Rich:
It seems like an almost trivial idea to put the entire data base of times on the web so a swimmer would be able to see how he compares to other swimmers in his age group.
While Pacific may be atypical, lets look at what goes on to get that information. There are two competing meet management systems that are used in Pacific - HyTek and SAMMS, then there are a few meets where the results are calculated "by hand" and no meet management system is used.
Our top ten chair, Nancy Ridout, has to take all the results input them into a computer then they can be ranked. There are about 24 age groups that will get the full compliment of 10 swimmers in each event. There are eighteen short course events and seventeen long course events. So for Pacific to put just the top ten together takes a lot of work and time.
For many events there may be 20 competitors in the age group, so in Pacific putting together an entire list by hand would be even more time consuming.
Then there is the problem of trying to decern the individual. There are two Michael Moores in Pacific. The USMS numbering system leaves a lot to be desired, so many times it is the name is the identifying factor.
In reading the Exec Committee minutes, I see that there is a committee to look at the data base needs of the organization. Long term this may be something to be addressed, but personally I dont see it being resolved in the near term.
At one time there was a place on the USMS web site to submit SDIF files and the computer would spit out the current top times. It may still be on the website, but then it would depend on each LMSC submitting each meet in SDIF format. Unfortunately that is something that Pacific cannot currently do.
hope this gives you some background.
michael
Rich:
It seems like an almost trivial idea to put the entire data base of times on the web so a swimmer would be able to see how he compares to other swimmers in his age group.
While Pacific may be atypical, lets look at what goes on to get that information. There are two competing meet management systems that are used in Pacific - HyTek and SAMMS, then there are a few meets where the results are calculated "by hand" and no meet management system is used.
Our top ten chair, Nancy Ridout, has to take all the results input them into a computer then they can be ranked. There are about 24 age groups that will get the full compliment of 10 swimmers in each event. There are eighteen short course events and seventeen long course events. So for Pacific to put just the top ten together takes a lot of work and time.
For many events there may be 20 competitors in the age group, so in Pacific putting together an entire list by hand would be even more time consuming.
Then there is the problem of trying to decern the individual. There are two Michael Moores in Pacific. The USMS numbering system leaves a lot to be desired, so many times it is the name is the identifying factor.
In reading the Exec Committee minutes, I see that there is a committee to look at the data base needs of the organization. Long term this may be something to be addressed, but personally I dont see it being resolved in the near term.
At one time there was a place on the USMS web site to submit SDIF files and the computer would spit out the current top times. It may still be on the website, but then it would depend on each LMSC submitting each meet in SDIF format. Unfortunately that is something that Pacific cannot currently do.
hope this gives you some background.
michael
