FIRST Myspace

[1359th Scalawag]

I like the idea alot. I know many teams already have Myspace and Facebook accounts but the problem with that is that when I want to find a team, I have to search for them and it takes forever. And the thing that makes this idea different than FirstWiki is that...
1. If i'm not wrong, FirstWiki doesn't have a messaging system or comments.
2. FirstWiki is (from what i've seen) not personalized at all. Don't you only get to show your logo?
3. Just looking through the FirstWiki accounts, all I saw was the same general bulleted data.- no videos - hardly any pictures - White.

If you're going to make a "FirstSpace" type thing, it would be cool to have videos and pictures set up kind of like myspace has it (able to post videos/pictures on the page or in a gallery). And if you do that, you could also put a video-search. And what if you could "friend" other teams so that you could send them bulletins or something... I could go on forever with the possibilities...

Someone should talk to the head of Myspace to see if they could make one for us! Save some time... Have it professionally made... </rant>

[GRaduns340]

I certainly appreciate and understand the comments about having Google or MySpace give us something, but personally I enjoy the experience more than the result 90% of the time. One of my biggest reasons for wanting to do this is because it gives me a new challenge, something I've never tried, and I'll come out of it with a much better knowledge of the system. It would be a lot more fun and fulfilling to say we wrote it from the ground up. It will take a lot of hard work and even more time, but that's what we do all build season with the robot anyway. I don't know if this goes for everyone else that's mentioned helping with it, but that's my stand on it.

[Herodotus]

Something that might be easier to do instead, if it doesn't already exist, is a FIRST team website network. Basically you would have a single website that acted as a hub and provided a link to all other FIRST FRC, FVC, and FLL team websites that are out there. If a team knew that it's website was going to be linked to by a central hub I bet they would be more willing to start a website or to maintain it better. The hub site could also have other sections such as maybe having an area where people can submit tips, ideas, and other robotic oriented info to be displayed on a main page. FIRSTers could create their own articles detailing a certain subject, such as crab drives, and have it hosted on the website.

The reason I suggest this is that you would only be required to host the hub website, but it would still serve a very fun and functional purpose. Include a link to CD and you now have a place for discussions as well. Finally you could create a FIRST irc channel for people to engage in chat.

[SamC]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

Something that might be easier to do instead, if it doesn't already exist, is a FIRST team website network. Basically you would have a single website that acted as a hub and provided a link to all other FIRST FRC, FVC, and FLL team websites that are out there. If a team knew that it's website was going to be linked to by a central hub I bet they would be more willing to start a website or to maintain it better. The hub site could also have other sections such as maybe having an area where people can submit tips, ideas, and other robotic oriented info to be displayed on a main page. FIRSTers could create their own articles detailing a certain subject, such as crab drives, and have it hosted on the website.

The reason I suggest this is that you would only be required to host the hub website, but it would still serve a very fun and functional purpose. Include a link to CD and you now have a place for discussions as well. Finally you could create a FIRST irc channel for people to engage in chat.

FIRST Web Network

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by SamSofa330

FIRST Web Network

Bookmarking in progress. I didn't know there was a place like that already, thanks for the link. At any rate I think the FIRSTspace idea is also really awesome, just very ambitious. However considering what we do and who we are I have no doubt the various webmasters would be able to create an awesome system.

[GRaduns340]

So far we have 3 definitely on board and 2 probables (from reading through the thread). Personally, I don't mind if it's an extended summer project. We'll probably come up with a business-type plan for release and such at some point within the next couple weeks once we know who's going to be in on it and how much time we're willing to devote.

[Cjmovie]

If something gets started, I'm willing to provide my expertise in any areas necessary. I've had experience with a lot of web technologies on the Linux side, so that's the main area I'd be able to help. Not so much as a permanent person, but as one you'd ask if you needed help or suggestions on design, or to fix something that comes up and has everyone scratching their head (Sometimes a 3rd party look over can help).

[Cartwright]

FIRST Myspace could open FIRST up to more of the public eye too, of course causing more response and more teams!

[Mazin]

and once this gets up and running, let me be the first to create the "dean is my hero" worm.

[ZookieWookie]

I love that idea!!!
It would be soooo cool to be able to chat with the teams!
And yeah....Im on the internet at school all the time and with these proxy servers.....eck...Im gonna get into trouble soon...lol
So please make it where its accessible!!!!
*Squeals at the idea of chatting to all those cool people out there*

[FRANK(WGH)]

Hey everyone,
FIRST is already working on something like this. I had the privilege to talk to Marian Murphy from FIRST at the Championship event, and she told me that FIRST is working to create an online community like the facebooks, and myspaces that are available today. By all means, keep on doing what you're doing right now. I know they would love all the input you have, so I"ll turn her attention to this thread. Keep up the great work.

[ebarker]

Recently 1311, Kell setup a group on Facebook called "Kell Robotics"

Shortly after a member of 1002, Circuit Runners created "Georgia FIRST".

All Y'all folk in Georgia need to jump in.

Ed

[Bomberofdoom]

Finally! I've been looking for some kind of FIRST Blog-space thing so I can write it down for the FIRST community(and others).

Thanks for the effort of making this FIRST Myspace, I'm for it!

[GRaduns340]

Unfortunately, I haven't heard much progress on this. I've done some, but I just graduated last night and had a busy end of the school year. I'm going to try to see if we can get back on track a bit and get any input we can toward some product. As far as I know, we had some design (layout mostly) ideas, and I had worked out a database structure that would work well. From what I've seen, we're in the conceptual stage, but I'd like to get a good bit of code done this summer. We have about five people on it right now, but if you're interested we could definitely use the help.

About the FIRST part: That's great. What I'd like to do is get some development on ours going, and we can see how they compare. I imagine they'll probably move along much faster than we will, since they're not learning developers, but my main reason for personally joining in on this was to take a challenge, and even if it doesn't end up published I'll learn something from it.

[rogerlsmith]

Hello Everyone,

I've created a website that sounds a lot like what you are looking for. I did this along with creating a video that we submitted to the FIRSTWorldTube contest.

My website has the ability to allow users to register and join groups and forums. Users can add groups, upload their own pictures and link in videos they have on YouTube. I can easily add abilities to chat if that would be cool.

I've designed this site to promote videos of FIRST related things (competitions, animations, etc...). I also wanted this to be a non-technical community that could be used as a way of getting teachers and principals to see what FIRST is all about (in schools that don't already have teams).

Please check it out and join. It's free (and always will be). I don't have many members right now, so you could be one of the first.

http://www.FirstObjective.org

Thanks,
Roger