I had a chat with the very helpful Jim Bacon today, from the Biological Record Centre (BRC). I was very encouraged to hear that there is help available for local recording groups to get up and running with online recording, with Indicia. The BRC will provide web-hosting for the online recording database - the 'Warehouse' bit - and can even provide training, as well as advice on getting started and support through the Indicia forums. How great is that!Apparently there are a few pre-requisites to getting Indicia up and running on a website - techie stuff like making sure your server supports MySQL and PHP5.2 or above. I am clueless about this stuff so had a chat with Bob Foreman - webmaster for our www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk website and architect of the fab new Sussex Moth Group site - and Bob's fairly optimistic we could get that side of things sorted.
So - lots of reasons to get excited! (If you get excited about this kind of thing... which I do...)
Luckily, before I get too carried away on a stream of ideas I don't really have the time or skills to implement, Peter Atkinson - our Sussex transect coordinator - has reminded me that software development for butterfly recording is on the agenda for the 2012 National Butterfly Recorders Meeting on 17 March. It's possible that the guys at Butterfly Conservation Headquarters have got ideas around a national solution for providing online data entry and reporting. We shall find out!
