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Originally Posted by Rod
In past years teams have kept robot designs secret. Why are we doing that? In an attempt to help out rookie teams and new members I am going to bring up the thought of design sharing to our team. What do you think?
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Now, that's what I call a great subject for discussion! To share or not to share is always a tough call, especially for long-time veteran teams and members. And if you share, how much do you share?
I think to ask teams to share their entire design before the end of build season is probably not a good idea. Why, you ask? Well, imagine what would've happened if Beatty (team 71) had let their amazing designs in 2001 and 2002 out to the public before the end of build season. Chances are, a lot of teams would have tried to steal 71's great ideas and use them on their own robot. So, you really can't fault them for wanting to keep their ideas under wraps. In my mind, sharing strategies and full-robot designs should be each team's own perogative. If they want to share their ideas with other teams, all the better for the spirit of cooperation. If they want to keep a potential championship-winning strategy secret, that should be their choice, too.
Now, as far as sharing technical data from previous years goes, I'm all for it. Things like the Technokats' gearbox designs can help so many teams, that I think it's a great idea to share such designs. I think if more teams (and I know mine is at fault here, too) would share their designs from previous years, it could be a great knowledge base for rookies and new teammembers.
So, in short, I think strategies and designs for this year's game can, and should be protected, unless a team chooses otherwise. Last year's designs, though, should be open and available to all whenever possible.