What experiences have you had as a result of the ASG Network?

[Randy Weeks]

- Click on the video to play, or see it online, courtesy of ScreenToaster.com

You're invited to share experiences you've had as result of your connections with A Small Group.

• Peter Block recently asked what might be the best way for ASG members to blog about experiences they have had as a result of the network.
• This post is written as an invitation to members to use our Social Network here at http://asmallgroup.ning.com to do just that.
• The format is open. Feel free to tell a story, create an outline, include images or links to other resources, etc.
• You might tell about your first experience with ASG, perhaps in a Civic Engagement Series or other conversation meeting.
• Maybe a story of how your professional life, personal or work relationships or other engagements have been affected by the Six Conversations: Invitation, Possibility, Ownership, Dissent, Commitment and Gifts.
• The idea of Depth over Speed has been increasingly important in my life since first becoming a part of this community in 2003, so I may include something about that in a post of my own. Maybe that's something important to you, as well.
• Concepts of Welcome, Hospitality and Generosity, of Reconciliation and Engagement - all may be words that have a part in your stories.
• And maybe none of those, but other words & reflections of your own...

I look forward to reading with all of you what shows up and I appreciate both the opportunity to assist in this invitation and your willingness to share by creating your own entries.

Thank you, in advance, for contributing your posts about the experiences you've had as a result of your involvement with A Small Group.

As Peter might say, let's now "Act as if we understand the assignment"

:-)

Best to all,

Randy Weeks

(Quick steps to making Blog Posts - detailed version below):

1. While Signed-in as a Member, Click on "Blogs" Menu Item, then on "+Add a Blog Post"
2. Enter the Title and body of your Blog Entry
3. TAG your entry: ASG_experience is the tag for responding to this invitation
4. Set the date and privacy preferences: Now, Everyone and Everyone.
5. Preview your post, then Publish, save as a Draft or go back and make edits before publishing.

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Detailed version of "How To Post"

(TECH TIP: To make large headlines, begin the headline with the HTML tag: <h1> and end it with the HTML tag: </h1>)
To make the next small sized headlines, begin the headline with the HTML tag: <h2> and end it with the HTML tag: </h2>)

This blog post covers the basics of writing a blog entry on the site and "Tagging" the post to make it easy for us to generate a list of all blog posts written in response to this invitation.

Before you can post: Sign in to your account here at the ASG network site, via the sign-in link in the upper right corner of every page. -- If you're not yet a member, we invite you to join us, by signing up via a Sign-up link in the same spot.

1. Click on the BLOGS menu item in the top menu bar.

2. Click the "+ Add a Blog Post" link near the top of the "All Blog Posts" page, just under the top menu.

3. The Blog creation form has 2 primary components: a Post Title and an Entry. - Enter a good title for your post first.

4. In the Entry area, type your blog post. You may also copy and paste from a word processor or other source.

NOTE: The body area of the entry screen includes a basic formatting toolbar. With it, you may make text Bold or Italic, include hyper links to other web pages and embed images and downloadable documents in your post. The blog editor is not a true "WYSIWYG" editor (the acronym for "What You See is What You Get" tools) as we're used to seeing when working with Microsoft Word and similar word processing tools. It is basic, but useful and if you have some familiarity with HTML mark-up language, you may format a post even more than the simple toolbar's assistance provides.

5. After completing the 2 primary fields, it's useful to consider one or more "Tags" for your post. For this particular posting invitation, we're looking for entries about experiences you've had as a result of your experience with ASG, so please include this tag on all those entries: ASG_experience

NOTE: In my experience, the tagging of items in sites like ours, operating on the NING platform, works best if each tag is one word or connected string of characters. Take care, therefore, to enter the suggested tag for this current topic as:

ASG_experience

and not as:

ASG experience

Or the system may interpret your entry as TWO tags instead of one.

6. After entering the tag, choose the publish date and privacy and comment settings. -- For this topic and your entries in response to this invitation, I recommend setting the date as NOW, the Viewing as Everyone and the Comments as Everyone. By Everyone, the system means the posts will be visible to everyone, but in order to post comments each person will have to be signed in as a member.
At this step you'll also see COMMENT MODERATION. Comment Moderation is a personal choice, which may be set by each member in his or her profile settings (available on your own member page).

7. Next, you may preview your post

8. Then click BACK to continue editing, Publish it or save your post as a draft.

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I'll include a link to a screencast "How To" video, which I am creating along with this post.

-RW