ICONSnet User Guide: Conferencing

ICONS Homepage

Entering a Conference

To attend a conference, select the Enter Conference button. You will get a list of upcoming conferences. Select the Enter button next to the conference that you wish to attend. (You will not be able to enter a conference more than 10 minutes before the specified start time.)

When you enter the conference, you will receive any messages that were delivered prior to your arrival.  (If you are very late for a conference, you might want to start reading with a later message number, which you can specify as you enter the conference.)

Sending Conference Messages

Within conference mode, you will be able to send a public comment, a private comment, or respond directly to the individual message on your screen. You will also be able to read old conference messages. These options are presented to you as buttons that appear below every conference message you receive. Note that after any of these four actions is completed, you will be returned automatically to the new conference messages in the queue.

• Public Comment
  Selecting Public Comment will result in your message being sent to everyone in the conference. After clicking the Public Comment button, you will receive a form to use to send your comment. Click in the box, and type your message. Then press the send button. You will then be returned to reading conference messages at the point at which you left off.

• Private Comment
  Private Comments are addressed only to specific participants in the conference. To send an private comment, click on the Private Comment button and you will receive a form to use to send your message. Click in the checkbox to the left of the names of the participants you would like to receive your message. Then, click in the text, type your aside, and then click on the Send button. You will then be returned to reading conference messages at the point at which you left off.

• Response (Public or Private)
  When you wish to respond to a particular conference message, you will receive a form to send your response. If you respond to a Public Comment from a particular team, your Public Response will go to everyone. If you respond to a Private Comment made by a particular team in the conference, your Private Response will be addressed only to the sender of that private message. (You can change the recipient of the message by checking or unchecking the appropriate boxes.) When you send a response, your message will include a link to the message to which you are responding. You will then be returned to reading conference messages at the point at which you left off.

Using any of the these Conference functions on a message in the middle of a list of new messages will automatically return you to the new messages in the queue.

Checking for New Messages

The conferencing software will automatically deliver all new messages after each time that you send a message or use an option. However, it will not deliver messages while you are just reading old messages or waiting for new messages unless you specifically request them. To do so, click the New Conference Messages button and you will be delivered all new messages which arrived since you last checked.

When you receive a message that is in response to a previous message, the message number of that original message will be highlighted. You can click on this number to see that original message. When you have finished reading it, click the back button to return to reading the conference messages.

Searching the Conference Archives

The Search Conference Archives button allows you to request old conference messages either by message numbers, by sender, or by recipient. Clicking on Search Conference Archives will return all messages matching your search followed by any new messages that were received since you last checked messages. Using this search function in the middle of a list of new messages will automatically return you to the next new message in the queue.

Last Activity

Clicking the Last Activity button will return a table with all conference participants and the time at which they last sent and last read messages, followed by any new messages that were received since you last checked messages.

Leaving the Conference

When the conference has ended, click on the Leave Conference button. This will give you the familiar ICONSnet function buttons. After a conference has closed, you can access conference messages by clicking the Search Conference Archives button.

http://www.icons.umd.edu/help/net6.html
Last modified: March 2, 2001