Groups Creation Policy for Dgroups

For good management of the Dgroups platform, it is important to avoid accumulating on the servers:

• non-active and archived groups that are no longer needed;

• test groups that are not used anymore;

• groups which are not associated with a member organization.

In general it is necessary to have a better understanding of what kind of groups are created and how they function (in technical terms). Therefore the Foundation wishes to set out some guidelines for creating and using the platform:

• All groups will be included in the public directory, with this metadata, as well as in any searches. However, the content of 'private' groups won't be made available to unauthorized users.

• When creating a group, it is therefore important that the core metadata fields are completed.

• Creators can be asked by any bona fide development organization to create groups for them (normally in the ‘Groups’ directory). Creating one or two groups for testing purposes is acceptable; if they want to be heavy users, we aim that they join (and support) the Partnership.

• Groups may be created in the directory ‘http://www.dgroups.org/groups/groupname’ or in a member directory ‘http://www.dgroups.org/membername/groupname’.

• Dgroups Full Partners have creation rights in both these directories.

• Associate Partners have creation rights only under their main group in the Groups directory.

• Groups can be created in the Groups' directory when are intended for third parties, or when the groups owner do not want the ‘membername’ as part of the groups URL.

• Groups intended for Affiliate Partners can be created by Full Partners, under the main directory at http://www.dgroups.org/membername/groupname

• Each member organization has one primary ‘creator' account - usually something like ‘dgroups@membername.org’.

• We suggest to avoid individual ‘personal’ creator accounts as this often causes problems when people move jobs (new creators could not see all the groups previously created).

• When a group is created, the creating organization must at the least:

• guide the new administrator to the help resources

• invite him or her to the appropriate admin list, and

• be willing to answer any queries that arise.

• Each creator account is also an admin on the ‘dg-administrators’ lists.

• Creators should send any requests for support to ‘dg-creators@dgroups.org