AssociCom is a web-based application designed to help associations engage with their members and build vibrant online communities. It provides document sharing, discussions, comments, questions, tagging, and unique information discovery capabilities.
We will never share your personal information outside the company, nor use it for
any purpose other than to connect with you about AssociCom. However, if you need
us for anything, we are here for you. We will answer our phones (unless we are on
them), and we will answer our e-mails very promptly. Please connect with us.
We are proud of the ease of use, as well as the depth of functionality and flexibility
of AssociCom. Therefore, although we would be more than pleased to give you a demo
– we also encourage you to try it out here. Right now.
AssociCom in Depth
What is AssociCom?
AssociCom is a web-based application designed specifically for professional associations.
Its goal is to build a stronger association
by
Enabling the establishment of deeper professional relationships among your membership,
and between your members and the executive/management.
Creating opportunities for learning and collaboration.
Providing both the executive and the members with unprecedented insight into the
issues, needs and concerns of the others.
Allowing your association (rather than an external site such as Facebook or LinkedIn) to play the central role in the establishment of a stronger community of members.
Although AssociCom is delivered as a SaaS solution (hosted by AssociCom for your
association), it is a closed site, private to the executive, management and members
of your association.
AssociCom is different. We are specifically
built for professional associations, we make it very easy for you to try AssociCom
immediately, we have open, simple and affordable
pricing
(with no installation or customization fees), and we place a tremendous amount of
control into your hands to configure and design your AssociCom network any way you
like, as often as you like.
AssociCom was created by a group of people
passionate about professional networking and learning systems. The founder of AssociCom
is a world pioneer in the area of online learning and academic social networking.
AssociCom Features in Depth
AssociCom has a deep and broad feature set that is designed to strengthen association member and executive connections to one another, and to enable learning opportunities through these connections and connections to groups and library items. AssociCom features also exist to provide insight into members interests and needs, and to allow the association to play a central role in the relationships among members. Please click through the tabs to the left to gain insight into the features of AssociCom.
Connecting Members and the Association
The overarching goal of AssociCom in your Professional Association is to connect
members to one another, connect members to the association executive and staff,
and to connect members with content to a depth that is otherwise not possible. This
connection facilitates communication, collaboration and learning.
Groups are areas where members who share a common interest, goal or working relationship
can collaborate, communicate, share documents, and learn from one another.
AssociCom features discussion areas in a wide variety of contexts in order to allow
the free flow of communication among members. Discussion areas are found in AssociCom
wherever members come together in areas of common interest.
AssociCom allows members to send personal message to one or more other members by
simply clicking on a message icon. AssociCom allows the sending of messages to specific
individuals, members of a group, members interested in a particular topic, etc.
Polls allow the association executive or individual members to poll specific groups
of members. A poll can be associated with a group, a member, a library item, or
a library topic.
This allows any member to pose a question of other members. A question can be associated
with a group, a group directory topic, a member, a library item, or a library topic.
AssociCom provides a feature which allows members to explicitly establish a connection
between themselves – much like a “friendship” connection in other social networks
Groups
In AssociCom, any member (like the association itself) is able to create groups –
areas where members who share a common interest, goal or working relationship can
collaborate, communicate, share documents, and learn from one another. Groups become
hubs of collaboration, knowledge and discovery for their members.
This is important because
In addition to the obvious benefits of forming a location and mechanism for connection,
discovery and collaboration, one of the most important aspects of groups is that
their library and discussion areas form persistent, incremental knowledge repositories
of tremendous value. The value of these repositories grows continually generating
ongoing benefits for current and future members.
Group Usage Scenarios
Although the usage scenarios for groups are unlimited, typical group usage includes:
Mentorship groups where experienced members come together with new
members in order to offer them advice, guidance and support. The benefit
is that AssociCom groups, being open in nature, are particularly effective at this
because the mentorship advice is recorded and open – creating an ever-increasing
valuable association knowledge repository for present and future members.
Project groups where members working together on a project assemble
to discuss the project, build a library of project documents, announce important
event milestones, and advertise the project to the general membership. The benefit
is that this not only serves as a central “mini-site” for the project, but also
exposes the project to the membership eliciting queries and offers of help from
members who would otherwise never have known about the project.
Exam Study Groups where members seeking a professional designation
come together as a study group to share exam preparation advice and learn from one
another. The benefit is that this can be a tremendous support for members
navigating their way through, what can be, a difficult and complex professional
program. Test preparation documents and advice are collected and archived over time
creating a continually improving resource for members seeking new professional designations.
Designation and specialty-specific groups where members holding a particular
designation or specializing in a particular professional area come together to discuss
issues and share documents particular to that designation or specialty. The benefit
is that in addition to creating a mini-social network which increases knowledge
sharing and connectivity among the members, it also acts as a repository of documents,
discussion and other information for new members with the same interest.
Region-specific groups where members practicing in a particular geographical
region come together to discuss the unique aspects of working in that region.
The benefit is that these members not only learn from one another, thus
advancing each individual practice, but the groups stand as an instant welcome to
new practitioners practicing in the same geographical region.
Steering Groups where members come together to create drive policy
or strategic decisions. The benefit is that these groups serve as an
open repository for decision documents, create a transparent and open process for
decision making, and allows for a broad range of input through group polling and
discussions.
AssociCom Group Features
AssociCom groups provide a set of features designed to make each group in the network
a hub of discovery, communication and collaboration both for group members and non-members
alike. These features include:
Group Library
Groups can each have their own library of documents, images and web links. Library
items are categorized and tagged with metadata for easy browsing and searching.
The ability to add an item to a group library can be set by the group creator to
be closed (only the group creator can add library items to that group), moderated
(members can recommend addition, but the creator must give approval), or open (any
member can add library items to that group). This is important because groups often
are hubs of learning and sharing. As such, it makes sense for the group to house
a group-specific library of items of use to its membership. In addition, different
group usage scenarios have differing requirements in terms of who is able to add
library items. Mentorship groups are typically fully open in terms of who can add
items. Steering committee groups may not be. Wide-membership general association
groups are typically closed to addition of library items by anyone other than the
group administrator. Finally, one of the most important aspects of groups is that
they form persistent, incremental knowledge repositories. The value of these repositories
grows continually, generating benefits for current and future members. The group
library is a central part of that repository.
