Re: Consolidaton of Recorder 6
JNCC are aware that recently the Recorder project has not received the level of input required. This has been due to not having enough staff time available compared with other internal priorities, accentuated by staff turn over. Fundamentally, we recognise that while Recorder 6 is rich in functionality it is still not a polished product which has been causing considerable, and understandable, frustration across the user community. We now intend to have a focused period of work to address this.
Our next steps are to create a firm plan and attempt to ring fence the internal staff time required to address the current problems. The plan will cover:
- complete testing of version 6.8 and release
- review the help for the package and update
- if necessary develop any additional getting started guides that are required
- consolidate the species dictionary and other term lists across 2002, 6.6 and 6.7
- establish a reliable process for the publication of updates to the species dictionary
- review the current add-ins and ensure they work with the most recent version of Recorder
- consolidate the web resources relating to Recorder
- review the market and develop a longer term plan for the onward development and support for the package
Clearly the summer is not the ideal time to drive this forward as the work will be hampered by annual leave. However, we hope to have the plan published within the next couple of weeks and will be aiming to release V6.8 of Recorder by the end of August. Sarah Shaw, a new member of staff here at JNCC with primary responsibility for the Recorder project, will be leading both the creation, publication and reporting progress against this plan. We intend to publish progress reports every one or two weeks.
Thank you for your patience and support
Steve Wilkinson