Help me with a uni project

[Gimli]

Hello folks. I have a project for university which involves making a financial study for a fictional media/multimedia project. A part of this involves making a survey, which is what this thread is all about.

The project can roughly be described as IMDb for books.

 

I want individual results, because I would like to be able to make a better analysis of the information I get, so I decided not to go for an online survey site.

 

Instead of explaining everything, I'll just paste the project description I made; it's a rough draft. Or you can just skip to the survey, if you don't want to read the description (though it's advised).

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

This multimedia project is best described as IMDb for books. The web page would contain basic data about the book, the author(s), the publisher and other people who had something to do with it (illustrators for example). Not to get too much into other details, here are some other parts of the webpage:

 

• reviews - site staff reviews, guest critic reviews, user reviews, average scores based on other media etc.

• news

• interviews (written, audio, video) - authors, publishers, illustrators etc.

• articles – including related articles

• other books from the same author/publisher/genre

• customizable layout – being able to select parts of the website to display, choosing backgrounds etc.

• Top [something] – books, authors and other irrelevant top things that people with no life care about

• Blogs - guest critic, site staff, author, publisher

• forum – a proper forum based on IPB or vB

• quote/pic/book/whatever of the day

• where to buy the books – possibly with a bookstore-near-you (map included) feature

• integration of features into other web services (Gmail, Facebook, MySpace, etc.)

• newsletters

• RSS feeds

• web page for mobile platforms

• quizzes

• users could post their own literary works

 

The site would have a hierarchy: administrators, staff/moderators, special guests*, registered users, guest users. Registered users would be able to go for a subscription (monthly, yearly etc.). Among other things, this would also remove all adverts from the website and enable special deals for partners (10% off, 2 books for 1, posters, memorabilia etc.)

 

*there’s an English term for people who don’t work for the site, but contribute content. I’m thinking outer associates, but that doesn’t sound right.

 

WEB PAGE FOR MOBILE PLATFORMS:

The version of the web page for mobile platforms would be a simpler version, offering some basic information.

 

MY BOOKS APPLICATION:

 

My Books is a window-based application aimed at book collectors, allowing them to keep records about books they own and books, writers etc. they are interested in. One of the key features would be the ability to connect to the website and exchange data with it. For example, if you own Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”, you could get all information about the book from the site as well as a biography of Agatha Christie, among other things.

 

 

IDEAS:

 

website:

• web page for mobile platforms

• localization (german, french, italian, spanish etc.)

• competitions

off-site related:

• t-shirts and stuff (cafe press)

• application for collectors My Books – can exchange data with the web site(!)

• possible expansion into music and video games

• deals with partners (sites like Amazon.com, various publishers etc.) – X% off, special holiday deals, 2-for-1, memorabilia etc.

 

Site advertisements:

Nothing annoying - no flashing ads, no browser crippling backgrounds, flash or pop-ups. Just plain and simple banners. Advertising is there to generate income, not drive people away.

 

Advertising the site elsewhere:

Same as on site – using banners.

 

Advertising the My Books application elsewhere:

Same as for site – using banners on-site (free!) and off-site. Possibly also making presentations in bookshops and (large) libraries. Perhaps the software could also be used by the libraries and bookshops? Not sure about the extent of necessary modifications...

 

SURVEY:

1.) Are you male or female?

2.) How old are you?

3.) Which country are you from?

4.) What kind of education do you have? (Elementary school, high school, university degree etc.)

5.) What is your monthly income?

6.) Do you read more by choice or necessity (required for school/work)?

7.) How many books do you read in a year by choice?

8.) What genres do you enjoy reading? (e.g. novels, poetry, educational books, plays etc.)

9.) Would you visit a site containing information about books and everything related to them (writers, publishers etc.)?

