COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2008 Asymmetric CounterConcepts. All rights reserved.
Cartoon artwork by permission of John Cox & Allen Forkum
Complexity artwork in site header by permission of Casey Uhrig
SITE POLICY
FORMAT: This site relies on blogging and forum technology to facilitate collaboration and cross-pollination, and is meant to function as a communicative interface - a digital lab for thinking through research and current events, working through initial findings, preserving research materials, interacting by remote with peers and the public, and so on.
CONTENT: CTLab doesn't aspire to replace the peer-review process or bypass the slower schedules of real-world publishing outlets. Many contributors are working on their own research projects, and are established scholars and experts in their own right. Most journal entries posted here are not directly supported by additional research, and should be considered first impressions, thoughts, comments, observations, and discussion points.
CULTURE: CTLab does aspire to enriching the knowledge pool on violent crisis and conflict by bringing together established scholars committed to solid fieldwork, practitioners with a commitment to scholarship and open communication, and journalists and writers with their feet in both worlds.
COVERAGE: The site is meant to be a living resource, open to recommendations for new additions. Participants cover a broad range of problems, issues, and events, and remains open to new contributions. See CTLab mission and rationale for more detail on our focus.
CURRENCY: We all have other commitments, and won't be spending our days square-eyed in front of computer screens tracking data points to blot into blog entries. We will, though, do our best to stay on top of things.
RELEVANCE: Not always obvious, and selection criteria are pretty idiosyncratic, but there's almost always some element of intermediacy or exceptionalism in conflict and crisis that drives content selection for the site.
COMMENTING: Comments on journal entries should be clear and coherent, and should stay on topic. Offensive material will be removed. Commenters aren't required to identify themselves - but we really like it when they do.
SITE ACCESS
CTLab is compartmented into three access levels
- Level I (Public Area)
- Level II (Member Area)
- Level III (Projects Area)
Registering for an Account: Level I access is available to anyone who registers for a CTLab account HERE. This allows account-holders to access site features not ordinarily available to the public, including the Registration Module and some Level II (Member Area) elements. Registered account holders can create their own profiles, embed contact information, and post comments under their own names.
Requesting Access: The Registration Module is viewable from Level I (Public Area) and allows account-holders to request additional Level II (Member Area) access. This is generally reserved for members of the Complex Terrain Network (CTNet), or those seeking to join. Level III (Projects Area) access is reserved for members working on specific projects.
Site functions do not currently support an integrated process for account and access requests.
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Level I (Public Area) includes :
- Partial access to Member Area features, including -
- Datasets: external links to terrorism/political violence/conflict datasets
- Databases: external links to terrorism/political violence/conflict databases
- Organizations: external links to terrorism/political violence/conflict research organizations
- NOTE: does not include access to Search functions of the Member Area
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Level II (Member Area) includes several useful site features:
- Public Area: this is built into Level II access
- Blogging: permissions to post entries directly to the CTLab Journal
- Search Function: allows Members to search the CTLab site
- NOTE: this is restricted to Complex Terrain Network members
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Level III (Projects Area) includes the following:
- Member Area: this is built into Level III access
- Vault: downloadable source materials, bibliographies, reports, slideshows, PowerPoint briefings, etc.
- Upload Capability: allows those with Level II access to upload documents to the site.
- Projects Registry: is a referenceable registry of members, projects, and contact details.
- Collaborative Workspace: for edited books, distributed research teams, dataset hosting, etc. (under development)
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