Our goal at the Help Desk is to assist you in getting the maximum benefit from the conference.
We have tried to make each feature of the conference site as clear as possible, but with a wide variety of users this is not easy. Please feel free to contact us at pde@drivers.com if you encounter any difficulty. It will help us to improve our conference management.
Overview
Ideally, we would like everyone to register and provide us with enough information to get a sense of who our participants are and how best to serve you. But if you've just come to browse, that's OK.
The academic papers have been submitted by some of the top experts in this field around the world. In addition to the 7 conference papers, we have linked to several resource papers and also provided a list of links to related web resources (click on LINKS in the main Menu).
Judging by our email list, the site will have visitors from a wide variety of occupations and disciplines, from professional drivers to journalists, safety experts, police, trainers, policymakers, and the general driving public. So if you have ideas, insights, or questions about the way drivers are behaving, this is your chance to interact and get feedback.
You will be able to add your comments or questions to messages already posted, or initiate a discussion “thread” or “conversation” of your own. Moderators will try to ensure that discussions don't get too fragmented or go off topic. If you are not sure how the procedures go, please do contact us.
Navigation
The menu on the left side of each page allows you to navigate quickly to each part of the conference site. The horizontal navigation bar just below the masthead also helps you navigate and lets you know where are at any time. Getting used to these will help speed up your browsing. You can also use the “Tree View” in the Control Panel to display an overview of discussions and topics.
Our Control Panel
This is your guide to the discussion software itself and your main tool for getting the best out of the conference. Clicking on the Control Panel icons will take you to instructions on the software itself. There are a few items in particular we would like to bring your attention to:
Registration—This allows you to use all the features. A password is automatically generated and sent to you by email
User Profile—This is where you decide how much information to give and how it is displayed. It is also where you tell the conference software how you want to be treated as a registrant. For example, do you want to be informed about new messages posted?
Format your messages—A special formatting code was developed for this discussion software. It allows you to change text color, put links in messages, format text, put special characters in your message. The instructions for this are found by clicking in “Formatting” in the Control Panel. We'll also send out some simple instructions in our conference emails.
Questions
Questions, however small or large, are welcome. They help us tune in to our conference participants' needs and make improvements to the procedures. Use the Contact link in the Control Panel to send us your questions.
Translate Feature
The Translate link in our main menu takes you to translation software that can translate any part of our site into one of five languages (Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, Portuguese, or Espanol). You simply copy the URL (Web address) of the page you want translated, paste it into the translation dialogue box, and follow directions.
