This Friday

Instead of dedicating our meeting times to presentations, Professor Moorthy has came up with the idea that we should break into small groups to discuss and review codes, as well as to bounce ideas. I personally think this is a great idea – during the past few weeks, I tried to complete online tutorials for PHP and MySQL, and hoping that would help me gain insights in building up my project. Unfortunately, the learning curve seemed steep. I was able to form ideas of course, but the detailed picture just didn’t come up like I previously expected.

After Johnny’s presentation (I think their app is awesome, good job guys :D ), I talked to Colin about the website stuff - Colin is very nice and helpful. He sat down with me, went over some basic structures of how to implement a website, and he also suggested a framework for me to use. I actually learned many things from him just within the ten minutes, which was impressive. Now my plan for this weekend is to look up the terms that Colin introduced to me J

I think I mentioned in my previous blog entry that I will get in touch with the APO about my project – I did. I contacted Chris, who developed the APO book exchange over the summer, asked him whether we could work together. Unfortunately, Chris said he was hoping he could sell it to client with some modifications, so his codes were not open. The good thing is that Chris said we could maybe figure out a time to meet and so to talk about it, see whether we would come up with some ideas together. I am currently looking forward to talking to Chris. I’m sure I can learn many things from him.

I will be taking Database Systems next semester to ensure I have some working knowledge towards a back-end database. Right now, I feel like I have many ideas but just simply don’t know how to implement them. Well, on the other hand, learning something new is always exciting – now it’s time for me to visit Wikipedia!

Hello World!

I apologize that it took me forever to post our first blog entry, but finally...

we are here!

0. Who are we?

         Zhenzheng Zhou, a dual major in Computer Science and Management, who is currently enjoying her second year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (R.P.I.).

        

Josh Komoroske, a Computer Science major at R.P.I., he is a sophomore as well.

1. What is the project about?

It's a textbook market where you can buy, sell or trade your textbooks with other students from your college!

2. What is the point of having it?

I’m glad that you asked!

Every semester students go through the process of picking out new classes. Then, when teachers release the list of books that are required for these classes, it is a common sight to see many students flooding social networks like Facebook asking all of their friends what books they have, and what books they would be willing to trade for. Sometimes students don’t get the luck in finding the right person to trade textbooks with or to borrow from, so they more likely have to buy either a new or a used book from local or online bookstores for an expensive price. On the other hand, the students who could not find someone to buy their books, the only choice is to sell the books at a fraction of their value to a bookstore.

Economically, it seems like everyone will be better off if there exists a textbook marketplace, not to mention that the existence of such a website will save students a great deal of time and effort. Therefore we propose developing a web-based textbook marketplace to correct this problem.

 In short,

Textbooks are expensive to buy

According to Nicole Allen of The Student PIRGs, students attending public four-year colleges currently pay an average of $800 to $900 to purchase their textbooks each year.¹

Some books are useless after taking the class

Speaking from my personal experiences, I took physics in my freshman year. I don’t see a special need to keep the textbook – it’s very unlikely that I will move on to quantum physics and/or modern physics.

We sell textbooks at a fraction of their value to local bookstore

       Of course it will be cheap. Bookstores have their own businesses :(

Some textbooks are identical semester to semester

Unfortunately, you are spending 200+ dollars on something that you could simply borrow from a friend for FREE!

3. So, any solution…?

Sure, social websites…

Uh, clearly it went off topic. At least I don’t think it’s very helpful in terms of selling or buying a textbook.

4. How about an alternative solution?

Of course there is always another choice. How’s Amazon!?

The picture spoke for itself.

Imaging you have a test coming up, but you just ordered the textbook on the day before (which you shouldn’t do!)… Well, good luck on waiting!

5. What do we think?

Hey, why not a website for RPI students to sell/buy/trade their textbooks?

6. The idea

Local student user-base – NO SHIPPING

Get your books bought/sold at market-driven prices

No third party bookstore – sell your books directly to other students

Meet other students through the marketplace

7. The website

LAMP Stack – Widely used & easy to set up

Apache Server

MySQL Database

PHP (probably via Cake PHP)

8. Why website?

Accessibility

         Accessibility is in fact in the sense that if you have a web application, any browser (be it on a desktop, or mobile device) can easily access the same site, which means there will be no worries with regard to the platform. The web server will be able to profile the user’s browser, and serve pages accordingly.

Adaptability

Since the project’s source code will be released to the public, (and potentially for use at other colleges) we want the site to be as customization as possible. We would not be able to have other colleges add their own custom logos and style-sheets if the application was pre-compiled for an app store.

Availability

This scope of this project does not create a demand, such that it must be checked every few minutes (such as a Facebook/Twitter/News app could justify). It will be easily available via a web-browser for when the user needs to use it as a resource.

9. What have we done?

Set ups

Fully configure Apache/MySQL/PHP

Learn PHP, MySQL

Design layout of the website

Specify the user group

Start Coding!

10. What will be done?

Get familiar and more proficient with PHP and MySQL

IMPLEMENTATION

Website appearance

Back end

User-friendliness

Talk to APO at union

11. How can you reach us?

         Comments and advices are greatly appreciated! Just send us an email at:

         Zhenzheng: zhouz3@rpi.edu

         Josh:          komorj@rpi.edu

¹Guide to Establishing Textbook Rental Services, The Student PIRGs. http://www.studentpirgs.org/textbooks/reports/rental-services-guide