OpenChatter Project

OpenChatter Project

Sometimes progress on a project can stagnate, leaving the end result as a load of odd bits of code that don’t quite work when put together. This is especially true of group work where the aim is to integrate disparate technologies and there is no clear group leader. I finished such a project in January for the scripting languages course.

So, did we fail outright? Of course not! I wasn’t prepared to allow my team to fail so I took the bull by the horns and set into motion some serious code marathons and hard work. I started by trying to integrate all the working features of the application. unfortunately I couldn’t find any, so I got in touch with the rest of the team and arranged to meet in the labs for a major coding session. We ground away into the night, and all worked all weekend to get it working.

In the week before exams I led the presentation and demonstrated OpenChatter, a fairly complete Twitter-style web application, to the course leaders. We made a good impression, showing the features of our app running on a live website in the school. There has even been some talk of how it could be commercialised should we want to take it in that direction in the future. A 90-odd per cent mark brings this course to a tremendously satisfying conclusion.

None of this would have been possible without the dedication of the team. Understanding the status of the system was motivation enough to get everyone to join in and work together to fix it and ultimately, to ship a day ahead of schedule. It’s amazing what can be achieved when a small group of people put their minds to it together. We built most of the core features of Twitter in three days. I can scarcely imagine what we could have done if we had that kind of focus and determination from the start. Perhaps a retail release and small community following. It will definitely be interesting to revisit this project again in the future.

The only downside to the Scripting Languages course is that despite the huge group project, it still requires an exam, which seems to be largely worthless given the course format. There is so much scope for self-directed-learning on the group assignment that it would be more efficient for the School, the examiners and the students if we simply had to prove we had each covered the learning outcomes, rather than waste time with an easy exam and the stresses that can bring for so many people. The course was re-launched this year in a new format however, so I expect it will continue to be refined going forwards, as is typical of most ECS courses.