2004 FIRST Scouting Network

[Jack]

Hey All,

I’m Andrew Schenk (aka. Jack) with Team 201. For those of you who already know me and what I want to do, then you already have a good idea of what this post is about. For those of you who don’t you’ll find out soon. Anywho… Some of you may have visited/used http://fbi.feds201.com as a scouting portal this year. I’m the maker of that. However, 99% of the data there didn’t come from me, but rather others. It was a site that acted as a portal to other scouting sites.

Now, I know that during the middle of the off-season, Scouting is the last thing many of you think of. However, in order to truly create a system that will allow teams to share data, we must begin this project now. I know nothing about this project except a few things:

1) The entire project will be developed in the open. This will allow the most input and feedback from the users who will actually be using it. The more people that are involved with the system in the beginning, the more who will use it later
2) I’d like to see a format similar to how I set FBI Scouting up. If you had one “portal” site which directed you to other sub-sites. Each sub-site would be devoted to one data collection method. (Palm OS, MS Access, C++ App, Pocket PC, Paper, File Maker, …)
3) The system will belong to FIRST. There will be no “owner.” Neither I nor Team 201 are going to “own” the system. It will be shaped and evolve based on its users. Its success will also depend on its users. All I’m going to do in the beginning it start the project off; once it begins to take, I’ll let go.
4) The system must be “data-friendly” What does this mean? Well… there are quite a few teams out there who will still want to design their own system. So, there must be a way of accepting data/fields that is in any format, even if it isn’t searchable. (Ex: A comments field) Also, each system must be able to adjust its fields on the fly. This means that to add/delete/change a data field, it can be done very quickly and with out lots of problems.
5) Teams must be able to select how much of the data they can submit. I know that many teams (Including 201) will always want some type of ‘comment’ field that would never be made public. Even if teams choose to submit all data, I think the lack of this type of a field would turn many away.

There are just a few of my thoughts. I want to stress that this system is NOT FBI Scouting. I don’t even have a name for this new “scouting network”. Also, I’ve talked to Brandon Martus, the webmaster of www.chiefdelphi.com. He said that he would be willing to add anything (within reason) to make the network part of CD. I believe that CD integration will be a key to this systems success. Systems already in place (such as SOAP Video’s) should continue to happen, and an effort to integrate them into the system should be made.

Now, I want your feed-back:

Would you be willing to assist in this system’s design/development?
Would you/your team be willing to share even some of its data?
Do you think that a system like this would work (If you think it really won’t please tell me… I don’t want to start something that no one will use)?
In the end, how much better/how valuable would a system like this be?


Thanks all & Please Reply,

Jack, Team 201, The Average FIRST Scouter

PS: If you’d like to contact me you may do so:
CD PM: User- Jack
AIM: knehcsa
Email: webmaster@feds201.com

[Jeff Waegelin]

Wow.... no responses yet. Don't you guys think this is a great idea? I think if we can combine the scouting resources of teams all over, we can make it a lot easier on everyone. Wouldn't you like to see this happen? If you do, say something!

Yes! I like it! Happy Jack? LoL. no really I do, because scouting on paper sheets is <b>really</b> useless..sometimes. Anywayz, I like the idea of everyone being able to see basic information.

[Josh Hambright]

Would you be willing to assist in this system’s design/development?

I would be willing to help with any kind of cosmetic work you need (coming up with the data that is relavant and graphics and that sorta thing).

Would you/your team be willing to share even some of its data?

We would love to. We submited a ton of soap profiles and a few to other scouting systems (we did a few ubergeeks and i think we did some in your database). We were really thinking how nice it would be to have a system that would tie together everyones systems to make a good database. Especialy for the championships where we only had data for the teams from our area in our database. Its really just being graciously professional to share your data. We had our system open to all the teams in cleveland and once teams found out alot of teams started coming to our pit and looking through it to check out aliances and oponent before matches.

Do you think that a system like this would work (If you think it really won’t please tell me… I don’t want to start something that no one will use)?
I think it would if enough people got involved and if it worked well.

In the end, how much better/how valuable would a system like this be?
If it was set up properly and easy to use, and had valuable information i think the value to teams that already have a scouting system set up and know how to use it would be great. But also for rookie teams or teams that just haven't yet really gotten into scouting the benefits would be huge. A system that encompased all the regionals would be a great asset to the FIRST community.

[Jack]

oneangrydwarf...

I'm glad you like my idea so much. However, it seems that i really don't have much other support.

Am I correct FIRST Community?

Should I wait another year and try again?

Thanks all,

Jack

PS: This really is my last post about it

I'll be more specific this time...

Yes I'd be willing to help with design and such, but I don't really know how to program so I'd need specific instructions and what not.

Yes I think our team would be willing to share data, and I think this system would work with all the right support and teams contributing.

I think I basically just restated everything oneangrydwarf said..

Maybe you should send an email out to all the teams?? Because it's posisble no one just stumbled into the thread... not as many people would be reading off season

[Brandon Martus]

I'll provide any help I can.

[Kevin A]

In NYC team 481 put all off our data in an excel type format, photocopied it and distributed it to all the teams saturday morning. I dont see any reason that we cant share this information, and i will be more than willing to if we do end up scouting next year.

I think that some time during the build season, or at least after the game has been released but well before any competitions a scouting formshould be put on the site. Something that is the samebetween all teams, same rating scales, same questions.

Would all this scouting be pit scouting or watching match scouting or both?

Pit scouting will give you details like stacking or not, but watching their matches will tell what really happens.

Lastly, what about oppinion questions, such as driver ability? That is important to know, but oppinion is oppinion.

I would say this is worthwhile to try, and i will try and get me team to submit our data and use the available data.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Well, the key at this point is not what data is going to be collected, but if there's even support for such a system. Jack may spend his life doing robotics, but if the system won't be used, I can think of a lot of other stuff he could be doing.

[IMDWalrus]

This could be a great idea. What I'd recommend is getting other teams to help. Jack doesn't need to do all of the work - there are enough teams in Michigan (and in the area around Rochester) that you might be able to find someone else to help you out. If you can get support, go for it.

[apk]

I would be willing to help.

[Kevin A]

HMmmMMMMmm, i think will be really usefull, so i say we get started, I dont know where to start, whether it be starting on the website or what. I have a domain www.xpalendocious.com that would be willing to loan out. I also have a webserver with 40 gigs of room, and a reasonble connection. I offer it all to you. Im willing to take raw data and put it out on a site.

Hey Brandon, can you do a mass PMing?

I think that iff we PMed everybody we might get more publicity.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Well... we have a domain, and space, and all, but what we really want to know is: is there support for this venture? If only half the teams will half-heartedly support such a scouting network, there's no point in doing it.

[Joe Matt]

Many teams, such as mine, cannot afford to submit such info right now. Not only would it be time consuming, but we just can't afford to do it. We are a smaller team who has about 100000 things going on right now. Submitting info to a scouting network that might be completed is not high on our list.

I would love to see this completed. But the fact is that many teams such as mine don't have the time a efforts to keep up-to-date info using the above listed needs. The FBI database is about as much as we can do right now.

[Josh Hambright]

Our team was having its end of the year wrap up discussions last night and someone mentioned how nice it would be to have a scouting database where we could compare others views on a robot to what we observed. And how nice it would be if there was a more dependable system where teams would submit information about their robot following shipment.

I told them about this idea being discussed here and they sounded interested.

Our team is going to possibly have a 'software developement' subteam next year for developing applications to help our team out with scouting and writing custom dashboards and such, they may be able to help.