OPERA Online is a vibrant community

In 2003, OPERA Online was established to provide our members with their own electronic community hosted by National Capital Freenet. OPERA Online is a FirstClass® based online community which supports electronic mail, discussion groups, easy posting of pictures, sounds and other resources. Our electronic community is powered by FirstClass® software, the same software used by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to run BEAM for all its employees. As a result, most of our members have lots of experience using it. Unlike BEAM though that is focused on workplace issues and information, OPERA Online is full of discussion conferences that reflect retiree interests and lifestyle.

No matter where in the world our members travel, logging onto OPERA Online is fast and simple. All you have to do is point a web browser to our site and then choose "Login to your OPERA Online Account" from the menu that appears on every page of our site. Since many of our members travel widely, using an internet café to connect to OPERA Online is a regular occurance and a very popular thing to do. OPERA Online is accessed this way to send messages back home to friends and family from all over the world.

Still, there's an even better way to connect to our online community. By downloading and installing on your home computer the free FirstClass® software that you'll find under menu item "Getting Connected", opening and using your OPERA Online account will be even faster and easier than with a web browser.

What content is there on OPERA Online?

OPERA Online delivers many moderated discussion conferences. Here you can find conversation with retired colleagues on such topics as travel, gardening, sewing and crafts, wellness, reading, pets and computer resources to name just a few.

And you never have to say "Good-bye".

OPERA Online maintains an electronic link to BEAM. E-mail between our system and BEAM flows back and forth almost instantly. Keeping in touch with your friends and former colleagues couldn't be easier.

Take a minute to view our online video.

For a quick overview of the many features of OPERA Online we've prepared a short video presentation that explains these features to you. To begin this video, click here. (Macromedia® Flash Player is required to view this presentation. If you do not have this free program installed on your computer, click here to obtain the correct version for your computer.)