Complore- Web2.0 props up academic research
The Web2.0 era has spawned a host of applications that aim to build a community of dedicated users having some shared interests. Complore is one such product that aims to bring the academic research community on a common platform.
Complore is derived from ‘com’ (with, together) and ‘explore’ (search, research). It has been started by two ex students of IIT Delhi, Lokesh & Deepak and they describe it as an ‘Online Social Research Collaboration Tool’. Complore was borne out of their observation that, while a few well endowed institutions (like IITs) have a good research ecosystem, the same is not true for many other universities & colleges. Also many of the research articles lie buried deep in the bowels of the internet or require subscription for access, something most students can’t afford. Complore provides students & scholars, faculty members, technical experts, working professionals’ direct access to the research resources. They can ride on the crest of the Web2.0 wave to share their research materials, thoughts, and ideas and help each other in their work.
So what all can you do with Complore? You can share content (lectures, articles, projects, papers, journals) by uploading a file, bookmarking a weblink or by writing a description. Users can comment, vote or add tags to the content. There is an events section where you can list upcoming academic events. Complore is also pulling RSS feeds from various publicly available research journals and combining them under a single category. The site has been up for just two months and already has a user base of 325. Their primary source of traffic is Google/Yahoo search and their site shows up in the front pages of many academic keywords search results. Going forward, the site could possibly add a resources database for students to find universities, courses, teaching assistantships, trainings opportunities etc.
I spent some time checking out the site and here’s some quick, back of the envelope feedback that I have:
- Complore’s positioning tagline ‘Online Social Research Collaboration Tool’ seems a trifle confusing; it could do with further crystallization
- While I like the basic layout of the site, the home page looks a bit text heavy
- A few bookmarked links on the site are not related to academia (e.g. a few Indian job sites); this could dilute content integrity; while it’s not possible to control what users share, maybe a ‘not relevant’ flagging off feature could help
- It would be great if I could search articles or events by geography; surely people would want to see aggregation of research activities country wise
Overall, I like the thought behind Complore and I am thrilled to see people in India trying to push Web2.0 beyond its obvious frontiers.
Links:
Shalin Jain on Jul 15, 2006
Pretty nifty concept. I wish I were a student
my feedback on it:
1. Why have google search (is it a revenue source?)? you should rather be encouraging site search.
2. The huge list of tag clouds gives the site a little cluttered look. Probably, just keep the top tags there. I know the idea behind the tag cloud but i think it’s overdone for the homepage.
3. Like to hear out the marketing plan for such a project, just in-case the developers read it!
Good luck!
Deepak on Jul 15, 2006
Hi Shalin,
This is Deepak, one of the developers of the site. Thanks for the feedback. I will try to answer some of your questions as follows:
1. We have put a ‘google scholar’ search which is quite a lot different from the normal ‘google’ search. In this, only research papers, journals, academic presentations comes into play.The ‘google scholar’ search is present so that people can search their related articles on google scholar and then bookmark it on complore (which can be done by a single click) for readily access. We have also put ’site search’ so that user can search site for the content.
2. The idea behind the huge tag cloud is to make aware the users what is hot in the academic. It is a crucial part as the users like to see what other people are bookmarking.
3.We are using the best method of marketing which is ‘word of mouth’. Their are certain features such as saving and accessing your bokmarks, be in touch with the latest events , able to access articles, ppts and other things at a single place which make this site unique and we are banking on the same.
We would like to hear more from you regarding this. You can either mail at feedback@complore.com or reply to this comment.
Sunder on Jul 16, 2006
The concept is awesome. I only wish you guys had not “borrowed” stylesheets from del.icio.us. Hopefully, you can change that soon.
amit on Jul 16, 2006
Deepak,
I did not realize that the search on the site was for Google search, inspite of having spent a good deal of time there, so thats some feedback straightaway- i.e. making Google scholar more visible.
As I have mentioned above in the review, the positioning tagline “your personal research collaboration tool” seems overdone. In the information overloaded age as ours, its imp to convey what the product does in a simple, concise manner. What are your thoughts on this?
amit ranjan
Shalin Jain on Jul 16, 2006
More feedback. I am keeping it public so that if there are more people agreeing to it- you’ll know and if more agree then my feedback should be considered valid.
1. I am on Safari 2.x. I get a horizontal scroll bar on the homepage. Which can be and should be avoided. Maybe this does not happen on other browsers. but something you can easily fix. Spread the word page had even more problems.
2. Cloud is a great idea but fewer popular tags would be better I feel.
3. Consistency in colors is missing: purplish on tom, light blue with with imagine in the centre and the buttons. diff blue for the links. Not they don’t gel at all- but i think you gotta contrast things well or use the same colors. (Just to play devil’s advocate!)
4. The 3 buttons sure need to change. It’s not of the web2.0 standards.
5. Don’t think you need to worry if you use del.icio.us like color schemes or style.
6. Word of Mouth rocks - but don’t depend on it esp. to kick start things. press attention and some advertising (any form) should be considered early on as well.
7. Screencast takes a while to load.
That’s from me now. Like i said before the concept is great but lots of polishing is required. Get some “wow” factor in. Not too easy but keep going over it.
cheers,
Shalin Jain