Group Discussions
Every AssociCom group contains a group-specific discussion area where members are
able to communicate and collaborate. Any member can view these discussions. This
is important because it provides a forum for like-minded members to connect on issues
of common interest. The ability for those who are not members of the group to view
the discussions act as another discovery mechanism. It advertises the nature of
the group, serving as a lasting learning resource for the benefit all members and
possibly encouraging others to join the group.
Group member Listing
Each group displays a list of its members. This list can be viewed by any member
of the network. Each member is presented in summary format with links to more information
about that member including their full profile. This is important because it acts
as one of the most powerful discovery features of AssociCom. Members who find a group
of interest through a search or browse are instantly presented with a list of other
members who share that common interest. They can browse or filter that list to find
members who work for the same company or who possess other similar interests.
Group Announcements
Group administrators and association administrators are able to post announcements
that reach all group members. This is important because groups are an excellent
method to determine which members are interested in a particular topic. Groups allow
members to self-select and advertise their interests, and group announcements make
it easy for those in an “official” capacity to immediately reach members keenly
interested in a particular topic.
Group Messaging
Like group announcements, group messaging reaches all members of a particular group.
The primary differences are that messaging is a more personal medium, and is open
to all members – not only group and association administrators. This is important
because it allows any member of a group to easily communicate with all other members
of his or her group.
Group Member Notifications and Subscriptions
Members are optionally notified anytime a new member is added to their group, a
new library document is added to the group, a new comment is made in the group discussion,
if the group description is changed, or if a group announcement is made. These notifications
are available via the “events” tab, and optionally though a daily e-mail digest
to the member. In addition, a member with a high degree of interest in a group discussion
can “subscribe” to that discussion. This causes an e-mail to be sent to that member
immediately upon the arrival of a new comment in that discussion area, a new announcement,
or a new poll. This is important because it ensures that the member remains up to
date on his or her group activities without requiring the member to periodically
check back. In addition, these notification help to establish a stronger connection
to the association community.
Group Polling
AssociCom features a polling mechanism allowing the group administrator (and optionally
group members) to initiate group polls. Members are allowed to vote only once on
a particular poll, and the results are displayed for all members. This is important
because it provides a mechanism to quickly and efficiently canvass members as to
their opinion. This is a central feature of a collaborative and cooperative community,
allowing members to determine general opinion and learn from one another.
Group Tagging
Groups can be tagged with keywords that describe any aspect of the group such as
its location, topic, membership, etc. This is important because it allows for easy
browsing and filtering of group listings – allowing members to quickly zero-in on
a group of interest. This is especially useful as your association network grows
to contain hundreds (or even thousands) of groups.
Flexible membership administration
Groups can be created with open membership (anyone can join), moderated membership
(joining requires approval of the group creator), or all-inclusive membership (all
members of the network are automatically members of groups of this type). This latter
option is restricted to groups created by the association administrator. This is
important because different types of groups require different membership options.
For example, mentorship groups are typically open to all members and there should
be no impediment to joining. Steering committee or project groups are typically
restricted to particular members. Wide-scale association-created groups (for example,
to be used as a place for association announcements or broad membership discussions)
should automatically include all members. AssociCom has tailored the group membership
options to the needs of Professional Associations.
Group Labeling
Groups can be labeled to display a prominent and recognizable colored banner and
text. The various labels that can be applied are configurable by the association
administrator, and the administrator can determine which labels can be applied by
the group owner, and which can only be applied by the association. This is important
because it allows the association (or the group owner, if permitted) to give any
group special recognition – for example, indicating that it is an official association
group, or that it is one of several mentoring groups, etc. This helps members instantly
recognize groups with special status.
Discussion Areas
AssociCom features discussion areas in a wide variety of contexts in order to allow
the free flow of communication among members. Discussion areas are found in AssociCom
wherever members come together in areas of common interest. This includes structured
areas such as AssociCom groups, as well as ad-hoc areas of common interest which
create organic opportunities for discussions centered around library items, library
topics or even individual members.
If a discussion is connected with an area being watched by a member (for example,
a library topic, a group, etc), then the member is notified of new comments related
to that area via the events tab. The member will also (optionally) receive a daily
e-mail digest of notifications. In addition, for discussions of great interest,
members have the opportunity to “subscribe” to those discussions. In this case,
they will receive an e-mail notification the moment a new comment arrives.
This is important because discussion areas are a primary mechanism
for members to connect collectively and learn from one another. As a mechanism of
group communication, they provide all members with a uniform voice to express their
contributions, views or concerns. Just as importantly, the discussion areas serve
as another discovery mechanism allowing members to find other members with common
interests through the comments they make. Finally, because discussions are archived,
every comment incrementally adds to the collective knowledge base by recording one
piece of advice, explanation, opinion, or additional information. This forms a central
feature in supporting peer-learning.
The notification and subscription function of AssociCom discussions ensure that each
member has up to date knowledge of all discussions of interest without having to
periodically check each separate discussion. In addition, these notifications serve
to maintain a member’s connection to the remainder of the association membership.
Finally, because discussion areas are connected with every item in AssociCom (members,
groups, library items, library topics, etc), each item is elevated in value. Instead
of simply serving information to the reader, each page becomes a hub of communication,
discussion and learning anchored by the shared interest around that item. Each discussion
comment adds meta-knowledge to the item, providing members with a new lasting, community-built
resource, and providing the association with immediate insight into the thoughts
of members regarding that item.
Messaging
AssociCom allows members to send personal message to one or more other members by
simply clicking on a message icon. The messaging system is designed to allow frictionless
communication between members who discover one another through a shared interest.
