My Commons provides an easy way to stay current with the network of friends, groups, and sites you develop on the Commons.  It constantly aggregates information that is relevant to you – what your friends are doing, what’s going on in the groups you belong to, and what content and discussion is happening on the sites you follow.

mycommonspage

Getting Started

“My Commons” (boxed in red, in the image above) is a new Commons tab.  It only appears when you are logged into the Commons and is the only tab that is blue.  If you login from the Commons “Home” page, you will be redirected  there automatically.  This may be a little jarring at first, if you are used to going to the Home page to explore site-wide activity, but you can still go to the Commons “Home” page and shop around for like-minded scholars to become friends with, find interesting groups to join, and sites to follow.

“My Commons” makes it easier to keep track of the circles of interest that you’ve already developed on the Commons.

If you generally log in directly to your site or group on the Commons, you may not notice the new “My Commons” tab.  You will only be redirected there when you log in from the Commons “Home” page.

We hope you take some time to explore this convenient and focused way to browse the Commons.

Understanding the “My Commons” Activity Stream

Every time members do things on the Commons such as join a group, make a friend, upload a file, post to a site (or comment on a site post), follow a site, or participate in a forum discussion, that activity is recorded on the Commons site-wide activity stream.  “My Commons” picks out items from that stream which is relevant to you.

My Commons and Privacy

Different for every member, “My Commons” aggregates feeds according to your privileges on the Commons. (For more information on privacy, please see Managing Your Privacy.)

  • For a public, private, or hidden group, you will only see feeds if you are a member of the group.
  • You will only see member activity if you have established a friendship with that member.
  • You will only see site activity if you are a member of a site, or if you have elected to “Follow” the site.

“My Commons” is not visible to people who are not logged into the Commons or who are not members of our community.  “My Commons” is a personal page that other members can’t see (unless they are looking over your shoulders).

Filtering “My Commons” Activity By Type
You can filter “My Commons” items by specific types of activities, or just see everything. Items are presented in descending date order. myCommonsFilters

At the top of the page you will see the available filters – by default, you will see “Everything” but you can winnow down stream results by “Friends”, “Groups” and “Sites.”

Each item has convenient hyperlinks to the author, and to the content posted.  Clicking the hyperlinks will take you right to the place where the activity took place.  So, for example, you can read a comment written on a recently published post, and click the link, and be taken to the site’s post and be able to read the post, and comment as well.

If group-related, the icons to the left of each entry will have two overlapping images that show the group’s avatar and the group members avatar.  See an example, below:

 

If the item relates to a newly published post, and that post has an image, a thumbnail of the image will also appear.

 

Load Newest / Load More

My Commons displays activity in descending order by date.  You activity is likely to span many pages so as you scroll down, you can use the “Load More” button at the bottom.  If you want to go back to the most recent activity, there is a convenient “Load Newest” button on the top of the page.

Enjoy!

My Commons is an exciting new feature on the Commons, and we hope you find it a convenient way to keep in touch with what matters to you the most on the Commons.  Let us know if you have any questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Commons’ powerful email notification system lets members of a group know when other members post content. Used in conjunction with a group blog, it lets you set up a nice place to share content and get feedback.

Read More About Group Email Notification Settings

Each time a member does something in a group, such as join the group, add an item to the Group Library or the add a topic or reply to a topic in the Discussion Forum, the action is added to the Group Activity stream and an email notification is generated.

Individual members of the group can choose how to “read” the particular group, that is, when should they be notified (if at all) when some activity takes place. Some settings are available on the group level, others pertain to all the groups a member belongs.

How Do You Want To “Read” This Group

Members can easily control how they get group email notifications. Go to your group, and click on Email options tab, highlighted below.

 

This same setting can be changed from the Group Page – you will see the current way you are reading the group and you can simply click on the “Change” button to switch to another of the five options.

Additionally, you can select what kind of activity you want to be notified about. This applies to all groups to which you belong.

To do this, go to your Commons Profile, and click on Settings, or simply hover over profile photo and select My Settings>>Notifications.  Here you can also set  Email Subscription Options (see above), on a group level.

 

Since the model presented below involves group blogs, here’s a quick look at what they are.

Group sites are not appropriate for every group, but for many, they can provide a platform for members to post ideas, embed media, announce events, and aggregate category and tag based content.

