Suggestion: As they say in the classics, "Measure twice and cut once", and "fail to plan and you plan to fail"
Some of my suggestions are quick and easy, some will take more time, energy and effort, while there may be some that are simply off the wall. As a "thinker" rather than a "do-er", please stop me if you believe I am going over the top regarding suggestions.
I like the idea of having both lists, but there MUST be another method of achieving this. On a technical level, there should be a method of using one list, a complete list of Southern African birds, with the associated Roberts number, that can be sorted either by number OR alphabetically (and searchable!). Each index entry that has associated text and photographs should be linked to that text/photograph, providing an easy view of entries that are still missing.
But as the comment in the first line suggests, take a step back and answer the following:
- what is the ultimate objective of this initiative?
- who will exploit/access it?
- where will it be accessed from?
- where will the information come from?
- who can update it?
- how will it be exposed to all that could use it?
When these questions have been answered, agreed to, and accepted by the committee, progress towards the ultimate objective can continue in a planned and structured way. This is sure to be a learning process for all, but the lessons learned along the way can only lead to improvements in the final deliverable.
Finally, once the framework for this initiative is settled, it can simply be transferred to the other reference initiatives, being mammals, reptiles, trees, invertebrates, and any other reference material relating to the African Wild environment. What is to stop these reference initiatives not become the PREFERRED REFERENCE site for all African Wildlife internet searches?
Yours,
"Ramblin Rose"
birders
)
Feedback please!
