How you can help

Offers of help and support are always much appreciated....

The first way this can happen is to offer content - descriptions, images etc. Remember, everything that goes onto this website enters the public domain with a Creative Commons licence, which by default allows use of material for non-commercial purposes if the source is properly acknowledged. By all means contact me to discuss what you can provide - it is especially helpful to have data in compatible formats. A high priority for the website is to maintain its scientific integrity. For this reason images (in particular) should have preserved voucher specimens so their identity can be confirmed in the future, if necessary using molecular methods. We would be very happy to store such voucher specimens at Kew.

The second way to help is to provide constructive criticism of what is already on the site. If you find images that you think are misidentified, or descriptions that are inaccurate, please contact me to point out the problem rather than leaving the mess to confuse others. Help of this nature will be very much appreciated.

The third way to help is to join the team! There are various levels of involvement:

  1. Authenticated user. This is primarily a passive role, demonstrating your support for the project. In time, facilities will be incorporated that allow you to comment on species pages, images etc. and contribute to blogs.
  2. Contributor. This category of users can add and edit their own content (images, descriptions etc.)
  3. Editor. An editor can modify content that others have contributed, as well as inputting their own data.
  4. Moderator. The moderator has full admin rights and can restrict or curtail the activities of other users, in order to maintain the integrity of the website.

The roles of contributor and editor do require certain specialist skills. If you are seriously interested in working with the site at this level, some training will be needed. Send a message to me using the link on the front page, and we can see what is possible. There is also a lot of on-line help available on the Scratchpads help pages.

Paul Cannon, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith