Home  SportsVL
Development
 
(The Development Forum is not available for a while)
What is SportsVL  and  How is it managed?
What is happening to SportsVL

What is wrong the current site?  The planned changes
Getting Involved  What skills are required?
What are the rewards            The next step
See also Librarians  New Site
 
What is SportsVL
  The Virtual Library of Sport, http://sportsvl.com  is the equivalent of a conventional library, but filled with web links rather than books to the best sports resources on the web providing a service to sports fans and participants to help in finding information on topics such as:
 
• Get to know a new sport,
• Find some training exercises or develop specific skills in a sport,
• Follow that important sport event that's on right now,
• Look up the history of your favorite team,
• Locate information on a sport or a club in an area you are visiting
• Find stats on your favourite sport
• And more
 
How is it Managed?
   The site as a whole is currently managed by one person - the webmaster, supported by voluntary 'Librarians', who advise on content of specific sports pages and answer questions on their own subject. There are hundreds of Librarians all round the world, but still many sports topics are not supported in this way and the site is still in development
What’s happening to SportsVL?
  The SportsVL website is being re-built. We are trying to design and build a new SportsVL website that will bring it up-to-date with current technology and be an even better site for people to visit and use.
What was wrong with the old site?
  The current SportsVL website holds a lot of very useful information and performs well in the search engines, but it has an out of date look and feel, it can be hard to find the information that you want, and it requires a lot of manual work to keep information up-to-date.
So what’s going to be different about the new site?
  Good question! We are still in the process of developing ideas for the site, building on the achievements of SportsVL to date, but we have some clear goals to achieve. Firstly, we want to create a fresh up-to-date look and feel that is easy to navigate and use. Secondly, we want to build the site using a structure that makes it easy to maintain and grow. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we want to create a site where anyone can have a much more hands-on involvement in making sure that their favourite sport is well represented - and therefore anyone who is interested in that sport can easily find the information they are after.
What does this have to do with me?!
  We are very keen to make sure that the way we build the new site reflects the views of a wide range of people. It is very important that the site grows and changes in a positive direction and this is your opportunity to make your feelings known and contribute to a better site in the future.
Simply put, you are now in a great position to directly contribute to what should become the most definitive resource for sports related information on the internet.
What skills do I need to join in
  The only qualifications you need are to have a passion for sports, and access to the internet.
On top of that, if you have experience in any kind of web technology, then even better – but we are also looking to involve anyone who is interested in making sure that the new site is developed in a way that suits potential users.
We are particularly interested in seeing if anyone has relevant skills to contribute to the project, which could include:
• Website design and or development
• Database development
• Search engine optimisation experience
• Online marketing and advertising experience
• Data entry skills (and time!)
If you don’t have any of these, or are already too committed to other things to have sufficient time, but you do have an opinion and an interest in how SportsVL may develop, we would also love to have you involved in the project. Contact us if you want to join in. Alternatively – or as well – we encourage you to pass on the message to any sports nut you know of who might be interested in getting involved!
Will I get rewarded for my work?
  In many ways! We are committed to reserving a percentage of any profit from this project for people that invest their time and effort, but at this stage what is most important is that you have a passion for sport, of any kind – and you are interested in contributing to a global project that will be a great place for people to come and find out all about your favourite sporting subject. We are looking for people who will find this a rewarding experience in itself – if any money comes of it in the future this is a purely a bonus.

Brian webmaster at SportsVL.com and the Tangy Interactive team