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Proposal Document
During the course of the semester for DECO3500, Team Hivemind aims to follow the objectives outlined in this proposal. This proposal will discuss the overall concept and idea, going into depth about how our project will work and what benefits the users will have from using our proposed application. In order to achieve these objectives the proposal also describes our plan, which includes a timeline of team deadlines, in partnership with this we will also have team roles and some general rules which will help keep clarity high in regards to tasks and workload.
###Problem Space
1. Improve network of news connections to previous relevant news and time-driven news 'expiry'. Extend exposure to past news and generation of full news story.
News has an unspoken expiry date from reporting. Current news has limited effect or callback to previous related information which may be relevant to current situation. Develop system that encompases previous news to outline relevance, and create a timeline of events over time.
2. Limit overexposure of commercialised news prone to bias and oversaturation of information
Community driven exposure to news and development of related content generation. Creating connections to expose extended news from outside singular articles.
###Outline of Idea
Hivemind is a news aggregation application specifically designed to provide a social solution for developing timelines of developing stories. Instead of creating curated feeds of posts which are then developed into stories themselves - Hivemind aims to provide a solution wherein news articles can be linked to one another through user suggestions.
The timeline at the core of each story within Hivemind is a series of connections the user creates between other news articles. The intention is to create a web of content which can lead the user to explore previous events which may provide context the reader may have been missing prior to reading the story. By doing this, the application will be able to streamline each user's news experience, essentially keeping all their researching on a given topic within the application itself.
The user population will for the most part determine the fate of each timeline. Users can add articles which they believe contribute to the greater understanding of each particular story, which other users are then able to vote on. If a story is consistently tagged as relevant, the article ties itself to the other story allowing future links to the parent story to automatically add previous relevant articles as to quickly populate the timeline. If an article is consistently flagged as not relevant to a particular story, it will be removed from the timeline.
When the user first interacts with the application, they will be presented with a news feed of recent popular stories (which will be determined by the number of clicks a particular article receives within its first 24 hours). From there, users are able to swipe right from the article view to bring up a timeline of events which allows the user to view any related articles the community deems relevant to the current story. As it is likely that previous articles have their own linked stories, it's expected that these links will automatically join the timeline once the story is added.
It is anticipated that users will prioritise news articles which provide quality information which aids the reader in understanding the events which occurred. In addition to this, it is highly likely that the community will come to prioritise particular news sites over others as trusted sources.
###Rationale
The main target audience is 25-35 year olds with an expansive aim to include a teenage audience. This due to the large percentage of this age group who use social media. With this comes the social nature of sharing news and adding to the trends of news information. These ages also show signs of frustration with current media.
The project and objectives promotes exploration of news stories, with users not just limited to one article source, as they are able to search for previous related news and new additional information.
This connectivity allows the user to generate links between news stories to outline connections between its content, based on their own opinion of relevance. The user can effectively create a story using the news content to expand upon events as they unfold or to delve further into a news stories history by connecting previous information sources.
This way it can effectively address issues and history of news content, for situations such as those found in news coverage of conflicts. Users are able to sort through the history of a conflict and discover pertinent information from previous stories. If a user feels that a certain article from the past has effectively lead to or been associated with areas of the current article, they are able to share this with others by highlighting this connection through the application.
The aim of the project is to create links that are connected by users, rather than automated. As part of the research for the project, gathering public opinion on what is considered as related issues and bringing forward importance of sharing information across platforms and keeping previous news in the forefront for informing current news topics is of very high importance.
Furthermore, research has shown that 64% of social media news users only get news on one site. This project aims to provide a means to explore news across multiple sites, providing better coverage and helping to limit exposure to bias.
While existing platforms such as Reddit and Twitter allow for access to current news and shared news stories, they lack a quality to allow for a deep exploration of related and expansive stories. The connections between their news content is not always made clear or easily accessible. Twitter is oversaturated with irrelevant content while Reddit’s news categories offer only a small section of the overall news elements.
###General Rules
To be sure that we as a Team stay on target and within deadline, it can be beneficial to follow a set of rules. This way we are all being treated equally and we are all on the same page about what's okay and what's not.
Sharing the workload equally
This is a very important regulation to have, particularly in a team environment with people you may not know. Make sure that team members are actively doing their share of work, or what they were designated. This also includes speaking up if there is a feeling of underworking or overworking present.
Communicating problems
This ties together with sharing the workload in the sense that if everyone is communicating properly then there should be no issues about what tasks are assigned to each person. Communicating also involves letting others know how you feel about certain concepts, sharing your ideas, making critical observations and informing others of your personal progress. If all this is done correctly then the team should work more efficiently and more as 1 group rather than 4 individuals.
