ATTN: Please Register at the New Roots Project Home

[Pachacutec]

You've heard about it.  You've dreamed about it.  And now it's here:  The new Roots Project home site!!!

PLEASE READ THIS WHOLE MESSAGE BEFORE MIGRATING OVER:

Here's the plan:  we're going to take a week for existing Roots Project community members to register at the site, make themselves at home and set up their groups.  In the new site, you will create your own groups, including your state groups.  Please use capitalized post office abbreviations (example, MN) for your state group names as a naming convention.  We need just one of each state group.  If you want, you can create other groups for congressional districts (example, GA-05), or any issue groups that strike your fancy.  Just be sure your issue grop has not already been created by consulting the "All Groups" link at the upper right of the page.

IF YOU DO NOT GO OVER AND REGISTER YOURSELF YOU WILL NOT BECOME PART OF THE COMMUNITY

It's important that current community members get a feel of the place and transfer our community culture there before we publicize the site nationally.  We have grown at a throughful pace to promote a certain kind of collaborative culture, building familiarity and a positive spirit among the groups, and we absolutely want to protect and sustain that.

PLEASE DO NOT PUBLICIZE THE EXISTENCE OF THE SITE YET:  THE FIRST STAGE OF TRANSITION IS JUST FOR US

When you join, you will set up your user account.  If you want to opt in to receive emails from me or my designee(s) about national issues of concern, please join the group "National Alerts" and follow the instructions for enabling email notification found within the group explanation.  You will have the option to check the "National Alerts" group for membership during your registration process, and any time afterward once you are a member of the site.  IF YOU DO NOT JOIN THIS GROUP, YOU WILL NOT NECESSARILY BE AWARE OF WHEN BIG NATIONAL ISSUES REQUIRE GRASSROOTS ATTENTION, SUCH AS NET NEUTRALITY OR NSA WIRETAPPING.  I will bother you only when the need is great, I promise you.  From what feedback I get, I think I've earned your trust in that regard by now (at least, I hope I have).

At the bottom of this email, I will give you a number of links you can consult to help you become familiar with the site and its many embedded utilities.  But first, let me make you aware of something we have yet to build into the site:

WE ARE STILL WORKING ON THE RIGHT WAY TO CREATE AUTOMATED CONTACT OPTIONS FOR YOU TO REACH OUT TO GOVERNMENT (FEDERAL, STATE, LOCAL) AND MEDIA.  In preparation for this, we are asking for your zip code during the registration process.  Your zip code will remain private unless you want it to be shared at some future point when someone from your area joins the community.  I'll link you to our privacy statement at the bottom of this email.  Also in the interim, we have helpful external contact utility links on the upper left side of the page for you to use to your heart's delight.

IF YOU'VE READ ALL OF THE ABOVE, YOU'RE READY TO HEAD OVER.  WELCOME!  PLEASE MAKE NOTE OF AND SAVE THE FOLLOWING LINKS TO ASSIST YOUR ORIENTATION:

You can ask questions and poke around once you get there, but just to give you a running start, here are some helpful links:

HOME SITE:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/

GENERAL "ABOUT US" SITE INFORMATION:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/about_roots_project

USING THE SITE:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/groups
http://www.staterootsproject.org/organizing_tools

SITE CULTURE AND VALUES:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/values
http://www.staterootsproject.org/common_people_for_the_common_good

SITE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNANCE:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/organization

PRIVACY STATEMENT (SCROLL DOWN FOR IT):  http://www.staterootsproject.org/organization

I can't say enough how excited I am about this site and its potential to bring local progressives together all over the country, giving them the tools they need to succed while acting on their own initiative, sharing tools and best pracxtices with each other all across the country.  This is what the technology people call a "killer application."  Major thanks go to Jane Hamsher for her vision and backing of this project, and to our site developer, Lambert of Corentewire for his technical acumen and visual site layout.

THAT'S IT:  GO MOVE INTO YOUR NEW HOME!

Much love (as ever),

Pach

(See you at the new digs!)

[Pachacutec]

UPDATED NEW SITE STUFF IN THIS MESSAGE:  MONDAY 7/17/06

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has already made the jump.  By my last count, we've had about 20 of you set up new groups for your states, and other groups have sprung up as well, focusing on issues, congressional districts, etc.  That's the great advantage of the new site. . . well, one of the great advantages. 

