Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Championship in particular and FIRST as a whole could really benefit from more effective communication.

This event could have been far less confusing, especially for teams like mine that haven't been in 4+ years.

1. Mark acceptable load-in locations on the map shared beforehand. Even the FRC-uniformed volunteers I spoke with didn't know what was allowed. They told me several times that "they would prefer" that we load in through the doors in the back of the building even though 30+ teams (including mine) had already dropped their gear along 7th and Convention Plaza. Security eventually did let those teams in.

2. Simulcast the Opening Ceremonies, or make it viewable from all 8 sections of the stands, or at least tell people they need to move if they want to watch. It's bad enough to make 10,000 people shuffle a quarter of a mile from one side of the stadium to the other to participate. It's worse when they don't bother to announce it to those people.

3. After alliance selections, tell teams they need to set up a new pit in center field. The 15'x15' pits make perfect sense, but I'd never heard of them until one of our alliance partners came and asked to coordinate which tools we took out there. They told me it was buried in some email FIRST had sent out a couple of days ago, but I didn't see it and still can't find it. This is definitely worth announcing to teams before they need to do it.

4. Train venue security so they know who they're supposed to let in. I saw scores of people with badges get turned away from entrances close to the team parking lots that had "Team Entrance" signs out front, forcing them to walk an extra 1/2 mile to get in through the main entrance and then loop back to the dome.

5. Remove unnecessary permissions from the FIRST Championship App. I don't know what the app offers (because I declined to sign over EVERYTHING on my phone, and I haven't found a decent description of it) but all I want are schedule-changes and other announcements. Apps that require everything a stalker could want do not inspire confidence that they use good security practices and will safeguard the data I share with them. Alternatively, they could explain what each of the permissions are needed for and offer reduced-function apps that need fewer permissions.

6. This is a general FIRST comment and not Championship-specific, but Please, please, please let me help you test the UI for your website. Everyone I've ever talked to about your website has had a great deal of trouble navigating it, and it's an embarrassment that I have to warn people about it when they decide to join after hearing all the awesome things I tell them about FIRST. Our Dean's List nominee almost got disqualified because her family got stuck trying to navigate all the way through STIMS.

I love that FIRST's goal is to change the culture to be more inspired by and appreciative of technology. Communication is a huge element in mobilizing that change, and there's a great deal of low-hanging fruit that FIRST can work on to improve it and speed up growth.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Hear, hear.

Two mornings in a row, I got stopped and yelled at by people who apparently thought they were supposed to keep everybody out of the building until the pits opened. The orange VOLUNTEER strip on my badge did not seem to mean anything to them. It took quite a lot of explanation on my part, and some nodding from other nearby gatekeepers, before they would let me through.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I second what you said completely. Establishing a standard for AV quality at worlds is a MUST to encourage growth and recognition of the sport. You don't see grainy promo photos on the banners that drape the entrance to the dome nor do you have to struggle to hear Dean speak through an sporadic microphone. The AV quality online should be the same offered to those at the event in person.

The same can be said for districts and regional events. Mentoring the students in pre-scouting worlds this year the number one complaint was low quality video or no video footage at all of the teams from the smaller regional events.

Encouraging these lower level events to try and achieve quality video as a goal would be great. Talking with the AV crew from PNW several times, I know it is a lot of work and acquiring the quality equipment they have is not necessarily cheap either. But if FIRST could help support teams in finding the funding, resources, and volunteers to pull it off would be a good start.

I know at the school we mentor some of the teachers that support the team will stream our teams events live during class sometimes. Having quality video of matches makes FRC look truly awe inspiring when presented to a novice of FRC. It makes it easy to show your school, sponsors, and parents what we are all about. Not to mention recruiting mentors or volunteers.

In short...yes it is not easy or cheap, but putting the resources out there for teams to improve it would be a major step in the right direction for ease of scouting and most importantly, promotion of FRC teams.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

During alliance selections on Carson, there was an individual keeping the team seating area empty of teams not in matches who didn't understand that there were no matches until 9:30, and we needed to be closer to the field to help 5254 whiteboard a pick to their field representative.

To his credit, I'm sure people had been giving him a hard time all weekend and he held his ground, but he didn't understand the way the event was to be run. The front set of team seating rows (which was fantastic to have when there were matches, by the way) stayed empty throughout alliance selections, and we did manage to find a few seats for a set of picklisting scouts and a whiteboard, but it was incredibly frustrating for not just 20 and 5254, but also at least a dozen other people trying to sit there for alliance selections.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

From what I gather, sending scores to FIRST's servers required a full database upload from FMS, which was slow due to the limited bandwidth. A match score should only be a few KB. The problem seems to be that FIRST hacked the API to use the data from the full database dump instead of implementing a lower overhead solution.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I skimmed 9 pages of responses and did not see my favorite negative mentioned: the sideline reporter at Einstein. Since she knew nothing about the game, every question was the same and her reaction to every response was "awesome!". C'mon First, if you really need an Erin Andrews sideline chick, at least require her to do her homework.

For all the complaints in the previous 9 pages, lighten up - it was a great time.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

YES!

I especially liked how in the very first interview she started off with "I'm here with... uh... I don't even know your team number" and she grabbed the interviewee's name badge to check.

And asking 1114 how they were doing immediately after they had been eliminated, seemed insensitive... except everyone already had a sense that she had not been versed at all in the game. The freshman student sitting beside me picked up on this right away and couldn't take her seriously after that.

I liked that they brought in Team 1448 to present the FRC Rhapsody, too bad it was so obvious they were lip syncing to the video. Would have been fun (though difficult, I know) if they could have performed it live.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

The subtle misogyny here is my favorite part.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

For a counter-example to the on-field interviewer at Einstein, I call attention to this video of the 2014 FIRST In Michigan video that someone linked to in one of the other threads as an example of excellent presentation and camera work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYh_F0eDaxU

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

There's a much bigger problem.

So, the technical solution failed, and someone decided that there was no need to find a backup solution. Those of us who wanted to keep track of our favorite teams were stuck.

Find a whiteboard and a webcam if you have to, but get the scores out. This event is big enough to attract a TV audience (21st century variety). I was just amazed that First didn't think enough of the fans to make sure that the scores were updated.

TBA got it,(thanks again) but didn't have the resources available to do 100% of the areas. Being from the Detroit area, I was especially interested in Hopper, and that was one of the fields they weren't getting updates on most of the time.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Others have said it, but I wish the endgame would return. I thought that it made matches more exciting by allowing teams to turn the tide towards the end of a match. I thought that 2013's was balanced well. It allowed for alliances to make a comeback if they were behind but it wasn't an insta-win at higher levels.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Not sure why you think this counters the misogyny in the original post. That would be something more on the lines of:
Derogatory words like "chick" aren't necessary to criticize poor reporting and suggest you have a poor view of women in technical roles like this. Perhaps you meant something less sexist like "sideline reporter" instead of "Erin Andrews sideline chick".

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Ah, I was thinking more along the lines of assuming that women sports interviewers don't/can't know what they are talking about, not specifically the wording in the post you quoted.

(Though, very possibly, shame on me for not picking up on the derogatory "chick" phrasing.)

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Many people had 254 making it to the finals and I was shocked to hear that the team did not make it out of their division. I checked in with your team later in the day and they said that could go wrong did. This has to be especially galling after so many matches played at a high level.

Perhaps something to add to planning and practice for a similar game is to predict what happens when disaster strikes and how to recover from it.

Eric

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

but guys...it's not about the robots. it is about the students....