Welcome to the Moderator's page...

Please know the Community Pages will be changing to a new platform during April and May of 2009.
Near the bottom of this page is more detailed information about the new platform and the upcoming changes.

Questions? Comments? Just let us know!

Welcome to the Moderator's Community Page!

Capital Newspapers and Madison Gas and Electric are thrilled to be a part of something that has the potential to help so many people. We hope you find everything you need here and, if not, we hope you take the time to email the moderator and let us know what's on your mind.

If you are part of an organization wishing to create a Community Page, you can get started by sending the moderator an email at cpmod@madison.com. We've taken great pains to make the programming tool a flexible tool for all. It's easy to use, yet powerful, too.

If you are visiting the Community Pages, take your time and explore all we have to offer. Check back frequently to see what's new. New Community Pages are added to the site every week and we are constantly working on new features to make the site more user-friendly for you.

We currently have more than 700 organizations represented on the Community Pages and over 130 others are working on creating their site to share with you. This list is growing every day, so check back often to find out what's going on in our community and how you can get involved.

Thanks for visiting!


Dear Community Page members, Madison.com and MG&E bring you exciting news regarding our online communities.

In the upcoming months, madison.com will be implementing a new community platform (complete with new design and a wide array of features) that will host the Community Pages and other online community components. The community itself continues to be supported and sponsored by our long-standing Community Pages partner MG&E.

The new platform program to be introduced is called The Port and the largest difference between that and the current Community Pages is that instead of static Web pages there will be a core of social media activity - a place where organizations (groups) and Web users can interact with each other and contribute content. We'll be making it easier for community groups to establish self-service sites where they will be able to easily contribute and update content, upload photos and videos, publicize events and connect more directly with the broader online community of Madison.

The new online community will feature many more elements to engage users and increase online participation, including:

-- Membership options that allow sites to create special areas for their employees, supporters, contributors, etc.
-- More advanced site search, making it easy to find relevant content and groups from the hundreds of participants.
-- Blog posting and commenting, configurable according to site needs.
-- Photo/video uploading
-- Event listings
-- Communication tools such as "friending," messaging among site members and sending invitations to members of the community or outside users to join the group.
-- A feed reader that lets sites automatically update their Community Pages site with content from other sites and sources, a feature that should appeal to members who also operate standalone sites.

Our phased implementation will also add new content areas specific to gathering places and topics of interest in Madison. For example, we'll create nine online hubs for groups of neighborhoods across the city of Madison. Site visitors will be able to use these hubs to interact and share information so that they stay longer at the new site and return more frequently.

Quadsville (the online community of the Quad City Times) contains a good example of the neighborhoods model: http://my.quadsville.com/community/search/neighborhood.htm

The representation, in general, of an organization in The Port program is called a "group." Much like every member of the community, each group has its own Dashboard, Profile, Blog and Settings. As a unique presence in the community, the administrator/owner of a group can access all of the communication tools mentioned above and in the community any member can create a group. The member who created the group is the owner of the group and has primary administrative control.

In regards to more serious advocacy groups, there are also privacy measures that can be taken and this is something we are exploring further at this time.

If you would, please let us know your thoughts, concerns and questions. We'll gather those and address them in a mass email or on an individual level. Please direct any feedback to cpmod@madison.com.

Also, for those who have a definite interest in participating, let us know. We'd like to get you on board as soon as possible.

The following are some questions and answers that might help clarify aspects of the transition.

Q: How long will the existing Community Pages remain live?
A: At this time, there isn't a set date, but as of now the existing Community Pages will stay live for as long as it takes to migrate members to the new platform.

Q: Is it possible to keep a Community Page indefinitely?
A: This hasn't been fully explored, but we strongly believe it would be beneficial to establish a presence on the new platform as the accessibility to your organization and information will be greatly improved.

Q: Is it possible to transfer data directly from the existing Community Page to the new platform?
A: We prefer that Community Page members build their group on the new platform themselves so as to understand all tools available. It will be helpful that the new platform will not require a basic knowledge of HTML. Also, publishing and updating information will be much easier in general and we'll provide tools and assistance to help build that presence.