FIRST Blogs...

[synth3tk]

I realize that this is a busy time for one or two people around here () but I'd like to know what everyone would think about a blogging site geared towards FIRST, or possibly robotics in general.

It's going to take a lot to just get it up and running, along with maintaining it, but I'm hoping it picks up in the community. There's even a slight possibility that it can be integrated with CD. Slight, no promises.

Right now, though, I don't want to get too deep, so let's hear thoughts, comments, and questions.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Would the blog be written by one person, or a group of FIRST experts?

[JohnBoucher]

I do it. www.thesixweeks.com

It is a lot of work. Keeping a daily blog going with work, family, build is a tough juggling act. I am already behind.

I do it as a form of therapy. It helps me focus on what happened that day and why we are doing this. The message of FIRST gets lost in the excitement of the competitions. The six weeks is where the real magic takes place. What happens to the students in that short time frame has a lifelong impact on them. Keeping the blog helps me deal.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

That is a really cool blog! I can't wait to read it all season long, it's always good to see what another team is doing.

Is there any specific blog platform the blog is hosted with; or is it all hand made?

[JohnBoucher]

Originally Posted by Alex Dinsmoor

That is a really cool blog! I can't wait to read it all season long, it's always good to see what another team is doing.

Is there any specific blog platform the blog is hosted with; or is it all hand made?

My own html templates

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by Alex Dinsmoor

Would the blog be written by one person, or a group of FIRST experts?

This would be akin to Blogger.com or Wordpress.com, where you would just sign up for one. Of course, I plan to have some good administration/restrictions in place, but only to keep it clean.

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

I do it. www.thesixweeks.com

It is a lot of work. Keeping a daily blog going with work, family, build is a tough juggling act. I am already behind.

I do it as a form of therapy. It helps me focus on what happened that day and why we are doing this. The message of FIRST gets lost in the excitement of the competitions. The six weeks is where the real magic takes place. What happens to the students in that short time frame has a lifelong impact on them. Keeping the blog helps me deal.

Yeah, I've already fallen behind on my blog. http://oneupdave.co.cc

This would be more or less to share experiences with others, help newcomers or sponsors to see what it's like to be a part of the program firsthand (no pun intended), etc.

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

My own html templates

Very cool! I tried to make my own templates, but I found wordpress is much easier

Originally Posted by synth3tk

This would be akin to Blogger.com or Wordpress.com, where you would just sign up for one. Of course, I plan to have some good administration/restrictions in place, but only to keep it clean.

This would be more or less to share experiences with others, help newcomers or sponsors to see what it's like to be a part of the program firsthand (no pun intended), etc.

I like the wordpress idea, it's very customizable and user friendly.

And the use of it as a tool is a great idea, maybe even use it as a tool to rookie teams who are wondering on how other teams run their build season.

[jrdude]

I would use it... i like blogs

[Greg Needel]

I would think it would be better to make a site which reads RSS feeds, so people could submit their robotic blogs and they would all display. I might have a url i could donate to the cause if you need it. I bought botcentric.com a while back for a project I was working on but have never done anything with it.

[synth3tk]

Good idea, Greg. I might still do that, and link it as a page, or even create it on your domain.

I kind of already bought www.firstblogs.org, since WordpressMU absolutely needs the real domain in order to set it up properly. I'm working on getting my host to edit the htdocs.conf file so that there will be "username.firstblogs.org"-type URLs.

[rogerlsmith]

Yes, I started a site almost 2 years ago that has a blog feature specifically for FIRST enthusiasts. My site also has a forum, calendar, map, and lots and lots of videos. I'm using this site to promote FIRST to schools that are not already involved. Anyone can sign up for an account (free) and upload pictures, blog, link in videos, and join groups and participate in the forums.

Check out http://www.firstobjective.org

I also have been keeping a daily blog in the real blogosphere at
http://rogeronfirst.blogspot.com

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by rogerlsmith

Check out http://www.firstobjective.org

I guess you beat me to it. I just hit a snag with the host, so I've gotta buy a dedicated server (more realistically, a VPS) in order to do this. I need one anyway, because I'm outgrowing this one, beyond my team's website, which will probably stay.

Anyway, I wouldn't be able to start this until after ship.

PS: What I'd also install alongside WPMU http://www.buddypress.com

[rogerlsmith]

Well, I'm not having much luck getting people to join and participate. I thought people would help spread the word of FIRST, that's all I'm trying to do...

[synth3tk]

Yeah, that seems to be an issue of sorts. While most teams probably have excellent promotion within their community or school district, it seems to be pretty self-contained online to CD.

To help that, I suggested to Brandon that the blogs get integrated with CD. Apparently he doesn't have the time to do so right now, plus there's no good WPMU plugin (yet) for vBulletin. I'm thinking that would help a lot of the community jump into it.

[synth3tk]

Well, I got pretty bored one day, and decided that whether or not it will be used, I'm going to build it up just for the experience. So far, it's going pretty well. Currently, I'm working on customizing the theme a bit. I've got a few nice plugins installed, with plans to implement more.

If you want to see how I'm doing, I've got it up at http://firstblogs.org
You can sign up if you want, but at this point, there's no guarantees as far as feature availability goes.

If enough people are using this close to when the domain expires in January, I'll keep the project going.