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Web Sites for Debate Research

Hey, folks:

The hour of the topic selection will soon be upon us, and I plan to put
together a page of links on the topic again, similar to the one I set up
last year (still online at http://128.59.173.136/Columbia/DB8.html). 
There was a fair amount of duplication between my page and a couple of
others, so I would like to avoid that if possible this time around.  If
Randall Pitelli still reads this list, he should get in touch with me, and
I would like to hear from anyone else who would like to participate in
setting up meta-sites for debate research.  As I see it, we could divide
the work into categories like: 

1) Case Lists - requires a relatively constant input of work throughout
the year.  Good for someone who reads the "L" and has an hour a week to
reformat the lists into HTML and post them.  See the Columbia Debate
research site for an example, though a searchable database would be MUCH
better.  Randall, this seems tailor-made for a computer dude like you. 

2) General Topic Research Site - requires a large expenditure of effort at
the beginning of the year, then only minor tinkering (fixing link rot,
incorporating new sites) during the season.  This would contain links and
brief descriptions for resources where debaters could find good cards
specific to the topic.

3) News and Current Events Site - could easily be combined with the above,
and already exists on the Columbia site.  This would have links to
resources that debaters will need on every topic, e.g. newspapers, CNN,
Government document sources.

4) Generic  Arguments Site - would require a large expenditure of effort
on a one-time basis, then periodic updating as new generic positions
become popular.  It should include links to information on the popular
meatballs: Clinton, Nanotech, Space (unless that's the topic), A-life,
Spending, Federalism, etc.  Nobody would be expected to post all of the
latest Clinton disad brinks each week, but it should be possible for a new
team to get a bunch of evidence on these popular positions with relatively
little effort, then fine-tune them with other resources.

I think that division works out to be about even in terms of work and
importance.  I would like to keep the Topic-specific site and News sites
at Columbia, since that fits in well with my schedule (and already exists
to some extent).  Our site will also have an instruction manual for doing
debate research on the Web, since backchannel conversations I've had with
several folks have indicated a need for that.  The case list ended up
being a real chore when added to the maintenance work on the other pages,
so I would be more than happy to turn that over to someone else.  I never
really set up very good links to generics (probably because of my lack of
interest in them), so a volunteer for that would also be welcome.

It goes without saying that the different sites would be linked - we can
discuss the specifics of that as well.

Other suggestions are welcome, and of course this doesn't preclude people
setting up their own sites outside of this coordinating effort.  My goal
is to make sure that the maximum number of people have access to the
maximum amount of information in a maximally useful format for debate.

Drop me a note, and let's get this thing put together.

          --Alan

P.S. There was also a bibliography posted to the "L" last year for
articles, books, and organizations relevant to the topic.  I put it on the
Columbia page, and think it was helpful to smaller programs that might
have had difficulty covering all of the material in their initial search.
If someone wants to volunteer a team's bibliography early in the season,
that could be added easily to any of the sites described above.

__________________
Alan Dove
N3IMU
ad52@columbia.edu
http://128.59.173.136/Poliolab/Alan/Dove.html
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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