[archiver]

Posted by Clinton Hamilton at 03/06/2001 9:59 PM EST


Student on team #108, SigmaC@T, from Dillard High School and Motorola.


In Reply to: SME cards ????? what are they for....?
Posted by nick237 on 03/06/2001 8:25 PM EST:



Let's theoretically assume for a moment that 2
things that have been mentioned are true (mainly
because I don't want to draw conjectures that I
can't support) and look at this rationally :

Assumption 1) Checking them is completely
impractical (I won't debate this as it's more a issue
of logistics than anything else. After all they did ask
to see the armbands at Nats last year)

Assumption 2) The real reason that FIRST wants
you to have the cards is because they want to
collect demographics on the people involved.

If you assume that the two above statements are
true you still end up with a weak argument for not
getting the cards.

Maybe I'm just too open with personal information
for my own good. But personally I don't have any
problem giving away my personal information to
responsible organizations like FIRST and SME. If
demographics of FIRST team members can help
FIRST grow I'm all for it. Heck they can come by my
house and take a DNA sample if they want to study
the genetic traits of a FIRST junkies. We live in an
information age. Power is in the information that
you control. Being able to show a major
undetermined sponsor that their money is going to
be able to benefit not only the students but can
help them promote their products or services could
be the deciding factor that will may help FIRST
swing another regional or convince a major
corporation to start a bunch of new teams.

Using the cards for admission may very well be
impractical. If we assume that FIRST-SME knew
this from the start the next most obvious
assumption is that the team party entry statement
is a bluff designed to get more people to register.
Though I wouldn't necessarily promote this
method of gather information if this were the case,
it hardly seems more than a slight transgresion
were that the case. After all how else are you going
to preserve the statistical integrity of your data if
only the most hard core FIRST junkies run out and
register for this "worthless card". The team party
entry requirement causes the majority of students
that would otherwise not register for a card to get
one anyways because the effort to register is much
less than the frustration of being delayed at the
team party just because you didn't spend 5
minutes to fill out a short little form.

Hope I provided a little bit of insight. Personally I
would much rather believe that FIRST-SME truly
has the best intentions and wouldn't purposely
deceive the people that they seek to help.

You can blame any spelling/grammar mistakes on
my cat, Loki (appropriately named after the Norse
god of Discord and Mischief). "Stop stepping on my
laptop, bad kitty. ... No, the mouse cord is not the
greatest thing since catnip. ... Yeah, the cursor is
fun to chase across the screen. ... Fine, just lay on
the keyboard if it will make you happy. I'll be back in
2 minutes to kick you off. .... Yes I know that my
laptop is on your spot on the table. ... No matter
how hard you stare at me I'm not going to move
this thing just because you want to sit there."