"i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th

[Barry Bonzack]

Post if you had someone uninvolved with FIRST come talk to you today about the special.

I had someone stop by my cubicle today because he remembered I sent out an e-mail in April that I was would be out of the office volunteering for a robotics competition in St. Louis.

This gave me the opportunity to show pictures of Exploding Bacon, invite him to the regional which is 5 minutes away, ask if he knew students interested in participating, and, oh by the way, we build the robot on location if a he knew any savvy engineers such as himself interested in stopping by. Finally, I asked him to talk to other people today to see if they had seen the special, and have them come to me if they wanted further information.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Libby K

The song 'my robot is better than your robot' was made by a child that's in some way related to will, so he wanted to use it in the promotional.

His niece. He said that somewhere.

Folks, be sure brain is fully engaged before operating fingers.
I detect some animosity brewing; please maintain the high standards to which we are accustomed.

[CallieJ]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

It was also very cool to think about the Poofs getting nervous during competition. I've never thought about that.


Jane

I think that's part of what's great about FIRST. You see these people who are so put together, so professional, that sometimes it's hard to remember that they're 18 year old boys, much like any others. But you get Nick, Sides, Wiggles, Erik, whomever off that field, and they still get stressed and pull all-nighters and go to dances and eat junk food.

In the end, they inspire me, and I hope other members of my team, by being just like the rest of us.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the NASA house team structure, we share the same lab, the same machines, the same tables and occasionally the same food. I am very proud to call the people I mentioned above friends)

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Is this what people think of when they so easily dismiss certain segments of the population from being "worthy" of FIRST's attention as people who have the potential to contribute something great to society?

I have no idea how you took a statement about the ubiquitousness of the internet (and Google) as a statement of elitism.

Give us rednecks more credit -- if we see it on TV and want to know more, we know how to look for it.

It was an oversight, to be sure, but at most it was a very small one.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Barry Bonzack

Post if you had someone uninvolved with FIRST come talk to you today about the special.

I had someone stop by my cubicle today because he remembered I sent out an e-mail in April that I was would be out of the office volunteering for a robotics competition in St. Louis.

This gave me the opportunity to show pictures of Exploding Bacon, invite him to the regional which is 5 minutes away, ask if he knew students interested in participating, and, oh by the way, we build the robot on location if a he knew any savvy engineers such as himself interested in stopping by. Finally, I asked him to talk to other people today to see if they had seen the special, and have them come to me if they wanted further information.

We watched 79's talk on local TV (aired Sunday morning) followed by this in the software lab at work. We talked about FIRST. For casual friday I am debating between 33, 65, 217, 2337 or 3450 shirts. I also have my CD Webhug tshirt now. So many choices...

[Eagleeyedan]

Originally Posted by RayTurner1126

personally i think we should all be greatful will.i.am did this for us. yes, it wasn't what we all expected, but that's because we already know everything the program presented, it's like watching a documentary about yourself or something, you are going to see every little detail they left out. will.i.am didn't have to do this, and neither did any of the celebrities that participated. would you all rather not have a special about FIRST and be left without the publicity it did give us? I wouldn't, I say thank you to will.i.am for helping me in my journey to spread the word of FIRST. Now when I'm recruiting I can say "How many other school functions have the support of so many celebrities?" And that is GREAT to be able to say!

So thank you to will.i.am, ABC, and everyone else involved in making this great program!

I agree. For a program that was put to gether in a matter of months and one that got all those stars together, it was good! I'm sure if they had more time there would have been more footage of the team's and their experiences

[torihoelscher]

Originally Posted by Barry Bonzack

Post if you had someone uninvolved with FIRST come talk to you today about the special.

I had someone stop by my cubicle today because he remembered I sent out an e-mail in April that I was would be out of the office volunteering for a robotics competition in St. Louis.

This gave me the opportunity to show pictures of Exploding Bacon, invite him to the regional which is 5 minutes away, ask if he knew students interested in participating, and, oh by the way, we build the robot on location if a he knew any savvy engineers such as himself interested in stopping by. Finally, I asked him to talk to other people today to see if they had seen the special, and have them come to me if they wanted further information.

Multiple people from our second demo from the ABC special on Sunday morning ask us about FIRST and how we got interested. We invited everyone to our events (TNT *September 16th and 17th 2011*, Media Night, and etc.) I believe that the I.am FIRST thing really benefited the whole FIRST community. Now everyone knows what it is, who we are, what we stand for, and etc, its an all win win situation. Today when I went to my high school, I had a lot of people ask what FIRST was and how to join the team. For the Freshman orientation we are setting up a demo for the new freshman to be introduced to this amazing event! Also please come to TNT at the University of Tampa!!! *September 16th and 17th*

[Laaba 80]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Earlier I posted that I thought the special would be better if it followed a more sports-like structure, showing matches intertwined with the stories and songs like the Michigan State Championship show. While I still think that would be more effective to get people interested opposed to music and a halftime-like show, after more reflection, it makes sense that they structured the show the way they did. Will.i.am did what he knows and that is music and putting on shows, not doing a sportcenter like highlight show. Now it would be really really cool if Will.i.am did his music special each year on ABC before some country concert while some sports star ran a sports-like highlight show on ESPN before some sports game. We only need to find another star to donate his/her time and money like Will.i.am...

