The public space represents that part of a BSCW server which can be accessed by everyone over the World-Wide Web without being a registered user of the server. Folders and discussions may be made publicly available using  File    Access    Public Access  in the top menu or   Access    Public Access  in the action menu of the object. The access rights for anonymous users are determined when an object is published. By default, anonymous users have read access only (see 3.3.3 and 4.5.6).

The public space is implemented as a community workspace named ‘public’. Its community is the group of anonymous users, i.e. of all users accessing the public part of a BSCW server anonymously. (For communities in general see 7.3.) The folder ‘public’ is contained in the listing of community workspaces of every registered user of your BSCW server. You reach the public space as follows:

• Click in the instant access bar or
• select  GoTo    My Communities  in the top menu. This presents the folder ‘Communities of your-user-name’ containing all community workspaces with communities where you are a member.
• Open the community workspace ‘public’, which contains all objects that have been published on your BSCW server.

Alternatively you may also reach the public space as an anonymous user:

• Select  GoTo    Public Space  in the top menu. This presents the folder ‘Communities of anonymous’ containing the workspace ‘public’.
• Open the workspace ‘public’ to view all objects that have been published on your BSCW server.

The latter way of accessing the public space lets you view the objects that have been made publicly available as an anonymous user, without having to terminate your current BSCW session under your own user name. This is especially useful when you moderate a workspace with public access. You may then check very quickly how the public part of the workspace looks like from the perspective of an anonymous user in the World-Wide Web (see 4.5.6).