Jome has developed an excellent tool for keeping competition results - the AIDA Results Register at http://jome.homelinux.net/results/ I am afraid only few people here on DB can appreciate how much time and work is behind the development and data maintenance. I would like to thank Jome for that work and time spent on it.
However, I think it is time that the system evolutes and gets enforced to all national and international competitions. For it to happen, there needs to be done a lot more, though, and I am afraid that's no more in the possibilities of a single volunteer. I believe it should become a collective Open Source project, where more software developers from the freediving community can participate.
I do not know the interface that is available to competition organizers, so do not know how convenient and flexible it is, but I find pity that many competition organizers go on inventing their own systems, which are most of the time the source of many problems. I saw it this weekend on a completion here in France. If instead of it people focused on improving Jome's system, we could soon have an amazing tool saving a lot of troubles to all, and providing excellent service to organizers, judges, competitors, and the public.
As I wrote, I do not know how the current organizer interface works, but there are certainly many features and improvements that can be still added. Local language versions are also needed, because organizers in many countries will unfortunately refuse (or be unable) using software with interface in English.
As for extensions or additions, the following comes on the mind: offline version for running the competition and collecting results even without access to the Internet, and uploading all the data automatically later as soon as connected to the web (I do not know - perhaps it is already included). Then synchronization with automated top-time mp3 announcements (again diverse language versions may be needed); perhaps an interface for loading videos, photos, dive profiles would be interesting too; interface for exchanging data with FreediveCentral (or other similar systems already in use); interface for commentators feeding them with statistical data about the competitors in warm-up or just competing; interface to some common billboard systems used in bigger swimming pools; some additions or improvements in the user interface can be done too; etc. etc. - people will certainly come with many ideas, but a community of developers will be needed for implementing them.
Also, the website with the database is apparently hosted on Jome's home PC, so the reliability is limited. Right now it is inaccessible. It would be nice if it were hosted on AIDA's server , which (I suppose) is at a professional hosting service with 24/24h maintenance, and proper backup routes. Additionally a backup server would be useful too, of course. That could be on Jome's home PC or at another hosting provider, but should be in a different location (and preferably different continent) than AIDA's own servers. The backup server should then synchronize with the main server regularly. All this would require a lot of work, so again, IT professionals from the freediving community could help.
Jome, AIDA officials, freedivers, what do you think? Would you agree turning the AIDA Results Register into an Open Source project for example at sourceforge.org?
However, I think it is time that the system evolutes and gets enforced to all national and international competitions. For it to happen, there needs to be done a lot more, though, and I am afraid that's no more in the possibilities of a single volunteer. I believe it should become a collective Open Source project, where more software developers from the freediving community can participate.
I do not know the interface that is available to competition organizers, so do not know how convenient and flexible it is, but I find pity that many competition organizers go on inventing their own systems, which are most of the time the source of many problems. I saw it this weekend on a completion here in France. If instead of it people focused on improving Jome's system, we could soon have an amazing tool saving a lot of troubles to all, and providing excellent service to organizers, judges, competitors, and the public.
As I wrote, I do not know how the current organizer interface works, but there are certainly many features and improvements that can be still added. Local language versions are also needed, because organizers in many countries will unfortunately refuse (or be unable) using software with interface in English.
As for extensions or additions, the following comes on the mind: offline version for running the competition and collecting results even without access to the Internet, and uploading all the data automatically later as soon as connected to the web (I do not know - perhaps it is already included). Then synchronization with automated top-time mp3 announcements (again diverse language versions may be needed); perhaps an interface for loading videos, photos, dive profiles would be interesting too; interface for exchanging data with FreediveCentral (or other similar systems already in use); interface for commentators feeding them with statistical data about the competitors in warm-up or just competing; interface to some common billboard systems used in bigger swimming pools; some additions or improvements in the user interface can be done too; etc. etc. - people will certainly come with many ideas, but a community of developers will be needed for implementing them.
Also, the website with the database is apparently hosted on Jome's home PC, so the reliability is limited. Right now it is inaccessible. It would be nice if it were hosted on AIDA's server , which (I suppose) is at a professional hosting service with 24/24h maintenance, and proper backup routes. Additionally a backup server would be useful too, of course. That could be on Jome's home PC or at another hosting provider, but should be in a different location (and preferably different continent) than AIDA's own servers. The backup server should then synchronize with the main server regularly. All this would require a lot of work, so again, IT professionals from the freediving community could help.
Jome, AIDA officials, freedivers, what do you think? Would you agree turning the AIDA Results Register into an Open Source project for example at sourceforge.org?
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