
with forums, I have found them to be indespensible.
- No time to create and manage a
forum
If you want to create a forum, your first one should take less
than 30 minutes: subsequent forums, less than 5-10 minutes.
My largest forum (440 members) takes less than 20 minutes
a month (at most) to manage. Since, most likely, any forum
you create will be to discuss your passion, the time you
spend will be well worth the effort.
3. Electronic forums versus other communication
methods
Personal
mailing lists:
If you already exchange e-mail with a small group and there
is little interest in having more people join, a simple list
of e-mail addresses is sufficient. (If
appropriate, consider using “Bcc:” rather than “To:” to protect
your recipients e-mail addresses.)
But if the number of people on your mailing list is growing
and fluid, and if the group wants others to join (be open
and available to anyone in the world who shares this interest),
then a forum offers more options and flexibility.
Conference
calls or conference meetings: A conference call or meeting can be very expensive in time
and money. In some cases, you may not even be able to attend.
Electronic forums are asynchronous. You can read posts and interact
at your convenience. And since messages are archived, you never
need to ask “what did he/she say?”. And I, for one, like the
“think” time that is available while I compose my message.
4. Finding forums that may interest
you
Pick
a few words that describe you interest: hobby, sports, passion,
etc.. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and type them into
the search box. (* The number of hits in
the search results below is as of Feb. 2004. Highlighted search
arguments below are hot-links.)
If you type “career”,
you will get a list of over 8100* forums.
If
you narrow the search to “career
development”, you will see a list of over 460* forums.
If
you narrow it further to “career
development ACSCI”, you will see six (6) ACSCI forums:
ACSCI-New-forums, ACSCI-Conferences, ... ).
If
you narrow it to “career
development NCDA”, you will see seven (7) forums:
NCDA-CDF, NCDA-LRP, NCDA-New-forums, NCDA-Conferences,
NCDA-CDQ, NCDA-Grad-Students, and ACD-TF (Alliance for
Career Development-Task Force).
Look
for a treasure: find a forum that matches your passion.
If it doesn’t exist, and you create it and people who share
your passion join you, you will be ecstatic. Together, you and
your forum members can change your world!
Perkins-118 |
The President's FY 2005 budget would zero out funds for Section 118 Perkins (Occupational and Employment Information). It would also zero out funds for Tech Prep. The President's budget further proposes to severely decrease funding for the entire Perkins Act by approximately 25% and replace Perkins with a $1 billion block grant program with No child Left Behind.
If you obtain funding from any of these sources, either directly or indirectly (through user fees), funding is in jeopardy.
In the face of these threats, Senator Hollings, the third-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, who has been the key legislative force behind funding for the National/State Occupational Information Coordinating Committees and now America's Career Resource Network (Section 118 Perkins) will retire January 1, 2005 from the US Senate. No United States Senator has been identified to carry on his leadership in assuring funding for occupational and career guidance information under Section 118 Perkins. If this situation is not corrected, stakeholders may not receive funding from Section 118 Perkins after July 1, 2005.
To join the forum and discuss these issues, click on the "Forum Website " below, then click "Join" in the upper right side. |
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e-Portfolios
forum |
e-Portfolios are secure web sites
for saving, organizing, viewing, and sharing personal information
and records such as writing samples, photographs or design samples,
video clips, music clips, resumes, internship experiences or
mentors. Creating an e-Portfolio encourages one to think critically
about and document thoughts and experiences related to personal
information, education, career, skills, professional practices
and recognition. Once entered, the e-Portfolio owner can choose
to share either part or all with other individuals.
This forum will be a clearing house to identify
new and exising e-Portfolio applications and to discuss their
future.
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If you have
comments about this webpage, or want to add a forum, please send the
author
a note.
vb
sf
Under
development
| Keyword
index for these forums (Click to go to a list
of keywords, then click a keyword link to go to a box like the
one below where you can see a description of the forum, post a
note, view messages, or go to the forum website.) |
Keyword
Index to forums
- ACSCI (Association
of ...
- Career websites
- CDF
(Career Development Facilitator program)
- Conferences: NCDA; ACSCI;
- Graduate students
- Long-range planning:
NCDA;
- New forums: NCDA; ACSCI;
- Standards (CIS), ACSCI
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