Gawain: Paperless Tournaments?
Nov 17, 2013 0:43:41 GMT -6
seguin, joevisconti, and 1 more like this
Post by Martin Gale on Nov 17, 2013 0:43:41 GMT -6
I saw this yesterday on Fencing Net (Specifically: www.fencing.net/forums/thread71084.html )
I know lots of the folks behind most of the tournaments in Texas. I would be interested in their thoughts.
We'll shortly be going into public beta with our new tournament management system
What makes Gawain different to other Directoire apps?
Directoire does no typing or printing:
- fencers or parents enter their own details on-line.
- referees receive poolsheets on a smartphone or tablet, which sends the results back electronically
- fencers and spectators receive the results electronically on their smartphone or tablet
It's multi-platform - if you have a device, we want you to be able to use it.
The way the system works:
•Fencers or parents enter their own details on-line.
•The Directoire application arranges the bouts.
•The referees pick up the poolsheets wirelessly on their handheld device.
•The referees' handhelds calculate bout and pool results automatically, and send back the completed poolsheets automatically.
•The Directoire app sends the next bouts to the handhelds.
•The Directoire app publishes the results to the net, locally or world-wide.
The poolsheet app works on tablet or smartphone (It's been tested on devices in bold):
•Android, for example
•HTC Desire (original)
•Samsung Galaxy Mini (original S5570)
•Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300)
•Kindle Fire (should work, not yet tested)
•Tesco Hudl (should work, not yet tested)
•Apple
•iPad / Air / Mini
• original iPhone (should work, not yet tested)
• iPhone 3G /3Gs / 4 / 4s / 5 / 5s / 5c (should work, not yet tested)
• iPod Touch (should work, not yet tested)
•Blackberry
•Curve
•Playbook
•BB10 (should work, not yet tested)
•HP Palm (should work, not yet tested)
•Microsoft Windows Phone 8 (should work, not yet tested)
For Directoire, it works on
•Windows
•Linux
•MacOS (should work, not yet tested)
Later versions will also:
- handle elimination tableaux, Swiss pair format and McMahon pair formats
- send timing data to the referee/timekeeper's smartwatch (starting with Pebble watches for Android and iOS)
We're using RAD / Agile Development techniques, so we hope additional features will be added soon and frequently.
If you're interested in Gawain, or would like to help us with testing on other handheld devices, please let us know at:
paff dot chair at a well-known email system run by Google
Networks
It's designed to work as a local wireless LAN, without any internet access required. You can use any venue with mains power, and you do not need to get a venue with wifi.
This works well for audiences with about 200 handhelds between them. (i.e. about 200 families for childrens' or youth competitions, or 200 fencers for older fencers). With bigger audiences, it's a good idea to also publish out to the web. The system will do this, if you can use the venue's wifi internet access.
Later versions will, we hope, let you publish out to the web even when the venue does not have wifi, using a tethered mobile phone.
Extra screens
For additional screens - any laptop or handheld with a web browser can access the results directly.
If you have the table space and any spare PCs, you can use it to drive spare monitors used only for showing results. (Later versions will have an app that will go through all the results, displaying them each in turn).
If you have a projector, you could display results on a pale wall, from any device with a web browser and a video out socket. (e.g. PC, Blackberry Playbook, Samsung Chromebook, etc).
One reason we went to publishing results direct to fencers' and spectators' handhelds was to save us having to beg, buy, borrow or steal a projector.
Minimum set-up
•a PC (Windows or Linux running Directoire, MacOS as soon as we can test it)
•a handheld of some ilk for each piste (old and cheap devices can be used)
•a wifi router. (Most phones and tablets will only use wifi via a router)
It runs on *loads* of handhelds, deliberately including old and cheap smartphones, so that
•if you are a referee you can (generally) bring your own device (BYOD in the jargon)
•organisers can get folk to bring in discarded and leftover old smartphones for the event
•organisers could buy cheap 2nd hand devices
If you're still running short of devices, why not encourage parents to bring a handheld and be the scorekeeper for a pool?
Social Media
The current focus is on publishing to the event's web page, and to be honest I hadn't given social media any thought 'til now.
Publishing each pool as it happens out to the event's blog or Facebook page is possible, in the fullness of time.
Feeding the results to the event's Twitter account automatically as they happen is possible too, in the fullness of time.
