A topological view of ordered groups
  We show how to use topological ideas, such as compactness, to establish orderability properties of infinite groups. A new application is to provide a left-ordering for the group of PL homeomorphisms of a connected surface with boundary which are fixed on at least one boundary component. This has been extended in recent joint work by the author and D. Calegari. 
Dale Rolfsen
math.GR math.GT