user guide

The WAVE platform is an open, community-based, interactive Website offering a live, dynamic, and social environment that allows all stakeholders in the EU climate change policy process to collaborate and deliberate in structured debate. It is underpinned by a threefold perception that:

• complex debates can be mapped comprehensively, with all of the pertinent issues, positions, arguments, and evidence represented in a transparent and coherent visual structure;
• the web can be used to externalize and open up this process to anyone interested in contributing to, evaluating, or simply exploring the maps; and,
• collaborative, visual mapping of this kind can help individuals, organizations and networks make sense of (and act in) the world more efficiently and effectively.

Learning the art and discipline of the collaboratively mapping debates, and the ways in which the WAVE platform makes this possible, will enable you to participate in a new, and richer and deeper kind online dialogue than has been possible online before with participants in your own and other EU Member States. Detailed interactive help and guidance is built into the WAVE platform itself and offered in context— with this manual intended offer you a quick introduction to the main features of the site and the practice of argument visualization.

The WAVE Home page (see Figure 1) is the entry point to the WAVE platform. It displays general information regarding the platform and how to use it, the embedded Debategraph map, and notification streams of the latest activity on the platform.

The pilot site links, located at the top-right-hand-side of the site, allow you visit and explore the English, French, and Lithuanian WAVE platform sites respectively.

The Login / Register button is located at the top left of the site. To login enter your username and password. To register, click on the ‘Create new account’ link.

The registration from is shown in Figure 4 below, with only the fields marked with a red asterisk (*) being mandatory.

After entering the required information, press the ‘Create new account’ button. An email confirming the registration will be sent to the email address you have supplied, containing a username and password. Your password and registration details can be updated at any time . After logging-in, you’ll notice the following changes (highlighted with a red circle in Figure 5) on your WAVE homepage:

• A new tab titled ‘my WAVE’ is added
• The Login/Register link is now substituted by a Log out link
• A 'You are logged in as..' message appears

The following main navigation tabs are present on the WAVE platform:

1. Home: Return to WAVE platform homepage
2. Climate Change: Provides basic background information regarding climate change at an EU, national, and local level.
   
   
   Figure 6: Climate Change page
3. WAVE Blog: A blog used by the WAVE team to keep you up to date with the latest WAVE news.
4. myWAVE: Your member profile page, which is automatically created on registration, and displays the personal information you opt to share with fellow WAVE members, details of the WAVE groups that you have opted to join, and your activity on the site. Keep an eye on your myWAVE page to see the latest activity on the WAVE platform in which you have expressed an interest, and browse other members’ myWAVE pages to get to know your fellow members of the WAVE community.
   
   
   Figure 7: myWAVE page
5. WAVEGroups: This displays details of all the current groups WAVE groups that WAVE members have formed around particular topics, which you are free to join. As illustrated in Figure below, the WAVE Groups tab displays a list of all available groups and associated statistics, with each group’s name linking to its WAVE group profile page.
   
   
   Figure 8: WAVE Groups Page
   
   A WAVE Group: The page displays a group's profile, including group members, events, polls, and the activity stream relating to the group.
   
   
   Figure 9: A WAVE Group Page
6. User Guide: The user guide details how to navigate around the WAVE platform.
   
   
   Figure 10: User Guide
7. FAQ: The FAQ lists the most frequently asked questions regarding the WAVE project and the WAVE plaform.
   
   
   Figure 11: FAQ
8. Evaluation: The Evaluation form may be completed by a user wishing to give feedback on the WAVE platform.
   
   
   Figure 12: Evaluation Form
9. Contact Us: You can use the Contact form (illustrated below) to contact the WAVE project team and send us any comments, questions, or feedback. All will be welcomed enthusiastically!
   
   
   Figure 11: Contact form

Several information boxes are displayed on the left –hand side of every page, summarizing current WAVE platform information, activity, and statistics.

1. Debate Map Updates: Shows you the stream of all activity on the Debategraph maps
   
   
2. WAVE Members: Use this information box to see who has been online, and who has registered recently. The information box shows the photos of the top three members sorted by online status and registration date – and you can use the link is provided to see all your fellow WAVE members.
   
   
3. WAVE Activity: Shows you the stream of all activity on the WAVE platform, including news of any new WAVE members, new groups, new events, new polls, or new blog-posts.
   
   
4. WAVE Event Calendar: Use this to find and keep track of any events that have been created by other WAVE members.
   
   
5. WAVE Tags: The tag cloud shown here offers as great way to find and explore the content that you and other WAVE members have tagged across the site. Click on a tag to open a page listing all of the current items tagged with a given tag.
   
   
6. Latest Poll on WAVE: Displays Use this information box to track and vote in the latest polls created by your fellow WAVE members.