Writing these year end blogs seem to be about five minutes apart, not twelve months. I am told this is something to do with my age....
The New Year will usher in the EBU's year of implementing change. The past two or three years have been full of consultation and discussion ABOUT change, now it happens. During the first three months of 2010 we will be collecting Universal Membership information from all of our affiliated clubs so that the new pay to play processes can begin on April 1st.
However, this is just the start. The volunteers working on the EBU's new National Rating System will produce a specification for that new service as soon as they are able and we will implement it as soon as practical, bearing in mind other priorities.
The Tournament Committee have recently approved an innovation for our clubs and our own events. We will be introducing the facility for clubs to stratify their club games.
Clubs will (optionally) be able to separate their games into three stratification levels, A, B and C.
Purely as an example, clubs could choose something like the following stratification levels -
C up to Master
B up to Regional Master
A above Regional Master.
The game will be played and scored in the usual manner, but the resulting master point awards will be made taking into account the stratification levels. For example, this means that if a "strat c" player has a good day they will, of course, win the master points at their highest level of achievement, but if they were not that successful but still able to finish in the top part of their own stratified level there will still be a master point award. When this possibility was considered by the interim Club Committee they were extremely enthusiastic. I would hope that we would be able to introduce this facility into our clubs (and some EBU events) during the 2010-2011 playing year, but it will be dependent upon various software authors being prepared to make the necessary changes to their software. We should be in a position to specify those requirements during the first quarter of 2010.
We will also be introducing new Club teacher training during 2010; keep your eyes open for more information in English Bridge.
May I take this opportunity on behalf of all at Aylesbury to wish everyone a great festive season and a Happy New Year. I look forward to receiving your patience in abundance during 2010!
Thursday 10 December 2009
Friday 20 November 2009
Blog #39 - Further Pay to play IT progress report
Things are progressing well with our development. We have now set up a web based "forum" for providing a place to receive and provide information online about the progress of our development and testing of club downloads. If you wish to participate in this forum, please contact michael@ebu.co.uk and he will advise you how to register.
We are about to open up testing to P2P file submissions from those clubs that have already been testing their data submission with us. If any other club wants to commence their testing of data and file submissions please also contact michael@ebu.co.uk. We are not in a position to take everybody on just yet but would be happy to take a few more. We will be opening up testing to everybody in January.
We have now tested files produced from Scorebridge; it would certainly be a good idea for those clubs who are using other scoring software programs to ensure that their files are tested before too long.
Details of how to test submission files will be provided on the Forum, so watch out for those details appearing as this will indicate that we are ready for you.
However, before doing so, it will be necessary to send us your membership information as otherwise we will not have database entires to test against. Indeed, by doing both of these things clubs will have tested almost everything that will be necessary for them to "go live" with Pay to Play from April 1st.
We are about to open up testing to P2P file submissions from those clubs that have already been testing their data submission with us. If any other club wants to commence their testing of data and file submissions please also contact michael@ebu.co.uk. We are not in a position to take everybody on just yet but would be happy to take a few more. We will be opening up testing to everybody in January.
We have now tested files produced from Scorebridge; it would certainly be a good idea for those clubs who are using other scoring software programs to ensure that their files are tested before too long.
Details of how to test submission files will be provided on the Forum, so watch out for those details appearing as this will indicate that we are ready for you.
However, before doing so, it will be necessary to send us your membership information as otherwise we will not have database entires to test against. Indeed, by doing both of these things clubs will have tested almost everything that will be necessary for them to "go live" with Pay to Play from April 1st.
Tuesday 29 September 2009
Blog 38 - P2P Computer Systems update
I thought it timely that this blog provides an update on the progress of the Pay to Play computer facilities.
The EBU uses a “package” system for managing its membership, known as Enterprise. This system has been in use at Aylesbury for quite a few years and it works well. However, it does not do everything we require it to do when we change over from an annual subscription to a Pay to Play subscription. Our resident IT expert has therefore been hard at work writing an internet based “add on” to Enterprise which will be entirely under our control but will still use Enterprise as required.
Current Position
We have written and tested the software that synchronises the Enterprise package with our Database. As IT people love to label everything this is now called “MUSE”, which stands for “Michael’s Utility for Synchronising Enterprise” – no prizes for who created that name!
