Online communities of Cympa.net users (Cympanets) are developed using Cympatags and Cympathon. A WYSIWYG code editor enables non-programmers to develop Cympatags-based web sites. Each online community of people with disabilities corresponds with a different mental health diagnosis or category of disability, or with a nonprofit organization that serves those individuals.
Volunteers
Cympa.net will eventually employ dozens or hundreds of Canadian and American volunteer moderators and Cympanetters. Most of the Cympanetters are people with disabilities. The moderators screen Cympanet-based social media posts, and the Cympanetters build Cympanets and teach Cympatags-based web design. The Cympageeks are also volunteers who build Cympanets, work with Cympanetters on the building of Cympanets which include Cympathon code, teach coding, and train Cympanetters. All volunteers have patron-level privileges.
Progress Place
Progress Place is a Toronto-based clubhouse for consumer/survivors (people with mental health issues). Mike wishes to make a 25-minute presentation about Cympa.net to Progress Place staff and one or more members in the clerical unit. Mike will answer questions after the presentations. When the system is up and running, which probably won't be until at least 3 years from now, Cympa.net will recruit the first Cympageek. The Cympageek helps to build and maintain the main Progress Place Cympanet, which is an online smartphone-based community built using Cympathon and Cympatags. The Cympageek also trains both Progress Place members in Cympatags skills (so they can build their own Cympanets), and multiple Cympanetters. More ambitious members are aided by the Cympageek to learn coding skills: Cympathon, HTML, JavaScript, Java, and Python.
Social Media
Cympa.net can be empowering for clubhouse members. Naive users who are end-users (not coders) can make use of the main Progress Place Cympanet to post text, photos, poetry, recipes, scanned artwork, and blog posts, all of which are visible to every Cympa.net user (or just Progress Place members if desired). Members can learn skills such as math, literacy, coding, and web design.
Cympanets
The Cympageek helps develop the main Progress Place Cympanet. Other Cympanets exist for specific mental health diagnoses as well as other organizations which help people with disbilities. All material posted to Cympanets by the members is subject to screening by volunteer moderators who work remotely.
Members without smartphones can use the Cympanet Client which runs on Windows/Mac (and Linux) computers, duplicating the functionality of the smartphone-based Cympanet Client, which itself operates like a simplified web browser handling only Cympatags-based websites.
Benefits to Progress Place
Progress Place can benefit from working with Cympa.net to reach more members, since members can interact with the Cympanets virtually, on their smartphones, laptops, and public computers. Members can learn skills such as coding and interact with one another using social media Cympanets. In return for providing this free service to the members, all Cympa.net asks in return is the opportunity to make 4 posts a year on the Facebook page of Progress Place. Each post contains a link to Cympa.net.