To facilitate this, AssociCom allows the sending of messages to:
Specific, named individuals
The members of a particular group
All members interested in a topic of the
group directory
All connections of a particular member
All members interested in a particular library document
All members interested
in a particular library topic
Finally, AssociCom messaging allows a member to block the receipt of further messages
from any member.
This is important because messaging is a fundamental mechanism to connect
members. AssociCom has structured messaging options to align with its discovery mechanisms
and “soft-connections” (connections established implicitly through shared interests
or common usage patterns). For example, with a single click, all members who are
currently looking for employment, or all members with a particular interest in continuing
professional education can be messaged.
Polling
AssociCom features a polling mechanism which allows the association executive or
individual members to poll specific groups of members. A poll can be associated
with a group, a member, a library item, or a library topic. In the case of a group,
the group administrator is able to specify whether only he/she can initiate group
polls, or if a poll can be initiated by any member.
When a poll is released, all members who are watching the associated group, member,
library topic, or library item are informed of the arrival of the poll and are asked
to vote. The notification contains an optional message from the initiator of the
poll. Members who are subscribed to that area will receive an e-mail notification
of the poll.
Polls can be configured to show the results to all members, show the results only
to voters after they have voted, or to withhold the results until released by the
member who created the poll.
This is important because polling provides a highly effective mechanism
not only to determine questions of importance, but also because it can give members
a voice on any topic. It is also an effective mechanism to advertise issues of importance.
Finally, the open nature of the polling mechanism is designed not only to determine
opinion, but also to effectively disseminate the opinions of the members who voted
to all members of the association.
The ability to decide when poll results are released allows the polling mechanism
the flexibility to be useful in a variety of contexts and can ensure that members’
votes are not influenced by the votes of others.
Questions
AssociCom features a question mechanism which allows any member to pose a question
of other members. A question can be associated with a group, a group directory topic,
a member, a library item, or a library topic.
When a question is asked, all members who are watching the associated group, group
directory topic, member, library topic, or library item are informed of the arrival
of the question via their notification area and the events tab. The notification
contains an optional message from the member who posed the question. Members who
are subscribed to that area will receive an e-mail notification of the question.
This is important because it provides a very concrete and direct mechanism
for members to learn from one another. One of the strongest values of an association
is the ability for members to benefit from the wisdom of other, more experienced,
members. This feature makes that kind of learning interaction seamless, and encourages
mentorship relationships among members.
Member Connections
AssociCom provides a feature which allows members to explicitly establish a connection
between themselves – much like a “friendship” connection in other social networks.
The connection is only established when mutually agreed to by both members.
This is important because member connections benefit both the connected
members and the membership at large.
For the connected member, AssociCom makes communication with other connected members
simple. A member can send a message to all of his or her connections with a single
click. In addition, AssociCom provides comprehensive notifications of the activities
of connected members. For example, if a connection of mine collects a new library
document, joins a new group, or makes an announcement, I am informed via the notification
feature of AssociCom. This is central to the goal of learning from other members
in the network. Establishing connections with other members of interest ensures
that both members remain up to date on the activities of one another and are able
to benefit from each other’s discoveries. For the membership at large, connections
serve as a very concrete discovery mechanism. If someone finds a member who shares
a common interest, then there is a good chance that some of that member’s connections
will also be of interest. AssociCom allows members to browse other members connections,
and in turn their group memberships, library items and so on.
Discovering People and Resources, and Keeping Informed
Before communication, collaboration and learning can take place, members must first
“discover” the people and areas of valuable knowledge that are of interest to them.
A member with a shared interest, a group centered on an important topic, or a library
item I need may all exist. However, if I am not aware of them, their existence is
not useful to me. Discovery is a critical link in the chain of a strong social network.
AssociCom implements “soft connections” to connect members through common interests,
common activities, common areas of practice, and common usage scenarios. AssociCom
makes these implicit connections concrete and allows members to follow these implicit
connections to other members, groups, library items, etc.
a powerful, configurable search (and advanced search) mechanism allows members to
search the entire network by keyword – words found in any part of the profile, content,
discussion, etc. AssociCom also supports topic hierarchies similar to e-mail folders.
Library items and groups can be placed into these hierarchies allowing members to
browse the network contents according to categories they have been placed into.
AssociCom allows any member to declare their interest in any aspect of the association
network including other members, individual documents, library topics, groups and
so on. Various configurable alerts automatically notify members of any new activity
in their items of interest.
The relationship browser is a unique tool that AssociCom provides to help members explore their community. AssociCom tracks both content and interactions. For example, AssociCom knows who added each document to the library, who asked or answered a given question, who made a comment on which particular document, etc. The relationship browser makes all of interactions visible in a manner that is easy to understand and browse through.
AssociCom can be used as a standalone product with its built-in member database. Alternatively, if you choose to do so, AssociCom comes ready to be integrated with your existing systems using its library of standards-based APIs for:Membership Database Integration, Single Sign-On, Existing Member Website Integration, and coming soon, Integration Across Related Associations or Chapters. Contact us (and click the “Integration” link above) if you would like more details – we are here to help every step of the way.
Relationships
The relationship browser is a unique tool that AssociCom provides to help members explore their community. AssociCom tracks both content and interactions. For example, AssociCom knows who added each document to the library, who asked or answered a given question, who made a comment on which particular document, etc. The relationship browser makes all of interactions visible in a manner that is easy to understand and browse through.
For example, in the above screen shot, I have told the system to start a browsing session rooted on the user George. I can quickly see people and documents that George is following (green arrows). I can see individuals that George is connected to (black arrows), documents that George has marked as favourites (blue arrows), and groups that he belongs to (pink arrows).
Each of the items displayed on the page can be made the focus of the browsing sessions. For example, if I click on the Management of Global Enterprises group, the browser moves that group to the center of the page, and then shows all of the members of that group around it.
I can then click on any of the members of that group and the browser will show me all of their relationships to people and information in the system.
The relationship browser is a simple way to quickly find people who have interests that are similar to yours, documents that you may be interested in, groups you may want to join, etc. In short, it makes it easy for your members to learn about and connect with one another.
