Re: [CQ-Contest] The Next BIG Step in contesting

[Bruce Horn <bhorn@hornucopia.com>]

At 05:06 PM 11/20/2004, W2EV wrote:
> As an ice-braker (don't get wrapped up in the details...take this as a 
> concept) imagine a dashboard that could display data like this for each 
> participant...on their computer screen (and update it every 10-minutes or so):

At this point the details are only important to the degree that they define 
the real-time data that would need to be supplied by participants. I 
noticed that W2EV's concept only involved total score, total QSOs and total 
mults. Some might find it desirable to have band breakdowns of QSOs and 
mults. For example, if W2EV's dashboard concept were to be implemented, I 
might want to compare my single op single band progress not only against 
other SOSB entrants, but against the single band breakdown of a multi-band, 
multi-op entrant.

Necessary information to be supplied by real-time participants might 
include the following:
[call used] - needed for a real-time scoreboard, not needed for the W2EV 
dashboard
[contest] - more than one contest occurs simultaneously
[current score]
[category of entrant] - SOAB, SOSB20, MM, etc.
[geographical location] - section, division, state/province, country, zone, 
etc. depending on which contest
[current total Qs]
[current total mults]
[current total Qs per band]
[current total mults per band]
[date/time stamp of current results] - needed because shared info may be 
intentionally delayed by a participant

Additionally, breakdown by mode may be desired for multi-mode contests.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is to what degree a participant 
would have control over what real-time info he shared. Would it need to be 
an all or nothing decision? Or, should participants be allowed to configure 
their "sharing" software to designate the specific info they're willing to 
share? Participants may also what to control how often they share their 
real-time results, and how much of a delay should be applied. For example, 
I may be willing to update my shared results every 10 minutes, but want the 
results delayed by 30 minutes (in this case at the one hour mark I would 
report my results from the 30 minute mark). I may unwilling to include my 
call sign in the shared info -- thereby making my info useful for W2EV's 
dashboard, but not useful to a real-time scoreboard.

How much flexibility could be allowed individual participants before their 
shared info was not useful?

Will contest sponsors specify some of these parameters (e.g. reporting 
delay) in order to avoid moving a participant to a different entry 
category? For example, at what point do real-time results constitute 
assistance sufficient to put a single op participant in the assisted category?

Yet another approach would be to have real-time results sharing software 
that worked on a peer-to-peer basis, rather than by means of a central 
server. This could be an approach that would appeal to those who would like 
to share within a limited defined group (e.g. one or two other contesters 
who you compete against, or a club), but don't want to share with all 
participants in a contest. This might be one of the parameters I could 
configure: central server participation or peer-to-peer with a defined list.

As I indicated before, I think we need to define an infrastructure that 
would allow real-time results sharing to be used in multiple ways. The same 
system could potentially support a real-time scoreboard, W2EV's dashboard, 
and other methods of sharing that have yet to be defined.

73 de Bruce, WA7BNM   (bhorn@hornucopia.com) 


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