Tentative Action Plan

[Grant Humphries]

Hello everyone,

I apologize if you have received any spam messages from this group.
This is one of the many reasons why we must strive to get a forum up
and running on Seabirds.net as soon as we can. That way, we can more
easily filter for spam messages.

In this message is the current tentative action plan for
Seabirds.net. Please comment on this - I would like to see everyone
involved.
1) Which goals are most important to you?
2) Which goals are most obtainable in the time allotted?
3) Are there any goals you do not see listed that you feel are
important?


Seabirds.net is a web portal that will act as a gateway to important
seabird information. Seabirds are an integral part of the global
marine biosphere. In order to properly protect these species, and to
help in understanding the global oceans, it is important to have easy,
direct access to as much information as possible. Seabirds.net will
act in this way; to allow quick, easy access to the global community
about the status of seabirds worldwide.
The initiative by Dr. Scott Hatch has led to the formation of several
teams dedicated to the construction of Seabirds.net, including the
content and design team, and several other teams to discuss individual
databases that will be accessible through the web portal.
The goal of this team will be to focus on the content and layout of
Seabirds.net, and making it user-friendly.
The goals and timeframe as determined by the seabirds.net design
committee are as follows:

1) Set up a Google groups discussion forum Complete
2) Development of a user forum in Seabirds.net ~ 4 months
3) Development of a Global seabird researcher directory (GLOSRED??)
~4-6 months
4) Update the layout of seabirds.net to recommendations by community
~6-10 months
5) Development of a Student section of seabirds.net ~13 months
6) Movement of seabirds.net ownership to development team ~15 months
7) Continuation of various website development elements up to 2
years
8) Completion of website structure, with an appointed moderator ~2
years

Recommendations:
1) The World Seabird Consortium (or however such an organization will
be named), designate a special position called “Webpage coordinator”,
where the purpose of that position would be to ensure the maintenance
of Seabirds.net.
2) To ensure that the WSC obtains the ability to make “on the fly”
design changes to the website. Currently, the website is only
accessible by Axiom Consulting and Design, and because they are a
contracted firm, can only perform work on the designated contract,
which is currently the interoperability of the databases. This in
itself hinders the ability of the design team to act on many of the
above elements.
3) To seek out individuals with experience in web design in order to
help construct the website. This is a very important task as we wish
the website to be maintained by seabird professionals for seabird
professionals. Because the web is constantly changing, we wish to
seek out people with advanced computer skills, particularly in the
area of web design and programming.


Thanks to everyone for helping with this!

Cheers
Grant Humphries

[Tony [NCR] Gaston]

Grant:
It all looks reasonable to me. I guess the question arises of how
costs are covered once Axiom is no longer involved.
Tony Gaston

[Grant Humphries]

Hi Tony,

Well, we are working right now under the assumption that we will find
someone who is technologically savvy with webpage design and will work
on a pro-bono basis. There may be costs, however, associated with
where the webpage is hosted (i.e. do we have to pay for a server to
host our webpage). Presumably, once the World Seabird Consortium/
Organization.... comes to existence, there will be some minor funds
available through them, though I'm unsure. There may also be the
option of applying for funding to support the website through some
organization (though I'm unsure of what options are available for
that). This will be one of the functions of the "webpage coordinator"
I am recommending - to help determine what kind of funding is
required, and to help obtain it. Of course, if you have some
thoughts / ideas, it's greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Grant

On Nov 9, 12:53 am, "Tony [NCR] Gaston" <tonygastoncons...@gmail.com>
wrote: