Project: Carleton Football: Two Decades of Change (2004-2026)
Group Members: Zach Ventura, Jack Centurelli, Tyler Mastronardi, Stefan Pavlovich and George Norsman
WordPress Tag: #Beyond The Boxscore
Shared Values and Goals
Our project will take the form of a website that takes a look at how Carleton football has changed over the past 20 seasons. We plan to visualize the changes in our team statistics and individual player records over time with interactive charts, and a brief historical timeline of team moments.
As a group, we value communication, accountability and working collaboratively on the project. We want everyone to take part and put in an effort to voice their ideas even if we do not always see eye to eye. We also acknowledge that we only have one week to complete the project and would prefer to focus on a few high quality interactive features rather than rushing through many.
Expectations for Each Other
We expect all of our group members to complete the work they have been assigned on time, communicate and collaborate regularly on the project. As parts of the website will be interconnected it is important that everyone keeps up with their individual responsibilities.
We also expect everyone to pitch in by helping out on different parts of the project when needed and to be open to feedback from the others on how to improve it. In addition, if anyone needs additional time or help with a task we expect them to notify us, instead of waiting until the last minute.
Communication
Our primary method of communication will be a group chat, where we can ask each other questions, send updates and coordinate our efforts. We also plan to meet a few times each week to share our progress, exchange ideas and decide next steps.
We will keep all research, statistical data and other materials organized in Google Drive/Google Sheets so anyone can easily access and contribute to them. We also want to make sure that everyone knows where we stand as a group and what each person is working on.
Handling Disagreements
We realize that there will be occasions when we do not agree, for example about what features to include or how to organize the website, and will address these by discussion until we can reach a consensus we are all happy with. We will listen to each other’s reasoning and try to find solutions that take all viewpoints into account, as well as considering the practicality of implementing them. We will attempt to make collective decisions rather than having one person make choices.
Accountability
If a group member struggles to complete tasks on time or does not actively contribute we will address this as a group, giving everyone a chance to voice their side before making adjustments to responsibilities if necessary. We understand that everyone is busy with their own classes, activities and commitments and thus plan to be flexible when necessary, though it is equally important for everyone to contribute equally and communicate if they are falling behind.
Responsibilities
We plan to divide our work based on everyone’s individual skills and interests. These are our initial roles, which we may tweak as the project progresses:
Zach will gather and organize the team stats on Excel/Google Sheets and help analyze the changes in scoring, rushing, passing and team performance along with visualizations. His strength lies in spreadsheets and data analysis.
Jack will research individual players, collect their statistical records, find All-MIAC selections and help pick out key performances. He will help put together the individual player section of our website. His strength is in research and finding info.
Tyler will compare the seasons and find trends in our defense, he will also help create the visualizations that allow visitors to compare teams over different years. He is interested in data analysis and visualization.
Stefan will research moments in Carleton football history, such as coaching changes, record-breaking performances and memorable seasons, and organize them chronologically, helping to connect them to the statistical data on our website.
George will focus on designing and organizing the WordPress website and integrating the various visualizations, statistics and historical information. His main strengths lie in web design. He will ensure it is easy to navigate and visually consistent.
Although each of us will be responsible for individual tasks, we will all help collect data, review each other’s work and prepare the final presentation. Tasks will also be divided on the fly and we will not confine ourselves to a specific subsection.
Strengths and Weaknesses
We believe our strengths include various skills and skill sets that should complement one another, including data/analysis skills, research skills and web design experience. We also have skills across different areas of our project, in terms of programming, visualization, general computer skills and research. Working towards individual roles should also facilitate the division of work.
We foresee one of the challenges being the extent of data to process, as the search through more than 20 years of statistics will take longer than expected (and formatting differences may also pose difficulties). We also expect some of the features we want to include will be more difficult to realize, especially if we have less experience with them.
We will address these by dividing tasks and helping each other when needed, starting by getting the main features working before adding the extras and by each focusing on what he is most comfortable doing. We also recognize that it will be difficult to coordinate five different schedules and will therefore ensure we plan meetings and discussions ahead of time.
Our Goal Moving Forward
In the end we would like to have a website that showcases the history of Carleton football, compares our teams over time and introduces us to future players. We hope that what we produce will be something of which we are all proud, with all group members feeling as though they made an active contribution. More broadly, we want to be able to communicate efficiently and work in cooperation with each other.