The intention of the Your Building web portal is to be an online community in which users are regular writers and editors of the site. This document provides the 'rules' and 'guidelines' for the web portal.
Contents
User status Levels
Six levels of user status exist for the Your Building web portal, each with their own level of privileges.
The six status levels are as below (click on thumbnails to see the detailed illustrations):
- Visitor
- Registered User
- Author
- Editor (new)
- Your Building Sponsor (new)
- Web Administrator
A general visitor to the site can easily progress to Registered User, simply by signing up to the website (free of charge). The next step is to graduate to Author level status, which provides greater access to allowing users to freely upload content to the site. Two new user status levels are being introduced, which are "SPONSOR" and "EDITOR". Editor status will give regular Authors of the site, the ability to edit existing content, and Your Building Sponsors will be given access to post information in the 'product and services information area. The user status levels and process for graduating between levels is outlined in the figure below.
Your Building: User status levels and process
The main menus
The content on the Your Building web portal is accessed by users through two primary points of entry (see figure below):
- By based on information about particular aspects of sustainability and commercial buildings; or
- By stakeholder group.
It is important when submitting your article that you indicate the key categories to which the article should be linked.
| General Categories |
Stakeholder Groups |
| Sustainable Commercial Buildings |
Owners |
| Sustainability Strategies |
Occupiers |
| Sustainable Resource Use |
Developers |
| Indoor Environment |
Builders |
| Processes and Tools |
Designers |
| Case Studies |
Facility Managers |
Your Building: Web content structure
What makes for an acceptable article?
The Your Building site is a 'wiki' site, in that the users are the authors of the site. Below are the guidelines for acceptable articles to be posted on the Your Building site. The web administrators reserved the right to remove unsuitable articles at any time, without notice.
Acceptable articles should:
- New information and concepts which have not yet been published; or
- Further information to articles which have already been published.
They should also:
- Contain proper referencing (where appropriate) and use reliable sources for information;
- Fill a void in knowledge; and
- Add value to users of the Your Building website.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Your Building site also welcomes users to submit peer-reviewed articles (i.e. journals, conference papers, book chapters etc.) which do not follow the 'wiki' format.
The standard article template can be downloaded here
.
Instructions for authors on how to upload new articles are illustrated in the figure below.
Your Building: Instructions for authors
Structuring of content flow
Content will be constructed in a similar way to that on Wikipedia, where a 150-250 word lead section is followed by information in "chunks" of approximately 250-500 words. It is expected that a typical content package may have several lead sections, each followed by information chunks.
How Wikipedia defines good articles (also the qualities sought by Your Building) may be seen at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_perfect_article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_is_a_featured_article%3F
How Wikipedia defines its lead sections is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lead_section
If you are unsure on what is an appropriate article or the style in which they should be written, refer to other articles already on the website for a further guide.
Illustrations, tables, checklists, and "snapshot" case studies
While the content text will be configured as described above, it will be accompanied by checklists, tables, diagrams and images as required to illustrate and further explain the points being made. Users want to see real case study examples of where individuals and companies have implemented these practices, and to learn about the benefits - and costs and risks - that resulted. Accordingly authors are encouraged to provide "snapshot" case studies of 100-200 words to illustrate specific points within the content. These will be arranged in "boxes" accompanying the text (see figure below).
Your Building: Snapshot case study example
Content links
There will be various links provided:
- Within the articles themselves;
- From the article to related topics within other Your Building content;
- To more detailed case studies;
- To the glossary; and
- To other reference materials and reference sites, that may be owned either by Your Building or third-parties. If the latter, they would not be stored in, but will be linked to, the Your Building web portal.
Qualities of the content
To ensure relevance of, and repeat visitation to, the Your Building portal, three particular qualities are sought for its content: user focus, integration, and practical examples.
User focus
A focus on the information needs of potential users generated by their daily work is essential if users are to find the content useful and relevant.
Integration
Where possible, content narrative is to demonstrate how the particular topic being discussed links in with other sustainability topics. For example, links could be drawn between water use and the energy involved in providing it, between indoor environment quality and productivity, and between energy efficiency and its flow-on into property valuations.
Practical examples
The author is to develop "snapshot" case studies, either from existing, more detailed, case studies or developed from scratch with industry cooperation, to illustrate key aspects of the content. In addition, inclusion of images, diagrams and empirical data concerning real-life examples is encouraged.
Unacceptable content
Unacceptable articles are those which:
- Are marketing articles of any type;
- Are biased;
- Use inappropriate language; and
- Are a personal attack.
The Your Building administrators reserve the right to remove this content without prior notification.
Product and Service Materials: Your Building Sponsors only
Your Building sponsors have been provided with a link to their own page within the Your Building website. This can be populated with product and service information. Additionally a dedicated "Products and Services" section will be available in early 2008, for Sponsors to upload additional materials.
Editing existing articles
Existing articles can be edited by the site administrators and those who have achieved EDITOR user status through regular participation in the site's content. The foundation content developed for the Your Building website has been locked as it has already undergone extensive industry and academic review and copy editing. Additionally new academic articles submitted which have undergone a proper peer review (i.e. journal article, conference paper) will never be open for editing. Users who do not have editor rights may still comment on articles or contact the Your Building Administrator via enquiries@yourbuilding.org
to suggest changes to existing content.
Case studies
Case study templates are available. There are two types of case study template:
- Feature case studies; and
- Detailed case studies.
Feature case studies
Feature case studies are the preferred type of case study for the Your Building website. Feature case studies do not focus on the hard technical details, but rather seek to share lessons learnt on projects, by collecting the points of view of the various key stakeholders involved in a particular project. This will provide readers with different viewpoints of the same successes and problems on a project.
The feature case study template can be downloaded from here.
Detailed case studies
Detailed case studies provide readers with the technical information for a particular project.
The detailed case study template can be downloaded from here.
Locked articles
The foundation content has been 'locked' as it has already undergone extensive peer review, academic review and copy edit, before being uploaded on the site for the launch. Additionally new academic articles submitted which have undergone a proper peer review (i.e. journal article, conference paper) will become 'locked content'. Users are still able to comment on these articles, and compose new articles to provide updated information, opposing views, case study examples etc.
The locked foundation content will undergo a review in March 2008 and June 2008 and be released for open editing.
Additions to glossary
When submitting your article, it is useful to submit proposed additions or variations to the Your Building Glossary. You may be asked by the Your Building administrator to provide definitions for some terms in your article.
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