[Openfirst-cvscommit] openFIRST Project Goals

[<ti...@op...>]

Hello,

I hope you've all had a chance to relax now that the build season is over.  I'd
like to take this opportunity to remind you of some outstanding bugs and to get
some opinions off of you regarding some possible future directions that the
project could take.  (Yes, I realise some of you don't actively contribute
anymore, but I'd still like your opinions).

First of all, in regards to bugs, there are a number of open bugs.  I'd
appreciate it if everyone who's able to (eg is still a high school student and
can therefore work on the modules themselves) could mark a few bugs as assigned
to themselves and start working on fixing them.  I'm sure the bug fixes would be
appreciated, as for the past while all I've been able to tell people who have
asked is to wait until the build season is over and people come back to
openFIRST to work on things.

In regards to a possible future direction for the project, one thing that I've
been looking into is the feasibility of distributing a software CD in the Kit
of Parts for next year's FIRST Robotics competition.  I've come to the
conclusion that it's a realistic goal, provided we can get a sponsorship from
some large internationally-recognised organisation.  Possibilities for such a
sponsorship that have been brainstormed by Jamie, Stephanie and I include:
Apple, Queen's University, Queen's University School of Computing, Stanford
University, Google, SourceForge, OSI, Dell, PHP.  Basically in terms of cost,
we're looking at around $2500 to $3000 USD for duplication of CDs, printing of
a CD case, and getting the CDs shipped to FIRST in order to be distributed in
the kit of parts.

What a sponsor would get out of the deal would be their logo printed on the CD
leaflet and/or the CD itself, on the CD's autorun software, and on the
openFIRST.org website.  This would give them exposure to computer-inclined
people of close to 1000 FIRST robotics teams.  Since there's a large number of
high school students in that group, I'm thinking that the ideal candidate for a
sponsor would be someone who caters to the high school student demographic, or
wishes to recruit high school students (such as a university [or college if
American] looking for potential students, or a computer company
producing/distributing technology like portable MP3 players, laptop computers,
etc. that such students may be interested in purchasing in the near future
before starting their university career).  I'd like it if the three countries
of contributors (Canada, America, and Brasil) were all represented in some way,
perhaps by the choice of Universities to get sponsorships from, etc.

In terms of the CD itself, I'd like it to have an autorun.  Something flashy,
that serves as an interesting introduction to the project and it's purpose and
a guide as to how to set it up; perhaps a custom installer thing for Windows
webservers similar to the ones that Dave made about a year ago.  The autorun
would have to have sponsor logos for whoever it is that ends up helping with
it.  It should also encourage people to volunteer to help with the project, and
provide contact information for getting support (eg the openFIRST Chief Delphi
forum, e-mail, etc.).  I'm thinking a cross-platform autorun would be good;
perhaps launch a web browser to an HTML file if autorun is supported, otherwise
make it clear that the HTML file should be started for instructions (by calling
it README, or similar, and printing directions on the CD/CD cover).  It is also
be feasible to offer discounted web hosting rates for FIRST teams as something
that's an added bonus to teams, whether they use openFIRST or not (of course,
we hope they do); that much I can guarantee is possible.

So, does anyone have any opinions about that idea?  I'd like to hear some
feedback, other ideas for potential sponsors, some estimate for whether it's a
feasable timeline, etc.  Also, which of you would be interested in helping with
the fundraising side of the project, if we decide to go ahead with it?  Who
would be up for designing the CD cover/CD/autorun/what-not?

Thanks for your time reading this rather long-winded message,

Tim