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Our roles: Webmaster and Web editor


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Webmaster


Michael's usual pose

A couple of years ago, when I was looking for something outdoorsy and interesting to do with my Sundays, I typed "Oxford", "Conservation", and "Volunteer" into everyone's favourite search engine. I think you can guess what came at the top of the list. How appropriate that I am now responsible for keeping that self-same front door to OCV open for others.

As Webmaster I have responsibility for the technical side of the website - making sure it is available and operational. Periodically I will make changes to the programs which generate the web pages you see in your browser. Over the last few months there have been a steady stream of tweaks, all designed to make the site more usable and convenient for members. The booking form for resis is one example which will be visible to all.

Behind the scenes there are databases and mailing lists which have to be kept up to date. Mostly the website looks after these itself but occasionally manual intervention is required. Most commonly this involves sorting out a misspelled email address. With so many subscribers it is not surprising one or two go awry from time to time.

The content of the website is provided by others. The task programmer (Chris) keeps the Events page up to date. The Reserves pages are the Web Editor's work (Caroline). The Newsletter Editor (Michelle) collects articles for The Weasel and publishes them to the website, and all leaders can add photos to the extensive gallery. My job is to make sure these people can do all this as easily as possible.

So, if you have an idea which you think could make things better, feel free to contact me at webmaster@ocv.org.uk - Michael Green

Web Editor


Caroline showing how it should be done

The role of Website Editor provides a wonderful excuse to get immersed in digging out interesting information about the reserves that OCV work at, what work we do and why for the Reserves pages and the recently introduced Projects page. These pages are designed to inform current and potential volunteers, clients and sponsors about what we do, how, why, and where, plus to throw in interesting information whenever possible. There are also smaller "housekeeping" tasks required to be done in order to maintain other public and leader sections of the website such as the Frequenty Asked Questions, Partners, and Contacts pages, and generally carry out any website content biddings of the committee, particularly of the Webmaster!

Information for our website is collated from a variety of sources including Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) citations, organisations such as BTCV and the Oxfordshire Wildlife and Landscape Study (OWLS), books(!), and information provided by the organisations that manage the individual sites. As Website Editor you are sometimes lucky enough to get your hands on an ecologist's report that not only specifies details such as the species recorded at the site and its history but also give expert opinions on how best to manage the site and why. Information about the types of work that we do comes from OCV training days (these are led by experts and are free for any OCV member), experience of actually carrying out the tasks, and information from organisations such as BTCV.

Obviously all the information that we give on our website has to be correct, so should be found within multiple independent and reputable sources. This is especially important for information found on the internet! I find that the most interesting way to learn about a site or activity, however, is by going to an OCV task and getting stuck in! It is great to not only discover what is growing, flying, fluttering or even bounding past you as you work, but to then share positive first-hand identifications though the OCV website!

New to OCV on a rainy Sunday in May 2008, I started assisting with updating the Reserve pages at the end of 2008 and somehow, unknown to me, the committee created a new Website Editor role around me! I am not complaining though. A Website Editor will discover lots of interesting environmental and historical facts about our reserves, along with information such as which species you would expect to see in chalk grasslands or are indicative of ancient woodland, and notice trends such as the fact that hymenoptera (bees, ants and wasps) seem to be rather attracted to Oxfordshire's disused railway cuttings. You learn what a wonderfully diverse and species-rich place Oxfordshire is, and you learn how and why it needs to be conserved. In fact, it makes you want to go out on more OCV tasks! Excuse me while I go check out the Task Programme - Caroline Ruse

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