[phrozen solyd]

It's definitely a revolutionary idea; the collaboration that our team's had with 22 and 60 is much less extensive than what you have proposed here. Here are some things I learned over the past couple years.

In our collaboration, there are only three teams working together - 22, 60, and 254 - and all of us are in relatively close geographic proximity. It's much easier to communicate when you're geographically close, even with instant communication thru email and phone; it'd be hard for a team to collaborate with someone (or multiple "someones") several time zones away.

Also, throughout the build season, all three of our teams got together on multiple occasions to machine parts together, to look at drawings together, and to just hang out. A collaboration isn't just about building robots - it's building relationships with people who you wouldn't normally meet, let alone codesign a 130 lb machine with. Not being able to see your collaboration partners until nats would take something out of that relationship.

And you're right, coreyjon, it's already pretty tough to get people to agree on a single design when they're all on the same team - and it's ten times that every time you bring another set of people into the mix. It's no doubt that every new team brings a new set of ideas that could greatly improve the design, every new team also brings its own protocols, its own team dynamics, its own way of doing things. Getting everyone on the same page would be the biggest challenge in a project like this.

Even though I'm unsure if we can pull this off before Nats, I still greatly admire your ambition. Innovative, revolutionary, and seemingly impossible ideas like this are the true essence of FIRST. My hat's off to you.