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New FIRST logo = New FIRSTwiki logo?

I recall David Kelly having some post in chit-chat on CD regarding FIRST tweaking their logo somewhat. Should we release the hounds on this, or declare the present logo close enough for government work? --Billfred 19:59, 29 Jun 2004 (EDT)

the present logo is a temporary one. We are selecting the real one on FIRSTwiki:Logo candidates. We can probably change one of PiotrM's to use the new logo because he provided the source files online. --22:57, 29 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Browse by topic

Currently our main apge "TOC" (Browse FIRSTwiki by topic) isn't up to par. It isn't quite an index of the site, yet, and it doesn't seem to order things as would be most useful to new (or experienced) users. At issue is just how to organize the site; i.e., what logical groupings should things fall under. A good index, it seems to me, would better lead to more content geared to our interests. I tried some time ago to start FIRSTwiki:Roadmap to kickstart some discussion on structure, but that didn't go over so well. Some discussion now seems appropraite. Also, it seems appropriate to try to figure out just why people come or would come to FIRSTwiki, -- i.e., some good ol' usability/human factors research is in order. It would be profitable, I think, to poll the ChiefDelphi community on just why they come here, or what features would make them come here, or what they think would be useful to have. Of course, before such a poll takes place, we should discuss ourselves on just what our purpose is, and what we purport to provide the FIRST community. Answer this question, and the design of the TOC might fall in place: Suppose you tell a new FIRST member about FIRSTwiki and he says, "Well, that's nice and all, but I can ask just about anything I want on ChiefDelphi. So, why should I bother going to your site?" --Mrawls 17:11, 26 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Good question. Of course, I thought it was kinda obvious, but it is still crucial to state the point. First of all, I quote FIRSTwiki (and myself, I think...)

FIRSTwiki strives to serve the FIRST community by providing useful content and a 
historical record that will serve future participants of the FIRST Robotics Program.

FIRSTwiki is basically an encyclopedia for FIRST. It isn't just your regular, old dusty encyclopedia though, it is up-to-date and provides lots of useful information (how-to type stuff) for getting stuff done. It can also be a secondary resource in conjunction with something like CD (someone reading a post doesn't know a term or FIRST inside joke so he looks it up here) Thus, its main function is to be useful in doing FIRST related work (robot building, software, team management stuff, research other teams). A less important feature is to provide a sort of entertainment. Something to feed the curiosity of bored FIRSTers. For example, the game history pages (will) provide an interesting read to FIRSTers who haven't been around that long. Regardless, I do agree its time for another CD poll to gauge the public's current view of FIRSTwiki because I want to make sure the public does understand this. Anyway, back to the point, the main page toc. I'm not sure what is it that you think is missing or wrong in the toc. I think it covers the needs stated above pretty well. If you can give me a more specific example of what you don't like, then we can have a better discussion. --Max 18:39, 26 Jun 2004 (EDT)

It's not so much what the TOC is lacking (though once a more concrete structure is developed it probably could be more inclusive), so much as its organization. Say I want to look up information of FIRST-related humor (ignoring for a moment that I can search), it's not entirely clear where to start. I.e., "Teams", "Competitions", "People", "Techincal", "Non-technical", "How-tos", and "History" isn't necessarily a good list of the different categories related to FIRST. History could relate to team history or to competition history, or even to people history, yet it is given its own category (granted there are different ways to organize, this is just to show an example). Much of the technical/non-technical information is repeated in How-to, which just links to specific parts of a not-so-large (or complete) page. Should "Technical" be at the same level as "People", or "Physics" at the same level as "Programming", etc.? Does "Kit of parts" belong in "Technical" (first)? There are lots of issues (and perhaps some of the questions I raised are being done correctly currently), but I think the TOC could probably stand to be re-organized. But to do this, thought needs to be given to what we want to be, and then to the structure of information we want to present (e.g., over at FIRSTwiki:Roadmap), i.e., an outline. From a usabilty standpoint, we need to know what people coming here want to find, we need to know what kind of information we plan to have and in what prominence/categorization we present it, so that we can make the most useful and informative design for a TOC. --Mrawls 19:35, 26 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Oh, and worth noting is that nowhere can you find Fabrication, or CAD for a more minor example, on the front page. Currently, Fabrication would probably fit under the title "Technical", -- making it equal to physics. Certainly physics is a great and vast subject, ... but so much as FIRSTwiki is concerned, I think fabrication is a much more important aspect of the program than physics (physics could fall under fabrication, if it has to be mentioned on the front page). I'm sure other items are missing, and it seems to be the fault of lack of a over-arching design for the structure of the wiki. Sure, any such design would have to be tentative, but it would help out inmeasurably. --Mrawls 19:51, 26 Jun 2004 (EDT)

I think you are sort of mixing two thoughts in here that need seperate discussions. First, we need to decide all that main goal stuff before we get into the main page toc. A lot of other stuff should/will change as a result of the main goal discussion, the main page toc is just a small part. Anyway, let's start making that CD poll. --Max 19:54, 26 Jun 2004 (EDT)

What would you use FIRSTwiki for? (note: checkbox vote not single selection)

1. Information on other teams Index of FRC teams
2. How-to guides for FIRST see Modifying a servo
3. FIRST history index of FRC games
4. Information about people index of people
5. Arcane information, e.g., phrases such as "moving to metric inch by inch" or tales of Dave Lavery's massive collection of hawaiin shirts
6. Collective information, i.e., summaries of related CD discussions with links to relevant threads, such as on collusion, or autonomous mode, or gracious professionalism, or what FIRST is all about, etc.