Graeme Cooper, Secretary of the Guild of Battlefield Guides, asked me for a Mission Statement for the TCBIA Web Site. It seems to me a proper, honourable and sensible request.

Sadly, to prepare a Mission Statement, there has to be a Mission and there is nothing about TCBIA that I can describe as a Mission.

Instead, I have tried here to give an explanation of what the Web Site is about.

Imagine if you will that I have got a fully equipped Library Building that I do not have any use for. Then go on and imagine that I am offering it to the Guild of Battlefield Guides if they want it.

The offer is, if they want it, they take it and operate and manage it.

There will undoubtedly be cosmetic things that they do not like about it - for example, the colour of the walls, the type and colour of the curtains. Well, if and when they accept the building, they can change all of these things.

There is a catch of course (there always is !!!) - I have not got much stuff in the way books, videos, DVDs, Newspapers etc to put in the building. If it is to work, members of the Guild and the Public at Large need to contribute stuff to the cause.

Without such contributions, the building would be useless. If the Guild cannot guarantee to provide such contributions, I would strongly advise them not to accept the offer.

My vision was that the place would become a World Leading place to store and find Information about Conflict all over the World and for any period of time. There is plenty of inexpensive land to extend the building if necessary. It seemed to me that this could provide a vehicle to keep the Guild (and its Members) in the eyes of the world and extend the area in which it holds the respect of folks interested in conflict and battles.

Only time will tell !!

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Enough of the introduction and dreams. Let me now describe the bulding.

It is circular, in the centre is a circular Atriun (more about that later) and around it are several rooms. Each room is dedicated to a different type of stuff.

The rooms are described below:-

• The first room is a "WORDS" room. (ByTheWay The computer word for "words" is "text").

  The room contains only the written word. The contributions here can range from a few useful, interesting or eloquent words - up to major intellectual documents of great pith and moment, and anything inbetween.

  (ByTheWay The word that I have chosen for "contributions" is "postings" Please forgive me if I use that word for the remainder of this Web Page.).

• The next room also contains "text" - only Members of the Guild are allowed in this room.

  It has been recognised that Members of the Guild have spent lots of time and effort accumulating their knowledge. Also, it has been recognised that they may not want to share that hard won knowledge with menbers of the public that are visiting.

• Next are a limitless number of rooms into which Members can post "text" and then lock the door. It is their choice who they give keys to their room to !!

• A room that contains the CV (or Profile, call it what you will) of folks that have some specialist knowledge and who are prepared to help and try to answer questions.

  We have called this room "Folks that Know"

  If the Guild accept the building, they can change the name if they wish.

• A room that contains the CV (or Profile, call it what you will) of folks that were present at a Battle.

  We have called this room "Folks that were there"

  Again if the Guild accept the building, they can change the name if they wish.

• Next there is a room that contains "Pictures" (and some words to describe that picture if the contributor wishes)

• A room that contains Book Reviews. (the books are not here, just reviews and information about them.

  We have called this room "Book Lists"

  Again if the Guild accept the building, they can change the name if they wish.

• Then comes a magical room - it contains connections to other similar places to this one (we do not need to have the original works in this Library when we have such a magical ability to see the instantly)

  We have called this room "LINKs" - because it contains Links to other Web Pages.

  Again if the Guild accept the building, they can change the name if they wish.

• A Guild Member made a special request for a place that you could go to with a Month and Day of that Month and ask to be shown what happened on that day in other years,

  We provided a room to do that - called "This day, other years - history"

• A "Chronology of Conflict" room, contains a highly structured index of Conflict through the Ages

• A Diary, or Calendar Room is next. Any and all of the Events relating to Battles and Conflict through the Ages can be found here

• A room the houses the TCBIA Assistant who will accept your enquiry about information relating to a particular subject. You can then go on about your affairs and the searching will go on. When the results have been found, the Assistant will send you a message (usually by EMail) telling you where the results can be seen.

• A room for the storage of anything that does not fit into any of the other rooms

  Here, you can upload the following types of files:-

  • Word for Windows .DOC files
  • Adobe Acrobat Documents .PDF files
  • Power Point .PPT files
  • Rich Text .RTF files
  • Excel Spread Sheet .XLS files
  • Flash .SWF files

• Finally, there is a place that has the potential to be the most useful place in the building.

  It is divided into three parts - one for Guild Members only, one for Subscribers and Members and one for Public Visitors, Subscribers and Members.

  It is a Newsgroup. You go into it, post a question and hope and expect an answer in very quick time (ranging from a few minutes to a few days)

  Of course this depends on folks going into the Newsgroups and looking at the questions and providing any help that you can.

  For those of you that do not know, Newsgroups are an Internet phenomenon - there are Newsgroups for almost any subject that you can imagine. I am a member of several of them and go into them very frequently and ask and answer questions in them.

  This place has the potential to be the very hub and centre of the Guilds communications

You we see that there is a veritable cornucopia of places here.

• Just because they all exist, you do not need to use them all !!
• Use what you want, when you want, if you want.
• It is limited only by your imagination.
• BUT it will only work if folks contribute lots of postings.

Every Posting must have at least one KeyWord associated with it and in the huge Round Atrium in the centre of the Building, there are a couple of places that you can go with a keyword and be directed to the Posting that contains the KeyWord that you have given.

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You will have seen that TCBIA is a very big place. It would be very easy to get lost. We have spent a lot of time designing a system to help you to find your way around it.

Below is a picture of the Navigation Frame for the site.

It is known as an Explorer Tree Structure. If you do not know anything about using such a Navigation, you might like to go into the site and Point to and Click on the words "HOW TO use the Navigation" - this will take you to a five minute "Teach yourself about Explorer Navigation"

Put very simply, you can click on the words in the Frame and/or click on the Plus and Minus signs in the tiny boxes on the left of the Frame.

If you simply want to look, either Point to and Click on the words "See what is new" (in red)
OR
Point to and Click on the Plus sign to the left of the words "Looking at Postings for Information" and see the folder open up and showing you the all of the entrances to the rooms described above.

If you want to understand the site more fully (and maybe even contribute one or more postings), it really would make sense for you to read the introductory booklet.

To do this, you should go into the site and click on and read the following pages (they are shown at the top of the Navigation Frame !!)

• TCBIA
• Who is the Web Site designed for
• A poster about the TCBIA
• How to use the site
• Log in to our Web Site
• See what is new
• Do's and Don'ts
• Answers to FAQ

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I hope that you have found this useful, interesting and helpful. Your thought, comments and questions will be welcomed.