Like Rolf I've been following the OLC discussions for some time. It
is sad to see how commercial interests and personalities have created
this rift. Unlike Rolf though, I'm with the Skylines camp for the
following reasons:
The data uploaded to the OLC is owned by them (similar to Facebook
etc) and once uploaded the user community can't easily - if at all -
control what happens to it any more. The intent for Skylines is that
the data remains public if I understand correctly.
Downloading large numbers of flights from the OLC necessary for
statistical analyses like thermal and wave maps is blocked I believe.
The data may be for sale if someone is serious enough about it but
given the relatively small number of glider pilots in the various
regions or even globally, a commercial venture along these lines is
going to be a tough business case. When I see how rapid the
development of XCsoar is compared to its commercial counterparts then
I can't help but think that this is the future. Open source can tap
into a large resource cloud that a business, especially in a small
niche like ours, cannot or will find very hard to match. So over the
years I would not be surprised if Skylines (or a similar platform)
overtook OLC in terms of the features it will be able to offer and
especially the spin-offs that the promised unlimited data download and
public ownership will enable. That in turn might win even hardnosed
OLC fans over...
It has also been proposed for Skylines to have an OLC upload function
so if you choose your flight(s) would be automatically forwarded to
the OLC as well (provided they don't block Skylines from doing so...).
In that case you can have the best of both worlds.
An open platform could allow any number of competitions (with
different rule sets) to "plug in" and experiment with different
formats. (Maybe the "lucky dip" of our Pylon Race would finally gain
the global following it deserves;-)). The OLC team can't support
diversity at such a scale unless the data is made public which may not
be in their commercial interest.
I believe that the competition won't hurt. Besides, Skylines is not
the only alternative. There are a number of perhaps lesser known
platforms already in existence, all exploring different feature sets
and models. We as the user community have the choice and ultimately
the extra features and spin-offs can only enrich the gliding community
- no matter which platform ends up "winning".
Time will tell...
Ulrich
On Sat 14/07/12 07:56 , "rolf a. buelter" rbuel...@hotmail.com sent:
I'm following the OLC / Skylines discussion on segelflug.de. Max
K., the main force behind the Skyline development is of the opinion
that the OLC organisation is to dictatorial and possesive when it
comes to the use of data they collect, i.e. IGC files. On top of that
there are a few rules in the OLC scoring which don't meet the approval
of all, e.g. motorgliders get no penalty applied eventhough they have
a perceived advantage. The developers are also unhappy that the german
decentralised comp is derived from the OLC, similar to ours and the
DAeC pays for that admin too. The whole thing is motivated by a mix of
personality, the genuine drive to do better and some local (german)
issues.
I'm with Pam and Stuart.
Rgds - Rolf
> From: s...@bigpond.net.au
> To: aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
> Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 22:07:57 +1000
> Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Alternative to the OLC
>
> I'm with Pam; WHY?????
>
> The wonderful thing about the OLC is that it brings most of us
together -
> this is why we find it so interesting?
>
> I'm not saying that the guys and gals developing the new site do
not have
> some innovative ideas - I hope they do
> but by diluting the numbers participating erodes what we love about
the OLC
> - is that what we really want - I doubt it.
> Can we see some collaboration?
>
> SDF
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net
> [mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of
Pam
> Kurstjens
> Sent: Friday, 13 July 2012 3:55 PM
> To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'
> Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Alternative to the OLC
>
> Why would we need an alternative? I think there is great strength
and
> interest having worldwide flights in one place.
> If you would like to see an alternative system, check out the BGA
Ladder in
> the UK: http://www.bgaladder.co.uk and click on 'daily scores' for
example.
> Yesterday, 39 flights in the UK were posted to this site, and only
5 of
> those were posted to OLC.
> People are regularly doing 750's and the rare 1000, which are
incredible
> flights given the size of the island, the airspace, and the
weather, yet we
> see few flights on the OLC so gliding in the UK goes largely
unnoticed by
> the worldwide gliding community.
>
> Pam
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net
> [mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of
Peter F
> Bradshaw
> Sent: Monday, 2 July 2012 9:51 PM
> To: Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
> Subject: [Aus-soaring] Alternative to the OLC
>
> Hi;
>
> There is an alternative to the OLC at:
>
> http://skylines.xcsoar.org/
>
> IGC files may be uploaded and scored here. In addition it is
planned to
> implement a realtime tracking feature in conjunction with XCSoar
(v6.4).
>
> Cheers
>
> --
> Peter F Bradshaw: http://www.exadios.com (public keys avaliable
there).
> Personal site: http://personal.exadios.com "I love truth, and the
way the
> government still uses it occasionally to keep us guessing." - Sam
Kekovich.
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