HeaderSIS.jpg

IS480 Team wiki: 2011T2 IMATEAM Wiki Copy

From IS480
Jump to navigation Jump to search
ImateamLogo.jpg


ImateamRoles.jpg

ImateamStakeholders.jpg

Project Description

Project Description
   

Our team will be building a web and mobile social platform that enables attendees of conferences organized by IMAPAC to interact with each other before, during and after the conference. This social platform will allow them to post and receive conference updates, engage in discussions, network with industry partners and arrange meetings. The platform will be built using a content management system written in PHP such as Drupal. Data analysis will be applied to the information provided by the sponsor to build a user-centered system that provides recommendations to the conference attendees based on their individual profiles, such as suggestions of industry partners they might want to work with.

Motivation

Motivation
   

Attendees of IMAPAC business conferences vary widely, from governments to NGOs, businesses and academics. They currently do not have a platform that allows their attendees to communicate efficiently with each other. Extra time spent on handling logistics issues such as scheduling of meetings, searching for contact information, arranging meeting locations etc. could be better spent on trying to create an even bigger impact for the social causes they are advocating. We also believe that if organizations have an improved communication channel, especially after a conference, they will be able to build a closer link to one another that further nurtures the social enterprise spirit within.

Hence, our proposed web and mobile platform can potentially eradicate the above problems by being user friendly and interactive. We will achieve this by applying heuristics used in usability studies to the user interface design. The platform will be interactive because we will consider all aspects of each group of users’ needs and enable them to engage one another according to their business relationship.

Project Deliverables

Project Deliverables
   

At the end of the project, our team aims to deliver a robust and dynamic integrated social platform that will improve the overall experience of conference attendees. The platform’s focus will be centered on IMAPAC’s aim to promote good social causes and help businesses do good. Our project will achieve this by meeting the user needs that arise from attending a conference and all the relevant interlinked events such as discussions and meetings. The platform will be deployed on IMAPAC’s servers.



Project Scope

We will utilize an open-source content management system written in PHP, Drupal, to develop our web application on. We chose Drupal because it is highly customizable, scalable and flexible in terms of UI design, functionalities and access control. Our project can be divided into 2 core components: the web platform and the mobile application.

Project Functionalities
Functionality Description
Web Platform

Profile of attendees

Users can sign up for their accounts and set up information such as bio, interests and conference-related history details.

Real time feedback

Allow attendees to provide real time feedback to speakers and fellow attendees during conferences in the form of live polls and comments.

Friend system

Anyone with an account on the social platform can add another to his network via the Friend system.

Conference/event details

Provide attendees and speakers with conference information such as detailed location, time, date, attending list, topics covered etc.

Networking opportunities

Enable users to connect with potential business partners by matching them to other users with similar interest and keywords.

Sponsored children information

Allow conference attendees to retrieve information of the sponsored children. After a child has been sponsored, he will have a page with updates to keep the sponsor posted on his development.

Private messaging system

Enable users to send private messages to each other. There will be a setting to make it public or friends-only.

Post-conference rating and evaluation

Enable conference attendees to complete their post-conference evaluation for IMAPAC’s records.

Personalized recommendation system

Users will be recommended similar conferences based on past history.

Sharing function

Users will be able to share/recommend a conference to other users they think might be interested to attend it.

Live note-taking function

Allow attendees to take notes live during a conference which they can choose to save, send to email or share (publicly/friends only).

Search

Search for other users according to name, interests and keywords.

Discussion Forum

Forums for pre and post conference discussion.

Mobile Platform

Profile of attendees

Simplified (only View) profiles of attendees.

Conference/event details

View conference details such as those detailed above.

Geo-location services

Locate conference location on smartphone maps using GPS.

Announcement and news

View and read announcements and news to be kept updated of event happenings.

Private message system

Send messages on-the-go in case they need to contact a fellow attendee.

Learning Outcomes

UNDER CONSTRUCTION