Business Plan

Assignment 3

Inspiration

Stanford University, to no one's surprise, is a very complicated place. The average student spends four years here, and during that time he or she has to figure out many issues such as drawing into housing, selecting classes, deciding between extra curriculars, and many more. Hopefully most seniors graduate knowing that they made it through without any huge mistakes, but there are bound to be some things that, had they had different, perhaps "better", information, they would have done differently. Meanwhile, a new batch of freshman, who will in all likelihood have to make similar decisions during their Stanford careers, enters the school without the benefit of that information. The aim of this website is to create a place for students to post their opinions, suggestions, thoughts, regrets, etc., regarding decisions others have to make while at Stanford. Additionally, certain procedures that student have to face will be explained simply and clearly.

Set-Up

The site will be divided into two parts: directions and opinions. The first of these will address the second of the topics mentioned above, i.e. those that can be explained with straight facts. As much as possible, things will be put into list forms, with simple instructions laid out in order that then link to more complete explanations if the reader is interested. The material presented here will all be straight facts, much like snopes.com.

The other section, opinions, is where people can post their own thoughts. Material here will range from specifics, i.e. I had a great time taking this particular class, to general, i.e. IHUM readings aren't really that necessary to do. Given the freedom to post anything, it will need to be strongly emphasized that these are individual opinions and should be taken with a grain of salt -- there are, in fact, some IHUMS for which doing the reading is imperative. Posters will therefore be encouraged to be as specific as possible so readers can understand their situations and how they might differ from or relate to their own.

Content

Initially, the focus of the site will be the draw, but it will be expanded to include some or all of the following:

• signing up for classes
• rushing fraternities and sororities
• picking a meal plan
• getting around and off of campus

Some of the above issues are hard to change once a decision has been made, so they will receive more attention than things such as meal plans that are easily changed. There will also be an area for suggestions of new topics to be added to the Directions part, and a page for random thoughts and comments about smaller issues that do not really fit under a large heading.

Upkeep

The directions part should be relatively easy to upkeep, because its content is objective, so the only issue is if the instructions can be edited for clarity. Also, should the university decide to make changes to how things are done, the site will needed to be updated for accuracy. Mainly, the alterations to this part of the site will be expansions to include more topics, and those can be done at will.

The opinions section will require more frequent monitoring, for both appropropriateness and accuracy. Regarding the former, while there might be an issue of language, there is also the chance that something posts a comment that belongs in a different section. As for the latter, while opinions are not generally deemed to be "accurate" or not, there is a problem with, say, advising someone to draw into an all-freshman dorm, or to endorse Freshman-Sophomore College (which is on the edge of campus) because it's nearby to everything.

The main issue to be addressed with regards to upkeep is awareness of the site. While outside research on my part will certainly be important, because the inspiration for the site lies in experience rather than fact, the input of students will be the main source of content. Therefore, I need to let people know about the site and that their opinions and help would be greatly appreciated. The best, and cheapest, ways to do so at this point are emailing campus lists and friends and spreading information by word of mouth. Should those not be sufficient, Facebook flyers are relatively cheap and have lots of exposure to students, in particular those who would be likely to use or add to my site.