Introducing groups
A group is a set of people using Calflora to
work on a common data collection project.
The advantage of a group is that the members
can share unpublished observations easily with
each other, before those observations are available
to the public.
Join a group
If you are registered as a Calflora contributor,
you can join any of the existing groups
that are open to anyone.
Suppose you are interested in
early detection target weeds, and you join the
Early Detection Network
group.
Then, you notice a target weed in a place you have
never seen it before, and enter an observation of it.
If you associate your observation with the
Early Detection Network group,
then everyone else in that group can easily find your record
and decide what to do about the weed.
To join a group, go to My Calflora
(and register as a contributor if you haven't already).
Then press My Groups. If you are already a member of any
groups, you will see them listed.
To see the public groups you might join, press
JOIN A GROUP.
If you want to join one of these groups,
check
Join this group next to the group of interest.
Group activity
When you are looking at
My Calflora / My Groups,
there will be an entry for each group of which you are a member.
Press
RECENT ACTIVITY
to see 1. recent observations that are associated with a group,
2. recent comments about those observations,
and 3. any recent messages posted by group members.
Each group is a potential
stream of observation, comment and POST activity,
and it all shows up on this page.
If you are good at identifying plants from photos,
or need help identifying plants,
join the
PLANT ID HELPgroup.
Start a NEW GROUP
To start your own group, go to
MAKE A NEW GROUP.
You can decide if your group will be open to anyone,
by invitation only, or restricted (totally hidden).
You can add people currently registered as Calflora contributors
to your group by email address.
If you make your new group open to anyone, then all other contributors
will have the opportunity to join it from
My Calflora / My Groups.
If you want someone in your group who
has not yet registered as a Calflora contributor,
encourage them to register.
If your group is open to anyone, the new person
can join from
My Calflora / My Groups.
If your group is by invitation only,
then once you know that the new person has registered,
go back to the
Group Definition application
and add this person to your group
by email address.
Getting a New Group Going:
(suggestions for what to do next)
If you have already entered observations which are relevant
to this group, go to
My Observations
and associate each of these observations
with your new group. (You can edit the records one-by-one, or use
MULTIPLE RECORD EDITOR to associate a set of records.)
When you use an entry application to add a new observation
of interest to this group,
remember to associate it with this group.
Also, encourage other group members
to associate their own relevant observations with this group.
Add comments on other members' observations when it serves the group's purpose.
From the GROUP HOME PAGE for your group, POST messages welcoming new
members and giving direction about what you are trying achieve. (POSTed
message are not sent as email -- members must go to My Calflora / My Groups
to see them.)
The Data Czar Role
If you are the owner of a group,
you can designate certain members of the groups to have
the Data Czar role.
A member with the Data Czar role is able to
edit any record associated with the group.
Why?
The Data Czar role is a strong and potentially dangerous
capability, so please use it sparingly.
If needed, you might want to designate yourself, the owner of the group,
as having the Data Czar role, and if really needed,
one or two other responsible members of the group.
The real reason for this role is for data quality:
to enable a group owner to impose quality standards
on all records associated with a group.
Privacy
Access by other users
With the entry applications such as
Plant
Observation Entry, you can decide whether
your observation record is
public (published; available to all users)
or
in review (unpublished; not available to all users)
You can also decide to associate your record with
any group of which you are a member.
If you associate a record with a group, it will appear in
the recent activity for that group, and thus come to the
attention of other members of the group.
If you associate an unpublished record with a group,
other members of the group will be able to easily
find it, view it, and comment on it.
This ability is intended to make it possible
for a group of people to work on a set of records
together, out of the public view, until the records
are ready for the public.
ACCESS MATRIX
Who can view a record depends on who onws it,
whether it is published, and whether it is associated with
any group.
published record, not associated with a group
published record, associated with group XYZ
unpublished record, not associated with a group
unpublished record, associated with group XYZ
record owner
yes
yes
yes
yes
user, not a member of group XYZ
yes
yes
no
no
user, member of group XYZ
yes
yes
no
yes
Comments
Comments welcome
If you are a Calflora contributor, you can comment
on any observation record.
To do so, go to the Observation Detail page for
that record, and press
COMMENTS.
For instance, see this record of
Cynara cardunculus in San Mateo Co.
If anyone else has commented on the record, you will see their
comments on this page.
Press ADD A COMMENT
to add your own comment. If you think the identification of the
plant is questionable, check the
Identification of the plant as stated is questionable box,
and explain why. If you suspect that the plant is not wild,
check the
This plant may be cultivated, not wild box.
If you are a member of any groups, you can associate your comment
with one of your groups -- then, your comment will appear in the
RECENT ACTIVITY
stream for that group.
You can edit or delete any of your comments at any time.
My Comments
To see all the comments you have made, go to the
My Calflora / My Comments
page, and search for
Comments I have made.
To see comments others may have made about your observations,
go to the same page, and search for
Comments on my observations.
Posting a message
It is also possible to post a general
message, including a link, to any group of which you are a member.
Unlike a comment, a post is not tied to a particular observation,
but might refer (via the link) to an entire dataset.
To post a message to a group,
go to
My Calflora / My Groups,
and then press the HOME / ALL ACTIVITY link
for the relevant group. On the HOME page for the group,
and press
POST A MESSAGE TO THIS GROUP.
Any messages you may have posted to this group in the past are
editable from this page.
Why comment?
Informed comments can be
a helpful source of feedback
to the person responsible for an observation,
even if that person does not agree with every detail.
For legacy observation data (where the observer is
either not known, or no longer around),
comments can also help Calflora
volunteers and staff to get erroneous records out of the way.
Preferences
Center point for observations
From
My Calflora / Preferences,
you can specify your own center point for
observations. This becomes the starting point for various applications, including
Observation Entry, My Observations, and Observation Hotline.
(If you haven't specified a center point, these applications start
near Fresno.)
. 
JOIN A GROUP.
If you want to join one of these groups,
check
Join this group next to the group of interest.