The WAR On Ice operation is looking for new people to help keep the site operations going. Can we count on you?
We have a few objectives with the site, moving forward:
- Keep data accessible. We know that you like downloading things into a .csv and then doing magic with Excel, or R, or Python, or your abacus. We’re not going to change that. In fact, we’d like to make it easier for you to do.
- Act as a community portal for new projects. Have you been working on a project, and you’d like it hosted somewhere? Particularly if it uses our data to start with, if it survives vetting, we’ll work with you and help to get it online.
- Maintain accurate information. We want to uphold our reputation as a reliable source of data first and foremost.
- Solve the “bus problem”. That is: if one of us gets hit by a bus, the site should keep on going.
You should join up if you want to give back to the community that you enjoy so much, by honing your own data-ninja skills on stuff that you know will help people out.
You shouldn’t join up if:
- You want to make any money off this enterprise. Our ad revenue and donations feed straight back into server costs. If there’s anything left over, we donate back to the community or to charities recognized by the community.
- You want to become super famous. Your time would probably be better spent making YouTube videos or animated GIFs like others we love.
- You enjoy the blissful ignorance of how the data gets created in the first place and what could be wrong with it.
If you’re still interested, here are some more details about the site.
We tend to divide site operations into two categories:
- Database Creation: Our database is assembled by starting with a number of different sources: for in-game information, NHL.com and sportsnet.ca; for roster info, NHL.com and TSN; for contract and transaction data, we’ve curated our own sources. Getting this data into a usable format is no easy task, let alone integrating it all into a common framework. This is going to be even more work when the NHL decides to completely overhaul their data back-end, which we expect to happen sometime mid-season with no advance notice. Responsibilities to be taken on:
- Scraper/Manipulator Extraordinaire: Maintain the creation of our master database from original game sources.
- Contract/Cap Guru: Maintain and possibly add to our original database of contracts.
- Database Manager: Take the previous two parts and integrate them together in the back end so anyone else in the community can use them with ease.
- Quality Control: When someone does something new, run validations to make sure nothing else went to hell.
- App Creation: What good is data if we have no way to show it? Right now, we have a variety of “apps” running on WAR On Ice that allow users to query information and see it displayed in semi-aesthetically pleasing tables and charts. Yes, we know that they’re slow. That’s where you come in. You can write applications that will hook into our data — skater performance, contract information, whatever your heart desires. Right now, most of our apps are built in Shiny, but for longer-term solutions, they need to be translated into something more efficient and less server-intensive. (Servers are expensive). If everything is built upon a common database format, anyone can develop their own apps on top of this without necessarily relying on our coding method. Responsibilities to be taken on:
- Existing apps: Take the old app structure from Shiny and rebuild them as you see fit from our back-end.
- New apps: Build you own apps, extending the ones we already have. This may include working from your own ideas or ideas from the community.
- Graphics Specialist: Design new interactive graphics for our current modes that are even spiffier, and shareable/exportable to a wider audience.
Still with us? If you are interested in joining the team, please send us a note to waronice.com@gmail.com. Please include: the responsibilities you’re interested in and any prior experience you have.