We designed and developed an online community for students across India. The website is a virtual campus wherein students could interact and communicate with each other to create a network of friends. The website also provides students with the means to upload content to showcase and promote their talents in creating music, writing, film making and photography.

The solution has been developed on the .net platform. The ASPNET discussion forum has been integrated with the website. Solution administrators have been provided with the means to upload content to the website through XML files.

Features

The website includes various that are accessible to all members. Students can browse through available content within these rooms, add content, post comments, create clubs etc. Below is a detailed description of each of these rooms.

My Room

Students can register to create their profiles on the website. Upon registration, each member is assigned a personalized room. Content (in the form of videos, photos, blogs and music) can be uploaded and stored in the room. Students can tag content and choose to add this to public rooms from where it can be accessed by all members.

Each feature available to the student in his/her personal room is represented as a widget. The student can choose the widgets that are to be displayed in his/her room and can also set the position their positions by moving them to the desired locations. The widgets available to a student include:

• Virtual Room Students can design a virtual room to reflect their personalities. The functionality has been built with Adobe Flash. In designing a room, students can choose an existing layout or can opt to design a room from scratch. Accessories such as furniture etc can be added to the room. Students can select an animated character as their avatar and can choose a roommate.
• Photos The student can showcase his/her talent in photography by uploading photos to his/her room. A slide show of all photos uploaded by the student is displayed. Provisions to upload and manage photos have been provided. Comments, views and rating for each photo can be tracked.
• Clubs Contains a listing of clubs that the student is a member of. Notifications for all club activities such as new members, content uploaded etc are provided.
• Videos The videos widget allows the student to upload videos to his/her room. A showcase of all uploaded videos and the latest comments posted to them are also displayed.
• Friends The student can send/receive friend requests from others. The details of all members whose friend requests have been approved will be displayed. Friends' activity, in terms of fresh content uploaded, profile changes, friends added etc, can also be tracked.
• Blogs A listing of all blogs created by the student is show. Options to view the details of the blog, create a new blog, manage an existing blog etc have also been provided.
• Date Keeper Important dates can be marked on the calendar. The date keeper displays reminders for the current month. The system also displays birthday alerts for all members who are on a student's friend list.
• Music All songs uploaded by the student will be displayed. The student can listen to any of the songs. Options to upload new songs and track comments have been provided.
• Love Profile The student can create a love profile (by answering various questions) based on which the system identifies and showcase compatible matches.
• Shouts: All the messages posted to the student will be displayed. Options to reply to the message have been provided.
• Profile The student can manage his/her personal profile. The profile contains information such as name, date of birth, school, college, university, interests, talents, contact information etc.
• SMS Functionality SMS messages can be sent to members in the friends list and SMS groups can be created to send bulk messages.
• Invite Users Students can invite other users to join the website. They can either key-in e-mail addresses of people they know (for invites to be sent) or import address books / contact information stored with their Google, Yahoo or Hotmail accounts. The website interacts with the relevant e-mail service provider's APIs to retrieve and display the student's address book.
• Notice Board Messages can be posted to the notice board of specific rooms - these become accessible to all visitors/members of the room. Feedback and comments can be posted on these messages.

Music
The music room contains a showcase of songs (tagged for public rooms) uploaded by members. A music player has been embedded allowing students to listen to the songs online. Options to rate songs and post comments to them have also been provided. The system tracks all songs to generate popularity lists. The site administrator can highlight specific songs.

In addition to songs, music clubs and blogs can also be created.

Cafe
The café can be used by students express their opinions and interact with others.

Students can form clubs or communities and interact with others that share similar interests. A request for a new club can be sent to the administrator; upon approval, the club is activated and the student is considered as its moderator. As a moderator the student can upload content (in the form of photos, videos, music and blogs) to the club, invite others to join, and dismiss members. The community is accessible to all members of the website.

 

Photos
The photos room contains a gallery of photos uploaded by members. Photos can be rated and comments posted to it. Photo blogs and clubs can also be created.

Videos
All videos uploaded to the website are displayed here. Members can watch the videos online and also rate and comment on specific videos.

Store
The website also includes an online storefront through which members can purchase content for their mobile phones - such as ring tones, wallpapers etc.

A keyword search feature has been provided allowing students to search across the website for people, music, photos, clubs, videos or blogs.