UMD+Notes+Proposal

=**Proposal for UMD Notes Website**=

Currently there is no free centralized note sharing system for UMD students. All of the notes sharing websites out there are either paid for use or are not specific to UMD classes. UMD Notes will be both free and user friendly. Our idea is for students to upload their notes; either scanned notes or typed notes and have other users view and vote on the notes. This system will ensure that good notes are displayed prominently and bad notes are flagged. Students will be able to search for notes by class, upload date, and notes quality. Also, a central idea to UMD Notes is that users must create profiles using their real names. This system will act as a passive quality control element. We were also thinking that the more notes a user uploads the higher rank they have (a badge or officer system will be implemented). After a certain ranking the user will be paid for the notes they upload. Another important feature is that users can annotate each others notes as well as leave comments for it, facebook style.

The target audience is UMD students. General note-sharing websites are in existence, but content specifically for UMD is sparse and there is a general lack of user-interest for UMD on these websites. Furthermore, while these general websites offer free content, most of the note sharing is based around a monetary system. With a focus specifically on just UMD, we aim to provide a free service that will hopefully attract interest in the UMD community. Instructors and professors are also part of the target audience. Hopefully, our mentors will participate in the system and verify uploaded student notes, make corrections, or upload notes themselves.