**FIRST EMAIL**/Invitation to Beta test the New Control System

[Waynep]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

Possibly, but l will play devils advocate for a second. I am team X who is in the beta test and we hit a snag when downloading our labview code to the crio. Immediately we go to our blog and post about the error. Team Y from another state who is not in the beta test reads this and gets really panicked, and then they come post it on delphi and now there is a rumor that the crio has problems when you download code to it. When in actuality the team had the wrong port setting setup in labview and everything was fine. Having an intermediary such as FIRST or NI before info hits the public will be good in this situation.

Now one could say that if it hit the public someone might be able to quickly fix the problem. But as the complexity of the task increases it will be hit or miss if the problems can be solved.

From reading posts over the past year or so since the new control system was announced I have come to realized that people are very nervous about it and the last thing we need at this point is a mob mentality spreading rumors.

First off I'd like to congratulate and thank the 18 Beta Test Teams. You have undertaken a great task on building our communal knowledge foundation on the new control system. With that said, Beta Teams be warned I'm sending all the non-Beta teams after you guys.

With regards to the flow of information, we need to keep in mind that FIRST has asked the teams to sign a DISCLOSURE agreement, not an all encompassing non-disclosure agreement (NDA). FIRST is providing guidelines as to how it would like the information to be disseminated, their intent, as they've increasingly demonstrated recently, is to have as much open sharing of appropriate information as possible. Greg nailed it in his earlier post a lot of it is trying to prevent a mob mentality and provide a safety check for posts. Keeping the discussion focused and appropriate will be more productive and allow teams to quickly pick up what's relevant and necessary without reading through all the idle chatter.

I want to point out that the disclosure agreement also serves the practical purpose of requiring teams not to disclose the contact information of FIRST staff/Beta Test Support members. The staff supporting the beta test will have their hands full in supporting their efforts as well as getting ready for the '09 Control system launch. Being inundated with requests would diminish their abilities to serve the Beta test teams and complete their tasks for the entire FIRST community.

FIRST is venturing into uncharted waters in this new era of information sharing and FIRST community involvement to which I think they should be commended. I've been assured that there will be a healthy number of Beta Support personnel, and the Forum Moderators will be actively working to get productive discussion approved and posted as quickly as possible. Let's give them a chance and play by the rules they specified and try it out.

Teams, FIRST has not restricted your interactions with Beta test teams, so do get involved, send e-mails, offer to help, make arrangements to get over there to observe and participate. I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't nervous about the transition to the new control system, but knowing that we have a lot of FIRST teams working together provides some SOLID comfort that we'll get over any bumps together and things will be alright.

FIRST has also not restricted Beta Test teams on showing the control system at public events, so be prepared to see it at off-seasons and other demos and have questions ready for those teams.

Alright Beta Test GAME ON