Discovery
The ability for an individual member to discover new members, information and content
of interest is central to the goal, and therefore the design, of AssociCom. There
are many features which support discovery, but the primary mechanism is the AssociCom
notion of “soft connections”. Members connect in explicit ways (through “connections”
in AssociCom), but also in implicit ways through common interests, common activities,
common areas of practice, and common usage scenarios. AssociCom makes these implicit
connections concrete and allows members to follow these implicit connections to
other members, groups, library items, etc.
This is important because the true value of a professional association
is gained by the coming together of its members, and the experience, knowledge,
and support they offer one another. The primary theme of AssociCom is connecting
members to one another and to the association executive in a way that removes barriers
to learning, communication and cooperation. In AssociCom, no item (member, library
item, or group) is an island. Each item is a hub of discovery pointing to other
closely related members, library items, groups, questions, and so on. If there is
an item of interest in the network, then some member knows about it. Once this is
the case, AssociCom ensures that other members with similar interests will easily
discover that item. This is the power of a healthy social network – the knowledge
of one person is leveraged widely across the network to all members for whom that
knowledge is valuable.
AssociCom Discovery Usage Example
All entities in AssociCom (members, groups, library topics, library items, group
directory topics and groups themselves) are strongly linked to all related aspects
of the network. The links are open (visible to all members) to maximize the opportunity
for connection.
A typical discovery pattern might look like the following: a member will do a search
on a topic of interest (for example, standards of practice). The search results
may show some items of interest, including a library document on that topic. The
document, in itself, may be of interest. But in addition to the document, the member
will find that AssociCom presents a wealth of metadata about the document. For example,
there will be a link to the member who originally collected that document, a link
to other members who have added the document to their library, a link to all groups
that have added that document to their library, and so on. These links, taken together,
form an ad-hoc interest group surrounding standards of practice.
By following, for example, a link to a group which has this document in its library,
the member will now see group details. There is a high probability that the group
itself is of interest to the member – found because of a common interest in a document.
But in addition, the member will be able to view the group’s library – which will
likely contain other documents of interest related to standards of practice. The
group will also contain links to all members of that group – people who are also
likely to have an interest to standards of practice. Each of those people will have
their own personal library that can be viewed and followed by the member interested
in standards of practice.
In essence, every document, every group, every interest area and every member becomes
a center of discovery. Members are bonded together by their common interests, and
those common interests can be traversed by any member in their quest for connections
to people, group memberships, or useful documents. If there is a document of interest
to the association membership, then some member, somewhere, has found that document.
If there is a question that some member has, them some member, somewhere has had
that same question before and knows the answer. AssociCom breaks down knowledge barriers
and helps institutionalize and spread the knowledge of its individual members, including
the executive.
Powerful Search and Browse
AssociCom provides two mechanisms for members to find information and users. First,
there is a powerful search mechanism which allows members to search for keywords.
Members can tailor the search to find only particular result types (members, groups,
library items, questions, library and group topics, comments, and announcements).
Members can also choose where to look for their keywords including in item title
field, description, tags, owner filed, etc.
Second, AssociCom supports topic hierarchies similar to e-mail folders. Library items
and groups can be placed into these hierarchies. Members can browse the network
contents according to categories they have been placed into.
Finally, whether searching or browsing, results can be further refined by selecting
tags (keywords) present in the result to show only results which have a particular
tag associated with it.
This is important because searching and browsing are two fundamentally
different discovery mechanisms. While most examples of social networking software
only provide the ability to search, AssociCom also recognizes that it is often very
useful to apply a structure to content. An excellent analogy is e-mail. When trying
to find a received e-mail message from long ago, one might remember a word or two
in that message which will yield a successful search. But often this is not the
case. In those cases, being able to browse the messages in a carefully maintained
system of folders is exceedingly useful and very natural. The folders each represent
a collection of items (in this case messages) relating to a common topic and useful
information can be found without knowing a-priori what is contained in that information.
AssociCom topic hierarchies for groups and library items provide exactly this kind
of benefit. This is especially important in Professional Associations where one
of the primary goals is to be able to learn from one another. Browse facilitates
this especially for members who are early in their discovery of a particular topic
area and are unable to formulate meaningful searches.
Finally, tagging is a mechanism used extensively in social networks to filter and
refine results. AssociCom uses tags in this way to refine search and browse results.
For example, if a search for members with a particular professional designation
yields a large number of results, the list can be refined by, for example, clicking
on the tag “Vancouver”. This will refine the result list to the subset of members
with that designation who are tagged as being in Vancouver.
Watching and Subscribing
The AssociCom “watching” feature allows any member to declare their interest in any
aspect of the association network. Examples include declaring an interest in broad
areas such as a particular section of the association library or a collection of
groups with some common characteristic, all the way down to individual items of
interest such as a member, a library document, or a group. Members are notified
via the events tab and an optional daily e-mail digest of any new activity in their
watched items.
Additionally, members can express the highest degree of interest in an area by “subscribing”
to it. If a member is subscribed to a group, another member, a library item, or
a group or library topic, they will receive e-mail notifications of new comments,
announcements, polls or questions in those areas.
This is important because events and subscriptions form a central component
of the discovery feature in an AssociCom network, ensuring that members are made
immediately aware of any new item of interest. For example, if member A is watching
member B, then member A will be notified if member B collects a new library item,
joins a new group, makes a new announcement, adds a new contact, etc. Likewise,
if a member is watching a section of the library, then they will be notified when
a new item is added to that section of the library, or if the description is changed
or if a new comment is made about that section of the library.
If a member is subscribed to (for example) a group, then he or she will receive
e-mail notifications of any new announcement, comment or poll in that group.
These are powerful discovery mechanisms. They ensure that members are able to easily
learn from one another based on their activities. If there is a member with whom
I share a set of common interests, there is a high likelihood that a group they
join or a document they collect will be of interest to me as well. Notifying me
of such occurrences ensures I am up to date when a new, relevant item or event appears.
