CweUser/BestPractice

Some Suggestions and Best Practices in using the CWE (9K)

On your e-mail client (e.g. Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Outlook, Eudora, ...) it is recommended that you (A8)

save this posting address (e.g. ) to your address book; (AHB)
set your mail client to send mail in plain text only, and if your mail client allows it, set it to wrap the text with line length of 65 characters. (AHC)

for Mozilla Thunderbird, go to: Tools | Options | Composition -- enter "65" on the line that says "Wrap plain text messages at ___ characters" (AHI)

also under: Send and html options | send options | Plain text domains-tab -- Add the domain of the forum (like: <community.cim3.net>) (AHJ)

for outlook/outlook express, the setting can be made at: Address Book | select <list> address | Properties | Name-tab, and then check the box at the lower left corner that says "Send E-Mail using plain text only" (AHK)

always think of the “recipient” of the information. Consider how one can get the message (and its “meaning”) across unambiguously, effectively and efficiently. Provide context (succinctly), by citing links to relevant supporting information, where necessary (A9)
use the SUBJECT line wisely. That's almost the first thing that will be presented in a human "explore and search" effort (AA)
when citing a date (especially in the subject line), always include the year, since the message will be archived and may be viewed years from now. (B2)
Threaded Conversations / Discussions : one issue at a time; separate the threads properly; open and close conversations properly; continue the thread (don’t start a new one) until it is closed (AB)
don't quote the entire "previous discussion", just capture the point you are making a remark on (AC)
organize the message into paragraphs and/or lists (numbered or bulleted) (AD)

leave a blank line between each paragraph or bullet point (so that purple numbers can be properly inserted) (AE)

proper use of "attn" within the message -- highlight and draw the attention of particular targeted audience (AF)

be very specific about action items, expected deliverables, due dates, deadlines, ... etc. (AG)

link your audience to your cited reference "in context" through the use of granular linking (with "purple numbers") (AH)
save documents into the repository, and refer to them in the thread-discussion (e-mail message) with a hyperlink (AI)

imagine, say a 1 MB file, and a mailing list with 100 people -- besides saving ~99 MB of storage (when that file is sent as an attachment in the post), this makes the file be available on-demand, rather than being pushed to all users (AHG)

think, and try to ascertain, that whatever you are posting, would still make sense when the archive is veiwed 3~5 years from now (AHE)
don't post anything that you don't want to be archived and be available even years from now (AHF)

this wiki supports one sub-level (below the top level) of wiki pages, like this one "CweUser/BestPractice" (B3)

use this sub-level paging feature to organize pages (so that they are not all at the top level, and common page names can be used repeatedly) (B4)
e.g. "ProjectAlpha/ConferenceCall_2004_04_23"; "AnnualConvention2004/Planning" (B5)

make use of long-filenames, and try to capture some metadata into the filename to help future search and retrieval (B7)

when including a date in the filename, use "yyyymmdd" or "yyyy-mm-dd" -- this will help future sorting (BA)
avoid using spaces and non-alphsnumeric symbols in filenames (even when some systems allow it, because a lot of others don't) except for the following. Use only "_" (underscore) and "-" (hyphen), and use them to space out words so that they are more intelligible. Use "." (dot) only once, right before the file extension. (e.g. "ABC_meeting_minutes--JohnDoe_20040423a.html") (BB)

For those who use the optional VNC Shared-screen Support (part of CIM3's synchronous collaboration support service) for the virtual presentations (or similar sessions), there are some useful hints that one can find at: OntologWiki:VirtualSpeakerSessionTips (AE0)