A belated assist for Pat Coyle’s year-long MyColts.net project. Pat recently posted a plea for users:
Our beta is going well…we need to expand the test group…so if anyone out there wants in, please let me know.
Just into beta as of May 9, the project is trying to capture the power of social networking sites for the specific niche of Indianapolis Colts fans. Pat’s blog has chronicled the few other sports franchises and leagues attempting similar releases, but this is trailblazing stuff for the NFL. I’d like to think our sports informatics class project work for him a year ago at Indiana University—my team’s sports informatics concept for him was a small group collaboration game to predict stats—was influential.
One of the interesting aspects of the MyColts.net implementation will be the generation of fan “cred” based on ways of engaging the community. Each member will earn points and be ranked based on blogs, events, groups, photos and surveys. That’s a nice nod to the idea that people contribute to a community in different valuable ways.