This is also a useful mechanism for members to avoid missing important association
updates. For example, if the association houses its bylaws in their AssociCom library,
a member can ensure they are made instantly aware of any updates to those bylaws
by “watching” the bylaw document or subscribing to it.
Overall, the watching and subscription features, though simple to use and understand,
are two of the most powerful mechanisms in AssociCom for discovering people, groups
or information of interest, and ensuring that each member is able to learn from
the collective experience and intelligence of the others.
Notification Area
AssociCom notifications are an information area on all AssociCom web pages which alert
the member to events requiring his or her attention. For example, if the member
has waiting messages, connection requests, polls, questions, etc, they are informed
via the notification area.
This is important because it relieves members from having to periodically
check various areas of their network for items in need of attention. It ensures
that members do not miss important events, and keeps members connected by reminding
them of outstanding messages or connection requests from other members.
RSS Feeds
RSS feeds allow members to consolidate information from any number of sources (such
as other social networks, news agencies, etc) into RSS feeds. This enables a members
to locate all updates of interest across a variety of sources without having to
visit each source. AssociCom supports RSS for all areas of AssociCom content and all
kinds of events.
This is important because it ensures that members who are RSS users
are able to remain up to date on all of their sources of interest (including AssociCom,
Facebook, LinkedIn, and others) without having to each one of those information
sources.
Website Integration
AssociCom provides features that allow external integration. The first feature is a tool which allows you to embed a list of all new AssociCom site items in your Association member website. This tool will allow your association website to dynamically display new AssociCom members, new discussions, new groups, new library topics, new library items – etc. In addition, AssociCom uses RSS to allow you and your members to subscribe to any of AssociCom’s content areas. For example, if a member is interested in keeping abreast of the library collection for a group he or she is a member of, that member can use RSS to feed the library collection to his or her RSS feeder.
This is important because it allows members to quickly keep up to date on their member network even without visiting your AssociCom site. Each time they come to you Association’s member website, they will see all new items – and can click on any item of interest to visit it directly in AssociCom. Likewise, if they use RSS, they can subscribe to any area of AssociCom so that any new item, group, member, - etc will be fed to them without them having to log in to AssociCom.
Directory and Content Repository
Unlike many other social networks, Professional Association social networks are
information repositories as well as places for connections between members. For
example, the member directory is a place where members possessing particular characteristics
can be found. Likewise, all other items of value in the network, such as groups
and library items must have a home and must be easily available to all members.
AssociCom provides features for Professional Associations which accomplish these
goals.
Every member is represented by a user profile which forms their identity within
the network. The fields of a member’s profile are determined by and customizable
by the association. Member profiles are hubs of discovery, information and links
to other areas of the professional social network including related members, groups
and library items.
All members can be found in the AssociCom member directory. Users have the ability
to filter the presented list according to any characteristic defined by the association.
AssociCom enables the establishment of an “intelligent” library of items including
websites, documents (word, excel, PDF, PowerPoint, etc) and images. Library items
are housed in a configurable library organized as a topic hierarchy. Members and
group can also have their own library collections. Both library items and library
topics have discussion areas associated with them. Likewise, each has a list of
members interested in that item or topic, and those members can be immediately messaged
as a group of “soft connections”.
Groups are organized into a group directory structured as a hierarchy of group topics,
with related groups existing in any topic in the hierarchy. The hierarchy is fully
configurable by the association administrator.
User Profiles
Every member is represented by a user profile which forms their identity within
the network. The profile typically consists of information such as their name, the
company they work for, their contact information, their photo, their professional
specialization, etc. The fields of a member’s profile are determined by and customizable
by the association, and can be populated by the association or by the members themselves.
In AssociCom, each member profile is a hub of discovery and links to other areas
of the professional social network. As examples:
The member can make announcements which advertise what projects he or she is working
on and what kind of collaborations they are interested in. This is important because:
it presents an excellent opportunity for connected members to stay abreast of that
activities and interests of other members, forming a tighter, more connected community.
Every profile is a hub of discussion - an area that allows all members to discuss
subjects of interest or relating to that member. This is important because:
it allows informal groups of members interested in a particular topic or person
to easily connect– sharing ideas, working together, learning from one another, and
forming tighter bonds. These conversations are archived an open for the learning
benefit of other members.
The member’s library is shown listing all documents, bookmarks and images that the
member has collected, and can be visited with a mouse click. This is important
because: it is an amazing way for other members to find new, relevant
resources: they find members with similar interests, and then browse their library
shelves.
The member’s groups are listed in their profile, and can be visited with a click
of the mouse. This is important because: it is also an outstanding
discovery mechanism – allowing other members to discover new groups of like-minded
members, always with the goal of establishing closer bonds.
The profile also lists all people, subjects and content that the member is interested
in (this is a known as the “watching feature”). This is important because:
it allows other members, again, to discover new resources they did not know existed.
If they find a member of interest, there is a high probability that one or more
of the library documents, groups or people he or she is watching are also of interest.
The profile lists the other members that this member is “connected” with (a “connection”
is a reciprocal recognition of mutual professional interest between two members).
This is important because: it very quickly allows profile viewers to
discover a web of other members, all sharing common interests with the view to building
one’s own connected network.
The profile lists the tags (like keywords) that the member has associated with himself
or herself. This is important because: it allows the member to describe
any aspect of himself or herself, and provides other members with a simple mechanism
to find them discover them using those tags.
Overall profiles are important because: they serve as not only a representation
of the identity of an individual member, but more importantly function as a hub
of discovery. Members can traverse the network easily, moving from a connected member,
to a group that member has discovered, to a document that the group has collected,
to other members who have collected that same document, and so on. AssociCom is about
discovery, connecting, working together and learning from one another. The user
profiles are a central tool in that theme.
Member Directory
All members can be found in the AssociCom member directory. The member directory
is an area which can be browsed to find members with one or more particular characteristics.
