about.html

---
title:  OpenTrack
layout: default
permalink: /about/
tags: about
---
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5&appId=337653216403612";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

<h2>OpenTrack: Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source in Athletics</h2>

<p>
    The sport of athletics - including track and field, cross country, relays and road races - 
    is largely run by volunteers.  Meetings are organised with spreadsheets, emails, clipboards and 
    pieces of paper, even at national level.  The systems which do exist are usually single-user,
    not internet-enabled, and built by (and depend critically on) individual enthusiasts.  The 
    volunteers spend endless time on repetitive tasks sorting out entries
    and transcribing results, while athletes hunt around on websites for the results.
</p>

<p>
    In a modern, networked environment, we believe we can do much better: making it easier to set up, 
    enter and manage events, and to publish and follow the results.  We can save officials time,
    so they can spend more of it coaching and organising meetings, and make things more enjoyable 
    for the athletes.
</p>

<p>
    As software developers in the open-source world, we have seen many times how people with common
    interests can collaborate to build a system better than any one private company can do.  
    We aim to find people working with software in athletics, help them to work together,
    and benefit the sport. 
</p>

<p>
    We have been fortunate to secure European Union technology funding under the FINODEX project to 
    start development in the 2015-16 season.  The pilot projects are taking place in Surrey (South West
    London), working with the local cross country league and county association.  But our ambitions are global.
</p>

<p>There are three pillars to our plans:</p>
<dl>
    <dt>Open Data</dt>
    <dd>
        Everyone can benefit from standardising the reference data in the sport:  agreeing 
        codes and IDs for clubs, venues, organising bodies and so on, and being able to 
        identify individual athletes.  We believe that the results of sporting events, as facts,  
        should carry an open data license.
    </dd>

    <dt>Open Standards</dt>
    <dd>
        We aim to define and agree open standards for exchanging membership info, start lists 
        and results for various kinds of meetings.  Anyone building systems for "one part of the 
        puzzle" can begin to interact with others
    </dd>

    <dt>Open Source</dt>
    <dd>
        Where possible, we should share code and solutions across the sport, to make it easier for 
        anyone to build high quality athletics systems.  Events and leagues will probably 
        always need to build their own system, but they can all use common building blocks.
    </dd>
</dl>

<h3>Get involved</h3>

<p>Check out our <a href="/volunteer/">call for volunteers</a>, and help your sport! Or, at least, spread the word...</p>
<!-- Facebook -->
<div class="fb-share-button" data-href="http://opentrack.run/" data-layout="button_count"></div>
<!--Twitter...-->
<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="open_trak" data-hashtags="opentrack">Tweet</a>
<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');</script>
<!--linkedin-->
<script src="//platform.linkedin.com/in.js" type="text/javascript"> lang: en_US</script>
<script type="IN/Share" data-url="http://opentrack.run/" data-counter="right"></script>