Getting Started with the Kabissa Online Community

This page contains useful instructions for Kabissa member organizations seeking to get up to speed quickly with the Kabissa online community website.

Organizations that have been a part of Kabissa since before February 2008 are advised to carefully follow the instructions to verify that their organization details - which were transferred from our old system to this new one - are correct and up to date.

If you can, please print out this page for future reference as there is a great deal to do here and you may need to consult with your colleagues. (As on any Kabissa page, click the Printer-friendly version link to get a simple version suitable for printing)

Getting Your Username and Password

All Kabissa members with email addresses in our system have login accounts, no matter when you signed up for membership. If you logged in before February 2008, we created your account while migrating your organization details from our old system into the online community website.

If you have not yet logged into the online community site or have forgotten your password, you can have a password and one-time login link emailed to you using the Password Reminder feature. Simply click on the "Log in" link, then on the "Request New Password" tab. Type in your email address and submit the form.

Check your email and follow the instructions in the automated email from Kabissa to log in and update your username and password.

PART I - Personal Account

1) When you first log in you will immediately be taken to your personal account details on the new site. You can then update your username (if you want to make it more memorable) and create a new password for yourself so that you can log into the site in the future. Please review and adjust your account preferences and upload a photo of yourself (or another image to represent you if you prefer) and then submit the form at the bottom.

2) Next, please click EDIT again and then click the CONTACTS tab to review and complete your contact details and newsletter subscription preferences. Only your name, city and country will be shared with other website visitors, and help to connect you with other people in your local community. Submit the form at the bottom again.

3) The final step to getting your personal details sorted out is to click EDIT one last time and then click the PERSONAL tab to provide your personal biographical information. This is a great place for you to tell the community about yourself, your background and what you are doing, and in which areas you might be seeking collaboration and help. If you have a blog or personal website you can provide a link to it here as well.

PART II - Organizational Data

4) Now that you are done with your personal details (you can return later anytime to continue to make improvements!) you can turn to the needs of your organizational membership on Kabissa. Still on your account page (which you can get to by clicking MY ACCOUNT anytime while logged in) look for the MY ORGANIZATIONS link and click on it. This will present you with a list of organizations you are associated with in our system and the status of your relationship.

5) Click on EDIT PROFILE to edit the profile for your organization. This is a two step process. On the first step, you will verify your organization's name, official email address (for the contact form - don't worry, your email address won' t be displayed) and your official website (if you have one). A new piece of information to add here is the acronym/short name for your organization, which will be used to create a short URL (web address) for your profile page on Kabissa (in the form http://www.kabissa.org/members/ACRONYM). When you are happy with the info on this step, click SAVE & CONTINUE to move on to the second step.

6) The second step allows you to verify your organization's contact address and phone numbers (and to add a second location if desired) and a range of very useful organizational data that will enable others that share your interests to find your organization and connect with you. Please review this data carefully and ensure it is current, as it will be displayed on your organization's profile page! When you are done, click SAVE & CONTINUE to finish.

PART III - Adding People To Your Organization

7) Now that you have updated your profile, you can turn your attention to adding everyone that works for your organization to Kabissa. All of these people will be associated with your organization through your profile pages and will be able to blog and add other content to the site. You can also optionally give them access to updating your profile and managing the people associated with the organization. To do this, go back to your My Account page and click on MY ORGANIZATIONS, then click on PEOPLE next to name of your organization.

8) You will see all the people currently associated with your organization and their status. You can now edit their relationship with your organization, view their details or contact them. You can also add more people from this page by clicking the ADD PERSON link. Type in their details and submit the form to add them. (If they are already in our system, you will be prompted to click a link to add the existing person rather than create a new account). They will then receive a link to follow to log in and set their password, then activate their relationship with your organization.

PART IV - Start Networking And Sharing

9) Once you have done the above and have an active and functioning relationship with a Kabissa member organization, you are ready to start sharing! Log in and click on the MY ACCOUNT link to see all the things you can do. You can click CREATE CONTENT to access links to add to your blog, add member news, events or resource listings. You can access Groups (currently only a Beta testing group is set up - more coming soon!). You can invite your friends to join Kabissa and begin following them or sending them personal messages through the site. You can do even more - feel free to explore the site to find exciting new things you can start doing.

Next Steps

We recommend that you take time to browse around the site and become comfortable with the navigation and contents. A good idea, if you can, is to allocate an hour for this purpose and for everyone in your organization to share in the learning experience and discuss ideas for content and which organisations you would be interested in contacting. Depending on how much time you can spend online, you may need to break this into smaller chunks of time.

Once you are familiar with the site we encourage you to begin to post to your own blog and make comments on any interesting blog posts by other members.

Getting Help

More background to Kabissa membership and instructions on specific tasks (like blogging) are available in Learn about... Kabissa Guide.

If you run into difficulties at any time, contact Kabissa Community Coordinator via http://www.kabissa.org/contact or directly by email at community AT kabissa.org

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