facilitatepro 15.0 with cilistorm primer

FacilitatePro 15.0 with CiliStorm Primer

© 2016 Facilitate.com [email protected] of 14

FacilitatePro v15 introduces a new facilitator and participant interface called CiliStorm, along with new configuration options. This release also includes fixes and security updates that are summarized in the section called Fixes and Security Updates. V15 is a transition version – once upgraded, both the legacy (v14) and the CiliStorm interfaces are available on a site-wide or individual facilitator basis. This allows you to decide the pace at which you transition your facilitators over to CiliStorm, and allows some facilitators to retain the v14 interface if they so choose. We expect to sunset the v14 interface in a future version. Instructions for configuring your entire site or individual facilitators with the CiliStorm interface are included in this Primer.

CiliStorm Leader Guides The available guides as of release date can be downloaded using the links below. They are also available from the CiliStorm leader main screen by clicking on the Help link. Premium and Pro Guides will be coming in the next few weeks.

CiliStorm Basic Guide

http://www.facilitate.com/15Upgrade/CiliStormBasicGuide.pdf

CiliStorm Plus Guide

http://www.facilitate.com/15Upgrade/CiliStormPlusGuide.pdf

As a reminder, we publish guides to advanced applications called Tech Notes. These Tech Notes will be updated with CiliStorm screen shots over time. Available TechNotes include:

- 13001: Using FacilitatePro for Testing - 13002: Creating Introductions Topics for Conferences and Webinars - 13003: Using Templates to Support Express Facilitators - 13501: Creating and Working with Custom Logon Screens

These and other enhancements are a direct result of input and requests from our customers. Thank you for your ideas! For further technical support please call our customer help line at 1 (805) 682-6939 or send an email to [email protected]. Take advantage of our offer of a free half hour Tune-up to optimize FacilitatePro 15.0 for your organization.

http://www.facilitate.com/15Upgrade/CiliStormBasicGuide.pdf

http://www.facilitate.com/15Upgrade/CiliStormPlusGuide.pdf

mailto:[email protected]

FacilitatePro 15.0 Primer


CiliStorm Interface CiliStorm is a new facilitator and participant interface designed to give facilitators the ability to “click and go” when leading participants in brainstorming, commenting, categorizing, and voting activities. Participants screens have a new look, but remain functionally the same. Facilitator screens have been significantly re-designed to simplify both the steps and the navigation required to set up and manage basic activities. At the same time, the ability to customize the participant experience by adjusting settings is available to those who want to have more control.

Key to the new interface are the “action tabs” at the top of each flipchart screen. The action tabs allow the leader to click on an action and have all participants instantly taken into that activity. This eliminates the multi-step process in prior versions of pulling down a menu, selecting a topic mode and clicking save and follow me.



One of the main objectives in developing CiliStorm is to give clients options to expand usage within their organizations by offering four levels of leader: Basic, Plus, Premium and Pro. Basic and Plus leaders use action tabs exclusively; Premium and Pro users can also take manual control in order to select customized settings, disable follow me and change topic modes. Each level is described in further detail in this Primer.

CiliStorm Basic

Please refer to the CiliStorm Basic Leader Guide for step by step instructions.

CiliStorm Basic is ideal for leaders who do not need to create complex agendas; rather, they are looking for a quick and easy tool to allow their group to brainstorm a single discussion topic at a time. Basic gives the leader a simple main screen with the ability to create and edit topics in a single conference. The leader can create a participant id and an invitation email with a single click. The participant id belongs to this leader and the user id name is always “leader’s userid_storm”. Basic leaders can create a maximum of 3 topics and invite a total of 10 participants at a time (these defaults can be customized by your administrator in the settings.ini file).

Within the topic, leaders click on one of the action tabs along the top of the screen to take their participants into the brainstorm, comment, or simple vote (Thumbs Up). Leaders click on Use My Facilitator Settings to edit or delete items on the flipchart.



CiliStorm Plus

Please refer to the CiliStorm Plus Leader Guide for step by step instructions.

CiliStorm Plus is ideal for leaders who like the simplicity of the basic level, but would like to do more. It offers categorization and prioritization using a selection of voting methods. In addition to the action tabs available to basic leaders, Plus leaders have two additional action tabs: Voting and Results. The Brainstorm action tab now displays several options: brainstorm, comment and categorize. Simple Vote is renamed Thumbs Up.

Plus leaders can create a maximum of 6 topics and invite a total of 25 participants at a time (these defaults can be customized by your administrator in the settings.ini file).



The action tabs and associated links come with pre-set settings that cannot be changed. These are:

Action Setting

Brainstorm Anonymous, auto-refresh, numbers on, sorted by newest to oldest

Comment Flip chart only, allow builds (comments), collapse builds, sorted by category – newest to oldest

Categorize Sorted by category newest to oldest

Thumbs Up Flip chart only, sorted by category by Like - descending

Vote Flipchart is sorted by category

Results Flip chart only, sorted by category – vote weight descending

If you would like these pre-set settings to be different, they can be customized for your installation by Facilitate.com. This is covered by your support contract.

