Introduction to CollabFinder ================================== Accelerate your research and eliminate delays, by finding the right people to help out - and the right equipment - just when you need them. CollabFinder is an online collaboration tool that helps you find people to collaborate with and equipment to use. New to the BCCRC? Looking for someone to help you learn a new technique? Need to use a specialized piece of equipment or software? Stuck with a new method? CollabFinder can help. Use it to find people, equipment and other lab essentials in a wide variety of ways - allowing you to find exactly what you need quickly - and get on with your research. Examples -------- Finding a Person to help with a Western Blotting problem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every page on CollabFinder has a search box at the top right. I need to find someone to help me with a Western Blotting problem, so I type 'blot' into the search box and hit Enter. This shows me everything in the system that matches: .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Results-for-blot-CollabFinder_phatch.png :align: center :alt: Results for 'blot' - CollabFinder Results for 'blot' - CollabFinder I click on the 'Western Blotting' technique, and I see a list of the people who say they can use this technique: .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Screenshot-13-02-05-03:00:17PM_phatch.png :align: center :alt: List of people people using the technique Western Blotting List of people people using the technique Western Blotting I click on the first person listed & go to their page: .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Screenshot-13-02-05-03:03:20PM_phatch.png :align: center :alt: Frances Lock Frances Lock This page tells me everything that CollabFinder knows about this person, including their Research Fields & Techniques, Collaborators, Awards, Publications, etc... It also shows their contact information, allowing me to get in touch and ask them for help with my Western Blotting problem. Almost everything is clickable, and will show you more about that thing - so clicking on a Research Technique will show you a list of everyone who uses that technique, for example. Departments, labs, publications, organizations etc are also clickable and will take you to their own pages. For example, clicking on the Mager lab link will take you to the page for that lab, which shows you the people, alumni, equipment, research fields, techniques and collaborators that lab has: .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Screenshot-13-02-05-03:11:20PM_phatch.png :align: center :alt: Mager Lab Mager Lab This makes it easy to explore everything in CollabFinder just by browsing around, clicking on links, hopping from person to person, to labs, to equipment, etc... Finding someone who has a Confocal Microscope ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can find equipment in the same way we found just found a person - by typing something in the search box. Searching for 'confocal' will show you a list of all the Confocal Microscopes - and people who know how to use them, that the system knows about. As we've seen, you can also find things by browsing, so you could also click the 'Equipment' link in the footer of every page, on the homepage, or on a Lab's page. CollabFinder is nothing without You ------------------------------------------ CollabFinder needs you! We have basic contact data for everyone in the BCCRC, provided by the IT Department - but to make CollabFinder useful, it needs to be filled up with more detailed information, on your Research Fields & Techniques, the Equipment in your Labs, Collaborators, Publications, etc... As with many things in life, the more you put in, the more you get out. The system if only as useful as the data it contains, so if everyone spends a few minutes filling in their own information, the system will become useful for everyone very quickly. There is currently no need to login, as CollabFinder is hosted internally on the BCCRC network. Currently, while the system is getting started, you can edit anything. The idea is to make it as easy as possible to add people, equipment, labs, etc... to make CollabFinder as useful as possible, as quickly as possible. This is only temporary, and logins and more restricted editing will be phased in later, as required. Getting Started --------------- To get started, CollabFinder can be accessed here: `http://finder.bccrc.ca/ `_ Start by finding yourself: Ok, I found myself ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Great - click the Edit button at the top left of your page and fill in your details: .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Screenshot-13-02-19-06:12:34PM_phatch.png :align: center :alt: Edit yourself Edit yourself Nope, I'm not on here! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's Ok - it's easy to add new people to CollabFinder. Just click Home, click People, then click 'Add Person': .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Screenshot-13-02-19-06:17:27PM_phatch.png :align: center :alt: Add yourself Add yourself Then just fill in your details. When you're done, click Save, then scroll down to Research Fields and click the link that says 'No research fields linked ... - link one?', then choose a technique from the list to link to you: .. figure:: ./images/screenshots/Screenshot-13-02-05-04:05:25PM_phatch.png :align: center :alt: Add Technique Add Technique If the technique you want isn't currently listed, just click the 'Add Technique' link at the top of the page. Adding other things works the same way. Getting Help & Giving feedback ------------------------------ There's a Help link at the top right of every page, and one in the footer too. This will take you to the help section, which explains in detail how to do various things in CollabFinder. This help section will be continuously expanded based on your feedback, so if you get stuck, or have any feedback at all - please let me know: dunc@CollabFinder.com Thanks!