Vacancy at Rechord

Web manager (6 month contract)
Location: Harrow, North-west London.

A chance to work with the technology you love while changing the world and getting paid for it too...

Rechord are looking for somebody to join their crack team of techno-innovators to help build social networking tools and campaign websites for our clients in the not-for-profit sector and occasionally the creative industries. This position is for somebody who isn't necessarily a coder but understands which web technologies are appropriate for solving a given problem and how they work together to achieve the results our clients want. The ability to develop CSS and XHTML to designs provided would be a bonus, however.

You must be excited about charitable causes and willing to work hard with our clients to build tools that will help them make the world a better place. Social networking and connecting people online should be one of your passions.

Duties:
* Translating clients' requirements into a technical specification that our developers can deliver to time and budget;
* Checking and testing web applications produced by our development team to ensure they match the specification;
* Managing change requests and bugfixes;
* Managing development budgets and work schedules;
* Liaising with clients, staff and freelancers to manage smooth delivery of different projects.

Must-have skills:
* Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint proficiency;
* Excellent research ability;
* Good communication and people skills;
* Fluency in English;
* Ability to manage conflicting priorities and timescales;
* Understanding of the not-for-profit sector;
* Understanding of web technologies such as: Linux / Windows hosting platforms, PHP, ASP.NET, Javascript, Flash, MySQL, MSSQL, XHTML/CSS, Web services, APIs, CMS, CRM and e-mail marketing;
* You should be a master of either PC or a Mac platforms, preferably both.

Desirable skills:
* Ability to code XHTML and CSS to design;
* Image editing programs such as Photoshop or Fireworks;
* Ability to work with web applications of various types such as bug-tracking, billing and webmail systems.

Must-have experience:
* Being an integral part of a web development team.

Desirable experience:
* Agile development practise;
* Client liaison and web account management;
* Usability testing and software testing.

Personal qualities:
* Obsession with detail;
* Good team worker;
* Driven by the desire to complete things;
* Passionate about web technology;
* Calm under pressure.

You'll receive a salary of between £23 - 30k pa (depending on your experience) + overtime. The position has the possibility of a permanent role after the 6 month term.
You'll also get a holiday entitlement of 24 days a year plus public holidays. You'll need to work for us for 35 hours a week. Your hours could be varied downwards for a pro rata salary. The position offers flexible working hours and the opportunity to work from home by arrangement, so the position would be entirely suitable for a stay-at-home parent, but you'll need to be able to work from the Rechord office at least once a week.
All this plus free snacks and refreshments from our well-stocked fridge throughout the day...

Working with Rechord will be fun and challenging but most importantly, very rewarding, as the fruits of your labours bring about justice and improvements in living conditions for the world's poorest people. This is a chance to start working with an ethical, creative web agency and help us to grow as we help you to grow in experience and skills at the same time.

Rechord have a no-interview policy. If you're one of the short-listed candidates, we'll contact you to do one trial day's work for us. Even if you're unsuccesful, we'll still pay you for the day's work. Do bear this in mind when applying.

Please send a 2-page CV with a covering email to Rachel Collinson at this address: rachel.wmvacancy@rechord.com. The deadline for applications is Monday the 20th of April at 10am.

Important rules for limited companies

If you run a limited company, and have a website, this is important news. From the 20th of January 2007, the law requires you to display this information on your website:

• your company's place of registration and the number with which it is registered,
• the address of its registered office,
• if your limited company is exempt from the obligation to use the word "limited" as part of its name, you must indicate the fact that it is a limited company.

Here's more information:

DTI Information on Companies Act 2006 (Microsoft Word document)

If you need help with editing your site to include this information, please get in touch with us today to ensure that you comply with the law.

Add comments as you browse

A new service called Diigo, which – in all seriousness – stands for "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff" allows you to add comments as you browse. It works similarly to bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us. Where it really comes into its own, however, is web annotation: the ability to highlight text and images, or add ‘sticky notes’ (a bit like online Post-its) to any webpage.

Before we look at annotation though, there are few things that Diigo does with bookmarks that make it stand out. It’s like the Swiss army knife of web browsing.

