Unified webcast portal

[StevenB]

FIRST students are an exceptionally talented group, and in the past few years I've watched the rapid proliferation of new websites related to regional webcasts and statistics. I even made my own last year for the OKC regional. Some are very good, others (such as mine) are mediocre.

I think it's time to unify these scattered efforts. There are a lot of reasons for doing so:

• Effort is all concentrated on a single project, rather than duplicated across a dozen similar sites. Rather than each one of us developing our own Twitter feed parser, database backend, and slick website layout, we could work together to create something truly awesome.
• Building on the above, we can better integrate with other existing sites: The Blue Alliance, CD and CD-Media, firstvideoarchive.com, etc.
• There is a clear starting place for new webcasters. If I wanted to set up a webcast portal for a regional I'm webcasting, my first instinct would be to start writing code from scratch. However, it would be far better if I could implement a turnkey solution. It would be even better if I could have it hosted elsewhere and just supply the video feed.
• It provides a better portal for casual spectators. The MMRambotics multi-feed portal is really cool, but it's not what I would send out to friends and family who just want to see my team's robot. Nor do I really just want to send out a direct link to ustream.tv: it's cluttered and doesn't display the relevant information such as scores, rankings, and other team information.

Code Red Robotics and the High Rollers have done excellent jobs with their portals, which are at their respective websites.

I propose that we create something similar to these, perhaps based on code somone has already written. Each regional webcast would have its own page with a single video feed and links to team stats. The idea isn't to aggregate feeds or do comprehensive statistical analyis, but to provide a rich portal for watching a regional.

Here's what I would consider optimal:

• An embedded video. The portal should be able to handle most common formats.
• Chat that's fast and easy to use. Ustream's is pretty good, but I know some people have had problems setting their nickname. Videos that don't use ustream also need a chat solution. On a side note, I really like 987's FirstnameTeam# nickname scheme - it reduces anonymity and encourages some team spirit.
• Twitter-based result feed, so we can get separate scores for tubes, minibots, and penalties. In a perfect world, we would use the Twitter feed to handle ties and replays as well.
• Links to video of previously played matches.
• A clear link to a page with a concise description of the game, including the game animation.
• Links to find information about specific teams playing. I'm particularly thinking of pictures on CD-media, team websites, and season records on TBA.
• Discreet links to other webcasts going on the same weekend.
• Appropriate links to regional sponsors, FIRST, and other contributors.
• Someone is going to suggest that the site show regional and national OPR/DPR. That would be cool, perhaps there could be an "advanced stats" tab along with scores, rankings, and awards.

I'd be happy to pay for a domain and host such a site, but I think the development should take place on FIRSTForge/SF/GitHub/BitBucket. Finally, I'm not a serious web developer; I've only dabbled in it. So if my suggestions don't make sense or if there's a better way, please reply and let me know! Or if someone has already done this and I'm just oblivious, I'd like to see that too.