This page collects some basic introduction and guidance to using the Public Lab website. There are many ways to use the site, but this page focuses on supporting newcomers. ## Purpose The Public Lab website is being continuously refined, but its purpose is to: > support a diverse range of people to **exchange knowledge about environmental issues that affect people, and collaborate on ways of monitoring them, organizing around them, and supporting one another in these activities**. **** [](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/650/original/diagram.png) (Draft diagram from [this post](/notes/warren/01-27-2017/diagramming-knowledge-production-on-publiclab-org)) ## Organization The website is organized into several areas, including: * [Questions and Answers](/questions) - organized by topic * [Methods](/methods) - approaches to monitoring, including those under development * [the Blog](/blog) - stories across our network * [the Dashboard](/dashboard) - latest activity across the site **** ### Questions and Answers All questions are collected on [PublicLab.org/questions](/questions), and also displayed by topic across many parts of the site. **There are no "bad" questions** -- if you don't understand something, or can't find something, **please ask**! **Newcomers have a unique ability to see things that have been overlooked, so we need your help!** ### Methods This word means different things to different people, but our [Methods page](/methods) collects many different approaches to monitoring environmental problems, from **off-the-shelf commercial tools** to **in-progress Do-It-Yourself techniques**, to **community organizing and advocacy tactics**. Each page listed will have a **Questions section** for related questions, and will list **activities you can do** related to that topic. It's not a comprehensive list of topics or methods, so please [ask a question](/question) if you can think of a method you want to see on the website, or have related resources to share! [](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/654/original/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_2.05.28_PM.png) _Above: a sampling of methods from the [Methods page](/methods)_ ### Blog The [Public Lab Blog](/blog) is a place where we share stories from across our networks and communities -- a place to stay updated as well as to remember the people and communities working every day to drive all of these efforts forward. See [our main Blog page](/wiki/blog) to learn more and to submit an article. ### Dashboard [Your dashboard](/dashboard) is where you can see all the latest activity on Public Lab, for a sense of what's going on across the site in the past week. It features updates and new posts, whether they're activities, events, or questions. **** [](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/651/original/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_1.38.01_PM.png) **** ### Profiles Each person with a Public Lab account has a profile page -- for example, see @hagitkeysar, @zengirl2, or @nedhorning -- which shows: * activities and notes they've authored or co-authored * questions and answers they've posted * comments they've made * their optional photo and bio You can add tags to your own profile page to add information -- more on this coming soon! Here's an example of a profile page: [](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/653/original/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_2.01.37_PM.png) **** ## Topic pages Topic pages, or tag pages, collect all the activity around a given topic name, as represented by the "tags" each page is annotated with. See the top right sidebar of this page for an example of tags. To get to a Topic page, click on the tag. You'll be directed to a page like this one, for the topic "Sampling": https://publiclab.org/tag/sampling Tag pages collect and display: * activities and notes * questions * contributors * other content Tag pages show the newest content first, so they are a good way to get a "snapshot" view of what's happening on a topic. Learn more about how to use tags to organize information on PublicLab.org here: [About Tags](https://publiclab.org/wiki/about-tags) If you wish, browse all tags at https://publiclab.org/tags **** ## Questions If you have questions about the website, please ask here! [questions:website]...