10.) How much would you be willing to pay for a monthly subscription (Pro account) on the website, which would:

- remove the advertisements

- give you special deals with the site’s partners

- give you previews for the books (first X pages or first chapter)

- allow you to enter competitions

- give you an online tool for keeping a record on books you own, the writers and so on, as well as books you are simply interested in, all of which could be pulled from the above mentioned web site?

- give you advanced page editing options (e.g. uploading pictures)?

11.) Which subscription model would you take: per month, 6 months, 12 months? Note: the 2nd and 3rd option would cost less per month.

12.) Do you have a mobile platform with a connection the Internet and would you use it to access the web page and get some basic information?

 

 

Thank you for your help!

 

P.S. If you could give this survey to your friends or post it on another forum where people know you, I would appreciate it. You can also include the project description. Just PM me the link to the thread or post it here. Note: I'll cover Steam forums and 2K forums myself.

[Gimli]

Pretty please?

 

I managed to bribe people on another forum, but I can't think of anything here.

[Bomb Bloke]

1.) Are you male or female?

 

I think we've had four females on this site since it's inception. I am not one of them.

 

2.) How old are you?

 

24.

 

3.) Which country are you from?

 

New Zealand citizen, Australian resident.

 

4.) What kind of education do you have? (Elementary school, high school, university degree etc.)

 

Highest bit of paper I've got is a diploma. Not sure where that fits on the scale. A poor man's degree I figure.

 

5.) What is your monthly income (in USD)?

 

American? A grand, maybe. Used to be more.

 

*mutters about fluctuating exchange rates and wonders why a US based crisis is stuffing up the AU/NZ dollar*

 

6.) Do you read more by choice or necessity (required for school/work)?

 

Choice.

 

7.) How many books do you read in a year by choice?

 

Very few these days. I spend so much time reading around online I just don't have the urge to read actual books anymore. I can't actually remember reading a book that I had not already previously read in the past year.

 

Those books I have read recently are stored on a compact flash card twhich I slot into my DS (via a cartridge adapter which also provides the reading software as well as music playback). The whole thing takes up less space then a real book, but I can store massive volumes of text on it.

 

So the amount of actual pages I turn these days is very low indeed.

 

8.) What genres do you enjoy reading? (e.g. novels, poetry, educational books, plays etc.)

 

If I'm reading for the sake of reading, then it'd be novels. But I've sorta drifted away from conventional reading to forums and technical documents. I browse the wikipedia a fair bit (it can be quite addictive if you're not careful. Quite humbling really, as it soon starts to give you an idea of how little you really know).

 

9.) Would you visit a site containing information about books and everything related to them (writers, publishers etc.)?

 

Just so happens that my state library already provides that service. In fact, if they have a book somewhere in their system I can put it on order, they'll have it sent up to my area and they'll notify me when to go pick it up. All free of charge. Not too shabby eh?

 

Mind you, it took a YEAR for them to get hold of their Lord of the Rings trilogy book for me. I probably shouldn't've ordered it directly after the first movie was released. There was a bit of a queue.

 

10.) How much would you be willing to pay for a monthly subscription (Pro account) on the website, which would:

- remove the advertisements

- give you special deals with the site

[Gimli]

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. Note that I said advanced editing options, but in truth I can't really think of what that would be. Still, I got more negative comments about that, so I suppose I'd allow full editing freedom as long as you are registered, paying or not. I'm not sure if and where I would use moderator approval (to prevent vandalism).

[Slaughter]

Sending you a reply via PM now.

[Space Voyager]

1.) Are you male or female?

Male.

2.) How old are you?

32

3.) Which country are you from?

Slovenia.

4.) What kind of education do you have? (Elementary school, high school, university degree etc.)

UNI

5.) What is your monthly income?

Cca. 900

[Gimli]

Thanks for your help guys, it was the last day to give the studies and I was 20 minutes late. The professor was just about to leave when I showed up.

[Bomb Bloke]

That's not so bad, "made it in time" is as good as "perfect timing" in my book.

[FullAuto]

Sorry I missed this, been AFK...