Celtic Coin Index development

Yesterday, William emailed me from his secret cyber-bunker to say that he is developing remote access to edit and add records to the Celtic Coin Index Online. Hence the "log in" button on the main page of the development site. The normal site is just as it was before. The development site is a copy so that I can test the features as they are being developed without screwing up any data. After logging in, the records can be accessed to edit through one page or through an "edit" link which will then appear on each record.

William was unaware of the rumors of severe cut-backs to the Portable Antiquity Scheme and that the British Museum "stand alone" Celtic Coin Index is no more, so it is a timely development. Google "Celtic Coin Index", it no longer even has its original Oxford site, the Calgary site is all that remains.

We could probably save the British government a huge amount of money by doing something similar for the PAS. William's database is also on a very fast server: years ago, the hosting Lexicom ISP was proofed against even power failures or a breakdown of the local telephone system. Lexicom  hosts the CCI as part of its philanthropic activities and community services and it is impervious to economic downturns, wars and that sort of thing. William is a database/server wizard, eschewing commercial applications, William says "I like to roll my own".

I will be able to grant password protected access to edit or add any records, and that service will be made available to museum staff and to anyone else authorized to update the records. It is early days yet, but after I told William of the changes at the B.M. he is moving it up in the list of his priorities.