Things in the queue
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Again, its been a while since I’ve had time to specifically work on the 14m site itself. But, I wanted to shoot out a quick update on what things are happening and what the plans are.
First, as some people probably know already, I’ve been spending some time trying to help the FOC push out an online referee exam and learning system. I ceded priority to this project, as it actually has big, positive implications for changing the refereeing system and processes.
Next, I’ve decided to put the journal on the backburner for now. Its a good idea whose time will come, but the best functionality that I have planned for it won’t happen until askFred gets certain functionality implemented, and that is an unknown. So until that ball gets rolling, I’m pausing production.
In its place, I’m going to begin working soon on a referee-based utility. It seems to me that there are a lot of problems finding and arranging referees, and I’m looking to help solve them. I’m looking to build something to help hook refs with tournament organizers. This includes smart estimation of travel costs, from tanks of gas to analyzing flight data to help optimize costs when searching for good referees.
In addition, on the side, I’m going to look into developing an open source, modular scoring machine. The intent is to start with the bare-bones scoring box. Being open source, you’d be able to buy all the parts and download the software on your own to build something for cheaper if you’re tech savvy enough, but if you aren’t, the goal is to try and price it below $100 for retail. Software would be updatable with a USB cable and a computer, and the intent would be to develop other modules that you can hook into the base box to upgrade into a better product.
Thoughts? Input?