Getting Started

What is the purpose of MySkillsMap?

The purpose of MySkillsMap is to help you actively manage your career and personal development by tracking and sharing your skills development progress. MySkillsMap will facilitate the tracking of skills associated with your projects - whether professional or personal. Once you have started tracking your skills, you can share your activity on the site or on your blog through a Javascript widget.

How do I get started?

Either click on Start or Pricing and choose the type of plan you would like. You can always upgrade or downgrade later. Then choose the type of account provider (e.g. Google GMail) to use to login to MySkillsMap. We will create an account on MySkillsMap and associated it with that account provider. Then if you choose a personal or professional account we will re-direct you to PayPal so you can login and accept the proposed subscription terms. See the Billing Policy for more details.

Can I use an existing account on a different site?

Yes, you can login using your Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, OpenID, Windows Live, or Yahoo account.

Why don't I need to register an account directly on the site?

We believe that web sites should not each require their own user id and password. This leads to confusion and frustration for users. By letting you use an existing account (e.g. Google), we believe you stay in charge of your own on-line identity.

What payment options do you offer?

We only support PayPal as a payment option. This way we do not have access to or store your credit card or bank account information. You can maintain control over your payments using PayPal.

Account

How do I view my account summary?

Login then click on the Account link. The summary will show you information about your login provider and account, as well as your current statistics in terms fof number of projects, activities, and portfolios. If you have a personal or professional account, you will see details about your subscription and related changes.

How do I upgrade my account?

On your account summary choose Upgrade to choose among available account options. After selection of the upgrade, you will be redirected to PayPal to login and approve the new subscription amount. Your new upgraded subscription will be effective immediately.

How do I downgrade my account?

On your account summary choose Downgrade to choose among available account options. Depending on your current usage statistics, you may be warned that you may need to delete some projects/activities and portfolios so that your downgraded account can fit the new lower usage limits associated with a downgraded account.

How do I cancel my account?

On your account summary choose Downgrade, then review the terms of cancellation, confirm the cancellation and click on 'Delete MySkillsMap' account.

How do I link my account to Facebook?

On your account summary , under the Social Networks section, click on Connect to Facebook. You will be transferred to Facebook so you can confirm the ability for MySkillsMap to access your Facebook account. Once the accounts are linked you will have the ability to add the MySkillsMap Facebook app to your Facebook page - see How do I add a widget to my Facebook page?

Projects

Why do I need a project for?

You typically develop or grow skills on a given topic by performing a specific task or activity. This activity is related to either a personal or professional project. Projects help you organize your activities and related skills. Later on, when viewing or sharing your skills, your skills inventory will show each project and activity associated with each skill. This is important when you want to show where and how you have applied each skill.

How do I create a new project?

Click on Projects, then click on the invitation to define a new project, located below the last project in the table. Then type the title of your project and either hit the Enter key or click on the Save icon in the action bubble. You can then click on the link for your new project to enter additional details such as the description, context (e.g. name of a company), tracking dates, status, and privacy scope (private/public).

How do I expand the number of projects per year limit?

Each type of account has associated limits in terms of number of new projects per year, activities per project, new portfolios per year. If you have reached a limit, you can either delete an older project or upgrade to a different type of account offering a higher limit. See the Pricing page for details.

How do I make a project public or private?

Click on Projects, then click on the link for a specific project. You can then either check or uncheck the 'Public' checkbox and save your changes.

Portfolios

Why do I need a portfolio for?

A portfolio is a list of items (e.g. links to sites/blog posts/etc.) illustrating either a skill or a group of skills. Portfolios are useful to convey and illustrate what you have done. A portfolio can be viewed by others in a carouself.

How do I create a new portfolio?

Click on Portfolios, then click on the invitation to define a new portfolio, located below the last project in the table. Then type the title of your portfolio and either hit the Enter key or click on the Save icon in the action bubble. You can then click on the link for your new portfolio to enter additional details such as the description, privacy scope (private/public), and list of items in your portfolio.

How do I expand the number of portfolios per year limit?

Each type of account has associated limits in terms of number of new portfolios per year. If you have reached a limit, you can either delete an older portfolio or upgrade to a different type of account offering a higher limit. See the Pricing page for details.

How do I make a portfolio public or private?

Click on Portfolios, then click on the link for a specific portfolio. You can then either check or uncheck the 'Public' checkbox and save your changes.

Skills Tracking

How do I create a new activity?

