CS73N Meeting 02 Notes:

Started by Gio Wiederhold, 24 Feb. 2000, revised 25Jan2002, 16Jan2003. 8,15,17 April 2005. added material in Exhibits 23April 2005, updated 12 April 2006.

Topics Covered briefly

Writing assignment 1

Due next Thursday, 20 April 2006, in electronic form, of course.

Describe the setting and expectations for your project, taking a long range view. How will the world it lives in look by the time you graduate, or maybe 10 years hence? What sources will be available to serve and complement your project? What will your readers or customers expect? It should be suitable as a background page for your project. If you have set up your website already, just send us a pointer to it.

Wikepedia founder Talk

The founder of Amazon, Jimmy Wales, is giving a talk Friday in San Francisco, Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason. Anybody interested in going should send a message to me before Thursday midnight if you plan to join us. It looked that above half the class is coming. I'll make reservations then.

Travel choice: Train Pool: leave Palo Alto on 5:06 bullet; eat in San Francisco prior to talk. I'll come along after the class. Last trains back: 10:00 pm -->10:56; 12:01 --> 12:57.

The train fare (Day pass for to and from ride) is $10.50, half price if you're under 18. The bus fare is $1.50 ($0.50 if under 18).

Projects

Project plans should identify the contents, the intended audience, and the size of the audience.

Documents on the web are long-lived, but that means they'll need some ongoing maintenance to remain a valid. Here is where intangible property created on for the web differs from books and music, which is fixed. The amount of maintenance required depends on the volatility of the contents.

· A web page in Buddhism will remain relatively constant, only as new relevant writings become available.

· A web change involving Stanford classes will require some updates every quarter, and more changes every academic year, as classes and prerequisites change.

· If the information is obtained from the readers, as a class quality guide, it is best to set it up as a wiki. Otherwise the maintenance would be horrendous. But even then some supervision is needed.

Without taken care of your website the intellectual property it represents will diminish very rapidly.

This means that each CS74N project should have a simple [[NoteBusinessModel business model]]: where would long-term support come from

1. You yourself – how much time can you spend?

2. Can you find a sponsor? An organization or business that would benefit from your site?

3. Would money be collected – from who and how.

We'll cover more on the specifics listed below but think about these points:

· Payment mechanism can be advertising payments – click through ads, or actual payments with choices as subscription, pay per use, freeware with limits and options, voluntary payment.

· If you are selling things, are they {tangible, fungible, intangible}.

· If it’s information, what are the actionable benefits to the reader, new opportunities or efficiencies.

· Why is your information better than that of others?

Class discussion:

What is the business model for MIT professors putting their class material on the web.

Should Stanford professors do it? How can they be induced – the University cannot tell them to it unless it changes its employment contract with them. And that is a circular authorization, because Stanford is run by the Faculty, through the Faculty Senate, elected by the faculty.