OpenPATHrepresents the latest in Collaborative Software technology. Most Collaborative Software packages are aimed at the workplace, where it will soon be the normal way of working. OpenPATH has been specifically designed and written for use in colleges and universities.

At the core of our Collaborative Software package is the Portfolio; in our case the Portfolio is the methodolgy that enables you to get the most out of OpenPATH. Portfolios come in  variety of forms which, for a school, might include the Project, the Event and Merchandise. There could even an Etc Portfolio where you can keep everything that doesn't quite fit anywhere else. You are, of course, at liberty to create your own definitions. OpenPATH's Portfolio based structure gives it width and depth, enabling it to be used in a wide variety of settings and by a great variety of people. Once a Portfolio is set up, folk apply to join and after the Moderator (more on this and other roles is given below) approves it, that person is in, at the appropriate level.

Projects, generally, cover ongoing events in the life of the college; clubs, teams, academic subjects and all those other items which go to make up the ebb and flow of college life. The Event, on the other hand, tends to be something of a one off; Freshers Week would be a prime examples of the Event. If you sell stationery and any other items, you have the basis of a Mechandise Portfolio.

Projects, Events and Merchandise are made up of Articles and Media. An Article is a contribution from a member of the Portfolio, to which other members can respond in a number of ways. Media, as the name suggests, covers items like video and audio uploads which must form part of an Article. Other Portfolio members are, again, subject to moderation, able to comment upon the Articles. Articles can be grouped together in a Portfolio under defined Tabs.

There are only two limits to what a Portfolio can do, the first is your imagination and the second is whether or not you have obtained a site big enough to handle all you want it to do. The good news is that you can upgrade your OpenPATH membership with a simple phone call or e-mail. You can have Portfolios set up around teams, clubs, societies and academic subjects.

OpenPATH's Portfolio based design also makes it a wonderful management tool. Because of its collaborative nature, ideas can be discussed, papers examined and opinions aired prior to a meeting taking place. When the meeting convenes, much of the work has already been done and, probably, some very good ideas that may otherwise have been lost actually make it to the table. At this level, safestep can be used by senior mangement looking at the way forward for a department or indeed the whole College. It can also be used as a project management tool for new ventures. Those responsible of staff training will have, on their desk, information about training needs, some of which staff will have added themselves, allied with general and particular areas the school would like to address, from First Aid to In Service Training. The process is simpler, less pressured and more effective than the Annual Review.

There are five levels of membership to each Portfolio; Adminstator, Moderator, Publisher, Viewer and Public. The Administrator sits at the top and keeps a guiding and watchful eye on how the Portfolio is running. An Administrator, in the context of OpenPATH, may well be overseeing a number of Portfolios. The Moderator, of whom there should be one in each Portfolio, oversees the day to day running of the Portfolio. It is they who approve membership and oversee changes in membership level as well as checking items before they are published, even suggesting changes should any be needed in the interest of accuracy and also to avoid distress or libel! A Publisher, of whom there can be many, is someone who is an active contributor to the Portfolio. This can take two forms, creating an Article for publication or commenting upon an article in a format similar to the 'threads' found on the internet. Viewers are those who want to know more, or be kept informed, about the Portfolio but who, at this stage, are content to read rather than participate. In terms of OpenPATH, the Public level of membership equates to the rest of your College.

Security, especially in cyber-space, is always a concern. However, your school's OpenPATH programme is stored in its own internet locale which only you and we have access to. We have made OpenPATH as secure as possible while maintaining ease of use.

By now you are probably thinking, "All this sounds good but what do we actually get out of it?" At the most basic level, you get efficency savings which will ease the strain on your budget and on you and your staff. You will also become more efficent as an organisation because everyone who needs access to the information will have it via their desktop computer. The days of documents being lost, then spending ages looking for them, reprinting and redistributing them will be gone, forever. You will save a fortune on printer cartridges alone!