I completely agree with this. Will.i.am is known for his music, and he has used that to help FIRST more than i possibly could have imagined him doing.

I think having a similar program, however sports based would be awesome. Sporting events have a much more direct connection to FIRST than music does. A FIRST competition is really like a sports season, on a much smaller scale. Being on a team at competition is like being a player/manager/scout/or GM. I think showing Einstein on ESPN, with maybe Chris Berman announcing, would be huge for FIRST growth. People could see the excitement, and look to find out how they can be a part of the action. I'm sure there are many people like John and I out there, that would love being involved on a FIRST team.

Now that I think about it, Im sure many pro athletes would be interested in FIRST. Many for the same reasons as those on the show yesterday, because they like their gadgets. I think there may also be some that would be interested in the technical aspect. The NFL makes players go through 3 years of college. Not all, but some take engineering courses. I know that Gabe Carimi is an offensive lineman that was drafted in the 1st round this year, but he also graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a degree in civil engineering. A single player, making the NFL minimum salary, could be a pretty substantial sponsor to a team.

I cant wait to see where all of this goes in a few years.

[Hawiian Cadder]

Originally Posted by DSM33

on the topic of making FIRST a "spectator friendly" sport for TV and such i think the FIRST in Michigan special needs to be looked at. If following a team is hard to follow just check out their personal robocam on either side of the screen. If the scoring is too difficult to follow then look at the score in the top bar (although it seemed mysteriously empty this year)

also the game needs to be spectator friendly. 2010's Breakaway was perfect for that. Simple scoring. No weird multipliers. Overall very uncomplicated gameplay. not that this game should be repeated every year but i think some elements need to stay so that the gameplay is exciting as well as easy to follow.

another problem with airing a FIRST competition on TV: it's two days long. the only real way to do a competition justice is to do eliminations as it should avoid robots breaking down/deadbots, extended periods of time for field problems, and non-exciting matches with the best teams. Again, FIRST in Michigan kept it to the semifinals and that seemed to work perfectly.

Hopefully, next this special will showcase the excitement of the competition as well as showcasing life-changing stories of FIRST and concert/celebrity stuff. I think this special can only get better from here on out.

That being said, there are 8 (I think) competitions going on simultaneously. if they were to do a live mash up of the best matches, then they could get a continuous stream during regional. I almost think that CMP would be better suited to being on live TV because there are almost no dead bots, and it might be possible to show all the matches, from all the fields. If the TV ran through lunch to catch up, and they ended matches sooner and added another day to CMP, then it would definitely be possible.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

For everyone looking at the Nielsen's this is one of the areas that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. The one important factor here is that for a 6 PM Sunday night time slot against what is normally a 60 Minutes lock on the national ratings, the show did actually very well. If I was one of the producers, I would see the numbers as being a success. As a matter of fact, a claim could be made on some of the 60 Minutes crowd actually jumping ship to watch this show compared to previous weeks. As a potential sponsor, I might actually be interested in seeing another show. When you can steal from a big CBS production, you see victory.

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Barry Bonzack

Post if you had someone uninvolved with FIRST come talk to you today about the special.
.

A few folks stopped by yesterday. One guy has a lot of daughters. He said they were really impressed with "The Space Cookies".

[Ryan Dognaux]

I had multiple people come up to me at work and mention the special. I think it's going to be incredibly interesting to see the ripple effect from this TV special. It'd be very interesting to see how many rookie teams in the next few years for FLL, FTC and FRC started because their teacher or mentor saw the program.

[DSM33]

Originally Posted by Hawiian Cadder

That being said, there are 8 (I think) competitions going on simultaneously. if they were to do a live mash up of the best matches, then they could get a continuous stream during regional. I almost think that CMP would be better suited to being on live TV because there are almost no dead bots, and it might be possible to show all the matches, from all the fields. If the TV ran through lunch to catch up, and they ended matches sooner and added another day to CMP, then it would definitely be possible.

i could definitely see a highlight reel of sorts for the regional/district competitions but for championships i still think that with four divisions going on simultaneously along with not necessarily amazing robots due to advanced payment would hinder TV airtime for the divisional qualifications but i could see an elimination special with maybe the finals or semis of each division and then Einstein play being a possible future TV special.

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

As a matter of fact, a claim could be made on some of the 60 Minutes crowd actually jumping ship to watch this show compared to previous weeks. As a potential sponsor, I might actually be interested in seeing another show. When you can steal from a big CBS production, you see victory.

Golf ran late on CBS and 60 Minutes didn't start until 7 cst. Stealing viewers from golf is either really easy because nobody's watching it, or really hard because it's really hard not to take a nap while watching it

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by CallieJ

In the end, they inspire me, and I hope other members of my team, by being just like the rest of us.

Exactly.

Sometimes, we (falsely) think that teams and mentors who are our FRC rock stars - no longer deal with the every day emotions and wear and tear of build and competition. It's true that many of these teams have worked hard to establish a consistency in performance and a standard of excellence that the team strives for each season but - it's also nice to know that, in some ways, like being excited and nervous - they are just like the rest of us. Very inspiring.

The Space Cookies are setting a bar for many of us to reach up to, too. Very cool.

Jane