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--Why is it needed?
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It is essential to have a community built around a tool. In this case, the tool is the Amateur Astronomer widget and the community is its Message Board. People need to have access to and correspondence with each other through online resources as well as with the resource maker. Future implementations of this message board will include the ability to share pictures, a calendar with important dates having to do with astronomy and astronomy-related events as well as the ability to contact me. Also, like other message boards, topics will appear by username and topic name so the user can browse more topics in one window before they have to scroll and then, if they are interested in a specific topic, they can click on the topic name (link) to open another window which gives the full text of that topic/message.
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--What are things like it and what conventions do they use? How will yours be the same/different? |
There are all sorts of message boards attached to all types of applications. The message board format is something that people are very comfortable with as the concept has been around for as long as the internet.
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--Who will it serve? |
Along with the corresponding widget, it will serve anyone who is interested in astronomy, particuliarly as it involves looking at objects through a telescope.
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--Show mockup, explain functionality and interaction pattern. |
To the left is the poster that was used to represent it in the 2006 Spring IDT Demo day. Minus the text at the bottom, it depicts what the site looked like on that day. Basically, the user enters their info at the bottom along with their comment and then submits it to the board. Future functionality will also include a means by which to preview the post before it is submitted and also won't let you submit without at least entering in a name and email address.
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How will you make it? |
The site consists of a database made in mySQL and the Yahoo Weather's zipcode data which corresponds to the data in the widget. The idea is that the user can leave messages on any zipcode databases because generally the physical act of viewing objects through a telescope has an intrinsic connection with current location, therefore, the user is most interested in the area where he/she is currently. This is why I centered the database around zipcode.
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