Voting

The Vote action tab contains two links. Prepare Advanced Vote is a streamlined screen that allows leaders to select a voting profile from a predefined list.



The available voting profiles at the Plus level are:

Cilistorm - Agreement (1-5) with Comment

Cilistorm - Approve/Disapprove

Cilistorm - Dot Voting 5-3-1

Cilistorm - Importance (1-3) - Comment and Category Summary

Cilistorm - Importance (1-3) and Comment - with category summary

Cilistorm - Large Comment Box Only

Cilistorm - Low/Medium/High (1-3)

Cilistorm - Multiple Choice A, B, C, D (1-4)

Cilistorm - Rank Voting 1-10

Cilistorm - True/False

Cilistorm - Urgency & Impact (Low, med, high)

Voting methods requiring that a variable be specified are:

Check Box Rate Allocate Points

CiliStorm Premium

The CiliStorm Premium guide will be available shortly.

CiliStorm Premium gives leaders the option to choose between the “click and go” experience of the action tabs, and taking “manual control” of settings, topic modes and follow me. Examples of when a leader would choose the manual controls: when setting up an asynchronous activity where participants

http://team.facilitate.com/4DACTION/FC/CustomProfile?Z9QG9EH1E143R175A3JDH65VNIJ?1196













click and enter topics on their own; when using a specialty mode like brainstorm – personal list for small group work; or when the leader wants the topic to be attributed, not anonymous.

The action tabs work in exactly the same way as in Plus. In addition, Premium leaders have a Settings tab, a Follow Me tab and a Topic Mode pull down menu for manual control.

Premium leaders can create an unlimited number of topics and conferences, and they can invite a total of 50 participants at a time (these defaults can be customized by your administrator in the settings.ini file).

Manual Control Functions

Settings Edit Topic Settings

Adjust Participant Settings

Adjust Facilitator Settings

Add/Edit Categories

Item Numbering and Search

Print

Follow Me Takes participants to the screen you specify. You can disable this function on your main screen by clicking Disable Follow Me.

Topic Modes Brainstorm



Brainstorm – Quick Cat

Brainstorm – Action Planning

Brainstorm-Personal List

Vote – All Users

Vote – Facilitators View Results

Results – Table

Results – Graphed

Closed – Non-facilitators

Voting

Voting is done the same way as Plus, by first clicking Vote – Prepare Advanced Vote to select a voting method and distribute the ballots, then clicking Vote – Vote to go to the ballot screen. Remember that if you have disabled Follow Me, you will need to ask participants to refresh their screens. In addition to the voting methods (profiles) available to Plus leaders, Premium leaders have the following:

CilistormPre - Comparison (Far Above - Far Below 1-5)

CilistormPre - Consensus Scale (Love It to Veto 1-5)

CilistormPre - Cost/Impact/Feasibility (1-5)

CilistormPre - Frequency (Never to Always 1-5)

CilistormPre - Level of Comfort (Not to Very 1-4)

CilistormPre - Likelihood and Impact (1-5)

CilistormPre - Performance (Not Exceed to Far Exceed 1-5) & Comment

CilistormPre - Performance (Not to Far Exceed 1-5) & Comment

CilistormPre - Quality (1-5) & Comment

CilistormPre - Quantity (1-3)

CilistormPre - Rank Voting (up to 20 items)

CilistormPre - Rank Voting 1st, 2nd, 3rd place

CilistormPre - Strategic Fit (1-5)

CilistormPre - Yes/No/NA

CiliStorm Pro

The CiliStorm Pro guide will be available shortly.

The Pro level provides all the function that FacilitatePro facilitators expect. Pro leaders have the option to choose between the “click and go” experience of the action tabs, and taking “manual control” of settings, topic modes and follow me. In addition, Pro leaders can create custom participant user ids, voting profiles and conference templates, and assign participants to one of several custom agenda templates.

http://team.facilitate.com/4DACTION/FC/CustomProfile?Z9QG9HK290023R31A8X5064UENT?1183
















Pro leaders can create an unlimited number of topics and conferences, and they can invite an unlimited number of participants at a time (these defaults can be customized by your administrator in the settings.ini file).

The top bar is the same as in Premium. The additional functions are found on the left hand side bar.

These are the sidebar links and their functions:

PRO sidebar link Functions

Conferences Conference Manager – allows you to search conferences and shows details about the conference (when created, number of items it contains, owner, etc.)

