Showing posts with label BLink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BLink. Show all posts

Monday, December 7, 2009

Meeting with Tufts and UMass Boston

Just before Thanksgiving Break, I had the opportunity to meet with a few UMass Boston students about their uses of the software. Since the class associated with BLink is completely different than our class, it was really valuable to have insight into their uses and perspective on the software.

There were a few major differences between the two schools. First of all, UMass Boston has a strong reputation for remaining very engaged with the organizations in their communities on a consistent basis. Therefore they were very invested in the organizations they added to the map. They also added fewer organizations, but there is more information available about the organization, including names of administrators and phone numbers and best ways to contact them, etc.

Secondly, they deal with a diverse population of community members, and many of them don't speak English. There is a desire to have the BLink website available in Vietnamese as well as other languages so that the entire community can access and benefit from the site.

Thirdly, they see a huge opportunity for this site to be a collection of resources that community members need, such as where to vote, how to get a state ID card, who to contact in different situations, etc. There is a lack of centralization with all of this information and if you don't know what you're looking for or how to find it, it can be very difficult information to access.

Other topics discussed included privacy setting issues, as well as different Facebook applications (such as games).