We have developed and tested a standard file description for transmitting Pay to Play session data to the EBU. This standard was originally developed by Chris Stableford, the Chairman of Surrey CBA (thanks Chris!) and an IT consultant. We still occasionally liaise with Chris to make minor adjustments but this is becoming rare. Currently more than a dozen scoring system authors (including all the major ones) have responded positively to our contacts saying that they will be updating their programs to cope with Pay to Play and a number of these have sent us test files already.
We have tested “real” membership data from a number of clubs now and this has gone well. This involves checking EBU numbers against our database for accuracy, looking up names and addresses of those without EBU numbers to see if they are or were members, checking postcodes and generating full addresses. There are a number of things that can be wrong with the file, e.g. 10% of the postcodes one club submitted were invalid, and we are developing a way to swiftly and clearly relay these back to the club so that they can correct them and resubmit.
We are now working on the “beautification” of the web site access that clubs and counties will use, modifying it from the very utilitarian way of doing things that IT people are happy with!
We are very grateful to Jeff Smith, who, as a member of the Universal Membership Project Board, provided valuable start up advice to us when we started the development.
Future Schedule
By approximately the end of September we will have completed work on the early version of the website interface. This may still be cosmetically sparse, but functionally complete.
In early October we will start detailed testing with the help of a small number of interested parties.
During the rest of October and November we will commence testing with a group of volunteer clubs using real-life data in real-life situations.
By the end of December we will have completed work on what will be the “go live” version of the website interface. We will then prepare the website database with live data and start synchronising it with Enterprise on a daily basis and release it for public consumption.
From January to March we will undertake large-scale testing of all aspects of the system with both individual members and clubs. Clubs will start to submit their membership data to us and will be able to play around with the system until they’re satisfied with its operation. Obviously, any Pay to Play files submitted during this period will be wiped off towards the end of March in preparation for the launch.
On April 1st 2010 we will “Go live”!
Health Warning
In my previous career my business developed software commercially. I must have been involved in more than 60 system implementations over 20 years. They almost all went live without major problems, but they almost all had minor ones! This is unfortunately normal. The computer can only get it right if we tell it the right things to do. We are working hard to get it right first time, but problems do occur, which is what the testing stages are all about, as we hope to trap most of the issues at that stage.
With the help of the key staff at Aylesbury, and the many willing volunteers who have offered their help and support we expect to get most of it right. However, even after more than three years in my job almost every week throws up another way of doing things that we knew nothing about; this means that we can be pretty certain that we will trip over one of those as we start up the new system!
We have been offered the voluntary services of more than 20 people who will be happy to assist any clubs who need some computer support. So, well in advance of going live, I ask for your patience. With patience and good humour we will get all of the changes through and move forward smoothly!
The EBU uses a “package” system for managing its membership, known as Enterprise. This system has been in use at Aylesbury for quite a few years and it works well. However, it does not do everything we require it to do when we change over from an annual subscription to a Pay to Play subscription. Our resident IT expert has therefore been hard at work writing an internet based “add on” to Enterprise which will be entirely under our control but will still use Enterprise as required.
Current Position
We have written and tested the software that synchronises the Enterprise package with our Database. As IT people love to label everything this is now called “MUSE”, which stands for “Michael’s Utility for Synchronising Enterprise” – no prizes for who created that name!
We have developed and tested a standard file description for transmitting Pay to Play session data to the EBU. This standard was originally developed by Chris Stableford, the Chairman of Surrey CBA (thanks Chris!) and an IT consultant. We still occasionally liaise with Chris to make minor adjustments but this is becoming rare. Currently more than a dozen scoring system authors (including all the major ones) have responded positively to our contacts saying that they will be updating their programs to cope with Pay to Play and a number of these have sent us test files already.
We have tested “real” membership data from a number of clubs now and this has gone well. This involves checking EBU numbers against our database for accuracy, looking up names and addresses of those without EBU numbers to see if they are or were members, checking postcodes and generating full addresses. There are a number of things that can be wrong with the file, e.g. 10% of the postcodes one club submitted were invalid, and we are developing a way to swiftly and clearly relay these back to the club so that they can correct them and resubmit.
We are now working on the “beautification” of the web site access that clubs and counties will use, modifying it from the very utilitarian way of doing things that IT people are happy with!
We are very grateful to Jeff Smith, who, as a member of the Universal Membership Project Board, provided valuable start up advice to us when we started the development.
Future Schedule
By approximately the end of September we will have completed work on the early version of the website interface. This may still be cosmetically sparse, but functionally complete.
In early October we will start detailed testing with the help of a small number of interested parties.
