Brian Benander

Host Teams: John Hurt

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Final Project Proposal
I would like to do my final project dealing with my brother's and his wife's startup company called Athena Study Abroad. Their company sends college students abroad to study for a semester or for a summer session. I would like to write a paper on the challenges that a startup company has to endure. Specifically, I would look into the technology that goes into a startup company of this nature. My brother, who graduated from JCU with a CS degree, is in charge of the technology for the company. Thus, I would gain insight into how a new company is run, especially in regards to technology.

DWP Response:

Topic works for me, I need more details on the specifics of what the paper will explore. I am much more interested in your brother's company as an example rather than a case study of the specific problems that they face. In particular, I don't want the oral history of Athena Study Abroad. I'd like to see IT start-up issues with examples from Athena, Pikimal, and/or others.

UPDATE and RESUBMIT

Final Project Proposal Redux
Specifically, I will look into all aspects of Athena's technology department, including web, servers, database, multimedia, social networking, etc. I could also try to get in touch with Pikimal to get some insight into their company, which is solely a computer-based company. From there, I may be able to find some key differences in technological issues involving two different start-up companies that have different purposes.

Milestone 1 (April 7):
Interview my brother. Get as much information about the technology needed for his company, including the software used, difficulties faced, likes/dislikes, etc.

M1 Update:
Interviewed my brother. Talked about Contact Management Systems, online exposure, sharing of files among employees, web, online forms, working with other websites, online advertising, social media, smart phone apps, image editing, QR codes for smart phones, in-office hardware, etc. We also discussed the difficulty between balancing what type of technology will last and what will be a waste of time. Got a lot of insight into issues a new company must deal with. Need to do research on what a typical startup company needs to worry about.

Good start -DWP

Milestone 2 (April 14):
Research common technological requirements for start-up companies.

M2 Update:
Searched the web for common issues for startup companies. Pretty general ideas. Maybe I can use these ideas as topics within the paper. I can talk about the topics, and say why startups need to tackle each issue. Then I could talk more specifically on how Athena tackled each issue.

Not much content here - what are the common issues that you found? So why do they need to tackle the issues? This is meager evidence of progress DWP

Milestone 3 (April 19):

M3 Update:
Organize research, create an outline for the paper.

  1. Introduction of start-up companies
    1. What is a start-up company?
    2. Challenges faced by start-ups
  2. Introduction to Athena Study Abroad
  3. Web
  4. Contact Management System
  5. File Sharing
  6. Image Editing
  7. Social Networking
  8. Smart Phone Apps
  9. Conclusion

NOTHING HERE as of 5/1/11 DWP

Milestone 4 (April 28):
Rough draft.

M4 Update:


NOTHING HERE as of 5/1/11 DWP

Milestone 5 (May 9):