You know about content types and view. You’ll use them in the exhibition project. Let’s get started.

Stakeholders

There are three obvious ones:

• Exhibitors. The organizations renting tables at the exhibition.
• Visitors. People coming the see the exhibition.
• Management. People running the exhibition.

Any others?

Marcus

I got one! I read through the scenario again, on the previous page. The people running the Community Center. They’re not the same as the people running the exhibition. Well, they might not be, anyway.

Read the scenario, and note each group or individual mentioned. A good way to pick out the stakeholders.

Georgina

Oh, OK! The city government is in the scenario, too.

• Exhibitors
• Visitors
• Exhibition management
• Community Center management
• City government

Let’s leave it there. We might add others later.

Requirements

Exhibitors

Exhibitors want people to learn about their group, and consider joining. The more people who know about the exhibition, and the more who visit their tables, the better.

People will be more interested in some groups than others. For examples, outdoorsy people will be more interested in a hiking club, than people who think the outdoors is overrated.

Some exhibitors will donate prizes. They’ll want extra publicity.

Anything else?

Adela

Exhibitors want to make their tables look good.

Ray

Isn’t that up to the exhibitors, though? Not something that Sylvia or the IS can help with.

Adela

Hmmm… I guess you’re right. Though Sylvia could give people advice on how to make a table that looks good.

Marcus

Hey, that’s a great idea!

Georgina

Oo! Another thing.

The hikers want to get outdoors people to the hiking table. The game guild wants to get gamerz to their table. How to do that?

Maybe, have lists of tables for different interests. Like, here are the tables about outdoors things. Here are the tables about geek things.

Here are requirements for exhibitors:

• Publicize the exhibition
• Publicize their tables
• Prize donors want extra publicity
• Make the tables look good
• List tables by interest

Now think about administration. It should be easy for exhibitors to reserve a table, and pay for it. Also, if the IS has a description of each exhibitor, exhibitors should be able to change their descriptions, tweak them as they like. Let’s add:

• Reserve and pay for tables
• Tweak exhibitor descriptions

Let’s move on.

Georgina

Before we do, I just thought of something else. The exhibitors want as many people as possible to know about the exhibition, right? That means that people should be able to get the info on their phones, as well as on computers and tablets.

• See show info on any device

Adela

What about reserving tables? Should that be done on a phone as well?

Georgina

I guess, but phones are inconvenient for typing lots of information. It would be easier on the exhibitors if they use computers. So, let’s make it possible to do on a phone, but a computer is the default option.

Visitors

Visitors want to know where the exhibition is, when, what it costs, and where to park.

They’ll also want to know if it’s worth their time going. How can they tell?

Ray

We talk about this in marketing classes.

Maybe a two-level thing. First, there are regular ads. They have to be short, so they can’t list all of the exhibitors. Tell people what benefits they can get from coming to the exhibition. Like… well, meeting other people, making friends. That’s one reason people join local groups.

The second level is for those people who like the ad, but want more detail. Give them a Web site they can dig around in.

Requirements:

• Is it worth my time coming to the exhibition?
• When and where
• How much
• Where to park
• See show info on any device

Exhibition management

• Let people know about the exhibition
• Let exhibitors know

Ray

How is Sylvia going to let exhibitors know?

Adela

The Chamber of Commerce usually has a newsletter. Oh, and local newspapers. They can run stories.

Marcus

Hey, is that another stakeholder? The media? The exhibitors want publicity. So does Sylvia. If it’s easy for the media to get press releases, or whatever, maybe they’ll publicize the show.

Adela

Nice, Marcus! The media is a stakeholder. Let’s add them to the list.

Back to exhibition management. Sylvia, that is. She has lots of paperwork to do. Sign up exhibitors, take their payments, write down group descriptions, make lists of exhibitors in categories…

Georgina

Whoa, hold on! Isn’t that what the IS does? Hey, and the exhibitors should handle their own data. How about exhibitors sign themselves up. They pay online. The type in their own descriptions of their groups. If they want to tweak the description, fine, they do it themselves.

Ray

Wait, what are you talking about?

Georgina

OK, Ray, you’re in a hiking club. You want to be in the show. You want your table to look good. You also want a good spot on the exhibition’s Web site. Right?

Ray

Of course.

Georgina

OK, let’s give you your own page on the site. It can have photos, descriptions of your events, links to your club’s own Web sites, whatevs. How does that sound?