The members are presented in the directory and the user has the option of filtering
the presented list according to any characteristic defined by the association. For
example, an association administrator might define work location, professional designation,
area of specialty and experience level as user profile fields which can be used
for browsing purposes. The fields in general, and the choice of fields used for
browsing is completely under the control of the association. In this case, a user
could browse for any member with a specific area of expertise with a high degree
of experience.
In addition to the fields designated by the association as browse fields, members
can “tag” themselves (assign keywords to their profile) which allows further, ad-hoc
refinement of member browsing.
This is important because search, while useful in many circumstances,
is not always the best mechanism to find a particular member. For example, when
looking for a member who possesses some particular specialty and also lives in a
particular geographical region, browsing is a much more natural and effective discovery
mechanism. Together, the ability to both search for members and to browse for members
provides a strong connection to the member database ensuring that members of interest
can be found instantly.
Group Directory
Groups are organized into a group directory. The group directory is structured as
a hierarchy of group topics, with related groups existing in any topic in the hierarchy.
The hierarchy is fully configurable by the association administrator. Configuration
options include the number and depth of topics in the directory, topic names, whether
and where members can create new topics, and whether and where members can add new
groups. Each group directory topic has associated with it a title, description,
discussion area and listing of members interested in that group directory topic.
These members can be messaged as a group with a single mouse click.
This is important because it allows groups centered on similar topics
to be collected together and discovered. For example, it might be reasonable to
have a group directory topic devoted to mentorship groups. All mentorship groups
would be found in that topic.
Structured this way, the group directory serves as the central location from which
members browse for groups. Organizing the group directory as a hierarchy allows
the association to tailor their directory of groups to their specific needs and
make group discovery highly efficient for the members. In addition, the ability
to configure which group directory topics can be populated by members allows the
association to reserve special areas for official association groups.
Group topics are themselves foci for discussion, connection and discovery. Each
group directory has a discussion area and a listing indicating members interested
in this topic. The list of members defines a “soft connection” of people who are
tied together by their common interest in groups falling into that topic. This collection
of members can discover one another, message each other, and discuss the topic.
This is one example of the way that AssociCom brings members together based on their
common interests.
Finally, the ability to allow members to add topics and groups to specific topics
in the group hierarchy encourages member engagement, sharing and discovery through
the collective creation and joining of groups.
Library and Content Management
AssociCom enables the establishment of an “intelligent” library of items including
websites, documents (word, excel, PDF, PowerPoint, etc) and images. Library items
are housed in a configurable topic hierarchy. Each topic in the hierarchy can hold
any number of library items.
This is important because the library serves as a central repository for open association
library items. All items are immediately available to all members, including past
revisions of uploaded documents. The library is “intelligent” in that it informs
members with an interest in a library item (or library topic) if an item is revised,
or if new items are added to a topic area - thus ensuring that members are not working
with out-of-date information and are kept apprised of new library items in areas
of interest. Also, like most other areas of AssociCom, the library not only connects
people to library items, but it is also a discovery hub. It allows members to discover
new members, new groups and new documents of interest by virtue of their connection
to documents of common interest. Finally, all documents and library topics in AssociCom
are hubs of connectivity. Discussions are associated with each, not only allowing
members to connect over issues surrounding the document or library topic, but also
allowing the association executive to immediately be aware of the issues concerning
those members.
AssociCom Library Features
The AssociCom library area implements features focused on open and simple knowledge
sharing, flexible customization, and most importantly, peer discovery and learning.
The primary features are as follows:
Library Topics: The library is organized as a topic hierarchy with
library items existing anywhere in the hierarchy. The topic hierarchy is fully configurable
by the association administrator. Configuration options include the number and depth
of topics, topic names, whether and where members can create new topics, and whether
and where members can add library items. This is important because
the library topic hierarchy serves as the central location from which members browse
for library items. Organizing the library as a hierarchy allows the association
to tailor their library to their specific needs and make document discovery highly
efficient for the members. In addition, the ability to configure which library topics
can be populated by members allows the association to reserve special areas of the
library for official association documents. Library topics are themselves, foci
for discussion, connection and discovery. Each topic has a discussion area and a
listing indicating members interested in this topic. Finally, the ability to allow
members to add topics and items to specific areas of the library encourages member
engagement, sharing and peer learning through the collective building of the association
member library.
Personal and Group Libraries: In addition to the central library topic hierarchy
where all library items can be found, AssociCom also allows members and groups to
establish their own libraries. When a library item is added to a group or member
library, it is also automatically listed in the central library topic hierarchy
for all other members to view. This is important for two reasons. First it allows
members and groups to build their own library. This provides them with quick access
to documents of interest while, at the same time, contributing to the shared community
knowledge repository. Second, the library collection of a group or individual member
serves as a statement of the interests of that group or member. This is a powerful
discovery mechanism. For example, if a member is browsing the central library topic
hierarchy and discovers a document of interest, they are immediately able to determine
which members and groups have added that document to their own library. The shared
interest in this document serves as an indicator of a greater common interest with
the discovered member or group.
Revision History: All documents in the association library are accompanied
by a revision history in order to provide members with access to previous revisions.
This is important because it allows members to view previous versions
of documents, preserving historically information and perspective.
Change Notifications: All members interested in a particular document
or library topic are notified when a new version of that document is stored, when
a new library item is added to the area of interest, or when new activity occurs
(for example, a new comment in a discussion area) related to the document or area
of interest. This is important because it ensures that members are
kept up to date with respect to new library items that are added to an area of interest,
new versions of an existing document, or new discussion comments related to a document
or topic of interest. This notification process relieves the member from the need
to continually revisit the library to ensure they have the most current copies of
all the most relevant information. It also ensures that they remain connected to,
and engaged with, the community of shared interest surrounding this document or
library area.
Discussions: Every library item and every topic in the library hierarchy
has an associated discussion area where members can discuss that document or the
topic area. This is important because it means that every library document
or topic is not only a source of static resources, but also serves as a focus of
community discussion, debate, learning and advancement centered around the document
or topic. Each time a comment is made in the discussion area, that comment effectively
becomes a part of that library item or topic – enriching the resource, informing
the association of thoughts surrounding the topic, and connecting the community
both immediately and for the future.
