Alex:
First, I'd like to know how a web application is going to communicate with the timing lights, which is where we'd like to go w/ this software. I could be wrong but I don't think mysql/php has a way to spawn a thread to read from a serial port and write to shared memory.
The real solution to the problem is to write a windows application that doesn't require any rediculous steps like uploading scores via a cell phone
or buying a new OS for the laptop as well as DBMS systems. Your options start at expensive and rediculous and end with pure retardation (the people running the bus have a hard time understanding the term "click the mouse"... you think they'll be able to mange debugging a cell-phone based internet connection? And who's paying for all that connectivity?).
And in general, running an "application" on a network designed to share text files will *always* be the zero-g pen and *never* the pencil. Using port 80 for anything beyond the serving of pure text documents is a hack. Hell, I'm surprised email even works.
Now I'm not trying to come down on your enthusiasm, but enthusiasm alone doesn't solve problems. You need experience w/ the problem 1st. You learn the current T&S software, the way season points are managed, be chief of timing and scoring for a season or two, and figure out when web services are useful vs. when regular applications are useful, and then we can talk about a new software development project. I thought it was easy too when I first took the job of T&S chief in 2004... it's not easy, it sucks, especially when the design requirements change every year. For now, the software I wrote will be updated to the new scoring rules before the next event, and will be plenty adequate for this years results.