Goodbye Website Award

[Danny Diaz]

Well, looks like an end to an era - if you notice, Section 6 of the Administrative Manual no longer lists a Website Award. Communications with FIRST confirmed that the website award no longer exists.

Originally Posted by US-FIRST

Thank you for your email. We no longer have the website award, or materials to support it. To view our awards, please visit the awards section of our Competition Manual here: http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/. I apologize for the inconvenience. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Go Teams!

FRC Team Support

FIRST® is recognized by the IRS as a Public Charity

V 800-871-8326 ext.0
F 603-666-3907
E frcteams@usfirst.org
W www.usfirst.org

So what have teams tried out on their websites that they've found actually useful? I'm sure teams have tried many things on their websites in order to compete for the Website Excellence Award, but not all of the things they tried were actually useful. I'd like to hear what teams find actually useful versus just "dead labor" (as in things that look cool, but are more trouble than they're worth).

-Danny

[Mongai]

First animation, now this. I wonder what they will cut next year...or add.

[jtdowney]

Not sure if you saw it in the administrative manual (and I am surprised FIRST didn't mention it in their email) but the award was more or less replaced:

6.8 DIGITAL MEDIA AWARD (Replaces Website Award)

The FRC web site award was started in 2003 to recognize excellence in student designed, built and managed websites. Given the new digital possibilities to spread the FIRST message, FRC has expanded the website award to include other digital media. With the FIRST Digital Media Award, students are encouraged to look beyond building a team website, taking into account the numerous ways people search for and consume content. Students should think broadly, considering channels (traditional sites, mobile, apps), devices (smart phones, tablets), and content (social, rich, and viral* media). Be imaginative!

I was a Lead Website Judge for a number of years and it was definite trending toward something like this more recently. The teams have begun to really embrace YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc, so I am excited to see what will come out of it.

[lynca]

I hope the global Digital Media Award goes well and FIRST opens up Regional level Digital Media awards next year.

FIRST could always take a page from VEX,
http://forum.robotevents.com/design/

This would be a really neat format to bring back animations, CAD, websites and more !

[MattDAngeli]

It's unfortunate that the art of web design is being overlooked by the general "Digital Media Award," considering all the hard work we on Team 484 put into a total site redesign for the 2013 FRC year. Hopefully, the award weighs heavily on each team's primary site, and not obscurities such as Facebook pages, Twitter handles, Google+ accounts, etc.

Are there any guidelines for this award?

[scaevola]

I think that the idea is to look at things a bit more holistically; I'm sure a great deal of weight will be assigned to the website, but now a presence on Twitter, FB, etc. seems just about mandatory.