During the rest of October and November we will commence testing with a group of volunteer clubs using real-life data in real-life situations.
By the end of December we will have completed work on what will be the “go live” version of the website interface. We will then prepare the website database with live data and start synchronising it with Enterprise on a daily basis and release it for public consumption.
From January to March we will undertake large-scale testing of all aspects of the system with both individual members and clubs. Clubs will start to submit their membership data to us and will be able to play around with the system until they’re satisfied with its operation. Obviously, any Pay to Play files submitted during this period will be wiped off towards the end of March in preparation for the launch.
On April 1st 2010 we will “Go live”!
Health Warning
In my previous career my business developed software commercially. I must have been involved in more than 60 system implementations over 20 years. They almost all went live without major problems, but they almost all had minor ones! This is unfortunately normal. The computer can only get it right if we tell it the right things to do. We are working hard to get it right first time, but problems do occur, which is what the testing stages are all about, as we hope to trap most of the issues at that stage.
With the help of the key staff at Aylesbury, and the many willing volunteers who have offered their help and support we expect to get most of it right. However, even after more than three years in my job almost every week throws up another way of doing things that we knew nothing about; this means that we can be pretty certain that we will trip over one of those as we start up the new system!
We have been offered the voluntary services of more than 20 people who will be happy to assist any clubs who need some computer support. So, well in advance of going live, I ask for your patience. With patience and good humour we will get all of the changes through and move forward smoothly!
Thursday 9 July 2009
Blog #37 - ...even Jean will like this one...
I was recently invited by the Chairman of Exeter Bridge Club (and an EBU TD, Steve Quinn) to visit with them for one of their summer Friday Swiss Pairs evenings, so I went toddling off with Mrs C for a day.
I found a super club, with fantastic facilities, shared with an indoor bowling centre. Interestingly, this facility belongs to the City Council as a benefit of some sort of “planning gain” during a development by a supermarket chain. The resulting facility is a huge benefit to the local population, and it surely must be a wonderful model for clubs around the country, if they can get involved in a similar scheme.
The club has also been successful with Lottery funding and has obtained a dealing machine as a result. Many clubs have now followed the lead set by Alan Boyes at Pershore Bridge Club in obtaining funding and I hope many more can achieve some benefits in this way.
Why the title you may ask? Well, when I arrived at the club one of the members told me that she hated my blog! I enquired as to how she could hate all 36 of them, but she never answered, just smiled. I considered during the return journey how I could ensure that Jean likes at least one of my blogs.
This is the result!
I found a super club, with fantastic facilities, shared with an indoor bowling centre. Interestingly, this facility belongs to the City Council as a benefit of some sort of “planning gain” during a development by a supermarket chain. The resulting facility is a huge benefit to the local population, and it surely must be a wonderful model for clubs around the country, if they can get involved in a similar scheme.
The club has also been successful with Lottery funding and has obtained a dealing machine as a result. Many clubs have now followed the lead set by Alan Boyes at Pershore Bridge Club in obtaining funding and I hope many more can achieve some benefits in this way.
Why the title you may ask? Well, when I arrived at the club one of the members told me that she hated my blog! I enquired as to how she could hate all 36 of them, but she never answered, just smiled. I considered during the return journey how I could ensure that Jean likes at least one of my blogs.
This is the result!
Monday 8 June 2009
Blog #36 – Bits and Bytes
In the recent past the subject of the EBU’s results service has arisen at two different meetings I have attended, so I thought I would try to explain the issues that we have and why we cannot easily be compared to the fabulous service now available at some clubs.
As I have been reliably informed by Max Bavin, the EBU was a very early adopter of the use of technology for scoring its events. This has proven to be a real mixed blessing at times as technology has advanced. This is because many of our requirements are extremely unusual and none of the available “everyday” scoring programs will do what we need. Thus we have had to make do with existing (and ancient) code and then take the results of that and translate them into a format that can ultimately be displayed on a web page.
This has frequently required specialist input from EBU staff that is not always available at congress events and have thus had to wait for a working day to be resolved. Over recent years we have been able to do better than that on occasions as one of our staff, Ian Mitchell, is a whiz with Microsoft products and has produced a scheme that automates some of our requirements.
Over the last year or so, we have been very fortunate to start using specialist software developed by one of our members, Jeff Smith. He has, on a purely voluntary basis provided software that enables us to automate all but the most obscure of our congress and tournament events AND to utilise Bridgemates where possible as well, which happened for the first time at Brighton last year.
