The Genesis of Sydney Studymate

Tim Geaney takes a look at how the idea for Sydney Studymate came about.....

Week 1 and 2: In the beginning.....

They say that getting started is the hardest part; well ‘they’ were right. In the search for an online media topic we first came up with Chinese censorship laws. Sadly, that’s about as far as the idea got. After talking with Jonathon, it became clear we didn’t have a clear concept beyond the initial idea.  The idea was just boring not ‘colourful’ enough for a website. And as the third week reared its head, this idea looked destined for the “too hard basket.”

Week 3: In the beginning....again

All of us had come to silent agreement that this topic didn’t exactly light up the keyboard with inspiration. So we began looking for a creative topic that would provide more engagement (both with ourselves and readers).  We knew that user engagement was key to have a successful website, especially in the current online media landscape. Users are also more likely to share and promote the blog when they were engaged as Ross Maynard points out in his very easy to read blog here.

And below is a great image from his blog post that shows the differing stages of user interaction.

Copyright Ross Maynard

In our group we have four international students, and I just returned from exchange, which had me thinking about the challenges that international students face on a daily basis. 

The idea was to develop a website that would be an international student’s guide to living in Sydney. But where was the investigative angle? Well the previous weekend I had met an international student who was living with 7 other Brazilians in a two bedroom flat in Pyrmont for $175 a week each and I had the following reaction:

Inspired by the Jodi Dean article ‘The Death of Blogging’ Copyright: created by myself here

But one man’s exploitation is another man’s feature topic! Finally we were able to combine investigative features into our idea. Exploitation of foreign students in Sydney, particularly in the crazy Sydney house market became our first topic.

Then, Tina and Monica were having a conversation about visas once they finish their degree and want to stay in Australia which became the next topic of investigation. Talking about the challenges that international students face on a daily basis, travel concessions or lack thereof became the next topic. So hurrah, we had ourselves a project!

Week 4: Like a Rolling Stone

From there on in, the idea begun to snowball on its own- all that was left was a pesky title. We wanted something catchy, a touch of Australiana and of course; studying. First idea was “The Homestead” as aussie home for international students, except none of the international students in our group knew what a Homestead was. From the obtuse to the obvious, we settled on Sydney Studymate.





   A non-copyright cleared mock version of our banner



In researching this topic, one thing we found was that there

1)      Information overload for users, so much stuff out there that isn’t current, and

2)      Information on so many different sites

 

We wanted to bring those two points together by creating an index and category site. (See Terry Flew’s New Media: an Introduction on page 146 for more). And we actually found a website that puported to do this exact thing right here. But thankfully it hasn't been updated for over 2 years. *wipes brow*

Week 4: Getting Social:

Sydney Studymate can use lifestyle topics to encourage user engagement through content and format. By formatting our reviews section on a Google Maps styled map, so users could see what wa son offer in their area, and keep it interesting. In content, with Aleks arrival in week 4 we decided to include documentary styled profiles of students in Sydney called Studymate Stories allowing readers t engage on a personal and even emotion level.

Social media is crucial for our idea not only because every site does uses it, but because it reflects the needs and the usage habits of target audience (Flew, this time on page 145) We envisaged Facebook as a virtual pinboard for our website, users can post house for rent, search for language partners, promote events. Similar to the group I was part of for students on exchange:

Facebook Group for uni students on exchange in Cologne

This kind of activity is an upgrade on user participation, transitioning from liking and sharing, to commenting to writing and even moderating. Interaction demands a two-way or multi directional model of communication, the receiver is an active participant (more Flew on page 31). As Dan Gilmour said, every citizen is a reporter, and our style of journalism will be conversation or seminar.

Week 5: Cheeky Sneakpeak

And here we are,  finally the end product is going to look a little something like this:

Get excited guys, Sydney Studymate coming to a computer near you....