The Clickshare step-by-step workout

To keep track of where you are, we suggest you keep it open as a separate browser window as you step through the registration and subsequent clicks. If it's easiest for you to print it out, you'll be able to type in the URLs shown -- they all begin with <http://www.>.

This page becomes your "jumping off" point three or more times. (You can open a New Web Browser window and then Open Location, copying and pasting in the URL from this page -- or your browser may enable you to do this by holding down your mouse button until you get the chance to open a "New Window With This Link".)

1. TRY to get access to the buy-by-the-click content at the Clickshare Publishing Members List <clickshare.com/cs/pm-reference.html>.
   RESULT: surprise: you weren't allowed in! (Don't take us up YET on the offer at the "authentication required" page to register.)
2. TRY to get pages from our interim mirror site for The Christian Science Monitor <newshare.com:8088/>. (Jump off again from here.)
   RESULT: Note that there are no live URLs on that page.
3. CLICK on the Test Drive button.
   RESULT: now the page reloads with all the links accessible. Though you haven't fully registered with The Monitor, you're now an identified anonymous Test Driver, and you can travel through the site. (NOTICE the Clickshare "token" that is now attached to each URL request that shows in your browser window.)
4. CHECK OUT pages at other Clickshare Publishers that are accessible to Test Drivers. Do that by following links from the Monitor's page rather than from here. Click on the "Breaking News" link at the very bottom of The Monitor's home page; then click on "Other Clickshare Publishers" and go to Studio Briefing or American Reporter. (Warning: SB page is small, AR page can often run over 200K.)
   RESULT: as a Test Driver, you can get yesterday's edition (as you will see if you try it, you have to be fully enrolled in Clickshare to see today's chargeable edition -- that's the next step.) You can close the window you've been using to browse as a Test Driver, and "jump off" from here to a new window for the next step.

5. SIGN UP for Clickshare Registration <newshare.com/cgi-bin/cs-signup> at Newshare Corp. Give your credit card info online or by phone. Make a bookmark to the log-in URL.
   RESULT: now you're fully-enabled to access all Clickshare publishers.
6. LOG IN and give your username and password.
   RESULT: no more logins needed during this session for any Clickshare site.
7. GO to the paid content via the link on the Welcome Page to "Monitor News Archive (Chargeable Content)." Note that the URLs listed there are divided into value classes.
8. BUY at least one 10 cent and one 25 cent page.
   RESULT: you just bought information. (Soon we'll be adding higher-priced pages, and then any charge over a definable threshold will require a confirmation message from the user.)
9. GO back to the Publishers Directory and buy "Today's Edition" at either Studio Briefing or American Reporter -- available only to registered users (not Test Drivers). If you're feeling wealthy, spend 50 cents at the archive of Studio Briefing or 75 cents at the American Reporter archive as well.
   RESULT: you will be charged for these pages and they will appear on your session report (see below).

10. WHAT HAVE YOU PROVEN? Both of these publishers are on Clickshare-managed servers, so getting these pages plus the Monitor archive pages (on a server Clickshare has no control over) is a conclusive test of Clickshare. It shows our capability to authenticate users at multiple sites that do not know who you are -- only that you are a current Clickshare user -- and to restrict or allow acccess to these sites based on your Clickshare status.

11. WAIT FOR EMAIL: early tomorrow you'll receive an email report of your content purchases during today's session.
    IF YOU CAN'T WAIT, find a preview of this document at Sample session report <clickshare.com/reports/daysession.html>. (You'll see a link there to an explanation of the reports.)
12. WAIT FOR YOUR BILL: at the end of the month, you'll find a credit card charge of $0.35 or whatever aggregated total of the pages you bought from Newshare Corp. (where you signed up for Clickshare).
    IF YOU CAN'T WAIT, see one such document at Sample end-of-the-month bill <clickshare.com/reports/ccmonth.html>.
13. ON FUTURE VISITS, now that you're signed up, return anytime to Newshare Welcome Page <newshare.com/cs/welcome.html?TVS=login>.
    PLEASE BOOKMARK this starting point to log in at the start of each session.

14. GO OUT AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW, "I have seen the future and it works" -- or, to put it more humbly, tell anyone you know who will get excited by this sort of news that "Clickshare is now the first service offering multisite, distributed user authentication and aggregated micropayments on the Web."