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What Is Z Communications?

Z Magazine’s Z Communications or ZCom is a sophisticated web site with diverse extra-web functionality but simple design and graphics for easy navigation. It is a continuous town meeting and intellectual and activist service center for large sectors of the progressive community. It is a place to get useful information, exchange ideas, develop new political programs and unity, engage in online activism, acclimate to and learn new technologies, meet new people, enjoy and educate yourself and browse the World Wide Web with extensive guidance.

You won’t find uncivil language or flaming, sexism, racism, or commercialism. What you will find is a community of people seeking to understand society in order to change it for the better. Vision and Strategy are forefront.

Z Communications is enormous, with thousands of files, many facilities, and diverse features. Finding the information you want can be daunting and to facilitate, we have compiled a list of some key components of ZNet with brief overviews of each, below, plus, first, an overview of the architecture and navigation features.

ZCom
Navigation

Focus/Purpose: Every page of ZCom has in common the tabbed menuing system you see at the top of this page. Almost all pages have a further menu feature to the left, often the same or nearly the same, but sometimes truncated. Additional menu options often appear to the right, and there is a footer on each page as well.

Generral Navigation: Navigating ZCom is easy, efficient and consistent throughout the whole site. The top tab menu is designed to provide immediate access to major sections and sub sections of Z Communications such as ZNet, ZMag, ZMI, ZVideo, ZSpace, ZBlogs, writers, etc., each described below.

Tabbed Menuing : Rolling your mouse over tabs at the top reveals in the horizontal menu right below the tabs links to subsections of every major area. For example, clicking on the ZSpace tab takes users directly to the ZSpace main page, which has the latest ZSpace content leading to all other sub-sections of ZSpace. On the other hand, just rolling over the ZSpace tab reveals links in the horizontal menu to within ZSpace so you can directly access ZSpace blogs, writers, sustainer commentary page, etc., without first traversing the ZSpace top page. The same holds for all the otehr tabs.

Roll On / Roll Off: The left hand menu similarly provids access to key areas of the site, generallyl related to the page you are on. Often, by choosing roll-on users can enjoy the rollover technology that instantly displays content such as info about us, joining ZNet, getting started, languages, or particularly links from different areas of the site by places and topics. The menu’s a roll over function can be toggled on or off, depending on each user’s preference. When the features is on rolling your cursor over the menu instantly prevides a display stretching across the front page illustrating all latest topic or place articles on US, Europe, Asia, Africa, Global Economics, Gender/Sexuality, Vision, etc. for direct content access rather than by going to the Watch. This displays corresponds to what was the bottom of the old ZNet top page, but with much more content and much less intimidating, however.

These menuing systems are the two main ways to get around the site, but there is another feature that often brings the site’s content contextually to you, and still another that let’s you always know right where you are, and makes backtracking easy, too.

ZCom Contextually: Thus, for the first, suppose you choose to see an article on Iraq or economy, by some particular author. The system then puts on that page, as well, links to other content, from all over the site, about that topic or place, or by that author, including not only artyicles from ZNet or ZMag, but blog posts, forum posts, videos, comments, quotes, etc.

Breadcrumbs: As to know ing where you are and backtracking, we have a feature typically called breadcrumbs. This gives you a kind of map of your location and where you have most recently been. You will see it near the top of pages. It is live links.

Seaching for Answers: Finally, again located throughout the site, The search function searches all data for the entire site with an optional advanced search allowing a much more detailed query that pinpoints particular types of content.

Z Magazine

Z Magazine articles usually go online publicly in this subsection three months after publication, and years of articles are now available in our database. You can view articles by author or topic, search them, etc. There is also considerable information about Z and links to related projects. And you can subscribe to the print magazine, or, by becoming a Z Sustainer, to the online version where you can see then the whole magazine simultaneous with its print release, including all graphics, etc.

ZNet

ZNet is primarily a repository of articles and other audio, link, nad other content for general viewing. ZNet’s Top Page, for example, hosts the latest links, news, and updates — plus entry routes to all major component parts.

By using the left hand menu on the ZNet top page one can alter the focussed material in the viewing area of the page. The default is an overview of new material from throughout ZCom, brought here, to this overview page. The rollover menu refines the display, however, to highlight only material from some place, topic, or style of delivery of material, giving you more in depth links and bearing on more concerns.

ZTranslations

Volunteers from around the world have translated ZNet articles into many languages. Articles can be read in Spanish, Italian, German, Slovak, Turkish/Kurdish, Hindi, and much more. A compendium page of links to all these facilities is our ZTranslations page. Check it out!

ZMI / ZEO

ZCom has two approaches to "school-like" education. The first is ZMI. This is a summer school held in Woods Hole Massachusetts each June. Students and faculty come from around the world and spend about ten days and nights exploring, debating, refining, enlarging their mutual ties and understand of media and broader social and political relations, vision, and strategy. Z Education Online, or ZEO, our other "school like" project, is a set of online courses bringing ZMI-likie content to participants during sessions throughout the year. To get a real picture of either of these projects requires a trip to their respective sites, however. We also have a set of self paced instructionals on line, and reading lists as well.

ZVideo

Z provides videos in dvd and other formats in our facility called, of course, ZVideo These videos cover the gamut of concerns the site addresses, emphasizing, like the site as a whole, activism, vision, and strategy. New videos are highlighted in the top area of many pages, but links to videos related to the topics under perusal also appear on most pages throughout the site as well. Videos are sold in the ZStore and there are discounts, often very deep discounts, for Sustainers.

