1 / 17

Information Consolidation: NU Review

RTFM-6 Fall 2005. Information Consolidation: NU Review. Sam Rossoff Jared Kling Ryan Buterbaugh Jimmy Tang Yimming Liu. Background: So where should I live Freshman year?. Lack of consolidated information on NU and Evanston services Online information at NU's site is sparse

suki
Download Presentation

Information Consolidation: NU Review

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. RTFM-6 Fall 2005 Information Consolidation:NU Review Sam Rossoff Jared Kling Ryan Buterbaugh Jimmy Tang Yimming Liu

  2. Background:So where should I live Freshman year? • Lack of consolidated information on NU and Evanston services • Online information at NU's site is sparse • Dorms: What the heck does a “TV Lounge” mean? • Dining halls: Am I getting ripped off by the meal plans? • Classes: CTECs are often vague • “THIS CLASS ROCKS!” • “Professor X can't lecture for $*(#@&” • Where should students and prospective students turn?

  3. Turn to... NU REVIEW*! *Working Title

  4. What is NU Review? • Mission Statement: • To create an online review site for the Northwestern community consisting of: • Pages of factual information on the institution being reviewed • Student reviews of said institution • Covering institutions of concern to the Northwestern community • Dorms, dining halls, area restaurants, possibly classes or professors

  5. Specific Objectives:Online Community • Create an online Northwestern-based community • Facebook.com, Instant Messaging, Blackboard, CTECS, HereAndNow, and others all have deficiencies • Mainly, lack of interactivity • Even in CTECS • No ability to respond to CTECS • No ability to review events on HereAndNow or suggest • alternatives

  6. Specific Objectives:Reviews, Reviews, Reviews • Provide a venue for commenting and reviewing which does not currently exist • Ability to respond to reviews • Does not exist in CTECS • To review unreviewed (or poorly reviewed) NU and Evanston institutions • Dorms • Dining halls • Allow for linking between reviews • What dining halls are near specific dorms? • What specific classes or professors go well together?

  7. Specific Objectives:Well that all sounds good... • Determine if such a site would provide wanted service to the Northwestern community • We believe it would • But admit we could be wrong

  8. Why NU Review:Well, what's our competition? • Current Northwestern systems are... • without any review ability • HereAndNow's schedule guide • not in real time • CTECS • subject to censorship or selection • CTECS • difficult to use • ASG's restaurant guide • And again....CTECS

  9. Why NU Review:Because we just love prospies • Help newer members of the Northwestern community • Older students can share experiences • Create base content to build off • Newer students benefit from the knowledge base • Add their experiences • Help those that follow

  10. Project Scope and Launch-Critical Goals • Initial launch would cover only dorms • Leave room for addition of other categories in the future • Launch-critical goals • Wiki System • Base website • Seed Data • Initial information • Possibly initial reviews

  11. Project Scope and Launch-Critical Goals • Launch-critical goals, continued • Improved Comment System • Deficiencies of current MediaWiki discussion system • Able to edit entire discussion • No Threads • Not conducive to reviews • LDAP / Northwestern Authentication • Limit the community to Northwestern members • Downside: Graduated students cannot participate • Possibly create ex-student accounts

  12. Future Goals • Allow viewers to rate reviews • Provide benefits for logging in • Reputation • Posting highly rated reviews bumps your reviews higher • Automatic suggestions • “Based on what you have looked at, you might also be interested in...” • Email notifications • Upon response to a review • Upon updating a “Watched” page

  13. Current Available Resources • MediaWiki • Allow for user editability • Previously noted Discussion limits • No Northwestern-based wiki with the scope which we plan to cover • Static NU information pages • Provide some information we plan to cover • No direct user feedback • Cannot respond directly to CTECS • Cannot respond at all to dorm descriptions on University Housing's website

  14. Tools • MediaWiki • Underlying framework • Will require reconfiguration to meet our specific purpose • LDAP integration • Extract information • User authentication • Northwestern University websites • Gather information for launch

  15. Tools • Surveys • Pre-launch survey • Determine interest • Post-launch survey • Determine awareness • Determine Response • Publicity • Listservs • Flyering sidewalks

  16. Pending Issues • Actual page layout • How and where are reviews placed? • How much should be editable? • Determine through reputation system? • Free for all, in the spirit of Wikis? • Compromise between the two? • How usable is a wiki to the average student? Will users be able to effectively participate? • Surveys and beta testing will help answer these questions

  17. NU Review “To boldly go where only ASG has gone before. Also, a couple of the Northwestern University websites. But they all failed.” Any questions?

More Related