Click on Projects, then click on the activities icon for the project for which you want to add an activity. On the Activities page, click on the invitation to define a new activity, located below the last activity in the table. Then type the title of your activity and tab to the skill field. There, as you start typing the name of the skill topic, FreeBase will auto-suggest topics matching your entry. You can view details about a topic by hovering on the topic in the list. Once you have chosen a topic skill, select it and click on the Save icon in the action bubble. You can then click on the link for your new activity to enter additional details such as the description, tracking dates, status, and privacy scope (private/public). If you cannot find the topic you need see What do I do if I cannot find a specific skill in FreeBase?

How do I expand the number of activities per project limit?

Each type of account has associated limits in terms of number of activities per project. If you have reached a limit, you can either delete older activities or upgrade to a different type of account offering a higher limit. See the Pricing page for details.

How do I specify a specific skill?

When creating a new activity within a given project, you can enter the skill topic with the help of the FreeBase. As you start typing the name of the skill topic, FreeBase will auto-suggest topics matching your entry. You can view details about a topic by hovering on the topic in the list. Once you have chosen a topic skill, select it and click on the Save icon in the action bubble.

What do I do if I cannot find a specific skill in FreeBase?

If you cannot find a topic related to the skill you need, you can either contact us so we can add the topic to FreeBase or you can join FreeBase and contribute the topic, description and metadata. Once added a topic typically become visible via the auto-suggest feature within a few hours at most. If you choose to contact us to help define the topic, please provide us with a basic description.

What is FreeBase and why do you need it to find a skill?

FreeBase is an open and collaborative semantic database including over 11 million topics and their relationships. For example, if you explore the HTML topic, you will find that the topic is related to computers, that it is a genre of Markup Language. You can then drill into any of the association and explore more facts about the association. The advantage of using a skill topic defined in FreeBase as opposed to allowing a free-form topic name is that all users of the site have a common language for expressing their skills. For comparison, sites like StackOverflow let users tag questions with free-form topics which results in many variation of the same topic, making it more difficult to find the official name. For more details, explore FreeBase or check the Wikipedia definition.

How do I make an activity public or private?

Click on the activity you would like to edit. You can then either check or uncheck the 'Public' checkbox and save your changes.

How do I ask a friend/colleague to vouch for my skills?

From your skills inventory, expand the skill you need to find a specific activity then click on the 'request a friend to vouch ...' icon for that activity. Or drill down to a project activity and click on the same icon. A dialog will pop up to ask for your friend's/colleague's name and email address. An email will be sent with a link to enter a rating and feedback for that skill. You will get a copy of the request email as well as an email notification once feedback has been submitted.

How do I vouch for a friend's/colleague's skills?

Open up the skill vouching request email you received on behalf of your friend, and click on the included link. If you don't already have an account with MySkillsMap you will be asked to connect. If you have an account then you will need to sign-in. Finally you will be prompted for a rating a short feedback narrative. Once you submit your feedback your friend will receive a notification email. Your feedback will be visible on their skills inventory.

Sharing Your Skills Map

How can I share my skills?

The first step in sharing your skills is ensuring you have marked the projects, activities, and portfolios you would like to share as public. Then you can share your active projects, activities and skills on your own site or blog by embedding a MySkillsMap Javascript widget. In this scenarios, any visitor on your site or blog can view your current state. Your public home page is accessible by other users of MySkillsMap at the following url: http://www.myskillsmap.com/home/yournickname - see your Account ) to confirm your nickname. And your public skill inventory is also available at the following url: http://www.myskillsmap.com/skills/inventory/yournickname

Do other people need an account to see my skills?

No if you have placed a skills widget on your site or blog. But otherwise, to access your data on the MySkillsMap site, yes, people need an active account.

Do other people need an account to see my skills map widget?

No since your skill widget is automatically retrieving and presenting your active projects/activities/skills.

Do other people need an account to see my projects and activities?

Yes, other people need need an active account on the MySkillsMap site.

Widget

What is a widget?

A widget is a piece of Javascript and HTML code that you can add to your site or blog, which is reponsible for retrieving and presenting your active projects/activities/skills. Another example of widget is the Twitter timeline widget or the Delicious Tags widget.

How do I create a widget?

Click on Widget, and follow the directions to copy your customized widget and paste in your site or blog template.

How do I add a widget to my blog?

Typically you can customize parts of the template for your blog. For example in WordPress you can typically edit the sidebar and add any HTML or Javascript you need.

How do I add a widget to my Facebook page?

First you need to link your MySkillsMap account with your Facebook account - see How do I link my account to Facebook?. Then from your Facebook page, you can add the MySkillsMap application to your applications list. The MySkillsMap Facebook application can be found at: http://apps.facebook.com/myskillsmap/.