###Roles
| Team Member | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Naomi Mason | Team Leader |
| Melinda Piper | Programmer |
| Ben Fowler | Designer |
| Krisi Grafton | Researcher |
###Responsibilities
These responsibilities are to be taken up by those who hold the role, however it is important that the workload is equal therefore it may be necessary for everyone to help out with some aspects or for one role to help another. This would leave a more desired and flexible workspace.
Team Leader
The Project Manager, in charge of allocating tasks, making sure that all members are conforming to the rules. On top of this they will be helping all the other team members with their personal tasks if needed.
Programmer
Responsible for Back-End Development as well as the User Interface Design, they will undertake and lead the portion of the project that involves programming the user interface. On top of this they will help design how the system will work from a coding standpoint.
Designer
Tasked with Front-End Development and the Visual Design for the application, this involves designing and creating all the visual fronts for the project, whether this be visual mockups for certain deadlines, logos, and the overall aesthetic for the final application/website.
Researcher
The researchers main responsibility is to collaborate with the Team Leader in finding solutions to certain problems that may arise, whilst also looking into new innovative ways to design our project. Furthermore they must research potential stakeholders, who our target audience will be and how we can adapt our project in order for the reception of the final product to be positive.
As mention previously in the General Rules section, communication is a vital aspect of working together as a team. It should be relatively easy and convenient for each member to access and communicate with other members of the team.
We will be using our own channel in the DECO3500 Slack page to communicate mostly outside of the classroom, however we will also be using github when it comes to the design and programming of the more advanced parts of the project. Slack has been chosen for its ability to effectively manage everyday group communication through its facilitation of message communication, notifications for desktop and mobile applications and ability to link materials and information sources. Furthermore it allows members to make use of tagging or direct messaging when making an enquiry to a specific group member. Google Docs will be utilised for the completion of shared documentation from the project. It is useful for allowing multiple contributors to alter a single document in real-time. Collaborative files will be stored on Google Drive in a team folder as this will allow them to be accessible to all members of the group.
Team Meetings will also be held, with one every week 1 hour prior to the Wednesday 4pm workshop session, this will help us centralize our idea and collaborate most effectively, giving us a plan heading into the 2 hour workshop. All members should be present and if circumstances prevents a member from attending they must notify the group with sufficient time before the commencement of the meeting. The members can make use of Slack to communicate this information to the group. During these sessions it is planned that all members will participate in a weekly stand up scrum meeting, outlining what work they have completed, what they will be working on in the next week and any issues that may prevent the completion of their task.
Our plan for the semester is to provide an innovative solution to deliver streamlined and informative news that isn't over saturated with the same bias and information. We also aim to creating connections by users through public opinion on what is considered to be related content. This allows user to access the news in a streamlined and succinct way.
We hope to be able to meet project milestones in order to be able to deliver a complete project which meets users needs. Specific milestones of the project include:
###Initial Design and Development:
- Researching what determines relevance - so users can add links to other articles, and have confirmation of relevance. These links can form news timelines, and timelines can show analytics of certain topics.
- Developing a basic dynamic web application in order to design and develop further from user testing
###Implementation of Features:
- Implementing essential features such as sorting news by popularity each 24h by default - allows user to read by upcoming stories.
- Allowing users to register with an account, most likely facebook, in order to add relevancy links and save user preferences
- Displaying analytics for different news topics over time
- Implementing a 'Search by topic' - is an option that users would be able to select.
In order to successfully meet deadlines and produce a successful project, the team will be developed in the following order; ongoing research, paper prototype, UX testing, basic digital prototyping, further UX testing, and the final delivery of the finished product.
###Deadlines For The Project:
- Proposal - Week 7
- Design Prototype Demonstration - Week 13
- Individual Portfolio - October 28
- Project and Context Reflection - November 6
Phases will follow the Scrum methodology for sprints so that each sprint lasts for 2 Weeks.
| Phases | Deliverables |
|---|---|
| Week 3 - Week 4 Planning and Research |
|
| Week 5 - Week 7 Proposal and Design |
|
| Week 8 - Week 10 Revision and Implementation |
|
| Week 10 - Week 12 Finalisation of Development |
|
| Week 13 Final Deliverable |
InVision
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Participants for user testing
GitHub
IDE, Text editor
The development and implementation phases of the project are expected to be fairly evenly focused on both the front-end and the back-end development work. This even spread of front-end and back-end work is due to having to develop a comprehensive front-end system, with the implementation of APIs and other necessary features completed within the backend. The project is expected to be mainly completed using dynamic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with other languages used where needed.
#Research
#ContentAggregation
#Timeline
#UserExperience
#Corroboration
#WebApplication
#cswc