Joining Eco Companion

Introduction

Once you are a member of Eco Companion you can maintain your collection of information that is of importance to both you and the planet. Promote descriptions of your collections of available data.

The joining procedure is very simple - fill out the form to provide the mandatory details. The help document "Explanation of online form submission" explains the general procedure for all form submission. If you have any concerns then consult our privacy statements.

When you have provided valid details, then the Eco Companion server will establish document storage areas for you. You will be able to immediately log in to start generating, viewing, editing, and publishing your documents.

There are no charges at all for basic membership, which allows you to maintain one geographic dataset description. All members and guests can search and browse with no restrictions. You will get further benefits and services, and can maintain more documents, if you then decide to increase your membership grade beyond the basic membership.

Procedure for joining

• Complete the online form according to the rules shown
  • help document "Explanation of online form submission" explains the general procedure
• Submit the form by pressing the "Submit Application" button
  • any errors will be described to you
• A personal space will be established on our server for your documents
• A welcome message and a verification code are sent to your email address
• Whenever you use the member services you will be asked for your username and password
  • on the first time, you will also need to supply your verification code

Australian and New Zealand members only

Only Australian and New Zealand users can become members of Eco Companion.

• Enables the content of the catalogue to be targetted to that geographic region.
• Document collections will be of better quality because the online facilities available to members are specific to the region.
• Editorial staff are residents of the region and are familiar with both countries, so they can better oversee the content of the collections.

Similar catalogues will be developed by many agencies in other countries.

Email address

... a required element

Why:

• To ensure that you are a bona fide user you will be sent a verification code to this email address. This procedure ensures that no-one can masquerade as you, by using your email address.
• The system can automatically send you regular reporting information about the number of times your documents are accessed.
• The editors can contact you if they need to discuss any aspect of your published documents.

Content rules:

Well-formed email address that is Australia (contains '.au') or New Zealand (contains '.nz').

Note:

If your email address is in a different format (such as username@hotmail.com or username@yahoo.com) then you will need to send feedback to be added to the inclusion list, before you can join.

Member control:

• You can set a switch to hide your email address from public view.
• The default is to expose it.

Please be assured that the Eco Companion collection of member's email address will never be divulged to anyone. Privacy statements explain our policy.

Searching facilities do not show the email address in any summary list of document hits.

Username

... a required element

Why:

• The username must be unique and well-formed.
• Usernames are the foundation of the service.
• Each user has a separate directory space on the server.
• The username forms part of the URLs to all of your documents.
  • http://www.indexgeo.com.au/pub/username/dataset/this-one.html

Note:

• Choose carefully a username that is meaningful and easily recognised.
• Lower case characters form better URLs. This makes it easier to tell someone your URL. The use of mixed upper and lower case is very confusing and leads to user errors.

Content rules:

• The chosen username must not already exist. You will be told so if this is the case and you can then choose another username.
• Do not use an offensive word. Editorial staff will block your access and can delete you.
• Must only contain the following characters:
  • lowercase alphabetic (a-z)
  • numeric digits (0-9)
  • dashes (-)
• Length must be at least 3 characters and not more than 30.

Member control:

• No member control, once created.
• If you must change your username then send feedback. Editorial staff will change it, but not in a hurry.

Password

... a required element

Why:

• Password ensures that no other person can gain access and edit your documents.

Content rules:

• Length must be at least 6 characters and not more than 30.
• Must only contain the following characters:
  • lowercase alphabetic (a-z)
  • uppercase alphabetic (A-Z)
  • numeric digits (0-9)
  • dashes (-)
• Must not contain your username, first name, or last name.

Member control:

• As usual, don't tell anyone else your password.
• You can change your password at any time, using the facility on your member services page.
• If you forget your password then send feedback, including as much of the following information as possible: username, full name, verification code (this was sent to you when you joined), email address, date joined. Editorial staff will confirm who you are and then reset your password.

First name, last name

... required elements

Why:

• If you choose to publish a document, then ...
• Used as the title of your automatically generated home page.
• When documents are listed, your name is appended to the title. This then allows people to select documents for viewing based on the reputation of the maintainer of the documents.
• Added as Dublin Core metadata elements in the HEAD section of your HTML documents to assist with resource discovery.
• Consistent with the personal nature of the Eco Companion service.
• Concise metadata aids discovery.

Content rules:

• No rules.

Member control:

• First name and last name can be changed by you.
• After joining, the "Member Services" page has the "Edit Contact Details" facility.

What happens after joining

Once you have successfully submitted your application form with valid mandatory elements, you will then be created as a user.

The join program creates two spaces for you to hold documents on our server - your member preparation folders and your published documents folders.

You are assigned a home page with the URL of the following form. You can use this URL to promote your Eco Companion document collection.

http://www.indexgeo.com.au/ec/pub/username/

This setup is immediately and automatically established. You can login straight away to the member services page and start generating, viewing, editing, and publishing your documents - subject to the Acceptable Content Policy (which is basically to provide relevant environmental information and resources).

Until you edit your contact details and publish the resulting documents, there will be no mention of you in the published collections.

Member services and benefits

Your member credentials allow you to access the "Member Services" page at any time. This will present the document management facilities and customise them to your document collection.

Using these facilities you can manage, publish, and promote your document collections.

What does it cost

Membership costs nothing for a basic level of service. Additional publications and services attract a scale of fees.

About Eco Companion membership explains the grades and costs of membership.

Remove yourself at any time

There is a member facility to create a compressed archive file of all of your documents. You can then download this archive to your own system.

Then simply send feedback asking that you be removed. Following a clarification email message from the editorial staff you will be blocked from access and then deleted. Eco Companion will not hold any archive copies of your documents.

URL:http://www.indexgeo.com.au/ec/help/join.html
Last Modified: 20 September 2001