CST 300: Week 6

Team Capstone Ideas

This week my team and I discussed ideas for our capstone project. We began by discussing the individual capstones projects we blogged about last week and provided suggestions to expand on and improve them. For example, it was suggested that my financial management program download transaction data and categorize purchases automatically by using a 3rd party service, such as Plaid, to access bank accounts. Afterwards we began discussing new ideas. The most promising possibility was a "super" social media website/app that centralizes all your social media newsfeeds. I think this is plausible depending on available APIs from major social media websites. The user could link their accounts to the app which would then download feeds from each site, parse them, and consolidate posts into a standard interface. When replying to or "liking" a post, an appropriately crafted data string would be sent to the corresponding social media server and the app would confirm the data was received. This app could allow for universal features like updating all social media sites with the same profile picture or posting the same message in multiple places simultaneously.

Keeping Up

The most beneficial thing I learned this week is how to properly create a resume and cover letter. It is one of the areas in which I struggle, and I have previously been criticized for having a weak resume. I find it difficult to describe basic duties using long, detailed sentences, as I don't care much for exaggeration or unnecessary filler. The videos presented by career services provide reasonable examples and tips for creating a concise, professional looking resume for a targeted company.

Finally, my team began work on our final presentation videos this week. I proposed that we present consecutively but we decided to alternate 30 second to 1 minute time blocks. I believe this method will be easier and more efficient than my proposal of speaking for a solid 3 minute block. Our long video has been split into 8 sections and the short video into 5 sections. Each section has a designated time block and has been assigned to a team member. Our shared outline is on Google Docs so we can keep our team up to date with our progress and help them out if necessary.