Participation+Guidelines

= Paths to Participation =

Health Domain Workgroup
A Health Domain Workgroup of public-private stakeholders are developing specifications to address information exchanges required for workflows associated with specific healthcare domains, such as clinical care, public health, pharmacy and others through an open process allowing for a wide set of participants to provide input, feedback, code development etc. Members of the Health Domain Workgroup must pledge to participate as Active Participants via formal meetings and commit to active involvement. Individuals or organizations who want to participate in the Health Domain Workgroup and believe they can meet these requirements should visit "How to get involved" on our Communications Page.

**Infrastructure Workgroup**
An Infrastructure Workgroup of public-private stakeholders are developing specifications to address specifications that are not specific to individual healthcare domains; examples include messaging platform, security, and information exchange services through an open process allowing for a wide set of participants to provide input, feedback, code development etc. Members of the Infrastructure Workgroup must pledge to participate as Active Participants via formal meetings and commit to active involvement. Individuals or organizations who want to participate in the Infrastructure Workgroup and believe they can meet these requirements should visit "How to get involved" on our Communications Page.

Observers
Observers are a subset of the expanded group who wish to actively participate by attending Workgroup meetings, but cannot make an active commitment. Observers may not vote in the consensus process, but are welcome to participate in teleconferences and may participate in the Face to Face meetings as space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Using the Wiki
Each Workgroup has its own Wiki page, allowing for the community to work together on a particular interoperability specification. The discussions behind each interoperability specification should be vigorous - building a common understanding of what each specification means, and its implication for health data exchange. Be kind to our mistakes; if you notice inconsistencies or areas left undone, note them, or if you have edit privileges, help fix them, in a manner as community-minded as possible. Anyone out there with design skills that wants to help spruce up the wiki or the blog is welcome to volunteer as well.

Rules for Using the Wiki
Keeping any Wiki community focused and productively engaged requires all of us to follow some simple rules of etiquette, rules that apply to how we participate in discussions and edit each others' pages.
 * Those rules include:**
 * **No posting of off-topic content or links.**
 * **No deleting the work of others without community discussion.**
 * **No getting too "personal" towards other contributors in your comments or using profanity.**
 * **No misrepresenting your own identity or other information in your profile.**
 * **No engaging in "Wiki wars" where two parties reverse each others' edits without striving for a neutral point of view or creating separate pages.**

While there is much that could be written as to how a community might moderate itself, the most important guideline for any participant is still the Golden Rule: treat others the same way you yourself would like to be treated. Perhaps more cribbed from the Wikipedia "Etiquette" page.