Welcome to MethaneNet.org. This brief introduction is to explain how to use and get the most out of MethaneNet.org. The site is highly interactive, designed to help you, as a researcher, to connect with the wider methane community. MethaneNet.org helps you to find out about the latest news and events and to participate in discussion forums and groups.

It allows you to blog, to contribute news stories and to access a wide range of resources all relating to methane.  MethaneNet.org was designed with user-generated content in mind.  It should be intuitive to use so one of the best ways to get acquainted is to just sign up and explore.  As you can see from Katey Walter-Anthony’s youtube video, a variety of files and media can be included to add richness to your content. A key functional aspect of the site is that it allows you to manage alerts that will notify you when new content has been added. MethaneNet.org can therefore come to you. In this respect, Methanenet.org takes over many of the functions of the traditional listserv mailing-list route to communicating information widely.

Who is MethaneNet for?

If you are engaged in research on methane, at any level, if you are interested in connecting with peers, accessing a wide range of methane-related resources, participating in discussions, telling people about your own ideas, learning about research across disciplines, then this website is for you. Apply to create an account on the home page (top right). 

What can I expect to find on the site?

Methane-related news stories, information on upcoming meetings and events and reports on those that have taken place, job and PhD project adverts and links to useful resources, will all be available and regularly updated. Groups, discussion forums and news stories will cover a wide range of topics, and blogs written by members will provide extra colour. The MethaneNet map on the front page will show the geographic spread of members, linking through to individual member profiles. Field sites and related data are also displayed separately in green on the map…let colleagues know where you’ve been working and what kind of data you’ve collected.  To see an example of how this can work, click on the site Moidach More is North East Scotland and click through.

How can I participate and contribute?

To register you can create a new account and profile. Your profile box will then appear next to the Home Page map when you are logged in. Within this is the option to Create Content. Take a moment to have a read through the descriptions of the many types of content which are available. One of the main features of the site is the ability to create a group. Groups can serve a number of purposes, whether it is bringing people together who share a common specific interest in methane research or providing a ‘public face’ for an interdisciplinary research project.  Creating a group is easy and you can have ‘public’ areas as well as sections, forums and data available only to group members.  You can also invite colleagues who aren’t yet registered as members to join your group. Check if there is an existing Group to address your own special interest.  If so, then you can apply to join that Group. If your interest is not yet represented, then you can create your own Group under the Create Content option.  You can decide on the level of access of the Group, i.e. whether it should be available to all registered users, or a private group for invited members only. Likewise, have a look at the current Forum discussion topics, and either join an existing discussion or initiate your own. Your Group can have its own private forum.

When you have some news that you urgently want to share with the methane community, you may wish to use the News option in Create Content. If the MethaneNet.org editors decide that your story is of particular interest, it will be promoted to the front page of MethaneNet.org.

Perhaps there are (methane-related) issues or opinions you would like to air via a personal blog or you would like to let us know how your field trip or cruise is progressing. If so, you can set up your blog in Create Content, and determine whether it should be open for all to see or just members of selected Groups. You can of course also read and comment on other blogs available on the site. As with news items, blogs the site editors feel are of broad interest can be promoted to the front page.

In summary, there are many options for MethaneNet users to create content and to make it available either to all users or to selected groups. The success of MethaneNet depends on active participation from its members, so do please make full use of these facilities and let members of your team know about the site. If you need more information or help in using this website, please email MethaneNet@open.ac.uk. Also, as with any new website it is quite likely that there may be the odd problem, so we’d appreciate you letting us know of any bugs that you’ve come across. Suggestions of how the site could be improved are also welcome. Welcome to MethaneNet!