FRC Blogged - Administrative manual is out

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

I'm disappointed that this award isn't better received.

I'm both excited about what the award offers and disappointed in how it is being offered (this will be tempered slightly if in fact all teams can submit and just be judged at CMP). I guess we can't have it all - if there aren't enough volunteers available to judge a higher quality award like this, it can't be offered at every regional.

[Phyrxes]

I'm glad this award changed to better reflect how the students interact with social media and the web in general, our students are more excited that this is no longer focusing on build a website that "mostly only our team looks at" and has shifted toward "this is how the we reach out to our fellow students and other people across the net."

[emekablue]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there no regular season Animation/Design award?

[Siri]

Originally Posted by emekablue

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there no regular season Animation/Design award?

You are correct, the Autodesk awards are gone as of now.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

2.) Championship-only exposure means better judging. No, really.
From a volunteer coordinator perspective, it was a total pain in the butt to find qualified professionals. Web Evaluator Advisors hated chasing evaluators down to do the judging. Evaluators hated a longer and longer survey. Teams complained for years that the judging was not standardized. Why not call the whole thing off?

So let's mull around the idea of a CMP only award. Who would judge it? The judges? No, they have enough going on and it doesn't fit their schedule. Web Evaluators? No, because they don't exist anymore. A panel of amazing individuals who know their way around the internet? Now you're talking.

Jess- I agree with most of your points except this one. This issue I have is one that Jared eluded to: what do you do with all of the web/animation/design team members on your team? You shift their focus to the new media award.

So now if every team that submitted for a web award, design award or animation award in the past (I'm sure there will be some who don't submit at all anymore, but just making a point) now submit for the new media award- the judging panel at CMP may be left to sift through 500+(?) submissions. That will take a tremendous feat to accomplish, and unfortunately I think the tradeoff to accomplish such a task will be to have less, for lack of a better term, quality of judging per each submission.

Of course, if less teams submit, it becomes an easier problem to solve, however this seems like it could be quite a task.

I think the new award is a great step in the right direction, I think more teams would've liked to see it kicked off at the regional level however.

-Brando

[RoboMom]

From an engaging volunteers perspective - I will miss aspects of the old website award. I understand that the judging was uneven and the task of judging was becoming more cumbersome. And I never could understand why this wasn't judged through a centralized portal, not regionally.

But judging the website award created an opportunity to have volunteers be involved who couldn't come to the regional and that time frame, but still wanted to "be a part" of the event. There was one year I recruited a group "DC Web Women" to be judges. And through that effort a whole bunch of new people got introduced to FRC.

But it looks like this new award will be an interesting one.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by JVN

Or they can do it for the love of the game?

I'd like to believe there are plenty of things that are done by teams in FRC for their own sake, or for the betterment of the team without any award incentive. I'd like to believe that some things are their own incentive.

...or maybe I'm just naive, and almost everything is being done in pursuit of some shiny bauble?

-John

Why not do away with all trophies and awards then?

Of course our web/media/animation team will continue to do what they do regardless of trophies. Just like our community outreach efforts haven't skipped a beat since winning the Championship Chairman's Award. All of the trophies in FIRST are just carrots dangled in front of you to trick your team into doing awesome things

That said, I remember winning my first award as a student in FRC. Running down to the judges in the arena to thunderous applause. It meant the WORLD to me. Even if I've long since moved past the emotional need to be handed a piece of plastic, I think it's important that today's students have the same opportunity...regardless of which subteam they are on.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

the judging panel at CMP may be left to sift through 500+(?) submissions. That will take a tremendous feat to accomplish, and unfortunately I think the tradeoff to accomplish such a task will be to have less, for lack of a better term, quality of judging per each submission.

Ah ha, yeah, it's certainly a concern. I don't know how FRC will handle that. Now, if I was writing the rules, I would steal from the best - in this case, those who built their business model around it. Influenster is a site that gamifies social influence and encourages reviews on free samples (this is squarely in the sample-size cottage industry that has popped up lately - see Birchbox)

The wider the user's audience, the more likely they are to receive free stuff. The more the users post reviews about the free samples, the more likely they are to get more free samples. It's an addictive cycle for the user, and very beneficial to advertisers who want internet buzz about a new product.

How does Influenster find the best users to send samples?
1.) You're required to list your social reach. That means listing all your sites: Facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. The more services, the higher your score.
2.) You're encouraged to share your audience size and your frequency. Most of these sites can give you stats about your reach. The more people who follow you, the bigger the reach.

Now, how does that translate to FRC? If FRC adopted a similar model as Influenster, which basically works off of a web form, the submission rate should fall somewhere in the 40% range. I'm being generous here: typically submission rates for website at a regional hovers at 50%, but awards which require more information upfront cause the rate to drop significantly. Since a web form is more intel than has been required from the award in the past, this number should fall in the middle. This brings us to 200 teams.

From there, I would weight based upon criteria. Categorize reach based upon outlet and size: high reach in FB, low in Youtube, etc. Then sort to find your top 50. I can see this being done even before the list gets to the panel.

The one grey area I can forsee is the viral anomaly: what if just one video takes off? No one saw many of the current popular memes coming. With good planning (I'm looking at you, 30 members of Daisy), the channels should see upticks in overall reach, but this may not be the case. This is where I think there should be a free-text area for the team to show off a gem to the judges which could place them in consideration.

But that's just how I would do it. How FRC will handle it is anyone's guess.

[Chris is me]

I feel the message FIRST is unintentionally sending is that only Championship level teams should focus on their online presence. When you're a team strapped for cash and free members, you're going to do the things that can get you trophies before the things that don't. It's not even because teams want hunks of plastic - by being awarded at regionals the tasks that can win awards simply become more important.

I don't understand.

[joelg236]

Originally Posted by Jared341

Running down to the judges in the arena to thunderous applause. It meant the WORLD to me. Even if I've long since moved past the emotional need to be handed a piece of plastic, I think it's important that today's students have the same opportunity...regardless of which subteam they are on.

I can attest to this. Although awards aren't completely necessary, I think that any time FIRST can recognize students for their effort is an opportunity to take. That said, I feel like something like website / media awards are very tough to judge objectively. I wouldn't even know where to start looking. Is the content important? What about the design? There are a lot of things to take into consideration, which if done properly can take a long time. I'm still not sure whether I am on board with this decision, but my hope is that we can recognize student's efforts in whatever way is the most valuable to them.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by joelg236

Although awards aren't completely necessary, I think that any time FIRST can recognize students for their effort is an opportunity to take.

Wouldn't you rather be recognized for your accomplishments and not just your effort?

[joelg236]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Wouldn't you rather be recognized for your accomplishments and not just your effort?

Absolutely. I would never advocate for 'giving everyone a ribbon'. I think the award should be merit based. But having only one award for all 2500 teams seems like its missing out on some really cool stuff that our community makes.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by joelg236

...having only one award for all 2500 teams seems like its missing out on some really cool stuff that our community makes.

What tells you that there's going to be only one award? There's very little about it in the manual yet, but what it does say is this:

Award celebrates teams that look beyond the team website, taking into account the numerous ways people search for and consume content.

I think the use of the plural "teams" hints that this might be something more than a single trophy being awarded to one team in all of FRC.


I also think that teams would want to do a good job in their "digital media" outreach in order to win and keep sponsors, and not just collect FIRST awards.

[joelg236]

I will be very happy if it is a 'multiple team' award. And I agree, sponsors are a big part of why we keep our media outreach going.

[Lil' Lavery]

For all the people clamoring that teams should continue efforts despite a lack of awards in that area, how many of you have animation/3DSMax groups? When was the last year you had one?