I agree with what some others have been saying. It hurt to see robots from the stands on Einstein 2012 (
Einstein 2012 official report) just sitting there, doing absolutely nothing, to see a season's worth of effort and work end anticlimactically. And I'm sure it was even worse for the teams on the field. I would much rather see robots working to their potential on the field than have chat messages between the pit and stands. Could it be useful, yes, but I don't think it outweighs the dangerous possibilities of interference.
Besides, I can practically guarantee that no matter how effective a web based app is (we had developed one that we could use last season) you will still have to have a face-to-face strategy meeting before alliance selections anyway, because it's just difficult to communicate full ideas and tactics through. I feel like taking that part out would be killing half the fun and excitement of the strategic aspect of competition. I just don't see too much advantage to it. It could lead to miscommunication, etc.
tl;dr Internet at competitions is something that needs some time before it can develop into something that can SAFELY be widely used to benefit. FIRST has asked nicely, let's honor that.