Comments on: Quokka, Redux? http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/ Adaptive Path Blog Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:25:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Allan Padgett http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/#comment-51713 Allan Padgett Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:30:21 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/#comment-51713 So, I wrote the tracker and wanted add my 2 cents. One, the tracker was built in under 4 weeks by me and two part-time engineers, one on Flex Data Service back end and one coordinating with the video provider. Two, we were ahead of our time. The video/audio stream was off and on all day. The GPS information was being routed through phone services and then to a satelite and then to a CSC server and THEN to the application. And sadly, even the simple chore of clustering the main website hosting the application was often not running well. Thus the spotty coverage throughout the race... But, surely those are all solvable today? Add a bit of refinement on my 4-week effort and surely this could be a great addition to television and radio? Thoughts? Hit me at http://www.allanpadgett.com and let me know. So, I wrote the tracker and wanted add my 2 cents. One, the tracker was built in under 4 weeks by me and two part-time engineers, one on Flex Data Service back end and one coordinating with the video provider. Two, we were ahead of our time. The video/audio stream was off and on all day. The GPS information was being routed through phone services and then to a satelite and then to a CSC server and THEN to the application. And sadly, even the simple chore of clustering the main website hosting the application was often not running well. Thus the spotty coverage throughout the race… But, surely those are all solvable today? Add a bit of refinement on my 4-week effort and surely this could be a great addition to television and radio? Thoughts? Hit me at http://www.allanpadgett.com and let me know.

]]> By: Henning Fischer http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/#comment-49460 Henning Fischer Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:53:33 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/#comment-49460 Ah, the boom. You, of course, are absolutely right. Quokka failed, like so many others, due to the lack of a coherent business plan. Design was never really the question. Quokka was years ahead of most. However, I can't help but wonder if things like the Tour tracker are <i> still </i> too far ahead of their time. As Jeff points out in his post, this is where television could go. Its certainly not there yet. Let's hope that things like the Tour tracker push the entire industry in that direction. But I have doubts. If we can't get it right with the granddaddy of stats sports, baseball, are marginal sports/points of entry our best option? Ah, the boom. You, of course, are absolutely right. Quokka failed, like so many others, due to the lack of a coherent business plan. Design was never really the question. Quokka was years ahead of most. However, I can’t help but wonder if things like the Tour tracker are still too far ahead of their time. As Jeff points out in his post, this is where television could go. Its certainly not there yet. Let’s hope that things like the Tour tracker push the entire industry in that direction. But I have doubts. If we can’t get it right with the granddaddy of stats sports, baseball, are marginal sports/points of entry our best option?

]]> By: Eric Rodenbeck http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/#comment-49204 Eric Rodenbeck Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:25:09 +0000 http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/02/22/quokka-redux/#comment-49204 Quokka failed because of bad business decisions (i.e. get all your money in large chunks from VCs and call it "event sponsorship"), not because of the interfaces we were making. The company eventually had 300 people & offices all over the place; the lion's share of the new race tracker (headed up by Michael Gough, former CCO at Quokka, not coincidentally) was built by <a href="http://www.yottapixel.com/2007/02/18/live-videodataimage-mix-of-california-bike-race/" rel="nofollow">five people in three weeks</a>. My feeling (I was the art director) was always that we could have done much more and better work, and lasted alot longer, if we'd only had half the people :) But those were the salad days, when companies were valued by how many people they had. Quokka failed because of bad business decisions (i.e. get all your money in large chunks from VCs and call it “event sponsorship”), not because of the interfaces we were making.

The company eventually had 300 people & offices all over the place; the lion’s share of the new race tracker (headed up by Michael Gough, former CCO at Quokka, not coincidentally) was built by five people in three weeks. My feeling (I was the art director) was always that we could have done much more and better work, and lasted alot longer, if we’d only had half the people :) But those were the salad days, when companies were valued by how many people they had.

]]>