CYTOPATHNET Video Tutorials



I have begun the process of setting up some video tutorials for using CYTOPATHNET. The easy part was setting up the YouTube? channel. I have a lot to learn yet about how to do these screen capture tutorials well, so this will be an "process improvement" in the making! You will be able to access from the home page, or if you are a YouTube? user, by our YouTube? channel, 
http://www.youtube.com/cytopathnet. Visit today and subscribe in order to be notified of any subsequent video postings. 



The first tutorial describes how to register on this site. Pretty basic, I know, but some people may still have difficulty if they are new to the web. 



I would appreciate any suggestions for tutorials you would like to see, and I will do my best to address those ideas. 



Stay tuned...I plan to post more, and HOPEFULLY, they can only get better! 

Did you know that you can communicate with other users on CYTOPATHNET?

There are several tools available to do this, found right here on this site!

Firstly, there is a "Shoutbox" located on the righthand menu area, suprising labeled SHOUTBOX (grin). You can send out a quick shout in that box. Replies can be actual realtime, if someone if online, and you see their username displayed in the online user window. If you miss someone, sending a shout-out can be replied to by that user the next time they log on or visit the site. A second way to communicate with others is through the more standard Discussion Forums. Thirdly, you can private message a user through your private message system. More information has been provided previously, http://cytopathnet.org/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=6&postId=46. We also provide some external resources that users may find more comfortable to use. Continue reading!

CYTOPATHNET Facebook Group

We now have a Facebook Group page! For those of you who are looking for more social interaction with your fellow CYTOPATHNETeers, visit our Facebook Group and start expanding our social presence. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=75552272754

NOTE: Please be considerate of any company policies regarding accessing sites such as Facebook prior to using from your work computer.

Join the CYTOPATHNET-L Listserv today!!! Visit http://cytopathnet.org/tiki-index.php?page_ref_id=8 for information how to join TODAY!!! If you prefer, you may join our new CYTOPATHNET Google Group, which allows for easy searchable online archives, easy to use interface and easy online access.

Subscribe to CYTOPATHNET-L

Visit this group

 GOOD NEWS! 

The move to the new server has been completed, and i think you may have already noticed the improvement in performance. The only real glitch that I have noticed is that some of the images in the database may have been corrupted, but I haven't yet been able to thoroughly troubleshoot that yet.

In addition, I also took the opportunity to upgrade the site to the latest version of Tikiwiki. This should result in improvements. 

Enjoy!

I am not sure if any of you have noticed, but our growing population is starting to have its affects on our hosting server. As a result, I will be moving the site to a new server in order to improve performance. Hopefully, this will result in very little (if any) downtime, and will be hardly noticable to our users. So, if you visit the site, and it seems to be sluggish, know that this is because we are so popular (grin).

Take care...will update soon!

I am spending some time looking at version 1.10 of Tikiwiki. It is still in development.

One of the new features that I am most excited about is the WYSIWYG editor. I have to confess that I have been disappointed in the lack of active participation by visitors to our site. I attribute this to several factors:

1. time contraints of the individual as a participant (life and personal priorities)
2. employer restricts or forbids participation
3. apathy
4. lack of familiarity with internet tools (ie. unfamiliar WIKI editor and syntax)
   
5. misunderstanding of goals and intents of CYTOPATHNET

I am going to just focus on the WIKI editor (for now). The new WYSIWYG editor, called FCKEditor, is going to be a great enhancement. Users will be able to edit posts and create articles using an editor similar to their day to day word processor, ie. Office. So the menu ribbon will be similar to Office 2003 and you will not have to worry with WIKI syntax at all. However, if you do know the syntax, you can still use it in the same processor. Images from you desktop can be loaded to the server for use in your article. Theoretically, you can even add to your own folder so you know which pictures are yours. There are still some bugs that the developers are working out, but I am hopeful that this change will encourage even just a smidgen of participation from our users, even if it is to post a comment to say, "thanks for the efforts".

In order to be able to communicate with other CYTOPATHNET users while online, registered users must access their User Profile settings under MyTiki in order to allow communication from others. By default, this feature is disabled in order to allow our users to choose this option. This prevents unwanted contact. The disadvantage, is that you will not receive messages from colleagues online who may wish to communicate with you, and vice versa.

For a more detailed example of how to access MyTiki, visit the MyTiki page.

I have been spending some time trying to create some specific topic oriented user menus in order to assist our users with navigating the information on this site. Expect continuing changes to the organization of this site in order to assist you with finding the wealth of information available at your fingertips.

New this week:

Legislative Menu: provides quick access to our popular CLIA Forum, hosted by Sandra Fite, CT(ASCP). Submit your questions to Sandra here. In addition, find key references to Cytology PT information here.

Guidelines Menu: provides handy references to available practice guidelines. Also provides access to CYTOPATHNET Quality Assurance project and Community Challenge on developing an Online Compendium on Quality Assurance for Cytology. Includes Author Resources and instructions for online collaboration.

Another way to obtain help in using this site is through the FAQ section. This area can be accessed in order to 1) Submit a question for help 2) Search for other helpful Q&A on how to use the site.

To access the FAQ, use the left hand Menu link, FAQs. Another way to access potentially useful FAQs, is to type in "FAQ" in the Search Wiki PageName? block. It will bring up a list of content available on CYTOPATHNET that you can review.

Tikiwiki, which is the format used for this site, is a very powerful content management system. However, one of its disadvantages, as with other similar based systems, is difficulty in getting oriented on WHERE and HOW to find things.

Many useful documents are available on this site, including test questions, guidelines, handbooks, and lecture material. These can be found by clicking on the left hand Menu on "File Directories". There you will find collections of files stored by category and/or document type.

I encourage our users to add to this blog any tips you have found in maneuvering around this site, in order to help others.

Please don't hesitate to IM me with any questions.