So, what can we do better next year -- Dakar Coverage?

[doyle]

Originally Posted by troy safari carpente

... we need one of THESE:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=131

I added Floods global time code to the main threads opening post. Perhaps now just some friendly reminders of where to check start times and how to reference the local time.

[Flood]

Originally Posted by Flood

Working on it...

So here are the embedded time zone clocks:

Local time in Peru

Local time in Chile and Argentina

Local time in London, UK

Local time in Central Europe

Local time in the US: EST

Local time in the US: CST

Local time in the US: MST

Local time in the US: PST

Local time in Australia: WST

Local time in Australia: CST

Local time in Australia: CDT

Local time in Australia: EST

Local time in Australia: EDT


Master doyle has added them to the opening post of the official live-coverage thread. Everyone can hit the "quote" button to grab the code and use the relevant clock (Peru or Chile/Argentina) in their post when it matters.

[Myway]

Originally Posted by Flood

So here are the embedded time zone clocks:


Master doyle has added them to the opening post of the official live-coverage thread. Everyone can hit the "quote" button to grab the code and use the relevant clock (Peru or Chile/Argentina) in their post when it matters.

Local time in:
: .......... : .......... : .......... :CST
: EST : CST : MST : PST .......... : WST : CST : CDT : EST : EDT

[D.T.]

Holy sh$t that's cool....

[kaia]

Originally Posted by Flood

Thanks for bumping this, I re-read everything.

We did the most unimaginative thing this year - throwing more manpower at the problem.

Thankfully, Troy and Doyle stepped up and are willing to help out in the mod squad. The basic problem is still that this is all a volunteer operation, every one having jobs and families to take care of. The ADV team F5 experience will always be something completely different from a commercial, edited news organization. But thanks to Baldy, we also don't have to make our sponsors happy and we don't have to stop our broadcast to show Darts or Curling or Football (and yes, ad-supported forums do experience pressure to censor content that's not in line with the advertiser's "public image").

i'll be around to help moderate & update the cliff notes thread again this year.

i talked to baldy / ops to make sure the servers are ready to handle the traffic that the F5rehose spawns, no word yet if anything on the forum will have to be disabled to handle the traffic load - i'll ask again in a minute and get back to everyone.

[doyle]

Originally Posted by kaia

i'll be around to help moderate & update the cliff notes thread again this year.

i talked to baldy / ops to make sure the servers are ready to handle the traffic that the F5rehose spawns, no word yet if anything on the forum will have to be disabled to handle the traffic load - i'll ask again in a minute and get back to everyone.

Thanks again Kaia!

I'll be around too as much as I can although most of my interaction will be through the nights (East Coast time). Work (sucks), three very expensive consultants that I babysit, and a special stage like commute will preclude me from devoting too much time during the 6:30am to 7pm time frame but I will pop in and try not to mess too much up as frequently as I can.

[Flood]

Originally Posted by kaia

i'll be around to help moderate & update the cliff notes thread again this year.

i talked to baldy / ops to make sure the servers are ready to handle the traffic that the F5rehose spawns, no word yet if anything on the forum will have to be disabled to handle the traffic load - i'll ask again in a minute and get back to everyone.

Awesome. I gave the boss a heads-up a week ago or so. Good to have someone close to the hardware.

[kaia]

Originally Posted by Flood

Awesome. I gave the boss a heads-up a week ago or so. Good to have someone close to the hardware.

spoke with ops - they're expecting the traffic and will take similar measures to what they did last year (disabling uploading photos, whatnot)...

they ARE planning an upgrade to a more scalable backend system, but were unable to complete the move before the race this year. the database is usually the bottleneck, and will continue to be so until the upgrade happens (once dakar F5 madness settles down).

thanks as usual to Baldy and the SmugMug ops team for keeping us online during our favorite time of year!

[Flood]

[PackMule]

Originally Posted by Carlos M

Yep, thanks in advance for keeping the place organized. Also, I know it's impossible to control, but if you could keep this "internationally rally oriented" it would be great. Though I am afraid that with all the R. Gordon infatuation and with J Christ himself competing on a Honda the F5reHose may look more and more like we're following Baja 8K

This is going to be Helder's Year.

[Myway]

Originally Posted by PackMule

This is going to be Helder's Year.

