What Project?

Okay, I think I'm at the point where I finally have to decide on a project to do.

Sure, I could put it off for a bit longer...after all, any web project will need a login and authentication infrastructure, but last night my wife suggested doing a community events site, where people and organizations could post their events. I liked the idea, so I don't have any need to keep procrastinating.

What makes a community events site a good candidate for this project? Aren't there tons of those out there? It's true that there are a lot of sites that attempt to provide this functionality, but if people from the community don't use them they have no value. I think a site developed by a member of the community might get better buy in from the community itself.

And the technical aspects of the project are great. I get a typical web model, where visitors don't need to be logged in to see events, but do need to be logged in to generate or discuss events.

I get the opportunity to do some cool mashups with Google Maps and weather data (for directions to the event and the weather forecast for the event).

The project is complicated enough to make for a good sample, but not so complicated that most of my time is going to be spent on logic not related to the technology.

So, that's it...I'm not sure what it'll be called yet, but it'll be a community events site. Now I can start writing some code!

(Note to my students...I'm going to be designing as I go, and refactoring as needed. This works for me because of my experience in developing software, and because I do a lot of head-work design while walking to work. I'd strongly suggest that you do some on paper design work to show what you want the screens on your site to look like. That'll help get your head around what has to happen on the server.)