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Socialtext Public Workspaces (Eventspaces) are workspaces accessible by everybody on your network, or everyone on the internet. Whether you want a flexible, globally editable website or you'd like to host a virtual conference, a Socialtext Public Workspace is a fast, easy, and flexible bridge between you and the rest of the world.

How do I log in?

In a public workspace, there are Register and Login links in the top right corner. If you have a login, you may sign in to edit and access other features unavailable to users who aren't logged in. If you do not yet have a login, click Register to become an authenticated user.

How to create a public workspace

To create a public workspace, first create a new workspace. Then you can Help for Workspace Administrators (Create a public workspace)

Public workspace home page

Public workspaces have a wiki page as a home or central page shared by all users of the workspace.

Types of public workspaces

All Socialtext Public Workspaces are readable by anybody on the network. Depending on your needs, Socialtext Public Workspaces come in different types.

• Publish documents to the world with a read-only or read-and-comment only workspace.
• Group collaboration. Work with others through a login-to-edit or fully public workspace.
• Public events and conferences. Organize an event with a login-to-edit or fully public workspace.

Publish documents

Are you responsible for a report, product manual, project status report, or other document you must keep maintaining after you first publish it? With Socialtext, you can publish documents to others as quickly as it takes to edit a Socialtext page. What's more, after you first publish your documents, your team can keep changing and adding to what you've written just like any other Socialtext workspace.

Depending on whether you want feedback, you have two options:

• Read-only. A web presence that your team -- and only your team -- can quickly change as needed, but others can read. Use a read-only workspace to publish reports, manuals, or other documents while still allowing your team to control, maintain, and adapt them.

• Read-and-comment only. A web presence that allows the public to read and comment on what you've written, but not edit it. Comments appear at the bottom of pages, but do not otherwise modify them. Use a read-and-comment workspace to gather outside input on your documents or to create a weblog that your readers can respond to.

Group collaboration

Do you coordinate a customer community, participate in a community of practice, or facilitate a standards group? If you have a need for public collaboration, you can use a Socialtext public workspace to facilitate the group.

There are two main choices:

Using a public workspace for open-ended collaboration has security implications, particularly to do with vandalism and spam. The common solution is to restrict access. However, this creates a major barrier to entry to participation, which will reduce the number of contributors to the project. Socialtext provides two options as a trade off:

• Fully public. Fully public workspaces allow anyone to read and edit them. This works in the same way that Wikipedia does. If you can afford to watch and maintain your wiki, you can make it fully public to encourage maximum participation. However, fully public workspaces are vulnernable to spam and vandalism. If you have a large, active community, the community can protect the space from vandalism.

• Login-to-edit. If you would like added protection against spam and vandalism, you can make a space that can be read by anyone, but requires a visitor to create an identity and login in order to edit. If a visitor does not already have a Socialtext account, they can register to create one. While this is the easiest way to reduce the amount of spam and vandalism to your wiki, many people will not want to create an account just to contribute to your workspace. One way around that is to pre-invite your attendees to create an identity and become full members of the workspace.

Run an event with Socialtext Eventspaces

Can't remember whom you talked to at last month's conference? Want to organize a ride share? A Socialtext Eventspace for a conference or an event can help turn a moment into a long-lasting memory or even a long-lasting conversation. Use the workspace to record every attendee's name and contact information. Keep notes from sessions so they are available later. Let your attendees organize impromptu gatherings within the conference. Maintain the conversation after the event to improve the repeat attendence rates at next year's conference.

For the same trade off between security and participation as with group collaboration, Eventspaces come in two types.

• Fully public. Fully public workspaces are open to the public to both read and edit. During the conference, many attendees will not have reliable access to their email. If they need to register to edit the workspace, they may not receive the confirmation email. Therefore, for public events, it is often best to make the workspace fully public for the duration of the event, and then convert it to login-to-edit afterwards.

• Login-to-edit. While anyone can read your workspace, every contributor must login to edit. If they do not already have a Socialtext account, they may register to create one. While this is the easiest way to reduce the amount of spam and vandalism to your wiki, many people will not want to create an account just to contribute to your workspace. One way around that is to pre-invite your attendees to create an identity and become full members of the workspace.

You may read the details about authentication, authorization, and access control in Socialtext or jump directly to our roles and permission sets documentation.

Socialtext offers additional Eventspace professional services and logistics to support your public events with a wiki. Please contact sales@socialtext.com for more information.

Membership by invitation

Users who register themselves for Socialtext Public Workspaces can edit pages, but there are a few features they can't use, including deleting pages, uploading files and sending email. If you want to grant other users these privileges, you can invite them into the workspace. Go to Settings, and then Invite new users. Only workspace administrators can invite new members.

Advanced features

Socialtext Workspaces may be further tailored to suit your needs. Contact support@socialtext.com to

• Rebrand the workspace
• Customize authorization and access control
• Ask about other changes and customizations

Don't hesitate to ask. That's what we're here for!

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