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