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 it's 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**.

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[![diagram.png](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/650/large/diagram.png)](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

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### 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 one you want to see on there, or have related resources to share!

### 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. 

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[![Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_1.38.01_PM.png](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/651/large/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_1.38.01_PM.png)](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/651/original/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_1.38.01_PM.png)

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### 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!


[![Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_2.01.37_PM.png](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/653/large/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_2.01.37_PM.png)](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/022/653/original/Screenshot_2017-11-29_at_2.01.37_PM.png)

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## 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 tags section of this page](#Tags) 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

This page collects:

* activities and notes
* questions
* contributors
* other content

and displays it, most recent first. It's a good way to get a "snapshot" view of what's happening on a topic. But it relies on people adding the related tags (using the tag input form, which you must be logged in to see) to each page. 


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## Questions

If you have questions about the website, please ask here!

[questions:website]