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By: Amir Sezavar Keshavarz
Abstract
This document discusses justification of project regarding advantages, benefits, and effects on social life of students.
State of this document
This document is a work in progress.
Purpose
Provide a social network website for students of the University of Southampton to facilitate their life and their education
Approach
We are going to design and develop a web-based social network website which provides various services.
Rationale and Benefits
Our main goal in this project is to facilitate the life and help newcomers when they start their journey to Southampton. Currently there are many portals and applications developed by the University of Southampton and students in different platforms such as PCs and iPhones. However they are not centralized and most of students are not aware of all of them and how they can help them.
We identified the very first needs of newcomers and other requirements through their studies and try to design and develop a web-based social network site. At first, students do not know each other and they do not know about others’ preferences and interests so it might be hard for them to find friends. Especially this is the case for shy people. So, we thought of a website to assist everyone in finding friends.
- Students with valid university email address can register their personal information to extent they want and share them to other university students (these information are local to university members). This is the first step for students to get ready for socializing. The system will use this information to recommend friends to the student.
- In field of study, the user has the opportunity to identify his field of study and register his registered modules. By doing this he can find other students who study the same field or also he can find other students who take the same modules. Then he can add them to their friend list and has the opportunity to study with them. Also in this section he can start a thread (post) and discuss about his problems in specific course and get helped from other students. He can collaborate on other questions and help his friends.
- Another important section for socializing is accommodation. We know that studying in a foreign country is very hard especially for those with first experience. They first thing they want to know is about the best halls of residency which might be appropriate for them. After they find such a hall, they want to find people who live next to them. Current registered students in our system have the opportunity to rank their halls of residency, send review of them, and upload photos or video of halls. In doing so, they are helping others to find more information about halls. Furthermore we thought it might be very helpful to find who lives next to your door and have the opportunity to chat with him and start knowing him even before you come to Southampton.
- Once the user is in Southampton and find his friends he might be interested to create an event for one night or join an event. For instance he might want to have a celebration night or something else. Our system allows the user to create an event, invite friends and even more. Furthermore other students can join the events.
- One important thing that seems to be missing in most Social Network Sites is about a personal calendar. After some time, it might be very difficult to keep track of all events and special days. We are designing a calendar for students in which they can add appointment or any other things and also the system will automatically add other events to this calendar so the student will not miss anything.
- Groups and communities are another section of our proposed system which provides more opportunities to find friend and socialize with other people. Students can create or join groups and get involved in different activities that they are going to have.
These are a brief summary of all the benefits that we are expecting from this system. Basically, we are going to facilitate living and socializing for all students of the University of Southampton and specially newcomers. The current student portal is sussed which does not meet all the students needs and specially there is nothing related to socializing in sussed account.
The vision for this project is very ambitious however in the first phase we limit ourselves to those important features.
Advantages
In progress
Effects
In progress
Why to Choose This System
This system will be designed and developed taking students into consideration. We are going to analyse user needs based on questionnaire and interviews, design a website which they prefer, and provide sections which satisfy students’ needs. By using this application, students can find new or existing friends and make the most out of their education.