Metadata: Every library item and every topic in the library has community-assigned
metadata associated with it including items such as a title, description, tags,
and so on. This is important because it allows the members to collectively
contribute their knowledge to the library. Each item of metadata is stored with
the item or topic and serves as an extension of the knowledge embodied in that item
or topic. In addition, this metadata is used as a primary search source making library
searches in AssociCom particularly effective.
Library item and Topic Labeling: Library items and topics can be labeled
to display a prominent and recognizable colored banner and text. The various labels
that can be applied are configurable by the association administrator, and the administrator
can determine which labels, if any, can be applied by the members, and which can
only be applied by the association. This is important because it allows
the association (or the members, if permitted) to give any library item or topic
special recognition – for example, indicating that it is an official association
document or topic area, or that it is a member-supplied document revision, etc.
This helps members instantly recognize items and topics with special status.
Item and Topic-based Messaging: Topic and item-based messaging allows
members to send a message which reaches all members who are interested in a particular
library item or topic. This is important because it allows any member
to easily communicate with other members who share a common interest centered on
a document or topic. These members who share this common interest are essentially
an ad-hoc group forged by their shared interest. As such, AssociCom makes it easy
for these members to communicate and enhance their connections and learning opportunities.
This is useful in many ways, including, for example, a message inviting members
to a new group, a message announcing a new revision or library item, a message asking
for contributions to a topic area, etc.
Intelligence and Administration
AssociCom provides features which give you insight about your members, their concerns,
their preferences, and their interests that would not otherwise be available.
AssociCom provides information on who the major contributors are and the volume
of their contributions. Most importantly, AssociCom uses implicit measurements,
usage patterns and social network analysis to identify thought leaders who are well
respected by the other members.
Polls, described elsewhere, can be created by the association and deployed in groups,
library topics, the main page of the network, or other areas of interest.
AssociCom supports a ubiquitous flagging system allowing any member to alert the
association administrator to inappropriate or questionable content. At the option
of the administrator, a flag can be dealt with immediately by that administrator
or put to a member vote.
Network Analysis
As the use of AssociCom progressively increases within an association, valuable
information about the members is available through AssociCom’s social network analysis
features. AssociCom maintains several metrics concerning member use of the platform.
It provides information on who the major contributors are and the volume of their
contributions. Most importantly, AssociCom uses implicit measurements, usage patterns
and social network analysis to identify those who are well respected by the other
members.
This is important because it provides the association executive with
insights into its membership which were not previously available. It helps the association
objectively determine who the major contributors are, who the most active members
are, and who the thought leaders are. This is incredibly valuable for both the association
and the individual members. One value for the association is that it identifies
members who would make good initial contacts when researching a member issue. It
helps the association better understand the makeup of the membership. It is valuable
for members as it adds to the voice they have, ensuring that the association better
understand their needs and expectations.
Association Polling
Polls, described elsewhere, can be created by the association and deployed in groups,
library topics, the main page of the network, or other areas of interest.
This is important because Polling, when used by the association, is
a powerful mechanism to determine members’ thoughts on any particular topic. A poll
can be created and administered at no cost. In addition, members can be notified
of current polls, helping to ensure a high response rate.
Item Flagging
AssociCom supports a ubiquitous flagging system allowing any member to alert the
association administrator to inappropriate or questionable content. Each member,
comment, library item, question, etc is supplied with a flag which can be activated
by a member the moment they detect an issue. All raised flags are brought to the
immediate attention of the administrator.
At the option of the administrator, a flag can be dealt with immediately by that
administrator. Alternatively, AssociCom also implements a flag voting system. In
this case, where an issue is best left to the membership to decide, the administrator
can allow a member vote to take place allowing the membership to decide the resolution
of the issue.
This is important because it ensures that issues that arise in the
network can be dealt with immediately. Although significant issues are exceedingly
rare in networks where members are personally identified, if an issue does arise,
AssociCom ensures that the association administrator is typically the second person
to become aware of the issue. This helps ensure that issues, even serious ones,
can be dealt with immediately before a significant number of members are exposed
to the issue.
The issue voting mechanism, deployed optionally by the administrator, places more
control in the hands of the members and reduces the workload of the administrator.
Configurability
AssociCom’s goal is to provide the most powerful social network created specifically
for Professional Associations at the most reasonable cost. Because it is purpose-built
specifically for Professional Associations, AssociCom requires no additional programming
or consulting agreements in order to be adapted for use in a professional association,
or to be deployed and configured for your organization.
Because AssociCom can be customized in-house, by you, anytime at all, this allows
you to progressively tailor and adapt your site to the changing needs of your organization.
Many of our competitors charge for customization, and then charge again if you wish
to make changes. With AssociCom you can make these changes yourself. Even so, if
you need our help to customize your site, we will be pleased to help – no charge
at all! We are here to help.
AssociCom can be customized using simple web interfaces to include the association
logo and color schemes. All e-mails to members can be configured to include the
association logo and signature block. The association administrator has complete
control over the categories in the library topic hierarchy, who can create categories,
and who is able to add library items. The same is true for groups and group directory
topics. The association is also able to configure the pages to create prominent,
direct links to any area in the network it considers to be important (for example,
association documents, association staff, mentorship groups, etc).
AssociCom can be used as a standalone product with its built-in member database. Alternatively, if you choose to do so, AssociCom comes ready to be integrated with your existing Web and Membership systems using its library of standards-based APIs. Contact us if you would like more details – we are here to help every step of the way.
The number of fields, types of fields, and location of fields contained in member
profiles are completely configurable by the association administrator. In addition,
fields can be designated to be editable by the member (or not), can have their contents
be restricted to certain choices, and can be tied to your external association database.
AssociCom provides a feature which allows the association administrators and (optionally)
other members to mark items (members, groups, group directory topics, library items,
and library topics) with a visible mark and configurable label. Labels are defined
by the association administrator along with the color of the mark and the text in
the label.
