Shack UpWith a University Alum

Orf 401 Final PresentationKai Ross, Kevin Fan, Mik Breiterman-Loader, David Laslett, Liz BrennanMay 12, 2008

Overview

•Network connecting University students and organizations to alumni and associates

•Goals:▫provide students with the ability to find

affordable housing for trips from alumni living in their destination spot

▫Fostering relationships between alumni and students, especially among those affiliated with the same sports team, singing group, eating club, organization, etc

Incentive / Motivation

• Affordability and Comfort▫ Inexpensive for students▫Trust within the community

• Alma Mater Goodwill▫Princeton’s wide-spread school spirit▫Enthusiasm for returning to campus post graduation

According to the legend, in the '80s, Princeton Reunions ranked second behind only the Indy 500 in total Budweiser beer sales. (http://www.princetonreunions.com/intro.html)

• Visibility and Centrality▫One central and user-friendly site to facilitate trip-

planning• Unique Niche of Students• Students=Clients• Alumni=Participants

Business Model

• Offerings/Value Proposition▫ Network giving students cheap housing, and giving alumnae a way

to connect to their alma mater• Market Segment

▫ Current students, student groups, alumni• Revenue Generation

▫ Small registration fee for all students▫ Charge students for successful matches▫ Yearly membership fees▫ Advertising on site

• Scalability and Exhaustive Supply and Demand• Added Value

▫ Universities are more apt to get more alumni donations because alumnae will have more opportunity to reminisce about their good times at school when current students come to visit.

• Competitive Strategy▫ Innovative product and environment

• Mimic Insurance Model without payout to provider

Comparable (Yet Less Cool) Sites• Craig’s List

▫Less security and trust – no overarching network

▫Housing is not the main focus of site• Couchsurfing.com

▫“seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding” (http://www.couchsurfing.com/mission.html)

▫Liability to host anyone at anytime• Facebook Marketplace

▫Sub-part of an entire social network, not the main focus

How It Works: Getting Registered• Each school has a central mysql database

that stores all information entered by the users

• Requisite information:▫Basic registration information for all clients:

class year, teams, organizations, clubs▫Alumni/Associates:

Location, capacity, and basic registration info Addresses are geocoded using Google’s API to

transfer and save the information as a latitude and longitude coordinate in the mysql database

• This information is transferred to php, where it is then sent to the mysql database, and stored for future searches

How It Works: Searching for Housing• Students make a search query for the

location (address or zip code) and radius they would like to travel to

• Our site returns a list and map of the host addresses that fit the criteria

• Students are able to filter results▫ by group/team/organization, distance from

desired location, occupancy, graduation year, etc.

How the Search Works• Using Google’s geocoding API, our site transfers the

location into a longitude and longitude coordinate • First a box is created that will cover the given

radius to limit the Haversine calculations which is taxing for the server

• Using the Haversine formula we calculate distances to this location from given coordinates in our database

• Then we search through the mysql database to find all hosts within the calculated target range

• The results are returned as markers on a Google map and in a filterable table that has links to the details of each host

Google Maps API•Optimized server performance using

bounding box before haversine formula•The results are filterable by distance,

occupancy, etc. through mysql commands•Google geocoding limits not applicable

due to setup of requests

Messaging System• Allows communication without unnecessary

information release. • Alumni can accept or reject a request.• Students send a message through our

messaging system to the Alumni found on the search page requesting housing.

• At that time, payment would be enforced (not in current working model), and alumni contact information would be released to the student.

Future of the Site

•Expand to create more University networks

•Add a newsfeed to update users when new alumni are added or when current alumni profiles are changed▫Different dates alums are able to host

•Expand Google maps to include nearby businesses

•Advertising revenue