Ray

Great! We could do some good marketing if we had our own page.

Georgina

How is the content going to get on the page?

Ray

Well, we could email it to Sylvia, and she could put it there.

Georgina

You’d have to tell her about layout as well, like where the photos go. If you saw the page and wanted to change the layout, you’d have to email Sylvia, then wait until she had time to change your page. Same if you wanted to change a photo, edit text, or fix a spelling error. There might be 49 others asking Sylvia for the same changes. It might take her a couple of days to get to your change, before you can see how it makes your page look.

Adela

You’d have to pay more, too. Maybe $500, rather than $100.

Ray

What you say?

Adela

Be realistic. Sylvia couldn’t do it all, in a timely way. The city would have to hire someone to do the work, for all of the groups.

Ray

OK, I get it! Sylvia can’t do every group’s page for them. To do it right, I’d have to pay a lot more. So what do we do?

Georgina

DIY. Do it yourself. Design your own page. Type in the content. Add photos. Add videos. Move them around. If you don’t like what you see, tweak it. As much as you want.

Ray

Argh! I don’t want to learn how to do that! I’m a hiker, not a Web developer!

Georgina

Ooo, good role playing.

How about we give you an editor that’s like Microsoft Word. You know how to use that, right? Or someone in your club does?

Remember, do it this way, and your page can be as fantastic as you want.

Ray

OK, I get it now. It’s a tradeoff. I can get my own page. Put much goodness there. Photos, videos, whatevs. I get to look at the page, change it, look at it again, change it as much as I want.

But there’s a cost. I have to do it myself, or find someone who will.

So, if this were a company, it would be like giving your customers part of your Web site. Breaking down the walls separating you and your customers. We were talking about that in marketing class.

Adela

Wow, this is more businessy than I thought it would be. Balancing costs, making trade-offs.

Ruben

Good observation, Adela. Making an IS is a business project, as much as a technical one. And the return on investment of the whole project can depend on technical choices, like who creates each group’s page in the exhibition Web site.

Marcus

Got another requirement, though. For exhibitors. The page making stuff should be easy to use. And easy to learn.

Here’s the list so far:

• Let people know about the exhibition
• Let exhibitors know
• Exhibitors sign up, and manage their own data
• Create lists of exhibitors by keyword

Let’s add some more:

• Assign exhibitors to tables
• Let exhibitors know which table is theirs, and where it is

Community Center management

• Know how many tables, tablecloths, and power strips they’ll need
• Know when the tables should be set up, and when they can be taken down
• Know how many people attend the show, and when the busiest times are.

City government

• Get some credit for organizing the event
• Know how many people attend the show, and when the busiest times are.

Media

• Know where to find details on the event for stories
• Know who to contact for more info

Summary

Here’s the final list of requirements.

Exhibitors

• Publicize the exhibition
• Publicize their tables
• Prize donors want extra publicity
• Make the tables look good
• List tables by interest
• Reserve and pay for tables
• Tweak group descriptions
• See show info on any device
• Page making is easy to do, and learn

Visitors

• Is it worth my time coming to the exhibition?
• When and where
• How much
• Where to park
• See show info on any device

Exhibition management

• Let people know about the exhibition
• Let exhibitors know
• Exhibitors sign up, and manage their own data
• Create lists of exhibitors
• Assign exhibitors to tables
• Let exhibitors know which table is theirs, and where it is

Community Center management

• Know how many tables, tablecloths, and power strips they’ll need
• Know when the tables should be set up, and when they can be taken down
• Know how many people attend the show, and when the busiest times are.

City government

• Get some credit for organizing the event
• Know how many people attend the show, and when the busiest times are.

Media

• Know where to find details on the event for stories
• Know who to contact for more info

Adela

Hey, Ruben. That’s a lot of requirements. Is this IS going to be complicated?

Ruben

The IS is going to be somewhat complicated, because business is complicated. If you combine the tasks that Slyvia, exhibitors, and visitors want to do, that’s quite a few different things.

Making the system will be challenging, but not impossible for beginners. It will stretch you. That’s a good thing. You’ll learn more, and maybe end up with skills you can sell to employers.

Put your exhibition IS in your eMe portfolio. Your system will be fairly realistic; with a little work, you could run real exhibitions with it. That should impress recruiters.