iWebPress provides several mechanisms to better organize and get to know your staff. First, a ranking system allows editors to rank each assignment that comes in on a scale from 1 to 10. Users can also select interests as well as various other personal information, allowing editors to better select the right person for the right job.

Ranking

Ranking each assignment allows iWebPress to build average rankings for users. Rankings are private- that is, only editors can see user and assignment rankings. iWebPress will build average rankings for users by averaging (mean) the ranks of the completed assignments for a user. Assignments without a rank do not hurt an author, they are simply not averaged.

Editors can use average ranks to search for users based on their writing level. This enables you to involve more of your staff across the board, regardless if they are a seasoned writer or just starting out. For instance, an easy assignment might only require a user with a skill level of 3 or 5 historically.

Another use of ranks could be to call training sessions. In an education environment, one could use the ranking system to search for all users with a rank less than 5, and then email those users inviting them to attend a training session.

Interests

Administrators should also define interests in the Admin Panel. Interests can be used to keep track what writers or photographers like to work on. For instance, interests could be as broad as "Arts & Entertainment" and "Sports." However, there is no limit on how many interests you can create in iWebPress, so it's suggested you create as many as you see necessary for your organization.

Interests can then be used as part of searches to find the right user for a job. For instance, you could build a search for all users interested in "Sports," who have an average rating of "5 or higher" and who have written at least "2" stories before.

Other

Users are encouraged to provide as much information as possible so iWebPress can keep track of the various information. For instance, Education customers may want to keep track of user's year of graduation, among other information. This will allow searches to be very specific (i.e., search for a senior interested in "Arts & Entertainment").

Users can also upload photographs of themselves. This will continue to build a stronger sense of community among staff members, since writers and photographers will not be faceless to editors. One of the many benefits of the virtual news room that iWebPress creates is that users need not live in the same locality or ever meet to be part of a newspaper.