This quick-start guide will help you learn the basics of the UCAR Commons.
Login
Much of the information on the UCAR Commons is open to everyone, but features like profiles and posting are reserved for UCAR Members and staff. To login, go to commons.ucar.edu. Enter your email and password, or click on Create/Forgot password if you need to setup your password. If your email is not recognized, you can request to join the UCAR Commons by filling out this form.
Profile
Improve your connections on the UCAR Commons by completing your profile. You can add information such as your title, department, education, and career background. We also encourage you to select your interest areas so the system can suggest network connections that have similar interests. To edit your profile, click on the grey person icon circle on the top right of the screen, then click on profile.
Be sure to check the Account Tab in your Profile. Here you can change your privacy settings such as who can see your email and who can send you connection requests. You can also set your community notification preferences to determine if you get daily email digests, weekly digests, immediate (real time) emails, or no emails from the community. The default email setting for UCAR Member Communities is consolidated weekly digests and Special Interest Group Communities default to daily emails.
Collaborate in Communities
One of the best ways to get value out of the UCAR Commons is by participating in conversations! By default, all UCAR members have access to the Open Forum, Opportunities, and News Communities.
The Open Forum is the best place to post and answer questions and discussion topics.
The Opportunities Community is where you will want to post opportunities such as jobs, fellowships, internships, events, and trainings.
The News Community is a great place to share your university, lab, or program news such as new research or accomplishments.
Special Interest Group Communities
The UCAR Commons will grow with Special Interest Group Communities where people with a common interest will be able to collaborate and share posts relevant to the community. The current Special Interest Communities are below. Email commons@ucar.edu to request to join a Special Interest Group Community or to ask to start a new one.
- Center for Ocean Leadership (for CoL affiliates only)
Posting and Replying to Discussions
To start a discussion, click on Communities, My Community, then select the appropriate community. Click on the blue Add button next to Discussions to create a post. If you save your post for later, you will find it under your profile under Contributions.
To reply to a post, click on the post and then on the Reply button to the right. You can also click on the down arrow to Reply Privately to Sender, or you can simply reply through your email account via the email digest you will receive.
Remember to use #tags to help make the content searchable.
*If you feel a post is inappropriate, you can flag it by clicking Mark as Inappropriate when you click on the drop-down menu under the Reply button. This will send a note to staff to review the post and take it down if necessary.
Connect with Peers
You can search the directory to find people from certain universities, or even by their research field and other interests. Once you’ve found the people you’re looking for you can view profiles, send messages or add them as a contact directly from the search results page.