AssociCom provides a quick-link area on every page. These links can be configured
by the association administrator to point directly to any area of importance within
or outside the network. For example, links can point to particular members, a collection
of members such as the association staff, specific areas of the association library,
individual documents, a group directory topic, an individual group, etc.
Highly Configurable
AssociCom is highly configurable by the association to meet the particular needs
of its membership. For example, the entire site can be customized to include the
association logo and color schemes. All e-mails going out to members can be configured
to include the association logo and signature block. The association administrator
has complete control over the categories in the library topic hierarchy, who can
create categories, and who is able to add library items. The same is true for groups
and group directory topics. The association is also able to configure the pages
to create prominent, direct links to any area in the network it considers to be
important (for example, association documents, association staff, mentorship groups,
etc). These are only a subset of examples of the ways AssociCom can be configured
to match the needs of a particular membership.
This is important because despite the fact that AssociCom has been
built specifically to address the needs of Professional Associations, the needs
of individual associations differ to some degree. AssociCom allows the association
administrator to perform a wide variety configuration using simple web-based interfaces.
This puts the association itself in control of its network, and also ensures that
there is no need for expensive service contracts to perform any necessary configuration
alterations. The association is able to alter the look and feel, logos, links, library
and group topics, and other configuration settings any time at all, with the click
of a mouse.
Enterprise Integration
AssociCom is an enterprise system which can be used stand-alone, or used as a connected component of your existing integrated systems using standards-based APIs. For example, although AssociCom comes with a built-in membership database, it is also able to connect with most existing membership databases. In addition, AssociCom can employ single-sign on so that your members can move seamlessly from your member-only websites to their AssociCom association community. AssociCom also integrates with your existing public or private website to securely display real-time events of interest from within the community. AssociCom also grows with you: coming soon will be the ability to integrate multiple AssociCom sites – for example for sister, regional or parent associations.
This is important because it provides the option of using AssociCom as a stand-alone system or integrating AssociCom with your existing web and membership systems using industry standards-based APIs.
Member Database Integration:Integrating AssociCom with your membership database allows you to maintain consistent member information in one place and have it apply to AssociCom automatically. This removes the possibility of inconsistent information across multiple sites, removes the administrative burden of manually creating accounts, and ensures that your members have access to your AssociCom member community if, and only if, they are members of your association in good standing.
Single Sign-On:Implementing AssociCom with your existing member-only web site for single sign-on purposes means that if you members are signed on to your website or to AssociCom, they can move back and forth seamlessly, effectively removing the boundary between the two sites. This also allows you to place deep links in either site so that, for example, members can access important association groups directly from the member page without having to navigate there from within AssociCom.
Existing Member Website:Integrating AssociCom “News” feature to produce a real-time display of new community events inside your existing member website ensures that members not familiar with the community will be reminded of the items of value found there every time they visit your member site. Members can click directly on items of interest – taking them to the member community. This is an important feature in terms of helping to build a vibrant community of your members.
Multiple, Related Associations and Chapters:Integrating AssociCom communities across multiple associations (if you choose to do so) allows controlled access by members of a related association to your community. For example, if your association consists of regional chapters and one or more parent associations, the parent association and each chapter may still each prefer to have a separate community. In this case, AssociCom will soon have the ability to connect these chapters to allow members to search, join groups, connect with members, collect library items, etc – across chapter boundaries. This gives each association or chapter its own community, but recognizes its relationships with other communities.
These are just some examples of how AssociCom has been built to integrate with your existing association’s systems. AssociCom is built for associations.
Member Profile Configuration
The number of fields, types of fields, and location of fields contained in member
profiles are completely configurable by the association administrator. In addition,
fields can be designated to be editable by the member (or not), can have their contents
be restricted to certain choices, and can be tied to your external association database.
In addition, member fields can be designated as “browsable”. This means that the
member directory will list those fields as filters which can be used to display
only members matching a certain criteria.
This is important because different associations require member profiles
to contain different kinds of data. Putting the control of user profile configuration
in the hands of the association administrator ensures that the profiles will match
the needs of that particular association. In addition, changes can be made at any
time by the association itself with a click of the mouse, removing the need for
expensive customization engagements.
The ability to designate which profile fields are used to browse for members is
very powerful. This allows the association to define the member directory and ensure
that members can easily be found according to characteristics the association knows
to be important.
Item Highlighting
AssociCom provides a feature which allows the association administrators and (optionally)
other members to mark items (members, groups, group directory topics, library items,
and library topics) with a visible mark and label. Labels are defined by the association
administrator along with the color of the mark and the text in the label. In addition,
the association administrator can designate which labels may only be applied by
the association, and which (if any) may be applied by any member. The labels appear
as a colored banner containing the defined text in both the summary and detailed
views of all items.
This is important because it creates a mechanism to instantly identify
items with special significance. For example, certain groups can be identified as
“Official Association” groups. Members can be identified as “Senior Mentor”, etc.
QuickLink Area
AssociCom provides a quick-link area on every page. The links in this area can be
configured by the association administrator to point directly to any area of importance
within or outside the network. For example, links can point to particular members,
a collection of members such as the association staff, specific areas of the association
library, individual documents, a group directory topic, an individual group, etc.
This is important because it provides a mechanism for the association
to prominently direct its members to important information within or outside the
network.
Customization and New Features
Despite our extensive configurability and built-in customization options, you may
find that your association requires a customization or feature which is not currently
available in AssociCom. If that is the case, let us build it for you! Our in-house
full-service development and customization team is able to deliver work of the highest
calibre on time and on budget. In addition, if the customization or feature you
require will be of utility to our other customers, we will build it for you either
without charge, or at a greatly reduced cost.
Please e-mail or call us. We will be happy to help!
Helpful Documents
Here you will find a library of documents intended to help you get started with
AssociCom, and to get to know AssociCom. If you discover a need for a document that
is not available here – please let us know. Also – if you have written a document
about AssociCom that you think might be useful to other users, please send it to
us!
