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Re: Future of Recorder-6 ??

I have heard rumours that there is no intention (or funding) to develop, enhance, or improve Recorder-6 into the near future.

Can I ask what is the current development status for the underlying product which supports the work of LRCs ? What is the short and long term funding scenarios for future developments ? If development is to be curtailed then what is the long term position of Dictionary maintenance and upgrades for both the NBN webservices and for Recorder-6 ??

Many thanks.

Steve

Steve J. McWilliam
www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/

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Re: Future of Recorder-6 ??

Hi Steve
I think someone from JNCC will need to give you a formal answer to this question, but I know that there is both intention and funding to continue developing Recorder 6, though of course it is not without limit especially in this day and age. We are currently in the planning phase for a set of changes that will be developed this summer.
Best Wishes

John van Breda
Biodiverse IT

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Re: Future of Recorder-6 ??

Also, the fact that Mary Campling has just been recruited as Recorder Project Manager is good sign of commitment to the project, surely?

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
http://www.field-studies-council.org | https://twitter.com/charlesroper | https://twitter.com/fsc_digital

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Re: Future of Recorder-6 ??

Steve
Given that we are expecting money in the public sector to be relatively tight over the next couple of years I would expect there will be a drop in the overall scale of the new development of Recorder. Over the last two years, the total cost of the project was 150K and 100K respectively but this has included significant enhancement of the system. It is unlikely that this level of investment in Recorder will continue.

That said, all of the medium term strategies for Recorder have included identifying the costs of the basic ongoing maintenance of the application which include things like bug fixing, dictionary maintenance, keeping pace with new technologies etc. This is obviously essential if we are to realise the investment that has been made in the system (both in terms of development and implementation - for example within the LRC community).

One of the items on the agenda for the Recorder steering group next week will be clarifying the strategy for identifying these ongoing costs and how they will be funded. It obviously relies on keeping the members of the steering group engaged but I am confident that all see the on-going maintenance of the package as critical to realising the investment they have made to date and securing the level of use that the package current enjoys. In addition there has been interest from other European partners and we are also considering whether there is any opportunity here to help unwrite the core running costs.

I will post a further update after the Steering Group.

Best wishes
Steve

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Re: Future of Recorder-6 ??

Steve

Many thanks for your reply - you hit my main fears on the head.  The investment that has been made, in many areas including LRCs, is such that it would be foolish not to maintain both support (inc. dictionary upgrades) and some level of continued development and platform implementation as Windows prgresses.

I will greatly look forward to your comments following the meeting !!

Cheers and thanks again.

Steve

Steve J. McWilliam
www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/