Go has been getting a bit more popular these days, but I would still say that there are possibilities for new and creative go resources to be brought up to the go community.

People have created resources in the past. For example, KGS, Daily Joseki, Senseis Library, and even this forum are resources that we have as go players. It's not just technological resources that we have, either.

Go books translated into English, go clubs where we can meet other players, tournaments, and the like are also resources that we have as go players. But I feel like there could be more. There are other inventions to be made, and other ways that we might be able to appease our interest in go. It's 2011, and connecting with both information and other people is easier than ever. I'd like for people to use this thread as an outlet of imagination.

What are we lacking in go resources. Don't worry about the details of implementation or organization. What would be "cool to have" for a go player? Let's brainstorm some ideas.

I'll start out with saying that it'd be cool to have go problems in my local newspaper.

What's a go resource that you think would be "cool to have"?

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be immersed

Problem sets of different themes with interactive solver, which would tell the user his level based on responses.

A program for creating diagrams easily with cross-platform functionality (forums, sgf file).

Newspaper would be cool but with the decline of print news these days I think you'd have to show a real readership boost or other financial appeal which is pretty lacking right now. On similar topics my local main paper now just has a very small daily chess problem and a weekly bridge column that mainly talks about news instead of instruction or anything like the "Magic of Go" columns.

But I agree with the basis behind suggesting this. Anything that improves visibility over the broadest audience possible would be best right now in my opinion. Taking this game out the back rooms and putting in the light of day would help all of us more. But how? I think the AGF has a great plan for the long run by promoting go in schools but national visibility would be great. Facebook it up? Import more Korean Maxim issues? Get the national SF crowd thinking of it as the "smart person's game"? Challenge IBM to come up with a hardware/software solution that'll challenge dan-level players on 19x19? Introduce full-contact rules and make a cable show out of it?

Unfortunately, I don't have any real good ideas at the moment that don't require massive amounts of sponsorship (i.e. $$$$) but maybe someone else can run with this concept. Maybe print promotion through the alt-weekly newspapers (again pushing the idea that hip, cool, and smart people play this)?

Bruce "Citizen Ko" Young

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Currently reading: Plutarch, Cerebus, and D&Q 25th Anniversary

Its funny you mention this. On a slight tangent, I've recently wondered if that would be a viable method of increasing exposure. Put some promotional money into weekly ads, where the ad is a go problem and info for a local go club and/or Go organization. Have it placed near the other game stuff, to grab the most likely audience.

I want to see a program that can accurately count territory, and tell beginners if a given group is alive or dead. And why.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

It would be cool to see programs that could analyze .sgf files. I mentioned recently Jedo's thread (viewtopic.php?p=54948#p54948) that it would be cool if you could see statistics based on SGFs, such as invasions, josekis used, and so on. To further expand this idea, it would be cool if these programs could analyze the opening, identify the moves that most vary from professional games (comparing with an existing database of pro games). I'm trying to think of other information that could be extracted from sgfs, but it would be cool to be able to automatically get a lot of data out of games, both for study purposes and entertainment.

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Recently I missed the 2011 Southern California Championship tournament.
I'm not 100% sure I would have attended, but I didn't even know it was happening.

It got me thinking... an RSS feed for tournaments sure would have been nice.

Right now in my spare time I'm compiling my own joseki database filled with josekis of my own invention. I don't know if anyone would be interested in them but when I reach 1000 variations someone might like to look at them. The sgf file is slowly getting filled with interesting comments and stuff.

The decline of print media is actually favorable to an increase in go-related resources. Printing a go problem or a game commentary in a newspaper every week isn't going to happen in the West because of cost. But having such a thing in an e-newspaper costs way less.

I'd like to see the Japanese TV go programming available on line or on cable in the USA. Maybe it could be added to hulu or hulu plus for example.

"josekis of my own invention..."

I hope that works out for you.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

Hehe, they are actually just a dictionary of corner variations. I'm not strong enough to ensure optimum play for each move, but I am strong enough to have each variation result in being about equal for each side, so I say so in my opening remarks :p

What i always felt is we lack a singular place that has not one but a variety of recourses. scattered around the Internet you stumble upon a site who has a beginners course, or tsumego, or joseki and if you want a teacher (a good/paid one) good luck on finding one because there is no central point for something like that.

The ASR is going to make such a place, its a HUGE project and it will take a lot of time to make, but i am confident that it will and can work.

For now we are working on a simple site where you can make a profile and where teachers can host lectures(events) which we will expand over time. eventually it must support many things like a study section, the league, tournaments and the like.

the main focus now is giving teachers a place to teach and students a place to find them (more easily).

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admin of the ASR league and KGS admin

I guess you missed this thread Did L19² became a bit quiet?, and perhaps in particular this post in that thread
viewtopic.php?p=55071#p55071, where Phil writes:

L19 having a quiet week isn't a good indicator of Go popularity dropping off. I also don't know how accurate a claim we can draw from AGA and BGA membership (for example, I am not a member of the CGA). Go server usage is one possible indicator of Go's popularity, but that might overstate Go's recent popularity (instead showing us something about the popularity of the Internet). Go interest may be declining or increasing, but I'm not sure of any easy way to tell.

Edit: Although if Go servers were also declining in usage, then I would find it easier to believe that Go's popularity is waning.

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We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Yes, go printed in the newspaper is probably just a fantasy - but I'd still prefer it to e-newspapers



Yeah, that would be cool.

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be immersed

My own hope is that the go community will militantly bring go into preschools, kindergartens, and elementary schools. How an online resource could help with that, I don't know.

No, you've read it backwards.

I agree with you, that a slow week for L19 doesn't mean there's a drop in Western Go activity. But with a drop in Western Go activity we might see a slow week at L19.

So, the point is -- some (Phil, et al) think that overall Go activity is declining, while others (Kirby, et al) feel its still increasing. Clearly it can't be both.

Hey I have a question. I'm fairly good at paintings. Do you think it might help raise interest in the game if I were to make a series of paintings featuring, say famous rappers or other pop culture icons playing go? I could distribute them on deviantART to get exposure, and maybe go from there.

You'd probably get a nice note from a lawyer if you actually had famous people playing go. On the other hand, if you have an artistic flair you could make a great contribution by designing a dozen or so poster for advertising go clubs. Go clubs always seem to want to advertise but don't have a good template to work from. Some nice artwork and a few sample posters would go a long way.

As usual, we need numbers.

The AGA membership database says there are 2260 current members of the AGA. This includes complementary memberships to foreign go associations and other goodwill gestures, but it's probably not too far off and is a good benchmark. The number is down by about 10% from its high a few years ago, and that's factoring in the much cheaper introductory membership that was designed to boost membership.

Let's look at tournament activity from the AGAGD:

Year ending 2011-03-06: 118 tournaments
Year ending 2010-03-01: 120
Year ending 2009-03-01: 178
Year ending 2008-03-01: 168
Year ending 2007-03-01: 118
Year ending 2006-03-01: 142

Tournament activity is down almost 30% from its peak two years ago.

I think it's clear that organized activity is declining. To me the real question is why. The Ing foundation stopped funding Western go organizations in 2010, so that no doubt has something to do with it.