We also have numerous videos for online viewing, mostly excerpts from ZVideos, but sometimes created in whole for the purpose. Links and viewing tools for these are available throughout the site, as well as on the ZVideo pages, per se.

ZSustainer Program

Z cannot exist without support from its users, readers, listeners, etc. Our Sustainer Program is how we stay alive and grow. Users sign up to donate on a regular monthly, quarterly, bi annuallyl, or annually schedule an amount of their own choosing. In return, to show our appreciation, Z provides various facilities and options. Thus, ZSustainers, depending on their level of involvement, get a ZSpace page (see below) with personal content, access to Z Magazine online, nightly commentary mailings, access to our zine of daily commentaries, your own personal blog, forum access, commenting throughout the site, store discounts on videos, print subs, etc. and much more as well.

We are not exaggerrating when we report that the ZSustainer Program is absolutely critical to our survival. We hope that if you find ZCom, ZMag, ZNet, ZVideo, and the rest worthy and valuable, you will consider supporting it all via the Sustainer Program. The benefits to you are vast, as well!

ZSpace

ZSpace is an immense section of our operations in two respects. It is the central vehicle by which Z’s online activities generate self sustaining revenues. It is also the key way in which our online activity generates ties among people, community, participation, etc. ZSpace gives members, writers, and sustainers, their own pages. It gives participants blogs, forums, uploading capability re quotes and lyrics, graphics, poetry, and articles. It culls preferences creating a database of data about books, films, etc. It provides a system of mutual aid anda means for mutual organizing and sharing of inforamtion and resources – and much more as well. You simply have to visit to get a feel for it!

ZBlogs

ZCom has incredibly extensive blogging facilities. First, we provide blogs for all of our regular writers. Each has their own, and there is an overall writer’s blog whose content appears not only in the blog venue, but as links on pages throughout the site, as well. ZNet, via ZSpace, also provides blogs to our Sustainers. Again each has his or her own, accesible from the host’s ZSpace page, and there is also an overall blog system of Sustainers compiling all the content. Users of ZCom can all access blogs to read the post. Only writers and sustainers, however, can contribute content in part because of the expenses involved, and in part to guarantee responsibility in posting, commenting, etc. The whole thing is called ZBlogs.

ZForums

Another part of ZSpace is our extensive forum system. this is for discussion, debate, etc. Posting is by Sustainers only, but veryone can access the material to read it. Lonks to content and forums appear throughout the site.

ZMutual Aid

Another ZSpace feature, we use the forum system for the particular purpose of having a kind of mutual aid center where people can post requests for help having to do with travel, say, or information, or pretty much anything, and other participants can help out. This facility is only for Sustainers, however.

ZWriters

To help users who wish to see material from a specific writer, or to find out more about a writer, our writer’s page searches content based on writer name, and also links to writer’s ZSpace pages.

ZInterviews / ZDebates

Part of exploring ideas and possibilities is getting it in different forms and styles. ZInterviews and ZDebates are compendium pages of two of our more popular options.

ZPlaces / ZTopics

To help gather day to day resources and information, or to help in times of crisis, or to group content of particular style or focus, ZNet has special sub sites dedicated to tracking very busy ZPlaces or ZTopics or types of article. These range from focusing on global warming, the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Lyrics and Quotes, to current affairs and Left events like big protests, demos and so on, and to particular parts of the world or countries. The menu tot he left on this page gives an extensivev list and links you to each such page.

ZVision / Strategy

If ZCom is about changing the world for the better, fine, change it to what, and how. Throughout the site ZCom emphasizes not only understanding existing relations such as economy or gender, but also envisioning goals and methods of attaining them. The Vision/Strategy area, per se, is a compendium of much of this content.

Parecon / Parsoc

Within the overall Z concern with vision and strategy, there is a specific focus, as well, on what is called participatory economics, an alteratnive to capitalism, and participaotry society, an alternative to the overall charachter of societies as we know them today. These sections are, to our way of thinking about our efforts, the heart of our reason for being!

ZAudio

Web sites can deliver not only material to view, but also to listen too. ZCom offers links to hundreds of itnerviews, lectures, talks, etc., often prepared directly for your sites, but also including links to material in other parts of the internet. Links to content appear in diverse places throughout ZCom, but are also collected in our ZAudio area, for easiest overall perusal and listening.

ZGraphics

ZCom graphics come from Z Magazine, Z Video shots, Photos, Cartoons, anda user graphics, too. This material displays in many places and ways trhroughout the overall site, but the ZGraphics section gives you an easy way to see and search all graphics at once.

ZStore

Z provides our Sustainer program, Z Magazine substcriptions and renewals, Z Videos, and our online courses only for a fee. Our store is the central means for such transactions. Please visit and use the facilities!

ZSearch

A site as large as ZCom must have excellent search capabilities or else its vast stores of information will be only poorlyutilized. Ours permit searching the site overall, or within parts of the site, and searching by area, topic, place, or text.

Contact Z

This page is a simple compendium of email addresses for reaching us for various purposes.

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Institute for Social and Cultural Communications, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit.

Our EIN# is #22-2959506. Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

We do not accept funding from advertising or corporate sponsors.  We rely on donors like you to do our work.

ZNetwork: Left News, Analysis, Vision & Strategy

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