Sharing on the Network and Cloud

June 12, 2012   by Serge Knystautas

Now that the ECAC-SIDA convention has wrapped up, we've been debating whether "Network" or "Cloud" was the most overused buzzword. As we and Stat Crew fight for the naming rights of this new approach, I thought it would be helpful to talk about what exactly being in the Network or on the Cloud means.

Working in the Network or on the Cloud is a fundamental shift in how you treat information online. It's an evolution of pushing information to sharing information with others.

Pushing Sharing
Email an Excel file Google docs spreadsheet
FTP a file Dropbox shared folders
Report scores Shared schedule and results
Email a packed file Update stats in a Network or Cloud


In all of these examples, the behavior has changed from one person emailing a file or entering information on a website to working together with multiple users on a shared set of information.

So what exactly is the difference between sharing sports information and using a typical score reporting system? Each feature below highlights how much more powerful sharing is, as well as all of the tools you start to build on top of the shared information that you would never use in a score reporting system.

Here's how the PrestoSports Network compares to a typical score reporting system. We didn't include the Stat Crew Cloud in the chart because we don't know much about it since it's still being developed.

Feature PrestoSports
Network

Score
Reporting
Score reporting
Scores flow from school to conference Yes Yes
Scores flow from conference to school Yes No
Scores flow from school to school Yes No
Scores for non-conference away games Yes No
In-progress scores Yes No
Team names editable Yes No
Schedule management
Games flow from school to conference Yes Yes
Games flow from conference to school Yes No
Games flow from school to school Yes No
Links shared from school to conference Yes Yes
Links shared from conference to school Yes No
Links shared from school to school Yes No
Links for non-conference away games Yes No
Statistics management
Stats flow from school to conference Yes Sometimes
Stats flow from conference to school Yes No
Stats flow from school to school Yes No
NCAA school (game) reporting Yes No
Awards with statistics Yes No
Live scoreboard with statistics Yes No
Sharing tools
Custom email notifications for changes Yes No
Audit log of who changed what when Yes No
Email packed and XML stats to others Yes No
Update live stats providers Yes No
Update NCAA and other systems Yes No


Hopefully this gives you a clearer idea of how a Network and Cloud are different than the typical score reporting system. It's a big challenge, but we fundamentally think this is the future of sports technology and are excited to be a part of this change.

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