Purpose of Segments

Segments are used to separate out your member list into smaller, more manageable chucks in the sumApp member view connections page. This is useful when you have large populations and don’t want to require everyone to go through the entire list. Segments are appropriate when there are subsets of the population that are more likely to know one another – for instance, if you’re mapping teachers in a school system, they’re more likely to know each other if they teach in the same school. Segments would allow the teachers to filter by school to shorten the list of names to those they are most likely to know.

To Know

• Segments are defined by the administrator, not the map users.
• If using Segments, there will be a drop-down filter on the sumApp connections page (where your members see the list of other members and indicate who they know).
• Each member’s segment shows on their member tile in the sumApp connections page.
• Each person can only belong to a single segment.
• Segments should be defined by something your map members have in common that makes it more likely they will know one another (such as school, or program, or department or in some cases fields or specialties). Commonalities that are not particularly useful are things like gender, age, broad interests. (those may be fine survey questions, but not helpful for identifying a sub-group one is most likely to know.
• Segments can be loaded via a CSV file, added manually in the member list, or manually from the add members page.
• If you use the Opt-in form, you can set that so that members can select their segment there. 
• Segments are exported with the survey data and can be used in the map, but that is not their primary function.
• Segments aren’t useful in smaller groups where there aren’t existing sub-groups – if you don’t want too use Segments, you can choose not to have the segment drop down show in your member view – change it in the settings page. 

What Segments Are Not

Segments are only meant to make defining connections easier in sumApp for members:

• They are not how you define filters in Kumu.
• You can use them as a filter in Kumu, but if that’s all you need it for, it’s better to create a field in the survey.
• They do not feed back into the survey in any way. 

The video below gives a quick demo of how to sort map members by segment once they’re set up for your connections.