We are now hoping that Jeff can help us automate the provision of most of our results to our web site, so that we can subsequently report all of our results actually at the event, without specialist involvement. When Jeff has done this for us we will, as we run our events all over the country, still find that some venues provide little or no internet service for us to use. We have acquired mobile broadband “dongles” so that we can hopefully link up that way, but even that sometimes does not work!
We will continue to do our best to provide a contemporaneous results service, but 100% success cannot be guaranteed in the immediate future.
As I have been reliably informed by Max Bavin, the EBU was a very early adopter of the use of technology for scoring its events. This has proven to be a real mixed blessing at times as technology has advanced. This is because many of our requirements are extremely unusual and none of the available “everyday” scoring programs will do what we need. Thus we have had to make do with existing (and ancient) code and then take the results of that and translate them into a format that can ultimately be displayed on a web page.
This has frequently required specialist input from EBU staff that is not always available at congress events and have thus had to wait for a working day to be resolved. Over recent years we have been able to do better than that on occasions as one of our staff, Ian Mitchell, is a whiz with Microsoft products and has produced a scheme that automates some of our requirements.
Over the last year or so, we have been very fortunate to start using specialist software developed by one of our members, Jeff Smith. He has, on a purely voluntary basis provided software that enables us to automate all but the most obscure of our congress and tournament events AND to utilise Bridgemates where possible as well, which happened for the first time at Brighton last year.
We are now hoping that Jeff can help us automate the provision of most of our results to our web site, so that we can subsequently report all of our results actually at the event, without specialist involvement. When Jeff has done this for us we will, as we run our events all over the country, still find that some venues provide little or no internet service for us to use. We have acquired mobile broadband “dongles” so that we can hopefully link up that way, but even that sometimes does not work!
We will continue to do our best to provide a contemporaneous results service, but 100% success cannot be guaranteed in the immediate future.
Friday 15 May 2009
Blog 35 - It has been a while..
These days finding time to write blogs is more difficult. We are working hard to implement the new systems we have been asked to put in place and I am pleased to say that things are proceeding to plan.
I do find myself still having to deal with the most extraordinary documents that come my way and, I have to take the time to ensure that those of you who receive these documents are informed that they are full of misinformation.
Myths which are being circulated at the moment include that the EBU is requiring a "worm" (a sort of virus) to be installed on all club's computers so that the EBU would know what the clubs are doing and, separately, that the EBU is trying to legally bind clubs to the EBU. These stories and all similar ones are categorically untrue. Those of you who have read the Pay to Play pack of information sent to all our clubs and the club affiliation agreement enclosed with it, will know this to be so.
If any of you have any questions, or want real information on all aspects of Universal Membership via Pay to Play, please contact us by email on paytoplay@ebu.co.uk or on our helpline 01296 317200.
Looking to the future, we have started to introduce various membership benefits that are and will remain available exclusively to EBU members and we hope that this will include all those members in our affiliated clubs. The latest addition to this growing list being a new relationship with HMCA, an organisation that provides medical and other insurances to federations such as ours. If you already have private medical cover I suggest that you take a look via the link on our website at the options available via HMCA. The savings on this type of policy alone, if it suits you, could save considerably more than any money you may spend on membership of the EBU! Have a look at all the membership benefits here.
I do find myself still having to deal with the most extraordinary documents that come my way and, I have to take the time to ensure that those of you who receive these documents are informed that they are full of misinformation.
Myths which are being circulated at the moment include that the EBU is requiring a "worm" (a sort of virus) to be installed on all club's computers so that the EBU would know what the clubs are doing and, separately, that the EBU is trying to legally bind clubs to the EBU. These stories and all similar ones are categorically untrue. Those of you who have read the Pay to Play pack of information sent to all our clubs and the club affiliation agreement enclosed with it, will know this to be so.
If any of you have any questions, or want real information on all aspects of Universal Membership via Pay to Play, please contact us by email on paytoplay@ebu.co.uk or on our helpline 01296 317200.
Looking to the future, we have started to introduce various membership benefits that are and will remain available exclusively to EBU members and we hope that this will include all those members in our affiliated clubs. The latest addition to this growing list being a new relationship with HMCA, an organisation that provides medical and other insurances to federations such as ours. If you already have private medical cover I suggest that you take a look via the link on our website at the options available via HMCA. The savings on this type of policy alone, if it suits you, could save considerably more than any money you may spend on membership of the EBU! Have a look at all the membership benefits here.
