Accounts, workspaces, and organizations
GDDAO uses several terms that are easy to confuse. Understanding how they relate will make the platform easier to navigate.
User account
A user is a person who can sign in to GDDAO—you. Each person has one sign-in identity. There are no separate personal and organizational accounts to log into.
Personal Center
After signing in, you first see the Personal Center. It is your individual entry point and includes personal settings, notifications, your tasks, activities you have attended, and donation records.
The Personal Center is not a full workspace. Its capabilities are limited to registering and checking in for activities, completing questionnaires, making donations, viewing records, receiving notifications, and joining organizations.
Workspace
A workspace holds projects, tasks, the knowledge base, websites, reports, and collaboration data. Creating projects, uploading information, and producing outcomes all happen inside a workspace.
You can create a workspace with an Activation Code or join an existing workspace through a member invitation. These are different actions:
- An Activation Code lets you create a new workspace;
- A member invitation lets you join an existing workspace.
Formal organization
If your organization uses GDDAO through a business partnership, school agreement, or enterprise contract, it has a formal organization space managed by plan, seats, payment, or contract. A formal organization is not another sign-in account; it is a more structured way to manage a workspace.
Personal and workspace capabilities
| Capability | Personal Center | Workspace |
|---|---|---|
| Register for activities and check in | ✓ | ✓ |
| Complete questionnaires and donate | ✓ | ✓ |
| View your participation history | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create and manage projects | — | ✓ |
| Upload information to the knowledge base | — | ✓ |
| Produce reports and websites | — | ✓ |
| Invite members and configure permissions | — | ✓ |
In short: the Personal Center is the participation layer; the workspace is where work gets done.
Next step
To understand how work is organized inside a workspace, read Projects are the backbone of work.