Lots of interesting talk on collaborating on massive online sources for
unicycle information!
> But as a webmaster for a number of sites, taking on the role of
> updating everything for the uni community would be way too much work
> for any one person.
Surely this is true for many of us. Others are interested in the
information and helping out with it, but are not webmasters at all. They
could probably contribute, but only if they are passing their material
onto somebody who can post it.
> I don’t know if it would be too much for one person to maintain what I
> have in mind. I’m really just thinking about a collective resource of
> consistent measurements (reviews would be nice to have but could
> probably be added later) for uni specific hardware like frames, hubs and
> commonly used rims. It would take a good bit of work to collect such
> info to begin with but once it’s there adding in new items wouldn’t take
> long - and would give you something uni related to do when riding isn’t
> possible
I have to disagree on the updating part. Though getting the initial data
(and designing the system) definitely take up the most time, most of the
facts and figures are not fixed. Manufacturers, of tires, frames, whole
unicycles, etc. keep changing their specs. So any time you measure and
report on parts, the date or model version of said parts will also have to
be included. Later versions of the same frame or “complete unicycle from
CyclePro” will have to be considered allowing for the fact that some of
their dimensions may have changed.
> To keep the content fresh you’ll need many contributors, many life
> experiences and many viewpoints.
> Why not have content updated by different people on their own sites but
> all linked from a central place. If we want to get fancy we can index
> these pages into a common search engine for the uni community.
This would certainly work for the people who happen to have their own Web
sites. But ultimately, if it can all be part of one site (though not
necessarily on a single server) it should be easier to search, read, and
work with. I believe Gilby is working on making it possible for different
people to have access to their own areas on unicycling.org, so they can
take charge of specific subject matter. Even owners of their own Web sites
could do this and possibly host the content on unicycling.org.
The key is in having enough people who have the time to keep their
information up to date. Scattered around and up to date is better than
unified and stale, but it would be nice to shoot for both.
> content providers specializing in one narrow aspect will allow deep
> research on each subject, giving the uni community better information on
> a wider variety of topics.
> specific components and build a custom uni online knowing that the
> various parts are of the right sizes. Something like that could then be
> printed out or even submitted direct to Unicycle Source.
A cool idea, similar to the “unicycle configurator” Java application that
Beirne Konarski made some years ago. But it would only work for spec-ing
unicycles if all the necessary issues of compatibility were taken into
account. Also, it would add a completely additional level of complexity
to include issues of cost. If a person’s chosen design is 95% something
that can be ordered direct from the manufacturer, it would be nice if
they knew this to save cobbling something together from scratch at three
times the price.
My advice to everyone who is keeping listings of any sort of “unicycle
information” is that they should get in contact with Gilby to have it
either linked or hosted at unicycling.org. Someday I will do this myself
with my Garage Page, after it’s been updated into a more comprehensive
gallery of all known unicycle types.
Stay on top, John Foss President, Unicycling Society of America President,
International Unicycling Federation jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com
