ABOUT VETSC@PE

Brief History

The Beginning
Will Easson started Vetscape (then called 'Vet Central') in October 1994 while a third-year student at Glasgow University as a quick way to use his favourite vet-related links. A month later he downloaded a prototype of a new internet browser called Netscape v0.9beta which fitted on a floppy disc (essential for use in the Vet School's computer cluster at that time) and allowed such things as centred text and faster loading times, and changed the name of his site in honour of this marvellous invention to 'VetSc@pe'. At this time the only other vet site on the Internet was apparently NetVet.

The Middle
Vetscape has grown from a single page containing a few "Interesting Links" to the popular frames-based site you see before you. The overriding principle behind Vetscape is that it should make it as easy as possible to find the information you require; flashy graphics are kept to a minimum, the frames are used to facilitate quick back-tracking, and there are direct links to NetVet (the first and most comprehensive anaiml resource index on the Net), MedLine (US Government-funded abstracts database), to the Veterinary Information Network, to E-Vet (a veterinary on-line service run by a fellow practising vet here in the UK), to VetGate (a rival links database which is search-driven), and to the BSAVA and VetWeb discussion forums where you can post a question if you can't find what you're looking for. Since something that all vets share is an academic basis to their training, VetScape's subject areas are split according to academic disciplines, which seems to work quite well.

Vetscape's access statistics are modest compared to most sites (approx 200-350 accesses per day), but are steadily rising and are excellent when compared to other specialist veterinary sites, and show great 'loyalty' in its users, which probably means that there's something OK about it! While the majority of users are from the UK, a large proportion of them come from places as diverse as Chile, Finland, France, Australia, Canada, Japan, NASA, and Argentina, emphasising the international nature of the Internet and veterinary profession. Wednesday is usually the busiest day, and Saturday the quietest.

The Future
The considerable costs of running and researching the site are entirely met as a hobby; no financial assistance is received for the main site. VetScape collaborated with the Glasgow University Veterinary School and the RCVS to produce "Vet-X" a project aimed at digitising the proceedings of the GUVZS symposium in 1997. This project is undergoing considerable revision and expansion, and formed the basis of VetScape's new Exoticsvet project.

Along with this, ScalpelJockey is intended to be a personal surgical portfolio and instruction database - photoseries, and possibly video sequences, and is in the earliest stages of design. This will be started in earnest once Exoticsvet.com is established.

And after this...? 

SITE POLICIES

VetScape is a web directory/index. There is little "content" here, although a couple of "sister" content-orientated web sites (exotics and small-animal surgery) are in the early stages of concept, design, and development. To be included in VetScape, a site should offer one or more of the following...

  • be informative, and contain a significant amount of information, comment or opinion. This would be preferably, but not necessarily, written by an acknowledged expert, referenced and/or peer reviewed.

  • offer a significant and worthwhile directory of links, regularly maintained, to significant sources of information.

  • be fast, well-designed, and easy-to-use with a minimum of graphics.

  • offer a product or service applicable to vets in practice (preferably) or clinical research.

Some sites will be highlighted in the "Sites for Sore Eyes" section as being particularly useful. The "Quick Links" box in the "contents" frame provide single-click access to popular essential web sites and functions of VetScape.

Notes for future development

  • finish link verification survey.

  • integration of the "Specialist Associations" and the "Journals" listings in to the subject areas.

  • development of Exoticsvet.com

  • expand the "academic institutions" listing.

  • expand the "Governmental Institutions" listing.

  • re-start the "After Hours" fun sites listing.

  • introduce a search facility in to VetScape.

 

For the nerds; VetScape is written on a custom ABit KT7-RAID based PC powered by an AMD Duron 700MHz, backed by 384Mb of 133Mhz RAM, and a 30Gb RAID array and 18Gb of standard UDMA66 HDD. The Voodoo3 3500 video card is due to be updated to an ATI Radeon card. It runs Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Frontpage 2000, JASC PaintShop Pro 5.5, Compupic 5.3. It is equipped with; Adaptec SCSI II card for the CDR drive; 4 serial ports; 2 parallel ports; 4 USB ports; 3 Firewire ports for live video digitisation and connection to portable hard drives and DVDRam drives; analogue video capture; 30Gb hard-drive RAID array for video storage; flatbed scanner; slide scanner.
This desktop PC is complemented by a Rock Agenda XT 600Mhz 128Mb 12Gb 15.1"TFT DVD-ROM based laptop running Windows ME, with a PCMCIA Firewire card for portable digital video capture and web site authoring.
The author will probably finish paying for all this kit some time in 2003.