Discussion Topics for Feb 10

This is a menu of the topics on this page (click on any): Presentation of Archives Archives Catalogue H&A Procedures Are "Prototyped" APL is not becoming obsolete .

(this document was finalized at 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Feb 10)

The H&A Committee (Barbara and Carl) are responding in several ways to our discussion of January 27. This presents our thoughts in anticipation of our discussion on February 10.

Presentation of Archives

Carl described the digital work of the H&A Committee as having 3 parts.

data - gathering digital information and making it better.
processing - for audit, conversion and presentation.
presentation - on the web now, later on CD and/or in museum kiosks.

It did not seem that this point was well understood on February 10, so, we've made an attempt to make the point more strongly by converting the style of presentation of most of our digital archives so that it is very like the USMS.org template. Our digital archives are organized in 35 folders. 26 of these folders readily accepted the USMS.org template. 9 folders will take a little more work to accept the USMS.org template (because they have many pages and all pages are at the same level in menus). The point we are making is that presentation is a different subject from data gathering. We are gathering data in forms that do not require any particular presentation style or technology. The fact that it was easy to convert from the SwimGold style of presentation to the USMS.org style of presentation should establish that archive gathering & cleansing and archive presentation are different subjects, though we care deeply about both subjects.

The following folders readily accepted the USMS.org template, though some will benefit from a little more work.
USMS Archives Website (4511- 9)
USMS History & Archives Committee (4529- 9)
SwimGold Friends (4512- 9)
Swimming Esthetics (4523- 9)
USMS History (4516- 9)
All-Americans Ever by LMSC (4518- 9)
USMS Top Ten Names (4507- 9)
USMS Oral History (4528- 9)
Top Ten Photo Gallery (4527- 9)
USMS Records (4536- 9)
Remembering USMS Swimmers (4517- 9)
Archive Priorities by Zone (4525- 9)
Top Ten Swims (4534- 9)
USMS - All-Americans Ever (4515- 9)
USMS All-Americans (since 1972) (4510- 9)
USMS Competition Data (4513- 9)
USMS - All-Stars Ever (4514- 9)
USMS All-Stars (4519- 9)
USMS Top Ten (4504- 9) must eliminate parenthetical info in left menu
USMS Top Ten Index (4506- 9)
USMS Top Ten Relays (4521- 9)
Lifestyle Lessons from Masters Athletes (4597- 9)
All-American Swims (4533- 9)
The Mucky Duck (4530- 9)

The following folders will take a little more work to use the USMS.org template.
USMS Clubs (4524-10)
USMS/USAS Convention 2000 (4590-10)
Stories about USMS Swimmers (4526-10)
All-Americans (4505-10)
USMS - Top Ten by Age (4501-10)
USMS - Top Ten Detail by LMSC (4503-10)
USMS - Top Ten Summary by LMSC (4502-10)
USMS Vignettes (4522-10)

Archives Catalogue

Barbara is developing an archives catalogue as a test of how many people might share in the creation of a database using widely available tools. A comma delimited format was initially considered, however text could not contain commas if it is to be stored as a comma delimited file. So, she's using Excel. Carl has built a facility so that the Excel file does not have to be exported for use on the web. As our archives are compiled, the Excel file is read and compiled into a webpage without any human effort (except to store the file in the proper place and with the proper name). Click here: Archives Catalogue -- or put the this URL in your browser:

http://www.SwimGold.org/hist/Archives.htm

This does not mean comma delimited won't work for competition databases. It is still our plan to export databases to comma delimited files for transferability and permanent archiving.

H&A Procedures Are "Prototyped"

A system developer will say that good specs make possible the development of a good system. We've developed good procedures for gathering, integrating and presenting USMS Archives. These procedures work well in APL and we've had enough experience to discover and work out the bugs. One of our options is to continue to use and refine the prototype, but clearly it is the desire of the Executive Committee to convert and adapt as necessary these procedures so that they will work without Carl and without the language APL. It should not be assumed this is a small matter, or that it can be done within our $18,000 budget for this year. What we can do is agree that

All data will be exported to comma delimited formats.
All procedures will be specified so that the cost of rewriting them in another environment can be determined.
Existing procedures will be modified so that comma delimited files are constantly kept up to date. (this will not be done by exporting -- which can get out of date -- but will be done by modifying procedures so that everytime data is added or modified the text files will be updated in real time)
We can agree that there will be no extension of H&A systems using the language APL beyond their current scope. All H&A maintenance will be handled within the current capability and new (non-APL) procedures will be evaluated and integrated as rapidly as they become available and proven to work.
A simple user interface will be created so that Barbara (and others) can begin using (and improving the documentation of) our existing systems. This interface will be written for use in Windows on PC computers using the best available technology that can work with our existing systems. It will give Barbara the ability to create new folders of information. She will be queried for essential parameters in establishing the new folder, but whereever the system can prompt her to the most logical solution, it will do so, as it does for Carl.

APL is not becoming obsolete

APL interpreters are available from at least four important vendors including IBM. The APL interpretor used by Carl was acquired by Cognos, Inc. about two years ago along with a major financial management software package. Cognos is expecting to realize $750 million in annual revenue with this software package within 4 years. Further testimony as to the robustness of APL is evident in what it has done for USMS. In addition to maintaining databases with more than 200,000 links which are automatically created, our APL system has the ability to make wholesale conversion to an entirely new form of presentation in a matter of a few hours.