[Bell Historians] The ongoing evolution of Dove online

[John Harrison]

In article
<LO3P265MB17718253960899CF031B14A3BB640 at LO3P265MB1771.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>,
   Mike Chester <mikechester at hotmail.com> wrote:
>  Adding even one feature would mean a potential adding of several
>  thousand pieces of data.  More importantly, they would have to be kept
>  up to date.  This came into stark focus a couple of years ago, when
>  there was a feature in The Ringing World about ringing restarting at
>  Buckfast Abbey. Nobody in the preceding three years had informed Dove
>  that ringing had been suspended!

There's an obvious attraction in Dove being a one stop shop - a complete
repository of all information of interest to ringers, but the more
information it holds the bigger the task of maintaining it.

It would seem sensible for a (inter)national repository to focus mainly on
durable information.  Physical information about bells typically lasts many
decades, and (give or take the correction of any errors) only changes after
going through a lengthy process of approval and implementation, whereas
information like practice nights can change or be suspended with no such
constraints.

The closer to the source that information is held, the more likely it is to
be up to date.  For example, working up from the coal face:  

Our tower website will tell you if an individual practice is cancelled or
moved.  

As branch webmaster I get told when practices are suspended, combined on
moved - but only if it is for an extended period.  

The Guild website doesn't maintain tower information (though the annual
report does).  15 years ago we had the idea of the Guild website merging
tower information managed by the Branches, but we couldn't even get
branches to agree on a common level of detail to provide.

-- 
John Harrison
Website http://jaharrison.me.uk