Each semester in CS110, students form teams of two students to implement a website for an external client. This document is written for potential clients, so that they can understand whether their project is appropriate for a CS110 team.
Who can be a client? A wide range of people and organizations can be clients. For example:
If you know of a CS110 team, or are approached by one, you can certainly talk to them and come to an agreement to be their client. If not, you can post (using FirstClass) a description of your project to CS110-Q&A. Teams will look there to find clients. Depending on how many potential clients post to CS110-Q&A, your site might not get chosen, in which case you're welcome to try again in a subsequent semester.
If you're off-campus, you can contact one of the instructors, describing your project, and one of them can post your project description on your behalf.
In the case where the client is an organization, it's best to appoint a particular contact person who will communicate with the CS110 team, speaking for the organization and making design decisions. It slows things down a lot if the contact person always has to meet with others to make decisions, and the semester flies by pretty quickly.
CS110 teams build websites of about 8-10 web pages. There is a little flexibility here, depending on the zeal of the team, but a client should not expect a website that is significantly more than that. A site that is significantly less than that is also inappropriate.
The website content will consist of text, images (pictures) and graphical decorations. There may also be movies or sound files. For the most part, that content must be supplied by the client. For example, an organization's mission statement, constitution or history is text that the team cannot supply. In some cases, the CS110 team can take digital camera pictures, of, say, a dorm, but the team's responsibility is not to become the client's historian.
The contact person for the client should understand that
deadlines in CS110 are firm. If the content isn't supplied
by the deadline, the team will just put in stuff goes
here
or other sorts of fillers, which is unsatisfying
for everyone. Please get the content to the team in a
timely fashion.
A CS110 web site can have blog
or guestbook
features, and it can have a form that a
visitor can fill out where the data gets emailed to the
client. This can be nice for, say, questionnaires and
such. However, a CS110 web site does not support
databases, e-commerce applications, and other kinds of
advanced technologies.
The CS110 team deserves a chance to be genuinely
creative in their design of the site. Therefore, it's not
appropriate to ask a team to update
an existing
site, just tweaking a few things here or there. Even if
there is an existing site (which often happens), the
replacement site is expected to be genuinely new: a
complete re-design.
To see some of the best work of CS110 students, please see our hall of fame (note, these demos will not be viewable off campus).
The web site will be hosted on the CS department
server (cs.wellesley.edu) while the
CS110 team is developing it. That is temporary space
just for that semester and perhaps a few weeks
afterwards. A finished site cannot be hosted on our
department server, however. The client will have to
find a web hosting service (there are
many commercial sites) to copy the site to at the end
of the semester. Here are some suggestions for web
site hosting.
The web site is finished and tested by the end of
classes. At that point, the CS110 team should be able to
deliver the web site to the client, possibly just by
copying the files. It's also possible to burn
the files onto a CD or some other storage medium. The CS110
team or the client can contact
cs-sysadmin@wellesley.edu
if they need help with this.
Usually, the CS110 team members are very busy with final exams and other projects in the weeks after the site is done. The client may have to wait for a week or two, or copy the site themselves.
Often, it's easier and more secure for the client to simply copy the files to their web host, since they would have the necessary passwords, etc.
Every website needs occasional maintenance: updating information as it changes, replacing old pictures and other content, and the like. Of course, some sites change more quickly than others; only the client can estimate how much maintenance is likely. Clients should know that maintenance is their responsibility. The student teams can't be responsible for the site once the semester is over.
Of course, in some cases, one of the students in involved with the client's organization, such as being a member of a student club, and will take on the job of maintaining the website. That's perfectly appropriate, but is a separate agreement from the responsibilities of CS110 students.
There is no guarantee of any kind. In most cases,
our student teams do terrific work, and we are proud
of them. Most clients are very happy with the
results, but occasionally one is not. You should not
rely on a CS110 team for anything that
is mission-critical
to you or your
organization.
The faculty of CS110 and the student teams appreciate the opportunity to do something that is of real value to a client. However, our primary priority must be to the educational mission of the course.
The preceding information is given to clarify expectations so that no one is confused. The CS110 teams are encouraged to contact their advisor if there is any question.
© Computer Science 110 Staff
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
Date Modified:
Wednesday, 09-Sep-2009 09:59:37 EDT
