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Coming soon! The IABC eXchange Online Portal

Breaking news from the IABC Leadership Institute…
The IABC eXchange Online Portal Is Coming Our Way!
By Tom Roux, President Elect, Yankee Chapter

At the recent IABC Leadership Institute (LI) held in San Antonio, Texas, volunteer IABC leaders from around the globe got a sneak peek at an exciting new online tool, called The IABC eXchange, which IABC headquarters will launch to members as a free benefit sometime in early March.

Essentially, the eXchange will enable all 15,000+ IABC members around the world to create and administer their own public-facing blogs, member-only discussion groups, or private working groups, using a simple, web-based interface. There will be endless possibilities for engaging our fellow members in discussions, file sharing, and photo sharing. You’ll be able to invite as many or as few people as you like to join the conversation and “Be Heard™”.

The screen shot shown here is an example of a test blog that took just two minutes to create.

The IABC eXchange is built on WordPress, the same platform used for the recently revamped Yankee website www.yankeeiabc.org, and will complement the existing IABC web site www.iabc.com (for which HQ will also be unveiling some cool improvements in the near future).

As of this writing, access to the beta site of The IABC eXchange is limited to LI attendees and some pilot users, but soon all IABC members will have free access to the live version.

Watch your email for your invitation to join the eXchange!

More details about viewing and access levels. You will be able to restrict your IABC eXchange site to the following people/groups:

The entire world — Your own public online eXchange presence
IABC members — Share your thoughts with only fellow IABC members
Designated IABC groups such as:
- Your chapter — Supplement your chapter’s web site
- Your chapter board members — Collaborate on chapter business in a secure environment
- Your region — Network with other IABC members in your part of the world
Designated IABC members — Form an ad-hoc group to discuss the latest communication advances
Yourself — Create a practice site

These levels of access control can be set to any of the above people/groups:

Read — People who can read the content of your site
Post — People who can view your site and create new posts