Brainstorm - The Blue Alliance v4

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by EricH

A match rating system would be great, too: 1-5 stars, 5 means a really exciting, really close match; 1 means that it's a not-really-one-you-want-to-show-someone.

I like this concept, but even something simple as a 'digg' or 'bury' type option would be incredibly useful. Organized by year and week, then maybe overall regardless of year.

Teams 1114/842/etc all have various data. Interfaces and presentation vary heavily, but generally they all collect some basic data. Allowing teams to combine all this data via TBA is a challenge, but could be an opportunity.

TBA is in a unique position to help organize a minimum data standard. This data standard can be developed once the game has been revealed so people designing collection systems have input. Teams can collect whatever else they think is useful, but once the standard is set that's all that will be added to TBA.

Now, even though I am not at an event I can get a pretty good idea of how the team acts on the field if the data is available regardless of who collected it.

For example, Team X in 2010 had a shot accuracy of 25% in their first event, 62% in their second but they took half as many shots so maybe they changed how they played the game.

[electron]

I think it would be nice to have the ability to comment on the videos posted. just an idea

[Phoenix Spud]

I would like to see it be a combo of the current site and the ideas from TheRedAlliance.net .

[Radical Pi]

I would like to see the posibility of having 2 videos per match. One would be the "official" video that's taken from the field feed, and another "stands" video, uploaded by teams that recorded every single match with a full view of the field, without the scores feed.

I'd also like to see, if possible, information about what penalties were assessed in the match and possibly to which teams (if applicable). It could be tough, but perhaps FIRST could be lobbied to make that information available

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Radical Pi

I would like to see the posibility of having 2 videos per match. One would be the "official" video that's taken from the field feed, and another "stands" video, uploaded by teams that recorded every single match with a full view of the field, without the scores feed.

How about a one-to-many relationship between matches and videos, where each match could have a variety of admin or user added videos. These could be housed on TBA's servers (the situation today) or linked to from an external source like YouTube or Vimeo. The user experience should be seamless no matter the source.

[BrendanB]

One thing that I miss from the older site is that when I search for a team number I get a list of team pages not a direct search to a team number like an older version. In some ways it is nice as a regional or alliance partner comes up, but if you search for my team 1519 the number 1 result is team 1058 and alliance partners from this year and I have to go through another teams page to get to ours. I have searched other team numbers and have found the same problem but for most searches the team you want is the first on the list. Additionally a few months ago searching for 1519 showed our 2009 year and not our 2010 year.

I like the idea of having search results, but when it doesn't bring up the team number or current year it kinda annoys me.

But thank you so much for all your hard work put into the site! I have enjoyed watching matches all year round and learning past histories of a team. I don't think you guys get enough credit!

Thank you thebluealliance.net!

[M.Wong]

Integration with the First Wiki?

[NickE]

I think it'd be nice to have higher quality streaming video. I think the easiest solution is to host videos on an external site such as Youtube or Vimeo and embed them (both have support for HD streaming). This could eliminate the issues TBA has been having with lack of server space and make the match watching experience more enjoyable.

[kstl99]

Originally Posted by Radical Pi

I would like to see the posibility of having 2 videos per match. One would be the "official" video that's taken from the field feed, and another "stands" video, uploaded by teams that recorded every single match with a full view of the field, without the scores feed.

I'd also like to see, if possible, information about what penalties were assessed in the match and possibly to which teams (if applicable). It could be tough, but perhaps FIRST could be lobbied to make that information available

Pretty much took my thoughts but I will restate them slihtly differently.

I would really like to see what penalties were assessed to who and why. Is it possible to edit out the waiting period between the end of a match and the announcement of the final score and penalties?

I also love the idea of multiple videos of a single match.

And I would like to see more matches captured on video. Hopefully enough people want this and can help provide you the recordings.

[SteveGPage]

Here is my wishlist!

1. Support for mobile devices - a "m.thebluealliance.net" or ".mobi" site optimized for smartphones, iPhones, etc...

2. An advanced query function

3. Export data from queries to csv/xls/pdf format

Thanks for all you do!

Steve

[Jonathan Norris]

I think one of the main things that should be in v4 is killing flash alltogether and going with h.264 and try HTLM5 for the video playback. This will give us better quality output and across the board mobile device compatability. I'm not sure what your server situation is like but we should really build a script that will take the uploaded video files and encode it to a standard, without having to take download it, rename it, encode it, create a jpeg, then reupload it all. That got pretty time consuming...

It could be done using a shell script (maybe some php... not too sure) and Handbrake CLI (or just x264) and ffmpeg to create the screen shot (if still needed). I'd be interested in helping out with this if you have the server side capabilities to do this.

[Katie_UPS]

Maybe a banner that says "This team is no longer active" when it applies. Its nice to know at a first glance.

[Greg Marra]

I am loving these suggestions. These are really helpful for us to figure out how to architect the new system to provide the features that will help teams most.

Can anyone tell stories about how they have used The Blue Alliance to introduce other people to FIRST, show sponsors, or scout for events? We don't have a huge amount of insight into how these scenarios play out and would love to hear your stories!

[jblay]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

I am loving these suggestions. These are really helpful for us to figure out how to architect the new system to provide the features that will help teams most.

Can anyone tell stories about how they have used The Blue Alliance to introduce other people to FIRST, show sponsors, or scout for events? We don't have a huge amount of insight into how these scenarios play out and would love to hear your stories!

One thing I do is send out an email to the team targeted at the new members telling them which teams to watch videos of on thebluealliance.net from past years to learn from their robots and strategies.

I also once to improve my strategy watched a whole regional one match at a time never rewinding and took notes on every team. I put together an alliance selection list and a strategy for the top teams.

In addition I do the traditional watch teams attending our events and the best teams in the nation.

[BradMello]

1. Have www.thebluealliance.net/*insertteamnumberhere* link directly to a teams profile
2. I noticed this year that there was quite a lack of videos; provide somewhere examples of how to record footage, whether it be from the streaming broadcast or directly at the event.