Thursday 26 February 2009
Blog 34 - England, England
I was recently invited to a celebration party for the English teams that were so successful at the World Mind Sports games in Beijing. Just to remind you, our ladies team won a Gold medal, our Open team won Silver as did our U21 Junior team. Speakers at this party pointed out that this was the most successful English team event EVER. We have won world championships before, but the overall performance of all five teams was outstanding.
While I was there I was speaking with one of the Gold medal winning ladies and I had to point out to her the strenuous efforts that we made during the last week of the competition, when it seemed we were poised to win a few medals, to obtain some media coverage. Unfortunately we almost drew a complete blank until, literally at the last minute, we were able to make contact with James Mates, the ITN news presenter (and an enthusiastic EBU member), who managed to insert a thirty second news slot at the end of the 11pm news along with a still photo of our victorious ladies and open teams (full transcript here). As a result we made some national radio news bulletins the next day….still a poor reward for such outstanding achievement.
The same speaker at the party went on to say that this should serve as a springboard for future international success for our English teams, which again led me on to think about what our members (and non members for that matter) think about the success of our international teams. This success is due in no small way to the dedication of the participants themselves to be the best they can be, and the very many volunteers who make up the support staff; the non playing captains, coaches and selectors.
It would be really nice if bridge players throughout the country showed more support for our teams; the publicity that we could get for future success will help develop our game at all levels, and perhaps bring in more money for the game. So, watch out for future events; we always highlight these events on our web site and most of these events have featured games on Bridge Base Online, where you can very easily watch live games and see how it should (hopefully) be done. You can learn from the experts, at no cost, and at the same time support your team! Which brings me to my final point – we are investigating setting up a supporters club for our international teams. Would you be willing to join? If so, how much would you be willing to contribute? Let me know (email: englandsupporter@ebu.co.uk) so we can ensure that we can build on our success.
While I was there I was speaking with one of the Gold medal winning ladies and I had to point out to her the strenuous efforts that we made during the last week of the competition, when it seemed we were poised to win a few medals, to obtain some media coverage. Unfortunately we almost drew a complete blank until, literally at the last minute, we were able to make contact with James Mates, the ITN news presenter (and an enthusiastic EBU member), who managed to insert a thirty second news slot at the end of the 11pm news along with a still photo of our victorious ladies and open teams (full transcript here). As a result we made some national radio news bulletins the next day….still a poor reward for such outstanding achievement.
The same speaker at the party went on to say that this should serve as a springboard for future international success for our English teams, which again led me on to think about what our members (and non members for that matter) think about the success of our international teams. This success is due in no small way to the dedication of the participants themselves to be the best they can be, and the very many volunteers who make up the support staff; the non playing captains, coaches and selectors.
It would be really nice if bridge players throughout the country showed more support for our teams; the publicity that we could get for future success will help develop our game at all levels, and perhaps bring in more money for the game. So, watch out for future events; we always highlight these events on our web site and most of these events have featured games on Bridge Base Online, where you can very easily watch live games and see how it should (hopefully) be done. You can learn from the experts, at no cost, and at the same time support your team! Which brings me to my final point – we are investigating setting up a supporters club for our international teams. Would you be willing to join? If so, how much would you be willing to contribute? Let me know (email: englandsupporter@ebu.co.uk) so we can ensure that we can build on our success.
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Blog 33 - Updates
In keeping with my new slimmed down blogging profile I just want to update you on three things.First, at the present time there is a survey running accessible to all from the main web page. This survey is to gauge views from current (and potential) tournament players. The survey results will be used to inform the Tournament Committee in their future discussion. If you have any interest at all please complete this online survey, as the more responses we get the better it is for all concerned. View here.
I can also tell you that the same committee is considering a whole set of new initiatives to involve more players in our events, especially those members who are relative newcomers to our game.
Secondly, we have begun detailed work on updating an online "teach yourself bridge" facility that has been provided to us free of charge by the American Contract Bridge League for which we are very grateful. In addition, our staff is being assisted by Fred Gitelman to update the Standard American lessons to those of our Standard English format. There are a lot of changes in this area, but I would presently expect the revised version to be available in the Summer.
Finally, early in March is the Ranked Masters event; this is a great opportunity for players of all levels to compete only with their peers. In a change from previous Ranked Master events, fractional Green points are being awarded for matches won (as in Swiss events) and there is a scheme to pay half of the regular entry fee to any member who has been promoted recently. Click here for more details.
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