What's at the BVC?

Conferences

Many people choose to participate in the conferences through their web browser, but it is not essential. You have the option of subscribing to a conference so that you interact with it through e-mail, just like listserve. But for those who would rather be selective about what topics they read and who hate to see their “in-boxes” fill up with conference mail, the easier way is to see the conference as a threaded discussion group on the Web. Each topic in the conference is potentially the beginning of a long thread of conversation. When the discussion begins to drift or split, anyone can create a new topic as the beginning of a new discussion.

One feature that we believe will be useful is “rich profiles” that reveal to other participants what your interests are, what work you are doing, and some of your key publications.

Replies to topics can be posted to the conference, or they can be easily be sent privately to the poster through e-mail. For each posting, there is also a link back to the profile of the person who posted it, so you can take a moment to understand that person's background and interests before replying.

Our software (ChatSpace^® WebBoard) supports uploading and downloading of documents. This makes it convenient to use the BVC conferences as a repository for documents which are the focus of collaborative workgroups. For more restricted access to the documents, we can set up private conferences protected by password access.

Conferences can be moderated or unmoderated, depending on the wishes of the SIGs or others who initiate it. They can be open-ended, or they can last for a finite time (e.g. one month). They can be open to all BVC participants, or they can be closed except to certain people.

Chat

Each conference in BVC has its own chat room, where you can interact with other conference participants who are on-line at the same time. You can interact with a group of people, or you can send a private message (“whisper”) to one person in the chat room.

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