The great advantage of the app
is that it uses crowd-sourcing, so that the database is continually updated
rather than stuck at one point in time.
I spoke with Bob, and the app
designer is planning on adding another field to his data to indicate if a
repeater is coordinated or not.
Hopefully that will encourage
coordination bodies to contribute to the app to give their stamp of approval to
the data, with credit given to them.
The coordination bodies have
controlled data up to this time, but in this age of immediate information and
crowd-sourcing, that strangle-hold will no longer be the
case.
Since the print versions are not
going away, the coordinators should not lose their income for data submitted to
the ARRL, at least not in the short term. Like everyone else, they will
need to adapt to our accelerated digital age.
’73 de JIM
N2ZZ
Director – Roanoke
Division
Serving ARRL members in the
Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina
sections
ARRL – The National
Association for Amateur Radio™
From: arrl-odv
[mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Rod
Blocksome
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2016 5:28 PM
To:
Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ; Rehman, Doug, K4AC; Kramer, Harold, WJ1B;
arrl-odv
Cc: Ford, Steve, WB8IMY; Inderbitzen, Bob,
NQ1R
Subject: [arrl-odv:25131] Re: Repeater App
Changes
I’m getting some
push back here as well. One of the main points relates to item 3
below:
If the RFinder
app is “branded” by ARRL the membership will believe (rightly or wrongly) that
we are responsible for the content. Yet we have no responsibility for
providing content. Therefor it’s likely that RFinder will contain
both coordinated and un-coordinated repeaters. If that be the case,
then it seems a necessity that each repeater listing be labeled as
such.
Or perhaps
RFinder could only accept input data from the repeater
coordinators?
Thoughts??
73’s,
Rod,
K0DAS
From: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ
Sent:
Friday, February 05, 2016 9:36 AM
Subject:
[arrl-odv:25125] Re: Repeater App
Changes
At Minute 9.3 of the October 3,
2015 Executive Committee meeting there is the following
summary:
9.3. Mr. Sumner reviewed the history and
future prospects of the ARRL Repeater Directory and related products. A
new agreement was reached with 54 of 60 repeater frequency coordinators that
will result in an improved publication for the 2016-17 Edition. However, the
long-term viability of printed directories of any kind is doubtful. There are
inexpensive web-based directories and smartphone apps available that accept
crowdsourced data and are growing in popularity. Significant investment will be
required if the quality of the Repeater Directory and related products is
to meet future market expectations and ARRL organizational objectives. In the
course of discussion it was generally agreed that there are several factors to
be considered in determining whether such an investment is appropriate since the
Repeater Directory serves several objectives in addition to generating
net revenue in support of the ARRL’s mission.
In the course
of developing the 2016-17 operational plan it became apparent that we could not
continue to support TravelPlus, nor did it make sense to make the investment in
the mobile app that would be necessary to make it competitive. This was
highlighted in the Chief Operating Officer’s report to the January Board
meeting. On the other hand, we couldn’t leave existing users of these products
high and dry, so we looked for alternatives.
RFinder was among the most
cited online resources for listings that are more complete than our ARRL
Repeater Directory database products. Our own research found that the RFinder
apps have a user base many more times larger than our Repeater Directory apps
and software put together. And, the RFinder apps consistently enjoy greater than
4/5 ratings from its subscribers. The ARRL Repeater apps, which never enjoyed
anything better than ratings of 2-3, were criticized for missing, incomplete,
and static data (updated only once yearly). The TravelPlus software had reached
the end of its lifecycle--wrought with Windows incompatibility problems. The
developer was unable to keep pace with user demands for feature-rich mobile
applications and interest in "Google-like" mapping (TravelPlus used very coarse
maps). We could no longer sustain the software support--and its customer base
was on the decline (not surprising at $25 to $35 each
year).
Bob Greenberg, W2CYK, is a
longtime ARRL member who had already entered into marketing arrangements with
national societies in several other countries, as described in yesterday’s news
release. Our due diligence included checking with our sister societies to learn
about their experience working with him.
So to
summarize:
1. We are discontinuing
TravelPlus, a product built on an obsolete platform that no longer meets
anyone’s expectations and clearly is not worth the investment it would take to
update and maintain it.
2. We are discontinuing
a mobile app that is uncompetitive and not worth further
investment.
3. We are endorsing a
different app that is much more useful to end users and will provide a modest
revenue stream to the ARRL with little cost or risk. The ARRL has no involvement
in providing content for this app.
4. We are continuing to
publish the annual Repeater Directory in print form and to compensate repeater
coordinators who supply data for the Repeater Directory in accordance with
existing agreements.
Because there is erroneous
information to the contrary in circulation I will say again, with emphasis: The
ARRL is NOT providing data to RFinder. Our reading of the current agreement with
repeater coordinators who provide data for the printed Repeater Directory is
that it prevents us from sharing this data with third parties and we intend to
adhere strictly to that reading.
73,
Dave K1ZZ
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