What is theSpoke?
theSpoke is a online community for students around the world to discuss, use, and share ideas on technology. Members of theSpoke are given a blog, a photo gallery, and unique opportunities to make an impact on the world using technology. Join the Imagine Cup competition, teach and learn from others, author your own article series, get discounts on software, and meet students from all around the world.
What do I get for registering?
By registering for theSpoke, you are given a blog, a photo gallery, and the ability to post and participate in the community (in the forums, comment on others’ blogs, etc.). Registration is free and easy. You can sign up here.
How is this version of theSpoke (version 2) different from the first version?
After a year of growing, learning, and collecting feedback from our users, theSpoke v2 includes an overhauled user interface, some new features, and enhancements to make theSpoke a global community. Some of the improvements include:
• One global community for everyone - All members of theSpoke reside on the same site. As a member, you can choose the language you see the theSpoke’s interface in and the language or languages you see site posts in. You can choose to view content in one language or up to 15 languages if you want! Since part of theSpoke’s vision is using technology to cross cultural barriers, this was the last hurdle in getting there!
• New and requested community features – see the Features section below for a complete description of feature updates.
What languages is theSpoke available in?
English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Romanian, Greek, Hungarian, and Polish. You see theSpoke in the language specified in your browser’s cultural settings. After registration, you can choose the language(s) you want to see theSpoke in by updating your profile.
Will you share my email address with anyone if I register? Am I going to receive a bunch of spam?
Absolutely not. We promise not to share your email address with anyone. Occasionally, we’ll send out an update on theSpoke community – to take a survey, provide feedback, participate in the Imagine Cup, etc. but you will never receive spam from anyone else as a result of registering for theSpoke.
Who is behind theSpoke?
theSpoke was created by and is sponsored by Microsoft as a community site for technology students. The site is guided and enhanced by students around the world who provide feedback and suggestions on making theSpoke the best community it can be.
Features
What are the features of theSpoke and how do they work?
An explanation of each of the major features on theSpoke is below. If you have additional questions, feel free to post in the Bugs & Feedback forum.
Personal hub – All members of theSpoke v2 will have a personal hub, which will function like your personal homepage on theSpoke v2. The hub shows you (and others) all of your recent blog posts, recent forum posts, and lets you post announcements, polls, and links for others who visit your hub. The hub is customizable with ASP.NET 2.0 web parts and we’ll be adding more web parts after the site launch.
Blogs – Every member of theSpoke is given a blog (or personal journal). You can access your blog and post entries from the “blog” link beside your avatar at the upper right hand corner of the screen. Your recent blog entries appear on the home page, on the blogs page, and on your personal hub.
Forums – theSpoke forums features categories to talk about technology, life, or anything else you can think of. Have a technical question? Want feedback on an idea? Want to debate with a technology expert? Post it in the forums. Your recent forum posts appear on the home page and on your personal hub.
Hubs – Hubs are sub communities on theSpoke. They are centered around either a topic or a person. Topic hubs feature all blog entries, forum posts, and other community activity that take place on theSpoke about a certain topic. Personal hubs are a bit different – every member of theSpoke receives a personal hub that aggregates their recent posts and activity across theSpoke. Both topic hubs and personal hubs can be accessed from the hubs page, and recently updated hubs appear on the home page of theSpoke.
Articles – students with technical expertise, opinions, or simply a desire to share can write an article series on theSpoke. Student-written articles and other student-endorsed content can be found on the Articles page. Interested in writing an article series or submitting existing articles to theSpoke? Email us and we’ll help you get your voice heard.
Web Casts – theSpoke features web casts of different events around the world, such as the Imagine Cup finals, technology launch events, and relevant web cast tutorials. Web casts are posted on the web casts page.
who-bar – The who-bar is a feature that enables you to track your interactions with other members on theSpoke during a session or visit to the community. If you click on any avatar (or visit a blog, profile, or personal hub), the member’s avatar appears on your who-bar. You can then get immediate information about them (where they are from, link to their profile and blog, etc.). The who-bar keeps a history of the last 22 people you interacted with during a particular session. It appears at the bottom of the window at all times (collapsed by default, but can be opened by clicking it or clicking an avatar).
badges – members receive community recognition badges for notable achievements in theSpoke community. A description of theSpoke's community badges is below. A member’s badges can be viewed on the who-bar. You can view your badges by clicking on your avatar in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
| Member of theSpoke community – every registered user gets this one |
| Tier 1 poster - awarded to users who post to theSpoke at least 30 times in a given month |
| Tier 2 poster – awarded to users who post to theSpoke at least 15 times in a given month |
| Tier 3 poster – awarded to users who post to theSpoke at least 5 times in a given month |
| Article Author – awarded to students who currently write articles for theSpoke |
| Student Ambassador – awarded to Microsoft Student Ambassadors around the world |
| Imagine Cup Participant – awarded to students who participate in the Imagine Cup competition |
| Microsoft Employee |
What is the Imagine Cup?
The Imagine Cup is the world’s largest and most inclusive student technology competition. Now in its fourth year, the competition is sponsored by Microsoft and is designed to provide students with challenging, fun, real world technology experiences. There are thousands of dollars in prize money, but the opportunities to think big, connect with others, and possibly win a trip to the finals in a foreign country are what make the Imagine Cup most attractive. The Imagine Cup is hosted on theSpoke, but many countries hold local preliminary offline events and competitions as well. Forums and community around the Imagine Cup can also be found here.
My question is not listed here. What do I do?
Post questions, feedback, and bugs in the Bugs & Feedback forum.