[AIMS Consultative Group] News on AIMS: new features, new services

Dear AIMS Consultative Group,

We have more news with regard to technical improvements on AIMS. And once again we would apperciate if you can provide any feedback. 

1.) Subscriptions by topic

In the next days we are planning to implement the possibility for any authenticated user to subscribe to any topic covert on AIMS. The subscription is based on the taxonomy of AIMS.

It is going to be accessible from the homepage, in every product page (e.g. AGROVOC principal page) and the new topic pages that we are also preparing. In practice a person is going to be able to subscribe by specific topics without being part of any community of practice.

We hope that the service will help users to filter the news to be received by e-mail.

2.) Questions and Answers (Q&A) Service

It is already implemented and accessible at http://aims.fao.org/questions-and-answers. The rationale of this new service is that Groups of Interest tend to attract persons that are interested, use or develop the product that Groups of Interest  is based on. The information available from the CoP is oriented to this product (only metadata and open access are broader than that) and reaches those that are subscribed.

Considering this, many users on AIMS are not interested to be part of a CoP but to receive only news (newsletter for many is enough). They are not Groups of Interest members and will not make part of them. However, these persons can have questions like What is the tool more recommended for XXX? Or today for instance I received an e-mail from a librarian who is asking for bibliography on digitization. These questions do not fit in any CoPs but any user on AIMS could help to other members to answer. These means that the questions are not related to a Groups of Interest , but products.

Q&A was foreseen as service from the AIMS CoP in general, because the idea is that other users can have the same question, or can provide feedback. 
 
 At least at the beginning the answers and questions will be sent to everyone, as a promotional phase. If people complains this can be changed. But we need to promote the service at least for the first two months (this until the end of the year). Otherwise we risk that nobody knows about it.
 
3.) Vote and Sharing Widgets
 
When you go to any content (page, news, event or blog) on AIMS you have now the possibility to rate the post and also shared on Twitter and Facebook. The voting system has been also implemented on the answers under Q&A so people can say whether the find useful the answer.
 
We will provide you with more news very soon!!
 
Imma