This is the first of hopefully many updates I am going to keep on my Senior Project this semester. I say hopefully because I realize that I have <insert euphemism for deep psychotic issues> with documenting my thoughts.

For those that don’t know this is my second semester of a two semester senior thesis project in the Multimedia Dept. of the University of the Arts. My first semester was riddled with repetitive, and in some ways, unproductive critiques because I was not expressing all the details of my concepts and methods to my professors and fellow classmates. I learned that the more documentation the better. This post is my affirmation of change.

So as not to make this a 5000+ word post (with shnazzy images) I have posted a summarized binder that I had to turn in at the end of the last semester _here_. If you are not familiar with my project go there first. Don’t worry I’ll be right here when you get back.

…..done? Awesome! My goal this week is to streamline and solidify <like ice> the eventual form of this collaborateArts.com. In order to accomplish this the major updates to the binder are as follows:

  • The site will simply focus on the user profiles, forums and a references section
  • I will also be using Drupal to create the site itself (it turns out to be a more flexible, trusted and widely used facilitator for rapid development of interactive sites than I had originally perceived)
  • I will be using about 3/4 of the semester developing the site, and about 1/4 of it on the marketing (just in time for finals)

One of my professors, DeAngela Duff, recently told my Web Development Studio that 37signals has an article that expresses their philosophy of rapid prototyping that involves starting with a core feature of a site and building outward rather than trying to take a project on as a whole. I am going to look more thoroughly into this this week. My goal with the site (loosely) is to Bring students together for collaboration on projects in the most efficient way possible. I need to figure out the most invaluable feature of my site that meets this goal and then develop the other features support it.