The Group and Group Site Model

So here’s how a group admin might use a group site to make a space where members can create content, and read and comment on each other’s work:

  • The group admin creates a group and attaches group blog
  • When members join the group, they are automatically signed up as authors on the group blog
  • They write and publish posts
  • Each time a post is published, an email notification is sent out to the group
  • Members click on the link, read the post, and can comment

Members of course still use the discussion forum, and each time they post to the forum, a notification is sent out. For these they can reply by email, without even logging into the Commons. (See “Reply by Email.”) Members can use BP Docs to collaborate on projects, and similarly, when a major edit occurs, members are notified by email.

This pedagogical model is often used on the Commons to teach courses: students join a group with their classmates. The group has a private site attached to it, and they are automatically added as users to the site. They do their assignments as blog posts. Whenever a student publishes a post, an excerpt automatically shows up on the group’s activity stream, and each group member is notified by email (depending upon their notification settings), that one of their peers has posted some content. If the content is a site post, they can click on the link, read the rest of the post, and comment. If the content is a forum post, they can read it in its entirety, and reply by email, from the comfort of their inbox.

 

 

The CUNY Academic Commons can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, but some content is purposefully hidden from sight. The sections below show how members and groups can control privacy by using the granular adjustments available on the site.

For more general information about privacy, please also consult the CUNY Academic Commons Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Privacy and Your Commons Profile/Public Portfolio

Much of the profile information you enter can be filtered out when viewed by people you don’t know. Use the radio buttons pictured on the right to control who should be able to see personal information. For more information about this and about setting up your Commons Profile, see
Managing your Commons Profile/Portfolio
.

Privacy Settings for Groups

There are three types of groups on the Commons, and each has differing levels of privacy.

  • Public Groups

Public groups are open to all members of the Commons, and their content can be viewed by everyone on the internet. Members of the Commons can request to join groups and are automatically added. Group members can be notified whenever new forum posts are published.

Non-group members who are members of the Commons may may comment on group forums, but they cannot start new topics.

  • Private Groups

Non-members cannot view Private groups forums. Commons members may request membership, but group admins must grant access. All content is private.

  • Hidden Groups

Hidden groups are invisible to non-members. These are open by invitation only. Once membership is granted, the group will become visible on the new member’s profile page. All content is private.

For further information, see How to Create, Join, and Maintain Groups.

Silent Uploads

By default, when members upload files to a group, each member of the group is notified. If a small change is made to the file, and then re-uploaded, again each member of the group gets a notification. A recent change in Commons 1.5 allows for “Silent Uploads.” Just mark the checkbox labeled “Silent Upload” and you will not clog up your colleagues’ mailbox unnecessarily. For more information, see Working with Group Files on the Commons Help.

Privacy and Sites

Sites on the Commons are by default visible to everyone on the Web who knows the site’s URL, or who can navigate to it from within the Commons, or find it through Web searches. Search engines index the Commons as they do other Web sites, but there are settings available on the WordPress dashboard which can be used to control who can access your site.

WordPress privacy settings are quite powerful, and can be used to filter viewers from everyone to registered and logged in Common members, to registered blog readers, or even to site administrators. On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Settings>>Reading and scroll down to “Site Visibility.”

You can also password protect certain blog posts and pages so that they are only viewable to a subset of your readers.

If you want to keep some pages or posts viewable to a select few, you might want to use WordPress’ built in password protection feature.

For more about site privacy, check out Privacy Settings.

Group Sites

When you create a group on the Commons, you can optionally create a Group Site. The privacy settings are similar to individual sites. So even if you have a private or hidden group, you can create a public site if you want. For more information, see Groups and Group Sites.

BuddyPress Docs – A Private Wiki for Groups

If you are hesitant about the putting up content on the Commons Wiki, there is another option. Group members can collaborate on content privately by using Docs, a wiki-like document handling interface with granular permissions settings. Click here for more information on BuddyPress Docs.

Only members of your group (or a designated subset of your group) will be able to edit documents. If you want your documents invisible to the public, consider making your Commons group either private or hidden. If your group is public, your docs will be visible to everyone, even though you control who may edit them, comment on them, or read comments.

Email Notifications – Finding the Right Settings

The notification system on the Commons can be configured just the way you want. If you find that you are getting notification emails for things you don’t care about, be sure visit My Commons>>Settings>> Notifications. You can adjust the settings for each of your groups individually. For more information, see Receiving Notifications.