The People’s Guide to the GVP

This document gives details on how to use the GVP main page. For general information about what the GVP is and what it does, see the GVP Theory. There are three sections of the GVP main page:

• My Coalition Calendar: This calendar contains the events of all of your Display on Calendar groups.
• Groups of My Coalition: This section contains all the groups of your coalition.
• Group Finder: Use this section to find groups and add them to your coalition.

Each of these sections can be opened and closed by clicking on the title of the section. If you are new to the GVP, it is usually best to explore these sections in reverse order, so start with the Group Finder and work your way up. (See the GVP Group Registry for a information on how to view group details, edit group details, and request event cosponsors.)

My Coalition Calendar

This section contains a composite calendar of the events of all the groups, in either the Groups of My Coalition section or the Group Finder section, that have their Display on Calendar checkbox checked.

Click on an event to get more information about that event. At the top-left are controls to navigate through time (yes, time travel, silly). The upper-right tabs are used to change the mode of the calendar: Week, Month, Agenda. To the left of these tabs is a link to print the calendar. Finally, there is a button at the bottom-right to take you to your, if you have one, Google Calendar, and ask you which of the group calendars displayed on your coalition calendar you would like to have added to your Google Calendar.

For more information about Google Calendar, click here.

Groups of My Coalition

This section holds all the groups that you have added to your coalition, from the Group Finder. The group listing is pretty much the same as it was in the Group Finder except the listing is numerically labeled, has no distance-to-origin specification, and has a Remove button instead of a Add to Coalition button. The Remove button is, of course, used to remove the group from your coalition (the group is simply removed; it does not go back to the Group Finder.)

Also in this section, there are buttons to subscribe to the events of all the groups listed in My Coalition. The Google Calendar button will take you to your, if you have one, Google Calendar, and ask you which of the group calendars that you would like to add to your Google Calendar. The iCal and XML buttons just bring up an infobox (an information box) showing the feed URLs for each group calendar, in the iCalendar and XML formats. The Other button brings up an infobox with links to webpages that give information about other ways to display and subscribe to the events of your coalition groups.

All the settings in this section are retained in between page visits: your coalition and its settings are automatically kept. Additionally, if any groups in your coalition have Display on Calendar checked, then your coalition calendar will also automatically display the events of those groups the next time you return to the GVP main page. In other words, both your coalition and your coalition calendar are automatically saved.

Group Finder

The section is, of course, used to find groups. (For a fast demonstration, just click the Find Groups button. By default, at least one group should show up.)

First, set the area where you would like to look for groups. Just type in any location that you want in the Location field and press the Enter key (alternatively, you can click somewhere else on the webpage). As long as Google can figure out the destination, the map will go there. You can also zoom in (+) and out (-) using the map controls on the left hand side of the map and drag the search origin (see below) to any location that you desire.

 (search origin)

After you drag this search origin, you will noticed that the red box surrounding the origin snaps around it. This red box represents your search area. You can change the range of this area by typing in a new number in the Range field (press Enter or click elsewhere to have the new range take effect). When you do this, the red box will enlarge or contract to the new range, which is measured from the origin to each side of the red box—kind of like a radius. You may notice, when you change the range, that the map automatically zooms out or in. This is to make sure that your search area is completely visible on the map.

Next, you can select (or de-select) the checkboxes for the subjects that you are (or aren’t) interested in. Groups that do not match any of your interests will not show up in your search.

In the final subsection, you can select the Verified Groups Only checkbox, which will filter out groups that have not been officially verified by The People’s Coalition. (To get your group verified, send The People’s Coalition an email through their contact page.) If you really want to get tricky, you can even use the Keywords and Killwords fields. For information about these fields, move your mouse over the (info) text just to the right of those fields.

The (info) text occurrs in many places in the GVP. It indicates that you can get more information by just moving the mouse over (info), through what is called an infobox. You can also click on (info) to make the infobox stick around, so that it does not dissappear when you move the mouse away from (info). This infobox can then be moved around by dragging it and closed by clicking the little x in the upper right-hand corner, or by clicking on (info) again (or by clicking for another infobox).

You are now ready to search for groups! Click on the Find Groups button. If groups meet your criteria, they will be listed and ordered by distance from the search origin. Otherwise, you will get a golden goose egg (literally). Each group listed will show the following components. 

1. A letter identifies the group and shows the location of the group as an lettered icon on the map (eg:).
2. The title of the group is also displayed. Moving the mouse cursor over the title will display an infobox containing the group's description.
3. If the group has been verified, a  image will appear after the title.
4. Next, the group’s distance from the origin is next displayed. For example, [4 Mi] would indicate that the group is at most four miles away from the search origin.
5. An Add to Coalition button will move the group listing from the Group Finder section to the Groups of My Coalition section.
6. Next is the Display on Calendar checkbox, which is used to display the group’s events on your coalition calendar, in the My Coalition Calendar section.
7. To the right of the each group’s listing is the following: [color|view|edit].
   1. Clicking on color will bring up a color picker to choose the color of the group’s events, when they are displayed on your coalition calendar. This color will also be reflected in the background of the Display on Calendar checkbox, when checked.
   2. Clicking on the view link takes you to the GVP Group Registry* page for the group. However, if you are not logged in, you will first be asked to log in. Only the public fields for the group will be displayed, along with the group’s calendar, map location, and group interests. (Of course, making changes to the group is not allowed from this view link.)
   3. Clicking on edit will display a subsection below the group listing for you to enter the Group Password. Type in the GVP password for the group and click on the Edit Group button (in this subsection). If the password is correct, the GVP Group Registry* page will be opened for the group, where you can edit the group’s details. If you click on edit again, the subsection will disappear.

*To enter the GVP Group Registry, you must be logged in. If you are not, you will be prompted to do so. If you need an account, just click OK to go to the log in page and then click the Member Registration link to register. 

Finally, if you are the administrator of a group, click on the Register Group button at the right of the Group Finder section. The more groups that register with the GVP the more powerful the system becomes. The GVP is also completely free of spam and completely free (in general :).

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