• You can store all your bookmarks online so you are no longer tied to the browser on one computer when it comes to finding information that you’ve bookmarked. Additionally, Diigo will store a copy of the page as it was when you viewed it. That means no more going back to a page to look something up again only to find that it’s not there any more.
• If you are already using Del.icio.us or another similar service, there’s no need to stop. You can set this clever web application to simultaneously add a page to Del.icio.us when you add it to Diigo.
• If you’ve read something that perhaps you would like to add to your blog simply right-click and then choose ‘blog this’.
• There are a number of other very useful features on the right-click menu. For example if you read something you think someone else would like to see you can right-click on it and then email the page directly to them. Or if you highlight it the Diigo menu appears automatically and just the highlighted text is sent, and of course added to your list of bookmarks automatically.

As mentioned above, the really exciting feature here is web annotation. If you’re carrying out online research, or perhaps collaborating on a project, it’s a very powerful tool. Imagine looking at your website and deciding what you need your web editor to update. With Diigo all you have to do is highlight some text and add a note telling them what the text should be changed to.

You can keep your highlights and notes private so they’re just for you to see or allow other users to see and interact with them. You can even choose whether or not you see anybody else’s notes if you don’t want to be interrupted while browsing.

Try it out at and let us know if you come up with any other uses.

Diigo

Rechord deface York Minster!

Christmas is coming, but we've not been idle. We’ve been helping the Church of England to deface York Minster. In a press launch for their Advent Stories website, we were asked to create a slide which would be projected onto a 20ft screen stuck to the side of the ancient building. This was to advertise the fruits of our combined endeavours, the Church of England’s first ever official online Advent calendar. Sadly there is no actual chocolate hidden behind the doors, Willy Wonka style. There are, however, stories (ranging from the sad to the entertaining) of what Christmas means to people from all walks of life in Britain today.

See it here:
Advent Stories

The more observant among you may have noticed that there are no doors for the 1st and 2nd of December, but this is not a mistake. We have been assured that Advent does not actually start until the fourth Sunday before Christmas – something we didn’t know despite having a Theology degree and two vicar parents between us. We really should have listened harder at Sunday school...

Wireless net access anywhere at no charge...?

There was a buzz in the rechord studio (no, not a fly seeking refuge from the strange weather, just a palpable excitement) when we heard about what FON are doing.

This new company, it is said, may become bigger than Skype. The way their amazing offer works is:

• You pay for their special wireless router, a snip at 15 euros
• You agree to let any other FON member use your connection
• You get to use any other FON member's connection, without spending a bean

Go here to find out more:
FON

Rechord and Scope

We are now working with SCOPE on the redesign of several sections for their website. SCOPE are a charity who campaign for equal rights for disabled people, so we are very pleased to be working with them. We strongly believe that making a site accessible for people and devices of all sorts doesn't mean that it has to look boring.

The lovely Nigel Tuckett, who manages their web presence, was impressed with our experience of creating websites which are accessible by people with all sorts of disabilities.

There's gold in them there forums

How communities and businesses are helping each other out, online

The second part in our series of posts on online communities is about how they are actually benefiting business, and vice versa. Let's pause now for a minute, while we listen for the sound of Marx stirring in his coffin. Actually, it's not as sinister as it sounds (the concept, not the dead economist) - there's no exploitation going on. Forums attached to business websites are becoming more and more popular, and can be the great leveller.

There are a number of exceptional benefits to be had from a properly functioning community on a website. For a start, on the side of the organisation, a good group of people regularly saying interesting or helpful things will bring new visitors back to your site again and again. If you are offering any kind of product that needs support, having a message board or forum can cut down on your support costs as users give each other advice on how they overcame problems, or you can post advice about common support issues. It's also a good way to demonstrate that you can deal with criticism and respond to problems quickly and effectively. You can scour the forums for positive feedback which can be used (with permission) in your marketing materials and promotions.

On the side of the user, browsing an organisation's forum can quickly tell you whether this is an organisation worth dealing with or buying from. At the very least, simpy having a forum demonstrates an open attitude, and self-confidence in the product or service being offered. You can also search for quick answers to problems you may have been having, or find novel ways of using what is being offered which may be of benefit.

If you are convinced by the benefits, and are considering starting your own community, you should only do it if you have enough time to give to the project. A neglected community does not send out a good message. You need to make sure that you moderate it properly and update it regularly to send out the all-important message of professionalism, and keep the site secure.

Contact rechord if you need any more advice on this subject, at no charge. We could chew anybody's ears off for hours about it; we are just passionate about online communities.