The other great saving will be in time, and, as everyone knows, time is money. As documentation will be Cloud based, papers for a meeting can be uploaded to the Portfolio where members can read and respond to them, prior to the meeting. The net result is that meetings, where needed, are brief and productive as much of the 'fat chewing' will already be done. It would. of course, be entirely possible (but somewhat radical) to conduct business via the Portfolio site without a meeting actually being required. Mutliply those savings across every management Portfolio and the numbers soon become very attractive.

Once established, OpenPATH will have a positive effect on the College. Tutors, students and support staff will, through viewing the various Portfolios, gain a wider grasp of all that is going on. You may even find intrguing collaborations springing up, such as between the Groundkeeping staff and the Biology Department. As OpenPATH is collborative in nature, it will draw everyone closer together, enhancing the concept of one team working together toward a common goal.

Harder to define but no less real is the impact OpenPATH will have on studentss. Practically, participation in OpenPATH will help prepare them for the world of work - several internationally known companies are already using earlier versions of collaborative software and its prevelance in the workplace is bound to increase as more and more companies recognise its benefits. Proficiency in using collaborative software will soon be a plus point at job interviews.

More generally, students, and staff, will be able to share their enthusiasms, whether it be for green politics, sport or wargaming in a wider, supportive enviroment. They will also be able to see, and perhaps understand, the fire burning in others for ideas and concepts that, today, do not touch them.

For more information, you can e-mail us at openpath@cb-soft.co.uk or ring us on 01473 716252 for an informal chat. We look forward to hearing from you.

FEATURES

• Proactivity is not (yet) a proper word and although you won't be able to click on it anywhere on our website, it does describe the best feature of OpenPATH; it encourages everyone to get involved in a creative, collaborating community.
• Projects are the core structure of OpenPATH. There is almost no limit to what a Project can cover - anything from Netball to Policies and Procedures via Menus and Catering are all eminently suitable subjects. You can set up a Project about the subject you teach, the clubs you belong to, the pets you keep or the job you do in and around the collegel. For a demonstartion of how to set up a Project, please go to...
• Articles are the lifeblood of each Project. Depending on what the Project is, you can write about a football match you played in or release details of the coming financial year's budget. The Article enables you to share your passion as well as inform your friends and colleagues. A demonstration on submitting an Article for publication can be found at ...
• Threads, these, much like the ones on the internet, enable someone to comment on an Article, or to enalrge upon a particular point in one. If this page were an Article you could comment on the use of words (or pseudo-words) like Proactivity. If you would like to see how to add a comment to an Article, please go to ...
• Forums, as in the Classics, are places for public debate. Once the subject matter has been decided, anyone in the school is able to contribute to the discussion, subject to moderation. A demonstration on how to set up a Forum is available at ...
• Moderation is what keeps OpenPATH legal, decent, honest and truthful. Each Project has a Moderator, whose job it is to check and monitor, not censor, all contributions before they are published. Some passions can run hot in realms (religion, politics and sport for example) and it may be necessary for the Moderator to exercise a calming influence.
• Membership & Multi Memberships - Technically there is no limit to the number of Projects one can join, some students may devote all their effort to one or two Projects whereas others will want to join a number in order to pass on and soak up information on that which stirs them. It may be you will wish to impose a limit for students to prevent memberships being unused once the initial fire has cooled. Academic, Administrative and Support staff are in the pleasureable position of being members of both work and fun based Projects.
• Safety & Security issues are, rightly, always to the fore when looking at Internet and computer use. OpenPATH has been rendered as safe as we can possibly make it while still being easy to access and use. As Safetep is a 'closed' system, unlike the interent, it is a much safer place for students to work. Again, because it is a cloud based 'closed' system, Mangement Projects and what used to be known as paperwork can be kept secure and almost impossible to lose. OpenPATH has a regular and extensive 'Back-up' protocol which means, even were something quite catastophic to happen, your data should be safe.
• Flexibility - unlike many other programmes which lock you into an inflexible contract, your OpenPATH status is easy to change. A simple e-mail or telephone call is all it takes. There is even a facility for 'hovering' between membership levels while you work out if your school's use of OpenPATH is actually increasing to the point where  upgrading your membership is the smart thing to do.