Project Ideas

Codifying Accidental Knowledge (or Cultural/Local Information)
One of my major problems as a graduate student was figuring out what I needed to do – where to go – and when I should do it. I got a lot of information from our department’s orientation (which apparently is an exception in graduate programs, not the rule); however I keep accidentally discovering requirements or helpful hints.

Case and point – apparently I (and some others in our incoming grad class) supposedly had received medical history forms in our acceptance package. (Apparently all the people with whom I checked had forms that spontaneously combusted a la Mission Impossible before realizing). I found accidentally, while at PUSH for allergy shots, that if I didn’t fill this out, I wouldn’t be able to register.

I’m surprised at the number of informational accidents that myself and my cohort are experiencing as we enter the world of Purdue. Taking advantage of this accidental knowledge in some manner would be beneficial; however, I’m not sure how to disseminate it in an organized fashion – perhaps top ten things you need to do before starting classes – or something like that (much like Amazon’s top 10 book lists); however, I was thinking these should be rated in some manner so the top one’s come to the top. (There’s also cultural knowledge about stores and restaurants, and where to get your oil changed that would be great. Another example – I thought Payless was a shoe store (as it is in Michigan) without realizing you could buy groceries there.

Evaluating Events and Courses
Demands on our time seem to grow exponentially. Improving our ability to evaluate what is better versus what is best would help a lot. For example…providing feedback on stuff about what seminars are useful/not useful based on student experience. I was thinking that when an announcement came up it might be helpful if people could write comments about their particular experiences with it e.g. Endnote training, iTap Dreamweaver training, etc. This also could apply to news articles – respond to certain exponent stories online to increase the dialogue. It also might be great to include course evaluations – about the content/value of a particular course – allow faculty to market courses as well as provide a public forum for feedback on courses.

Group Formation
Is there a way we could encourage marketing and interacting between different formal and informal clubs on campus? Maybe also facilitating connections between students who what to start study groups/practice groups for classes like COM 114?

Car Pooling/Ride Share
This worked great at my last university. Originally a physical bulletin board, it moved to an electronic format that allowed people to find rides either for everyday car pooling, but more commonly for traveling home or elsewhere on vacations or weekends. People saved gas, met other people. There are obviously some potential security concerns here… but I still think this is a viable idea.

Demographic/Interest Referencing Technology
By the way do we need to filter information based on the demographics and interests of a particular user, i.e. in the same way that Amazon recommends selections to you based on previous choices – not sure we will have the technology.

Some of my Background Philosophy Questions
Other big picture questions:

How do we create a site that is responsive, can evolve naturally as we realize the opportunities and problems of a community?

What about the problem of exclusivity versus inclusivity? How do we achieve critical mass without becoming more of the “noise” of information on campus? How do we make this valuable/useful?