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Company: Interlinked Media Ltd
Project: iHack Interactive Golf Scorecard
Dates: Aug 2007 to Sep 2007
Attachments: 
How did the project start?
Interlinked Media were asked to construct a mobile leaderboard for a local charity corporate golf tournament in Texas, USA.
Interlinked Media developed a fun, and as far as we are aware, first of its kind WAP based interactive golf leader board where the scores were input via a text message from the participants.
Interlinked Media provided the software development and outbound text message costs and carrier provisioning to ensure the smooth running of the text program.
What options did you consider?
Groups were asked to text in their score after every hole. Each reply message had a link to a WAP site where players could check out not only their own team’s score but also the whole competition leaderboard
What help and expertise did you receive?
When the teams arrived at registration they were requested to designate one person or phone as the team score captain responsible for reporting their score via text message.
(for Interlinked Media’s purposes, the cell # was the record ID)
At the start of the shotgun tournament this person texted the keyword ‘Hole’ + the starting hole number to 77007 to begin.
After the player replied they received a reply message asking for their score on that hole.
"Hole 3 is a par 5 sponsored by Yahoo! Reply to this txt with your score, e.g. 5 when u finish. Check the leaderboard at http://www.interlinked.mobi";
Subsequently, each time the player replied with the score, they received a message which asked them to reply with the score for the next hole and so on. Additionally, at this point every message contained a link to the leader board that listed all team names and scores as they were texted in…the site updated on refresh.
Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?
The main challenge faced was to ensure that players not only sent their scores by text but also recorded them on their scorecards. Unfortunately this did not last very long and it was soon apparent that a certain amount of fabricated scoring was taking place!
For future uses of the software it was decided to make sure each side scored for their opponents rather than for them selves!
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Over 144 players participated in this annual high profile charity golf event organized by DFWIMA. Companies represented included Yahoo, AOL, Samsung, MSN, USA Today and Google.
The response from the players (38 teams) was extremely positive.
Companies were also able to sponsor text messages which increased the potential for future fund raising when using this mechanic.
The profile of the company received a great increase and this together with opportunity to showcase our software technology expertise helped to gain new business.
What are your plans for the future?
We are hoping to use this application for corporate and fun golf days here in the UK in the not so far future.
Additional Functionality- Though not used in this particular event, there is also the possibility to include the following well known functions:
Longest Ball
On the longest ball marker the sign had instructions to text LONG + NAME + APPROX Yardage to 77007 (e.g. Long Mike Anderson 370). The Longest Ball hitter with yardage was also displayed on the leader board.
Closest to the Pin
The closest to the pin marker had instructions to text Pin + Name + Approx Feet to 77007 (e.g. Pin Mike Anderson 3). The Closest to the pin with footage was also displayed on the leader board.
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