User Profiles Template for creating new participant user ids with assigned agenda templates (for example, direct topic access). The new custom agenda templates delivered with v15 are:

Agenda – CiliStorm – All Users (default)

Agenda – CiliStorm – All Users with Broadcast

Agenda – CiliStorm – All Users – No Entry Topics as Headers

Agenda – CiliStorm – All Users – No Entry Topics with Detail

Agenda – CiliStorm – Frames

Agenda – CiliStorm – Frames with Topic Detail

Agenda – CiliStorm – Frames with Follow Me only

Agenda – CiliStorm – Direct Topic Access

Agenda – CiliStorm – Direct Topic Access – 10 Minute Reminder

Templates Voting Profiles contains a template for creating custom voting methods

Custom Screen Templates contains a template for customizing participant agendas.

Language Profiles are templates that allow customization of screen links, jumpers and buttons

These links operate in much the same way as in version 14. Topic Modes Like FacilitatePro facilitators in v14, Pro leaders have access to all available topic modes. Please note, however, that the “Chat” topic modes will be sunsetted with this release.



Voting Pro leaders have access to all the voting profiles, including the voting profiles labeled GENERAL, which are delivered with v14. In addition, they can create their own.

CiliStorm Administrator

As with previous versions, the administrator user ids have some additional functions that are found on the side bar.

These are:

Admin sidebar link Functions

System Who Is On

Web Stats

Ballot Log

File Upload

Extras HTML Editor

Current Topic

Data Check

Broadcast



How to Configure CiliStorm Users

As stated in the introduction to this Primer, V15 is a transition version – once upgraded, both the legacy (v14) and the CiliStorm interfaces are available on a site-wide or individual facilitator basis. This allows you to decide the pace at which you transition your facilitators over to CiliStorm, and allows some facilitators to retain the v14 interface if they so choose. We expect to sunset the v14 interface in a future release.

The CiliStorm interface for all user ids is assigned in the User Profile by selecting a CiliStorm screen template and language profile. For leaders, the functional level (Basic, Plus, Premium or Pro) is also assigned in the User Profile.

Configuring existing v14 facilitator ids

After you complete the upgrade, there will be no change until an administrator edits the User Profiles of facilitators who want to be moved to the CiliStorm interface. First, take a look at the list of facilitator user ids and remove any that are no longer in use. Next, determine what level you want each facilitator to have (Basic, Plus, Premium or Pro).

1. Click to open the User Profile.

2. Select Agenda – CiliStorm – All Users from the Agenda Template pull-down menu. Select Default – Cilistorm from the Language Profile pull-down menu. (see screenshot 1)

3. Expand the Access Control Options section. Select the interface preference from the pull-down menu. (see screenshot 2)

Cilistorm functional level Select this interface from pull-down menu

Basic CiliStorm

Plus CiliStorm Plus

Premium CiliStorm Premium

Pro FacilitatePro

4. Click Save.



Screenshot 1: adjusting the agenda template and language profile

Screenshot 2: Selecting the CiliStorm level



Configuring retained participant user ids

Any participant ids that need to be retained will also have to be edited; this can be done by the PRO facilitator who owns that participant user id. Remember that shared participant user ids should be deleted after the conference is over; but there may be some individual participant user ids that should be moved.

Follow the same steps as above, with one exception. All participant user ids must have CiliStorm selected as their interface preference.

Configuring new user ids

The same parameters apply to new leader and participant ids that are created with the Create New User function within the User Profile Editor.

The upgrade provides a user id called NewCilistormLeaderID. You can open this profile, give it a new name and password, and select the level (Basic, Plus, Premium or Pro), then click SAVE AS.

Note: The administrator user id (administrator/administrator) is set to the v14 interface. We suggest that you keep it this way, in case you encounter the need to temporarily return to the legacy interface. You can create another administrator user id by making a copy of this id and assigning the CiliStorm template and language profile.

The Facilitate.com team is available to help you with this transition.



Additional Fixes and Miscellaneous Updates 1. Security update has corrected the Poodle exploit and Open Redirect vulnerability.

2. Quadrant map capability has been removed. Several graphical reports (One Column Vote, Action Plan) have had the graphics removed. These graphics did not format properly. The reports are displayed in table form. We intend to provide a new reports function with additional features in upcoming releases.

3. We have added a new ASCII text formatted report – Voting Comments by Voter.

4. Administrator can now delete multiple topics at once based on the topic number being greater than a specified value. This should only be used when necessary as once topics are deleted they cannot be retrieved. If you have the need for this function, please contact us and we will send you instructions.

5. The number of items that can be acted upon has been increased from 500 to 2,000 to accommodate larger sessions for the following

a. Advanced Edits b. QuickCat c. Voting

6. New data fields have added to the Web Stats administrator function which show how much cache, stack space and physical and virtual memory is available and how much is being used.

7. CiliStorm interface has a new feature that allows you to switch between standard and desktop views so that small screen devices such as smartphones can view pages at though they are using a desktop computer. Standard view formats small devices with a custom layout designed for small screens.

8. An error occurring when using conference templates with Follow Me has been corrected.

facilitatepro 15.0 with cilistorm primer

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