I go on a lot about groups and blogs and all the bells and whistles here on the Commons but one section of the site that could use some love is the ‘Forums‘ feature.  I get the feeling that many members skip over this tab as they’re going about there business here and it’s a shame because the forums are a great place to share your expertise and reach out to the community when you’re looking for some help.  The forums index all of the posts from the various public groups across the Commons and give you an easy way to skim through what different parts of the site are talking about.  It’s easy to get a little tunnel-vision when you’re on here and you’ve built up your own routine and places to be.  Checking in with the forums gives you a peek at what other groups that you might not be involved with are up to and, if you’re up for it, might just turn you on to some things you didn’t even know you were interested in.

So take a look at this week’s log of the forums; Are you a twitter all-star?  Over in the CUNY Graduate Admissions Group there’s a conversation going on about how to take advantage of all the new media channels that are available to the university (and the attendant pitfalls that go with them).   The folks over at the Digital Studies Group are talking about what can be done with digital textbooks, any thoughts?  Hey grad students with a tech bent and an interest in psychology – there’s a job out there waiting for you.  You see what I mean?

Stopping in at the forums can show you a whole other side of the Commons that can be easy to miss if you aren’t looking.

Not actually the Commons' forum.

Since this blog is supposed to give you a backstage look at what goes on around the Commons this is probably the best place to talk about development and new features again.  We’ve got a list of things we’d like to get done and a lot of those things are suggestions that came from you.  As I’ve mentioned before, the only real obstacles are making sure we have the resources to build whatever new features you bring to us and making sure we get the best things done first.  There are a few ways to go about that and one of them is to ask you directly.  One idea we tossed around was putting together a survey that would go out to members and let everyone tell us which new features would better serve them first.  We don’t want to be spammy about, that annoys everyone, but we do want to make sure that we’re putting our energy to its best use.  If you have any thoughts on good ways to get the whole community involved leave a note!