FIRST Scouting Central *(All teams w/ Databases Read This)*

[archiver]

Posted by Tom at 1/31/2001 6:08 PM EST


Student on team #25, Raider Robotix, from North Brunswick Township High School and Bristol Myers-Squib.



After reading some of the messages posted about team databases and how many there are, I decided to take the initiative to organize these efforts. Since team databases are for the good of all the teams in the FIRST competition having many databases and opinions of other robots is a good thing to have. We do not *need* a set of standards as some people suggested, but a place where all teams to go to get *different* opinions of the same robot.

To get to the point, I started a webpage today with a table of all the different database sites in the competition.

I strongly recommend that you submit your site to this collection of links (If this is as useful as I think it's going to be, you should get more people accessing your database here than ever before).

The sites will be in numerical order by team number to ensure that there is no discrimination of someone’s site being higher on the list than another’s.

Right now the only site listed is my team’s (team 25), but I hope this will grow quickly.

If you would like to register your site in this list reply to this message with your team name and number and the link to your database web site. Or you can contact me at robotix@onebox.com.

Hope it helps!

Tom McLean
Webmaster & Database Manager
Team 25

[archiver]

Posted by Joe Ross at 1/31/2001 8:55 PM EST


Engineer on team #330, Beach Bot, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA/JPL , J&F Machine, and Raytheon.


In Reply to: FIRST Scouting Central *(All teams w/ Databases Read This)*
Posted by Tom on 1/31/2001 6:08 PM EST:



: The sites will be in numerical order by team number to ensure that there is no discrimination of someone’s site being higher on the list than another’s.

: Right now the only site listed is my team’s (team 25), but I hope this will grow quickly.

the link to your own scouting site doesn't work. just FYI.

[archiver]

Posted by Tom at 2/1/2001 5:51 PM EST


Student on team #25, Raider Robotix, from North Brunswick Township High School and Bristol Myers-Squib.


In Reply to: Re: FIRST Scouting Central (your own link doesn't work)
Posted by Joe Ross on 1/31/2001 8:55 PM EST:



Fixed, my bad. I kinda wrote the page in a rush to get it out ASAP.

[archiver]

Posted by Ken Leung at 1/31/2001 11:16 PM EST


Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.


In Reply to: FIRST Scouting Central *(All teams w/ Databases Read This)*
Posted by Tom on 1/31/2001 6:08 PM EST:



Here is the chance to finally get organized. There is no reason why any team doesn¡¦t want to post their database on the page. At least by doing so you increase the chance of people looking at your database. Hopefully this page will spread really fast among the teams and group effort start gathering on that page, instead of people working by themselves. And chances are, you can find some other database that's similar to yours, and you can contact that other team and work together to make a join database perfect. (Just a suggestion)

May I also suggest that there be some kind of place for discussion about the database on that page?

[archiver]

Posted by Nate Smith at 2/1/2001 11:10 AM EST


Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.


In Reply to: strongly recommend doing this
Posted by Ken Leung on 1/31/2001 11:16 PM EST:



: Here is the chance to finally get organized. There is no reason why any team doesn¡¦t want to post their database on the page.

Just as a reminder to everybody, not all the scouting systems HAVE an online component that could be put into this list.

Nate

[archiver]

Posted by Tom at 2/1/2001 5:55 PM EST


Student on team #25, Raider Robotix, from North Brunswick Township High School and Bristol Myers-Squib.


In Reply to: A reason why not...(Sort of)
Posted by Nate Smith on 2/1/2001 11:10 AM EST:



It dosn't matter if their database is online or not, it's still good to know what teams are going to have databases at what regionals.

[archiver]

Posted by Tom at 2/1/2001 5:58 PM EST


Student on team #25, Raider Robotix, from North Brunswick Township High School and Bristol Myers-Squib.


In Reply to: strongly recommend doing this
Posted by Ken Leung on 1/31/2001 11:16 PM EST:



Just have got a forum up on the page, it isn't as Delphi's custom written forum. It's just one of those freebies I found on by searching Yahoo, but it should do the job.

[archiver]

Posted by Joe Ross at 2/1/2001 6:05 PM EST


Engineer on team #330, Beach Bot, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA/JPL , J&F Machine, and Raytheon.


In Reply to: Re: strongly recommend doing this
Posted by Tom on 2/1/2001 5:58 PM EST:



: Just have got a forum up on the page, it isn't as Delphi's custom written forum. It's just one of those freebies I found on by searching Yahoo, but it should do the job.

Can you, besides the link, have a list of what competitions that database will be availible at? Also, it would be very helpful if you had a short description of the scouting database (provided by the person running the database).

With these two features it would be more usefull for teams without a web component to their database. They can still let everyone know about theirs, even if it isn't web capable.

[archiver]

Posted by Tom at 2/1/2001 7:08 PM EST


Student on team #25, Raider Robotix, from North Brunswick Township High School and Bristol Myers-Squib.


In Reply to: more suggestions
Posted by Joe Ross on 2/1/2001 6:05 PM EST:



Good idea.

But why would you need a description of the database? They're all pretty much the same. If I did start asking teams that question, the answer would just be something to try to attract users and put down other sites. Just like what happened on this forum when teams started advertising their databases.

As far as listing what regional the team is in is a good idea for now. But when the website grows larger, and more sites are listed, I'll start listing the sites by what competitions they're in to simplify the search.

[archiver]

Posted by Joe Ross at 2/1/2001 7:39 PM EST


Engineer on team #330, Beach Bot, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA/JPL , J&F Machine, and Raytheon.


In Reply to: Re: more suggestions
Posted by Tom on 2/1/2001 7:08 PM EST:



: But why would you need a description of the database? They're all pretty much the same. If I did start asking teams that question, the answer would just be something to try to attract users and put down other sites. Just like what happened on this forum when teams started advertising their databases.

From the little bit of looking that I have done about the databases, each one seems to have a slightly different focus. For example, some of the databases seem to be just a listing of capabilities reported by each team. The SOAP database seems to be geared more towards how a certain robot did in each of its matches. Other databases are based on capabilites that were observed at the competition. The description also gives a chance for the teams without a web based component to post their description and an e-mail address to contact if you want to join.

IMHO there is an insane number of robot databases and scouting systems. The description gives each team a chance to differentiate themselves from the rest.