On Wednesday, June 7, 2017 at 10:31:37 AM UTC-6, wrote:
On Wednesday, June 7, 2017 at 12:32:53 AM UTC-4, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
Actually, no I didn't, I have commented here on RAS about lack of contest info before. At times I have been told to check out a Facebook page, why? There is already places to provide info through the SSA site.

I understand it is a volunteer undertaking and someone needs to take the time. Thus, I appreciate it when someone does.

Charlie, you are 100% correct about it being a volunteer thing; those who do have all my appreciation and respect.

Musings:

(1) First and foremost, the SSA does not support or encourage "real time" contest reporting. Nothing is going to change until the SSA or a SIG gets behind the effort. The SSA should encouraged organizers to do as much "social media" as they can and provide simple "how to" guidelines using current social media trends. Improving contest reporting should be a universal worldwide effort.

The contest manager has access to post pictures and reports. I do not know if she assigned a reporter or found a volunteer. She also can post to the SSA FB page. They may be another that can do the same, but probably won't until asked. Real time reporting is up to the contest organizers and community largely. I'm not aware that the SSA has registered an opinion one way or the other. As an SSA director, I can't recall a member contacting me about the issue. Among some directors, we have discussed it.

(2) The SSA website just does not meet the need in today's social media world. SSA website input access is restricted to a few people, it is usually dependent on a fixed single computer having an internet connection, and it does not support easy integration of pictures or video. Depending on the SSA website for anything other than scoring and flight logs increases the burden of the contest staff and it usually results in a delayed report, if any.

The Facebook timeline is embedded into the SSA website home page as are the favorites list on the SSA Youtube channel. Twitter is widely used in Europe and Canada by clubs and the national organizations and is under utilized by clubs and commercial operators in the US. The SSA, like other national soaring organizations, generates little original social media content but shares widely and hopefully aggregates content from around the US and International soaring community. This is generally the work of volunteers. Staff does post, shares, and suggests posts, but there is precious little staff time to spend on social media content. The SSA is largely a voluntary non-profit organization. The SSA web site is a membership website. Each SSA member has a area to post, as does each committee. Perhaps for lack of explicit training or for other reasons, members don't over utilize this feature.. With a feed reader, a member can subscribe to the RSS feed for area of interest and be notified of new posts to the web site in that area. FWIW, A feed reader is one of the few apps on my smart phone. I leave Twitter and FB to my desktops.
(3) The "what’s going on" aspect of contest reporting is better served by cell phone based social media such as Facebook. To the best of my limited understanding, having a Facebook "group" is the best current ticket.. It is cell phone based and does not depend on an internet connection. Any member of the "group" on or off site may interact. Posts are only received by "group members" so posters are not inhibited with concern of sending stuff to uninterested parties or broadcasting something to the Facebook world.. It easily accommodates pictures and videos. But most important, it takes the burden off the contest staff and allows those on-site to share the reporting. Today's youngsters are tomorrow's future of the soaring; the soaring movement would be better served communicating by their information "norms"..
In your opinion. I much prefer live tracking on contests on the big screen..
The contest community is welcomed to do just that or come up with a proposal. FB Groups require membership to be notified. Organizational FB groups exist, some private, most public. However, an organization such as the SSA cannot join a group, therefore cannot receive group posts. Individuals can join groups, then re-post interesting posts, if public. Makes it a time consuming two step process. If you manage several FB pages, it wasn't possible to switch pages until more recently from a Smart Phone.

(4) Just as interest in sport and competition soaring is dwindling so is the interest in people willing to volunteer to staff a contest. Who wants to give up their wherewithal and put forth the labor so the more fortunate can play? The current way is "you" take the risk, "you" put forth all the effort and maybe I'll pay to enter. Allowing this status quo to continue calculates to competition soaring coming to a quicker death. Survival depends on competitors willing to pay higher entry fees to provide "paid staff" or simpler contest operation staffed by its entrants. (There you go Wilbur -- served on a silver platter.)

Sort of all over the place. There are a number of social, economic, and financial factors for that in the US. Although I haven't flown gliders in the UK in over 20 years, the soaring culture was quite different and AFAICT, that difference remains, to the detriment of US soaring and racing.

Cell and Internet access at many soaring spots and contest venues can be poor. Internet even more to when 50-60 additional users are engaged. It's amazing how much bandwidth phones and laptops use when connecting and syncing a couple of IMAP e-mail accounts. This makes reporting frustrating at times according to some of those who've expressed this frustration. Real time tracking and reporting has some infra-structure challenges. But again, no proposals on the agenda yet.

Frank Whiteley