Start of a New Series
Featuring for this issue – Peter Shoenfeld, the Webmaster of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
Interviewed by Tom Rodd

Q: What is the Conservancy’s [the West Virginia Highland’s Conservancy as opposed to The Nature Conservancy] web site address?
A:: www.wvhighlands.org.

Q: How many visits is it receiving?
A: We have been averaging 1000 hits a month, but it has been lower this summer, which is a concern.

Q: What are the main areas of the site?
A: A Home Page, containing information on the Conservancy; a West Virginia Environmental
News Page, with Links to current news articles; a Rotating Banner at bottom with news
highlights; a Highlands Forum with multiple bulletin boards; Topical Sections for Blackwater
Canyon, Mountaintop Removal, and Corridor H; Credit Card & Tear-off forms for buying
Hiking Guides, other publications and sundries like t-shirts, notepaper, and memberships and
donations; the Highlands Voice Online; a links page; and Dolly Sods maps.

Q: Please tell a little about your personal background, and especially about your interests and skills in computers, and in Conservancy issues.
A: I’m a lifelong Washingtonian, and a part-time West Virginian for 25 years. I have a self-built place on top of North Fork Mountain in Pendleton County. I’m also a lifelong "woods person" who has been enjoying the Monongahela National Forest for over 20 years. I support the Conservancy’s work generally, and I am particularly concerned with forest, wilderness, and backcountry preservation. I also help The Nature Conservancy of West Virginia. My family are my wife, Marilyn, and my children Andrew (14), and Sarah (28). I have a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Lehigh University, an M.S. in Mathematics from Howard University, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Maryland (1974). I worked as a Computer Programmer, Manager, and college teacher, before finishing graduate school. Since then my professional work has always included heavy computer usage, systems engineering and some programming. Since 1981, I've been an employee and officer of Science Applications International Corp, applying my math and science background to National Security projects.  I never touched HTML or web programming before I took on the Highlands Conservancy site -- learning this stuff was part of my motivation.

Q: When was the Conservancy web site set up and who works on it?
A: Bill Ragette set up the first Conservancy web site, about 4 years ago, I believe, using "freebie" server space. It was mainly just the Highlands Voice. Bill dropped it in 1997, and I picked it up in the Spring of 98. I pretty much started fresh, and now provide a much more extensive service. I’ve done about 95% of the work myself. Dr. Scott Goetz did a background page on Blackwater Canyon; Bob Coffey put the canyon report in HTML format; and Veronica Littlefield developed a few layouts

Q: How often and how much do you work on the site? Is it all volunteer time?
A: Probably 25 hours a month, all volunteer.

Q: Are you going to be able to stay with it for a while?
A: Yes.

Q: Do we need to be thinking about the long-term future and the web site?
A: It’s not a problem, but I could use some help. I’d like to delegate specific ongoing tasks, like putting the Voice online and the newslinks. Also, I’d like to see some of our people who originate written material to start routinely generating HTML versions of their work. This can be done in a fairly satisfactory way just by hitting "Save in HTML" in MS Word. Kids are generally taught HTML, and sometimes more, in school and college these days. The background I have is not hard to find, except that the folks in the Conservancy  are mostly middle aged or older, so they don’t get it unless they go after it themselves.

Q: How do you create new pages? Can you briefly describe the process?
A: I start using an HTML editor (like word processing) such as Word or Netscape Composer. I then touch pages up as necessary by manually entering HTML tags, using a text editor. Occasionally, I add Javascript code to create dynamic elements. For interactive programs I use PERL programs on the server, communicating with the browser through the CGI (Common Graphics Interface) protocol-- most of these are freeware, although I have coded PERL/CGI a little. I use an FTP program to transfer files to the server. Our server runs under UNIX (my choice), and occasionally I will use UNIX commands to manipulate files on the server. This is done using a TELNET terminal emulation program on the PC. There is an alternative world for most of this-- the one provided by Microsoft for use with their NT servers.

Q: Where is the computer server that hosts our site actually located?
A: Neumedia, Buckhannon, West Virginia.

Q: Do we pay for the use of it?
A: Yes. $25 per month for the account and 10 MB web space. Also $35/year for the domain name (wvhighlands.org). I’m also using some space that I rent personally at a very low rate from a Canadian firm that never bills me. I’ll probably rent some more space for the Conservancy soon, from Neumedia or elsewhere.

Q: Please describe the process of selling the Guidebook and other items by credit card ordering over the Web.
A: Credit card numbers, etc. must be encrypted before transfer over the Internet. This is done by browser dialogue with a "secure server" using the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) mechanism sold by Netscape. This can be recognized by URLs starting with https:// vice http://. The "secure server" is a process running on a computer, not necessarily a separate computer. We are not using Neumedia’s secure server. Instead we get this from a man named Kurt Hansen (CharityWeb, www.charityweb.com). The credit card forms were built jointly by Kurt and myself and run on his server – you get there by clicking a link. His software talks to a national e-commerce transaction processing setup (I believe this is PaymentNet) in Nashville, to get credit card approval and to send the transactions forward to the bank. Their fees are included in his. Ultimately, the transactions go to First Valley Bank, where we have our merchant account.
Additionally, they go into a secure database on Kurt’s server (built by Kurt) to which only Dave [Saville] and myself have web access. This is used to fill the orders. Jackie has some process of reconciling the filled orders vs. the banks statements, but I don't know how she does this. I discovered Kurt through Vivian’s web surfing. I could do his part myself and would have done it this way for the learning experience if I thought there was time. Using him was a way to get it going very quickly. As it turned out, there was a long (unnecessary) delay in getting the merchant account set up. However, it has worked out fine-- we get a good rate and good service. I believe we were his first customer for some of this stuff. As far as I know, we are the only small environmental organization that has e-commerce. Most of the large organizations don’t have it yet.

Q: What about an e-mail service that lets a list of people/subscribers know when there are new postings or articles on the site, and allows them to go to those updated areas? I've seen that a lot in several subject areas, like the law or medicine? Is that feasible or desirable for us?

A: I update the site every 10 days or so, at least with news links. The forum can be updated by anyone at every time. I’d like interested users to come back every week or two, but don’t know if they do. I suggested a membership wide listserv at the last board meeting, but there was not a lot of support. I’d like this to circulate general news, not just exhortations to look at the site. I’m somewhat disappointed in the hit rate. However, I do find that when I meet people who should know about the site, they generally do. I think we are reaching our audience.

Q: What other words of wisdom do you want to pass on to Conservancy members, especially on e-mail and computer-related areas?

A: I’d like people to take advantage of the opportunity presented by Highlands Forum. This is little used, but has the potential of involving any more people. What it would take is the support of WVHC activists in posting messages. Some people in the group have been a bit slow in taking up Internet usage, E-mail communications, etc. We sometimes hear that we ought to be sensitive to these folks limitations. I’d like them to see it the other way around -- others are sometimes inconvenienced by their reluctance to use the technology and sometimes communications do not take place as a result. The Internet probably offers most to people living in rural areas, without easy access to libraries, specialized shopping, etc. WISe competes with the web site to some extent and is probably part of the reason the forum is not more active. Some also use it for limited free e-mail. I'd like to see WISe users moving to open Internet usage. I don’t think WISe should be used for WVHC organizational communications. This is because WISe is normally available for West Virginia residents only; whereas only about half the WVHC membership lives in West Virginia, I believe.