Welcome, pioneer settlers of the new BFI.org!




We are thrilled to start populating the new BFI discussion forums and creating a worldwide network of participants. What we want you to know and understand, right off the bat, is that this is your place. You, other members, and new participants will create this community, meet each other here, share thoughts, update each other on projects, even collaborate... and the gestalt of this organism will be created now, at the beginning, with the tones and styles we set.


We want BFI.org to be lively, friendly, intelligent, and open. One of the goals of these discussions is to make room for new interested people who can learn about Bucky's work and legacy. There is ample space here for both dyed-in-the-wool Bucky aficianados and experts, and those for whom he is little more than the guy who invented the dome. And we hope there will be some mixing among the two!


The core of an online community are its "discussion groups" -- areas where notes on a topic of common interest are posted in order of the time posted, and stored for others to read. Discussion groups are also known as newsgroups, message boards, bulletin boards, and forums. To participate, you read the notes that people have posted, in the topic threads that interest you. If you like, you write your own response and post it after theirs. Then you check in later, whenever you want, and see how other people responded to you and how the discussion has progressed.



So, here's how to get started:

1. Go to http://207.99.102.199/index.php

PLEASE NOTE, THE WEBSITE IS NOT YET AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND ALL CONTENT IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION.





2. Scroll down the homepage to find the block on the left hand side titled: LOG IN click on CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT.

3. Fill out the Information on the form that follows. Name, Email, City, and Country are required. The rest is optional. Please note that our privacy policy is to never share your email or personal information with anybody.

4. Once you have created a profile you will receive an email with a system generated password. Refresh the homepage by clicking on the large 'Buckminster Fuller Institute' banner and use the LOG IN box to log in to the site.

5. Once you are logged in you will see a new box, entitled 'MY TOOLBOX' on the left hand side underneath where the ONLINE FORUMS box. From here you can click on create content to start participating in discussions or to submit resources to the site, or you can click on my account to view your account and change your settings.

6. To access the forums, just click on the FORUMS box or use the options show in your profile.

7. Once you are in the forums, click on the Welcome ! forum to view the 'BFI.org pioneers INTRODUCE YOURSELF' posting and tell us something about yourself !

Once you've familiarized yourself with how the discussion forums work, feel free to move around and enter another forum.

If you are having problems, please post them as comments under the PIONEER FEEDBACK discussion in the forum titled "Welcome !".

We will get back to you first thing Monday morning.

Feel free to wander through the rest of the site - please bear in mind that we are NOT finished with the design or content upload -- we look forward to your feedback.


Many thanks for helping us out with seeding the discussion boards -- we hope in time these boards will be *the* place on-line for Fuller-inspired innovators to congregate.

Have a great weekend,
- the bfi.org team