If you've got specific ideas about how you'd want blogs, Chitter, Friendface, and any other social media to be used, please let us know via paff dot chair at Google's webmail service.
What makes Gawain different to other Directoire apps?
Directoire does no typing or printing:
- fencers or parents enter their own details on-line.
- referees receive poolsheets on a smartphone or tablet, which sends the results back electronically
- fencers and spectators receive the results electronically on their smartphone or tablet
It's multi-platform - if you have a device, we want you to be able to use it.
The way the system works:
•Fencers or parents enter their own details on-line.
•The Directoire application arranges the bouts.
•The referees pick up the poolsheets wirelessly on their handheld device.
•The referees' handhelds calculate bout and pool results automatically, and send back the completed poolsheets automatically.
•The Directoire app sends the next bouts to the handhelds.
•The Directoire app publishes the results to the net, locally or world-wide.
The poolsheet app works on tablet or smartphone (It's been tested on devices in bold):
•Android, for example
•HTC Desire (original)
•Samsung Galaxy Mini (original S5570)
•Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300)
•Kindle Fire (should work, not yet tested)
•Tesco Hudl (should work, not yet tested)
•Apple
•iPad / Air / Mini
• original iPhone (should work, not yet tested)
• iPhone 3G /3Gs / 4 / 4s / 5 / 5s / 5c (should work, not yet tested)
• iPod Touch (should work, not yet tested)
•Blackberry
•Curve
•Playbook
•BB10 (should work, not yet tested)
•HP Palm (should work, not yet tested)
•Microsoft Windows Phone 8 (should work, not yet tested)
For Directoire, it works on
•Windows
•Linux
•MacOS (should work, not yet tested)
Later versions will also:
- handle elimination tableaux, Swiss pair format and McMahon pair formats
- send timing data to the referee/timekeeper's smartwatch (starting with Pebble watches for Android and iOS)
We're using RAD / Agile Development techniques, so we hope additional features will be added soon and frequently.
If you're interested in Gawain, or would like to help us with testing on other handheld devices, please let us know at:
paff dot chair at a well-known email system run by Google
Networks
It's designed to work as a local wireless LAN, without any internet access required. You can use any venue with mains power, and you do not need to get a venue with wifi.
This works well for audiences with about 200 handhelds between them. (i.e. about 200 families for childrens' or youth competitions, or 200 fencers for older fencers). With bigger audiences, it's a good idea to also publish out to the web. The system will do this, if you can use the venue's wifi internet access.
Later versions will, we hope, let you publish out to the web even when the venue does not have wifi, using a tethered mobile phone.
Extra screens
For additional screens - any laptop or handheld with a web browser can access the results directly.
If you have the table space and any spare PCs, you can use it to drive spare monitors used only for showing results. (Later versions will have an app that will go through all the results, displaying them each in turn).
If you have a projector, you could display results on a pale wall, from any device with a web browser and a video out socket. (e.g. PC, Blackberry Playbook, Samsung Chromebook, etc).
One reason we went to publishing results direct to fencers' and spectators' handhelds was to save us having to beg, buy, borrow or steal a projector.
Minimum set-up
•a PC (Windows or Linux running Directoire, MacOS as soon as we can test it)
•a handheld of some ilk for each piste (old and cheap devices can be used)
•a wifi router. (Most phones and tablets will only use wifi via a router)
It runs on *loads* of handhelds, deliberately including old and cheap smartphones, so that
•if you are a referee you can (generally) bring your own device (BYOD in the jargon)
•organisers can get folk to bring in discarded and leftover old smartphones for the event
•organisers could buy cheap 2nd hand devices
If you're still running short of devices, why not encourage parents to bring a handheld and be the scorekeeper for a pool?
Social Media
The current focus is on publishing to the event's web page, and to be honest I hadn't given social media any thought 'til now.
Publishing each pool as it happens out to the event's blog or Facebook page is possible, in the fullness of time.
Feeding the results to the event's Twitter account automatically as they happen is possible too, in the fullness of time.
If you've got specific ideas about how you'd want blogs, Chitter, Friendface, and any other social media to be used, please let us know via paff dot chair at Google's webmail service.
I know lots of the folks behind most of the tournaments in Texas. I would be interested in their thoughts.