Caucus Tips

Log in in to Caucus

To log in to the Caucus conference center go to http://adec.unl.edu/cc. Enter your id and password. This will take you to the "Caucus Center".

What if I forget my password?

No one can determine the password you used because it is encrypted. You may click on the "Reset Password" link on the log in page though and the system will generate a new, random password and e-mail it to you. You may then log in with this password. Once you are in, you can click on the link to your name (top right, this takes you to your profile section) and enter change the password.

Navigating Caucus

The "Caucus Center" lists all your conferences and allows you to look at any other conferences. It shows how much new material is in each conference. It can be reached from any page (link is located in upper left). Using the Caucus icons in upper right or lower right corners lets you jump to other conferences or find people in your conference (and when they were last on), search your conference or others, and use your personal notebook.

Joining a Conference

1. Assume you are at the "Caucus Center"
   This is the page you find upon first entering Caucus. The conferences you have joined will be displayed, along with the number of new items waiting to be read. When you are a new user, there are no conferences already joined, so you should scroll down to the box where you can enter a conference name (or you can "list all conferences" and pick one).
   
   
2. When you get to the new conference, you will be shown a brief greeting, describing the conference, and asked if you want to join. Select the left button - join and place the conference in your personal conference list (this causes it to show up when you first enter caucus.
   
   
3. If you would like to resign from a conference, go to the Caucus Center and select your personal conference page. Now delete (highlight first)  from the list in your personal conference listing. You can rejoin later (but all your markers for how far you have read will be gone).

Checking for New Entries (Responses)

1. At the "Caucus Center", every conference you have joined will be listed AND the number of new responses. Click the last column "number of new responses" (or the "items with new responses" if you have not placed a check in the box described at the end of this paragraph); that will take you to only the new things since you last did a reading. If you click on the conference name it takes you to the conference home page - so you can read everything. You can modify these options by selecting your own name (it appears on every page in upper right) and placing a check in the box "Show detailed breakdown of new items & responses in Personal Directory Page". This has the effect of showing how many new responses are in each conference with new material. This page with the check box also lets you modify your caucus description that other members see and change your password.
   
   
2. When there are "new" items or responses to existing items in the conference, this will be noted just above the list of discussion items. Selecting this will give you just the new material, moving from one discussion item to the next until all the new material is finished.
   
   
3. At each level (Caucus Center or individual conferences) you are given the choice of reading new material only.

Adding a Response

To add your own thoughts or ideas, first go to the conference you want. Select the number in column titled "last", to go to end of the listing so you can make a new entry. This takes you to the end of last response and leaves you at an "edit" box.

Type your ideas into the edit box. If you select WORD WRAP (default), you type as in word processing, pressing return only  when wanting a new paragraph or forced line. What you see is what you get when posted. Another format is HTML, where you can use the web hypertext mark up language. When you have finished entering material, you can press POST AND VIEW, to post it and see what it looks like. If you don't like it, there is an EDIT button on upper right area of response and you can edit what you just wrote.

You can type your entry in, or you can cut/paste from a word processor. You can also upload files or images if you want. It is best to make entries short enough to be easily read but long enough to say something. Some entries may be as short as a line or two, but most are likely in the 10-15 line range to be complete. Do not just make statements like "I agree", as the reader will not know what it refers to. If you wish, you can make reference to an earlier response by using its number (for example, RE: 1:2 plus your comment, 1=subject/topic and 2= response), or you can block and copy/paste a portion of an earlier entry to give context to your comments.

To Quit

When you press the "quit" button (upper right corner of any page), you quit Caucus. However, because of the way browsers cache pages you may be able to click the "Back" button on your browser to see a previous page. However, Caucus will not allow you to connect or go to links from this page without going through the log in process again.

Achieving High Efficiency as a User

Once you are familiar with the basic functions of caucus, there are a few things you can do to streamline your interaction. When you take this approach it is not a burden to "go get new stuff" but is almost as easily done as getting your email.

1. Place the "personal directory page" or "Caucus Center" on your browser bar. This requires Netscape 4.0 or higher or Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher. When you are reading the page you want to link, drag the URL to the browser bar and its done. This way, when you are in your browser you will have a one click link to the personal directory page.
   
   
2. Get in relatively frequently so you have little bits of information to process rather than pages.
   
   
3. When you get into caucus, read the new material first, so you don't address an issue where someone may have already responded. Go to your "personal directory page" to see the new material and select 'read new". It will take you to the first item with new material, let you read that, then take you to the next item, and so on.
   

Other Useful Features

The buttons on the upper right (actually they are also shown on the lower right of a long page) have some nice features.

1. Go to -- allows you to jump to any other conference. It also lets you go to a specific response in a specific discussion item in any conference if you know the address.
   
   
2. Search -- lets you find any word or combinations in any of the discussion items within a specific conference. The results bring up the possible responses and you can click those of interest for immediate access.
   
   
3. People -- you can fine anyone on caucus or just in the conference you are in at the time. Use any portion of the name for searching. The results take you to the page a person completed when they got into caucus the first time, and may include web address, email, and a short description.
   
   
4. Notebook -- you can store things here in your private notebook. You can link any item, and then go back to it any time in the future. Read the instructions for details. This is like your own private table of contents to specific items you want to quickly retrieve in the future.
   
   
5. Help -- help is context sensitive to show exactly the page you are looking at. You can click on the various items for an explanation.