OpenTrack: Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source in Athletics

Jointly presented by European Athletics and ReportLab

We aim to bring better software to athletics at every level.

Below the international level, athletics is run by volunteers.  They spend far too much of their time processing and checking entries and results, with paper, spreadsheets and email - time which could be spent growing the sport.  And the “customer experience” is poor compared to many other sports.   

Meanwhile, the systems we do have are usually built and maintained by solitary volunteers using older software - or commissioned long ago by governing bodies and not maintained.

We can do better.  With modern software tools, it should be possible to connect federations, clubs, team managers and athletes; to manage competitions with mobile devices as they happen; and to have live, engaging results - from national championships down to the school sports day. Within our sport there are thousands of software and data professionals who can help.

We propose to get things started with an open standards process. We will define...

• Open reference data sets of clubs and venues which anyone can use.
• A formal standard for how to exchange start lists, meeting programmes and meeting results, including exactly how performances may be encoded.
• Freely available tools to check against standards, convert easily in between them and do useful things with the data.

We will always need different systems and vendors in the sport. But by using an interchangeable standard, they will be able to focus on what they do best, saving time and money at all levels of the sport and allowing the creation of many new tools.

The Open Data Conference is the right event, at the right time, to start this process. It provides a fantastic chance for sports administrators to understand what is happening in other sectors, and to see how Open Data policies are unleashing growth and new opportunities.  And if you're writing athletics software or dealing with data, we'd love to see what you're doing, and there is much to learn at OpenDataCon. We aim to assemble a critical mass of stakeholders in one place to launch this process.

How to register

1. Please sign up for OpenDataCon here - it's free, but you must pre-register.   Mention the Athletics track in the comments box.  They will email you back within 48 hours with a simple registration process.
2. Please also tell us you're coming - emails at bottom

Revised schedule

When we planned the agenda, we thought that most people would come for Thursday night and Friday morning, and we expected the more “technical’ ones for Thursday afternoon.   It now seems everyone is here for both sessions.  Also, we have our own athletics-only venue on Thursday, and a chance to mix with the main conference on Friday.  So, we propose to “flip it around:  

• Thursday is for the people within the sport

• Friday morning is about how we set a standard.  Experts from other fields (and conference delegates involved in athletics and running) can join us.

• We’re keeping Friday afternoon free, but can extend into it if needed

Thursday afternoon - 14:00-17:00

We have booked a space for 3 hours at the Pullman Hotel, by the subway entrance to IFEMA.  It should be easy to mingle afterwards, and to move back and forth between the hotel and OpenDataCon talks. 

14:00-14:30 Welcome and Introduction

Nicolas Launois, Technology and TV manager, European Athletics

Welcome.  Introductions.  Practical things.

Framing the problems.  What are we trying to achieve here?

• Find out if there are common problems or opportunities?

• Work out what are the questions, so we can survey more federations later?

• See if there is an appetite to work together on common solutions?

Introductions:  we’ll ask everyone in turn what brought them here and what they hope to learn or take away.  It’s YOUR conference and we can shape the agenda to suit, especially on Friday afternoon.

14:30-15:00  How modern software is built

Andy Robinson, ReportLab.

What can be achieved now, with modern web software platforms? What buzzwords does a non-programmer need to know? We’ll quickly cover...

• Authentication and Authorization

• ReSTful web sites

• Web Service and API-based development

• Mobile development

• Reusable Web components

• NoSQL databases and “Big Data”

We’ll also look at the collaboration tools and techniques that help volunteers around the world to deliver projects and solutions:  shared documents, wikis, forum, version control and messaging.  See who’s using these for athletics!

If you bring a laptop, we’ll set you up, so we can work together throughout the two days.

15:00-16:00  The OpenTrack Roadmap

ReportLab spent last year developing a plan to make the sport work better through open data, open standards and open source software.  This was funded and coached by the EU FINODEX accelerator (who are also here at OpenDataCon).  On meeting European Athletics in August, and then Tilastopaja, this plan got bigger.  We’ll unveil the plan at a high level, and see if it survives your review.

Along the way, we’ll have quick introductions to the ideas of Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source software.

16:00-16:30 Personal data and privacy

Martin Alvarez, Fundacion CTIC / World Wide Web Consortium

What are the challenges in exchanging athlete data?  Are federations allowed to share?  Do data protection laws vary between countries?   Are dates of birth “personal data”?  Can we form a common policy?

We’ll discuss the data protection policies and practices in different countries in athletics.  We can also learn from the many experts at OpenDataCon in other fields of government and health care.

16:30-17:00 Making the most of results

Mirko Jalava, Tilastopaja - statistics provider to European Athletics

What are we all doing with our results and rankings?  What are the challenges?  Is there more we would like to do with the data?  Are there issues of ownership, audit trail, change control?

17:00-17:??

We can move to the hotel bar or coffee shop, until it’s time to head to hotels and meet for dinner later.

Thursday night - dinner in Madrid, 20:00

Please confirm to Nicolas Launois if you can join us for dinner, on Madrid's main square.    We are each paying for our own dinner; set menus including drinks and tax are available for circa 25 or 30 Euros.  

