2xw said:
Pfft, somebody clearly magically added an 'S' to the end of my name, and it deffo wasn't on the form
OK... tracked that down and corrected it. Sorry about that. That's a good example of how human intervention introduces errors. The digital list was correct but, for the merits and distinctions, there was a gap in the "processes" and it was quicker to retype the data, to get it from one list to another. Quicker but error prone. And that error then propagated.
We've been tweaking the competition processes for some years now, and I think that next year - fingers crossed - we'll be able to do most of it "automatically". One thing that takes a lot of time is building a video to show the merits and distinctions at the closing ceremony. This year, we didnt do it like that, because it takes too long to render the video, but the "shortcut" we took didnt present the photos in the best possible way. Next year, because we will have all the data digitally (names, titles, photos, mugshots) we can build an AV literally at the click of a button. Im writing the software to do that now, whilst Hidden Earth is fresh in my mind. Also, we're going to try to get the competition co-ordinators to upload their results via their smartphones (them that has one and isnt afraid to use it). This will avoid the bizarre situation of one competition judge writing his notes on his laptop and then transcribing them by hand onto the official "pink sheet". Another idea, which we didnt have time to put in place this year, is to have a computer monitor showing the live SRT race and Speleo Olympics results. Although it could be interesting to the audience, the real reason for doing it is, of course, to try to get the data digitally at the earliest opportunity. And to give the contestants time to correct the spelling of their names.