The migration over the weekend has gone very smoothly, and I'm ecstatic.  We have 43 states in Google now, so I'd like to see more states get up and running at the new site.  Admin duties are minimal to negligible, especially since you can set up other people to administer the groups with you once you set one up.  Go ahead and jump in!

I also want to thank those of you who have joined the spontaneous "Welcome Wagon" group to help others transition over, set up accounts and learn their way around the new home.  I expect many or most of us are unfamiliar with this kind of social netwook based infrastructure, which is different from a traditional blog or community blog site like DailyKos.  Your community peers are there and ready to help you feel at home.

HERE'S WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, ONCE YOU SET UP YOUR NEW ACCOUNT:

Please Read the Friendly Manual (RTFM):  http://www.staterootsproject.org/how_to_use_the_srp_site
I am also one of those people who does not like to assemble items from the store by reading the directions, but trust me on this:  the documentation is good and clear, and those of us answering questions are volunteers.  Answering the same question over and over is a little tough when the answers are already written up for you.  Please have a heart!  RTFM!

If, when you RTFM, something is unclear, post a comment to that effect on the manual's page.  That's how we can make the answers section better.

There is a discussion thread there designed to help you and answer your questions.  Please post any possible bugs you find in this thread.  WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP UP AND ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS ANYPLACE ELSE, SO PLEASE USE THIS CENTRALIZED LOCATION.  We don't want your questions to remain unanswered, so please post your questions in the designated area.  There are a lot of you.  Here's the link:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/feedback_and_support_post_0

PLEASE REMEMBER, IF YOU DON'T SET UP YOUR NEW ACCOUNT YOURSELF, NO ONE WILL TRANSITION YOU OVER, AND YOU WILL IN EFECT BE LEAVING THE ROOTS PROJECT.  Pretty soon we're going to stop using Google Groups.  If you decide the Roots Project is not for you, that's okay, though we'll miss you.  This is just a reminder to make the switch, and do it this week, if you can, before we get more people from around the Internet coming in.  We'd like to give you special help and attention before the place gets really, really crowded.

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE MESSAGE BELOW YET FROM THE WEEKEND, PLEASE DO.
It will help you understand what we're doing with this site and the transition. 

See you in the new place!

Pach

[Pachacutec]

I'd like to ask (pretty please!)  the Google Groups members please to do your communication, coordination and planning at the new site.  It helps everyone if the group communications are in one place at the same time. 

Those of you who have already switched over, please encourage those who remain in Google to join you.  Lots of great stuff going on!  If your state group has not yet been formed at the new site, please go ahead and get one started, as mentioned and described in yesterday's transition email.

Here's some news for the community from today, posted at the new site here:  http://www.staterootsproject.org/july_18_2006_comunity_news

Home » groups » RP News

July 18 2006 Comunity News

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Submitted by Pachacutec on Tue, 2006-07-18 20:49. community news | migration | Roots Project

Here's some quick hits of community news for today:

Lambert, our deified site developer, has been travelling and will be back probably Thursday. Meanwhile, new users keep coming over from the old Google Groups to register.

It seems the initial wave of new users is getting a feel for the place. The pace of questions about the site and how to use it has subsided a bit.

The helpful articles on "How to use this site" seem to be getting a lot of hits, and I'm guessing, seems to be answering a lot of people's questions, since I don't see too many comments in their threads expressing confusion. I've added another General Overview page to that series for people just finding their bearings upon arrival. See what you think.

We have a new group for the Religious Left Roots. Nice addition to the community.

Matt Browner Hamlin is beginning to put a group together for the Roots Database Project. Its mission is still unfolding, but the deal is this: we will probably be doing a lot of our own community buildout of the databases necessary to automate the process of contacting politicians and media outlets all across the country. This is based on our market review of the quality of the for-pay options out there.

Lambert has tremendous experience in building database utilities like this. What's not yet finalized is the way he will need the data collected and input once we get started. Matt will let group members know what's needed as he gets more information in collaboration with Lambert. I want to take a moment to give some major thanks and recognition to Matt for working on this, and of course, I'm ready to bear Lambert's children.

There are more groups popping up out there. Please check them out. Start more groups. We have about 20+ state groups at the moment, and it would be great to see more people step up to form state groups not yet represented. Once you form it, you can recruit others later to share the administrative load, which should be minimal or neglible as it is.

That's today's news. I can't say I'll be doing these every day, but I'd be glad to see members of the "News" group do this any time they link, just as I am doing.

Welcome all newcomers!