Casa María, Plaza Mayor, 23, 28012 Madrid

http://www.casamariaplazamayor.com/ 

Friday morning:  IFEMA Room G, 9:30-12:30

Friday's talk is an official "side event" at OpenDataCon - see the main programme here

Friday’s talk is within the main OpenDataCon building.  We will run this in a panel format, with short talks and discussions.  We hope that we’ll get open data and software experts with a passion for our sport joining us.  We’re very willing to adjust the agenda if anyone has good suggestions or stories to tell.

09:30-09:45 Welcome and planning the day

We don’t get the room until 09:30 (a prior meeting has it from 8:30-9:30).  

09:45-10:00 The Open Data ecosystem - Maurizio Napolitano, FBK/ODI

What is Open Data?  Why is it important?  What are the key license types applicable in sport? Who gets to decide?  Some examples of Open Data

10:00-10:15  The standards process - Martin Alvarez, W3C

What is a standard? How are they formed? How does the process work?

At a practical level, what needs to be done?  Will a technical standard be relevant to  spreadsheet-using statisticians, as well as programmers?

10:15-10:45  Open Reference Data

As an “easy warmup” we’ll look at information which (we hope) people agree should be publicly available:  organisations (clubs, leagues, associations), venues (tracks and courses), competitions, and people.   How can we identify these things, globally?  What fields do we need?  We have a fairly mature plan, and want to see if it survives.

What tools can we build on these things?  Club pickers, website assets, tools for clubs?   What could YOU do with the data?

10:45-11:15 Entries and competition preparation

What do we need to take entries quickly and accurately?  How much info about the athlete is really needed?  How do we check registration and eligibility?  How much time can be saved if we get it right? Who’s doing what?

11:15-11:45 In-competition:  photo finish, chip timing, EDM, and manual recording

Who’s using what?  Can we help integrate the different electronic and manual systems? What can be done with apps (but without special hardware) at the grass roots level?  What sort of standards would we need?

11:45-12:15 Results and rankings

And leaving the hard one for last, how can we build a standard for results, that can be syndicated, audited, and analysed?  What new applications would become possible if we had results as Open Data? What lessons can we learn from the analysis of elite athletics, and what is transferrable to the sport at the local level?

12:15-12:30 Conclusions

Some people may need to go after lunch.  We’ll attempt to agree whether, when and how to move forwards.

--- break ---

13:30-16:00 Informal workshops, to be confirmed

We’re keeping the afternoon flexible, as people leave at different times (although most organisers are around until mid-evening).  We’ll poll people on Thursday.  Many of us are around until the evening so we may be..

• Seeing Madrid

• Joining other talks

• Hatching plans to collaborate across borders

• Rolling our sleeves up and working on standards and field specifications

• Maybe even going for a warm-weather run?

Speaker, panelists and attendees

• Nicolas Launois, Technology Manager, European Athletics
• Andy Robinson, Managing Director, ReportLab.
• Mirko Jalava, Managing Director, Tilastopaja, Finland  (Europe’s leading results service for 24 years, and supplier of statistics to European Athletics).
• Martin Alvarez, Fundacion CTIC / World Wide Web Consortium, Spain
• Maurizio Napolitano, Foundation Bruno Kessler, Italy and adviser to Open Data Institute

Confirmed attendees as of 29 September, 15:00:

• OpenTrack/ReportLab (Andy Robinson, Andy Weir)
• Fundacion CTIC (Martin Alvarez, on behalf of  World Wide Web Consortium
• European Athletics: Nicolas, Chiheb
• Tilastopaja: Mirko
• French Federation: Raould Rall
• Czech Federation: Martin Mastný (Confirmed, waiting for logistics information)
• Spanish Athletics: 4 people
• Serbian federation: Predrag Momirović, Manager
• Seltec (stats provider for GER/20 states): Yannick Geiger + Andreas Wiedner 
• Domtel (stats provider for POL): Filip Moterski + Ryszard Pilarczyk
• ATOS:Santiago Manso, CTO for Major Events + Almudena Alonso, Head of Business Intelligence + Eulogio Ruiz, Head of Strategy and Innovation in Major Events
• deltatre: Christiano Coraglia, Olympic Product Director
• UK Athletics (Michael Hunt, Facilities and Health & Safety manager)

Practical Information

We have timed this so it's possible to fly out on Thursday morning and back on friday evening.  If in town sooner, please let us know as some of us are there 

Getting there: conference, airport and town

Underground line 8 runs directly from the airport to the conference centre (IFEMA, next stop) and to Nuevos Ministerios downtown.  Get off at Campo de los Naciones; you come out by the Pullman hotel (Friday a.m.), but have a long-ish walk through the exhibition centre and a huge fruit fair to get to the North side of IFEMA. If in a hurry, a taxi to the North gate might be quicker.

Most of the IODC organisers are staying near Nuevos Ministerios; anywhere between there and downtown should work.   Here’s a map

Accommodation

We regret that no single hotel appears to have a large block of rooms. We suggest staying either near Nuevos Ministerios, or near the centre (Sol, Gran Via, Plaza Mayor) where we will be meeting for dinner.

Contact Details

 For further information contact either of

• Nicolas Launois, European Athletics:  nicolas.launois@european-athletics.org

• Andy Robinson, ReportLab: andy@reportlab.com / +44-7725-056175

Andy will be on site from Tuesday lunchtime.