Web Team's Charge
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 16:51:25 -0400
To: sbt4@cdc.gov
From: pick@pick.uga.edu (John Pickering) [& Keith Langdon]
Subject: GSMNP-ATBI Web Team
Cc: coralie@smokiesnha.org, flfitch@yahoo.com, cgaasch@randomc.com,
albert.meier@wku.edu, paul_opler@usgs.gov, Dana_Soehn@nps.gov,
Karen_Ballentine@nps.gov, rblanco@acguanacaste.ac.cr,
mmchava@acguanacaste.ac.cr, Phil_Francis@nps.gov,
whallwac@sas.upenn.edu, wfharris@utk.edu, djanzen@sas.upenn.edu,
tkiernan@npca.org, keith_langdon@nps.gov, lockard@pick.uga.edu,
cmrodrig@quercus.inbio.ac.cr, amasis@sas.upenn.edu,
grsm_friends_of_grsm_np@nps.gov, bmclucas@bios.biosci.uga.edu,
msharkey@southey.ca.uky.edu, stilley@science.smith.edu,
pswhite@unc.edu, mjwillia@tricon.net
Stephanie Ramsey
Steph,
Thanks for agreeing to form and coordinate a team to oversee the design and
publication of Web pages for the GSMNP-ATBI.
Your team's charge is to consider all issues related to presenting
information on the Web. These include
(1) defining the intended audience and objectives of these pages;
(2) specifying the information that authors should work towards including;
(3) developing presentation style guidelines that allow authors some
creative freedom;
(4) who should check, edit, and approve submitted material;
(5) the procedures that we should follow to publish completed pages
electronically, and
(6) our legal liability for presenting misinformation or inadvertent
copyright violation.
Your team should seek input on these issues from a wide spectrum of society
and be as inclusive as possible. With this in mind, we hope that the
following individuals will serve as the founding members of this team.
Coralie Bloom
Natural History Association, GSMNP
Letty Fitch
Coile Middle School
Christi Gaasch
Dekalb County Cooperative Extension Service
Albert Meier
Western Kentucky University
Paul Opler
Midcontinental Ecological Science Center
Dana Soehn
Inventory & Monitoring, GSMNP
Your first concern should be issues (1) and (2) -- defining our audience;
specifying what information should be included in the pages. This fall,
Steve Tilley and Mike Sharkey are building species home pages and an
interactive identification guide for the salamanders of the Great Smokies.
At our 14-17 December meeting, these will showcase what we intend to do on
the Web for all taxa. Obviously, Steve and Mike need a draft of your
"Taxon Page Guidelines" ASAP.
We suggest the following time table:
(1) Your team produces a draft version of "Taxon Page Guidelines"
by mid-October.
(2) We put this draft on our Web site as an unlinked document and
send its URL to an additional 20 folks for comment.
(3) In mid-November, after you incorporate their comments, we seek
additional comments by linking your updated version to our Web site so that
everyone can easily find it.
(4) At the December meeting, your committee presents its
recommendations, seeks additional comments, and finalizes a document for
the coming year(s).
Many folks have started to build "species home pages." Students at UGA who
were guided by our "Taxon Assignment" have created drafts of approximately
300 pages for various taxa. Some of these pages are linked under Flora &
Fauna at www.discoverlife.org. The folks at ACG and at INBio in Costa Rica
have also put considerable effort into designing and building pages of
various groups.
As a starting point for your "Taxon Page Guidelines," we suggest that you
modify the "Taxon Assignment" (www.discoverlife.org/ed/taxon_assign.html).
You should consider (1) Dan Janzen & Winnie Hallwachs's "Trial Species Home
Pages" ( contact Dan
Winnie (2) what is being done with plant Web
pages in the ACG (contact Roger Blanco (3)
INBio's UBIs (Basic Information Units for species --
contact Carlos Mario Rodriguez:
(4) Dana's letter to Steve Tilley (see
below), and (5) as may diverse opinions as possible, from taxonomists, to
school children, to garden clubs, to Joe-fisherman and Jane-birdwatcher.
Finally, to help you proceed, please copy relevant emails, drafts, minutes,
etc. to Pick (pick@pick.uga.edu) and Bryan (dl@www.discoverlife.org). They
will add them to a URL that will allow your team to keep track of what it
is doing. This URL will be www.discoverlife.org/pa/te/web_team.html and
will include this email.
If they haven't already done so, please ask your team members to enter
their phone numbers, postal addresses, etc. into our database through the
"Get Involved" link on www.discoverlife.org. Actually, encourage everyone
to do this!
Have fun and again thanks.
Cheers,
Keith & Pick
Keith Langdon
John Pickering
_______________________________________________________________
The following extracted from Dana Soehn's email to Steve Tilley:
>Subject: Salamander Key
>Author: Dana Soehn at NP-GRSM
>Date: 8/19/98 5:05 PM
>
> Keep in mind that the species pages should have an attractive photo
> with catchy, interesting text for the general interest folks.
> However, we would also like to include more detailed information on
> subsequent pages or hot links for scientists or those inspired to dig
> a little deeper.
>
> We do not have a good model for what a species home page should look
> like. This work will potentially be the model so the format is open.
> I'm going to toss some ideas at you which is a combination of thoughts
> from myself, Keith, and Chuck:
>
> * Two-part approach:
>
> Part 1:
>
> * General information for species:
> family, genus, relationship to other species
> range (total)
> description
> habitat/habits
> breeding/reproductive habits
> best way to find them
> care in handling, searching!
> special protection status
>
> Part 2:
>
> * More specific information:
> Range, distribution, abundance, etc... in the Park (I know this
> will be incomplete for many, but we can state that work is in
> progress). We can also produce a map of the park with location
> information when appropriate (our database person could help here
> or we can scan maps).
>
> habits specific to the park
> ecology
> research (perhaps just a bibliography which we can add to?)
>
>
> I think we should include all park species and do the best job at
> separating as possible. I agree that, generally, people won't be able
> to separate D. ocoee from gray cheek D. imitator (unless they are at
> Indian Gap!). However, I think we should treat them individually.
> When you reach that point in the key where they are inseparable, both
> will 'pop up', and we simply state how you would theoretically do it,
> explain the difficulty, etc... Scientists in other disciplines will
> certainly be using this key along with visiting herpetologists so I
> think we should provide the best available information and allow room
> to grow. It seems to me that we will have a tough time separating D.
> ocoee/imitator, D. santeetlah/conanti, D. quadramaculatus/marmaratus,
> Desmog larvae, and Eurycea larvae. My suggestion is that each species
> will have a 'species page', however, the 'key' will lead you to both
> choices and then describe the difficulty in separating between the two
> (or more when it comes to the larvae). If you think the D.
> ocoee/imitator and D. santeetlah/conanti groups could possibly be
> confused, we should also allow for this interaction.
>
> The more I think about the complexities, the more confused I become!
> I know you appreciate a good challenge as evidenced by your choice of
> Desmognathus as a group to study, so I have a feeling you're up to
> this endeavor!
>
> Let me know how I can help,
> Dana
| Discover Life in America | Science | Web Plan | John Pickering - 15 September, 1998 |