Uhhmmm, what can we do better to make it possible?

[Resist]

Originally Posted by doyle

I am completely convinced that this thread (and the forum) is the single most comprehensive, English language source for Dakar news and information.

Absolutely it is. Bar none. And there is a lot of value in that - value that could be extracted to help find sponsors etc.

Originally Posted by doyle

That being said, I am not so sure an embedded reporter would be as valuable as it may seem. Scotty Breauxman (sp?) expressed a lot of frustration at the expense for just the credentials ($6K), then the costs to use ASO bandwidth, and then the controls they place over the content.

Disagree a bit.
Yes, the expense is hard, the ASO charges are incredible, (so much so that I chose to drive an extra hour or two a day to use wifi in the nearest town instead), and the controls they place over content will ruin your chances of having live footage, or footage even aired on the same day from each stage. that barrier is not insurmountable, but you will have to pay through the nose.
However, having someone on the ground means getting people physically walking up to each tent in the bivouac, interviewing, transcribing, writing a story and uploading. I was doing it for six people (only the Aussies) in 2010 and 2011, and it took me about 4 hours each day. Given that most of them roll in at different times, you end up usually just waiting for the last guy and then it's all finished 15 minutes after that. You could cover a lot more stories if you focussed only on storylines, not individual people. You could save a lot of time by purchasing the ASO bandwidth, and uploading audio instead of video.
What I did this year with Storify was a bit of an experiment, but basically Twitter, Facebook etc are telling a lot more of the story these days. Your best bet coverage wise is to put one/two people on the ground for interviews which flesh out the stories, and one person compiling from the day's run of F5, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, and Facebook traffic.

Originally Posted by doyle

Embedded team mates like Deadly99 add invaluable updates but I am not sure how practical it is for someone form one team to roam around interviewing others.

Not very, but that's why you should put in an actual media accredited person. Don't forget, anyone with a team can't go to places like stage finishes or anything. That is only practical some of the time anyway, but my best interviews I took at stage finishes, not in the bivouac.

Originally Posted by doyle

Live, English language (Maray) type coverage

Not without a helicopter of your own!

Finally, on the funding thing. Looking for a sponsor is a good option. The other option is click-through ads or even view ads, but from memory the latest going price for internet ads is $US28/1000 unique visitors.

That means with three ads on each page you need just under a 300,000 unique visitors to hit $25,000. << That's hard if run in a forum format. You would need to branch out to a separate site, with SEO and everything else.

I'm not a well-known person on F5 so I hope I don't sound like an upstart. I have been on the ground twice at the Dakar, and I was the editor of speedtv.com.au, so I feel like I can talk on this subject.

[doyle]

Originally Posted by Resist

I'm not a well-known person on F5 so I hope I don't sound like an upstart. I have been on the ground twice at the Dakar, and I was the editor of speedtv.com.au, so I feel like I can talk on this subject.

Not at all. Not only are the comments welcome, they are very much appreciated! My perspective does not include actually being there so my comments come from all the statements we've heard from those returning who always comment on how we knew so much more about what was going on from here.

That said, I do think things are changing, this year more than any other. The proliferation of social media is such that it is near impossible to keep up with everything that is going on. I see the value of the on the ground reportage as being the behind the scene's stuff and the human stories rather than the "So and so clocked in at CP3 just 4" in front of so and so"...

The daily play by play is easy enough to cover remotely and probably easier that from on site, but as you said, the end of stage comments, the bivouac stories, etc.. that is the real gold.

What's great about this forum is the perspectives from all the various areas of Dakar, reporters, mechanics, drivers, racers, etc... we really get a good picture of what it really is all about.

[Myway]

Next year:

I like to see who is riding together at wp cp ass points
We know starting times, WP CP times.

How can we make that visual?

Any idea?

[too old]

Originally Posted by Myway

Next year:

I like to see who is riding together at wp cp ass points
We know starting times, WP CP times.

How can we make that visual?

Any idea?

Even live tracking would be great, we are going to see it at many of the rally's this year and whilst there is a several minute delay it's still pretty good solution.

There can't be too much money involved if they do it through the year and having the public following some 3-5 minutes behind is hardly going to influence the rally, and if it does, well good luck to any competitive rider who could actually turn it into an advantage, personally I thing they would lose time trying