NMX Site guide

Introduction

The New Media eXchange (NMX) is a tool for revealing and building on the dynamic networks of innovative, skilled people and organisations working with New Media by interconnecting the projects and events that bring them together with new opportunities for collaboration and development.

This manual is intended to expand as the site grows, so please do ask questions. We will do our best to answer them here and on the FAQ.

1 Introduction
1.5 Credits

The Basics

Registering

When you first visit the site, please register so that you can explore the network and get in touch with it's people, projects, organisations and opportunities.

Attending events

As a registered member, you can also register for the events run by NM-X, a chance to meet NM-X members and get connected to the NM-X network.

When you look at 'upcoming events' on the site - you'll notice that some of them have the option to allow you to register for them. These are events managed by NM-X members. If you register, they will get an RSVP from you, and will then be in touch by email to confirm your attendance.

Becoming a full member

As a 'full member' of NM-X you can add and connect in your organisations, events, opportunities and projects - as well as adding new people to the site.

You can also recommend and be recommended for opportunities.

You can become a full member if someone connects you to the NM-X by adding information about you, or an organisation, project or event that you're involved in.

You can find out more about how to become a full member here.

General site functions

Browsing the site

As you're browsing through the NMX, you'll notice that there's a network map of little busy people, taxis, buses, and sheds emerging behind the information you're viewing. Just to clarify:

Projects are represented by London transport: Taxis (small projects) and buses (big projects).
Organisations are buildings: Sheds (small orgs), and office blocks (big orgs).
Events look a bit like a cinema (big events) or a modest auditorium (small events).
People are obviously very busy talking on the phone, thinking or cycling around town!

You get the idea.

Magic Tags

You might notice, as you're browsing the site - that there are images, videos and blog posts etc. associated with everything. These are 'aggregated' from around the 'net using social software sites that allow 'tagging' of their content. In this way, the NM-X acts as a kind of 'hook' so that the opinions and write-ups about the people, projects, events and organisations in here can be gathered and shown in one place.

If you have an account on flickr, youtube, del.icio.us , or your blog is in technorati, use the 'Magic Tag' you see next to each entity in NM-X to 'tag' your stuff - which will then appear alongside its NM-X entry.

If you are organising an event, or running a project that is listed on NM-X - publicise it's Magic Tag! This will allow other people to help you document it!

Contributing to NM-X

Inviting People to NMX

You can invite new people to NM-X by adding their email address when you're adding entries about new people, events, projects or organisations to the system. They will automatically be sent an email inviting them to come and 'claim' that entry - and sign up as a full member of the NM-X network

Claiming things

Because all members of the NM-X network can add information about anything, we have a way to 'claim' management of a piece of information.

For example - I add information about your project, and nominate you as the primary contact. You get an email inviting you to sign up and 'claim' it and update it as you see fit

If I use the wrong email address, or you want to edit something about a project for which you are not the 'primary contact' - you can still claim it. The person who does manage that information will get an email asking them to 'release' it to you.

This 'claiming' system allows everyone to manage their own information in a decentralized way - rather than any one person having to maintain every piece of information about absolutely everything.

Creating or claiming a profile

To complete your registration process at NM-X you have to create or claim a 'profile' - the bit of information that other people see about you on the site.

If there is already information about you on NM-X - it's likely that you can simply 'claim' this profile by visiting it and hitting the 'claim' button.

Then you can begin editing it and interconnecting it to your projects and organisations etc.

If you don't find any information about yourself on NM-X, you'll have to create your profile. When you register and log in, you'll find information about how to do this by clicking on your username (in the top left hand corner).

Connecting things

Every project, person, organisation and event in the NMX has a 'connect' box on the right hand side. When you want to connect two related things, simply type the name of the person, org, project or event into the 'connect' box, select it and click 'connect'.

If it doesn't appear in the auto-complete list, it's not in the NMX yet - you'll have to add it (see below)

Adding new things

To add new people, organisations, projects and events to the system, they'll have to be connected to something. This is so that we don't have disconnected things floating around the NM-X network.

Add a new thing

So to add new event, for example, find a person, project, organisation or event to which it is connected, then using the 'connect' box on the right (see above), click on the appropriate link. Once you've finished adding the event, the two will be connected. You can then use the 'connect' box make more connections.

Adding opportunities

To add new opportunities to the site, go to the add opportunity page. It should be pretty self-explanatory from there on in.

Recommending people for

Recommending people, projecs and organisatoins for opportunities in NM-X is easy - it works just like 'connecting' things - just type the first few letters of the name of the thing you want to recommend in the 'recommendations' box and click the 'recommend' button.

The recommendees will be informed!

Advanced (editor) functions

Some users of the site have special abilities as NM-X site staff and admins. If you think you's like to be able to add news to NM-X and manage your events via our simple integrated event attendance management system - do get in touch to discuss it.

Adding News

If you are a site editor, you'll have a special menu in the right hand (blue) column on your screen. Click the 'create content' button on there, and then click the 'Story' button to add a news item to the NMX Blog.

Event management

If you are an event manager, when you create a new event - you should see the option to 'Enable attendance management' on your new event page.

Users who register for your event will be added to the attendee list - which you can view as a spreadsheet at any time by clicking the 'export attendee list' link on your event page.

When a user registers for your event, they'll get an email confirming that their registration has been received. Several days prior to the event, they will get an email requesting that the reconfirm their attendance - at which stage they will become 'confirmed' attendees.

If you are organising an event for 100 people, we recommend that you over-book slightly, as there are always some drop-outs at the reconfirmation stage (about 30%-50% in our experience).

The event management system is still somewhat experimental, so if you are having problems, please contact us immediately and we'll do our best to sort it out.

NB: When advertising your event, do make sure to let people know about it's 'Magic Tag', so that they know how to tag their social media streams after the event.

Credits

NM-X is a project by London Westside, funded by the London Development Agency.

The NMX was developed by Peter Brownell of Code Positive, designed by Liz Turner and managed by Saul Albert of The People Speak.