Each morning, residents of Robert Shaw Hall at Syracuse University encounter a frustrating and time-consuming problem. As each college freshman struggles out of bed and wanders down the hall to take a shower before class, he is thwarted. He opens the bathroom door and is immediately confronted with a line of (at least!) three others waiting for a shower to become available. These daily delays often result in lost class time, missing breakfast, poor dental hygiene and general grouchiness. What is the solution? Read on.
As part of the Entrepreneurship Project for my IST 195 class, I will blog about a new, innovative and dynamic system that will reinvent the morning for Shaw Hall residents. I am excited to announce the SSMS: Shaw Shower Management System. The SSMS will feature a web interface that allows residents to 'reserve' a place in the shower queue. Now, residents will never waste their time waiting in line! The system will display a countdown until the shower stall is available, allowing each resident to put every minute of their morning to good use. Shower times will be limited to twenty minutes per person, per morning. Residents using the SSMS will swipe their Syracuse University ID Card to turn on the water.
Professor Rubin lectured on Social Media this past Wednesday. He explained to our class that users spend more time on social networks than on any other website. I am excited to harness the power of social media to leverage my idea. I will use Facebook and Twitter to introduce the idea to my peers in Shaw Hall. Using Facebook and Twitter, I can gather feedback about the idea and recruit friends to serve as beta testers. I will spread the word about the SSMS and promote it through social media. I think using social media to publicize my idea will be more effective than creating paper flyers, as teenagers in today's world spend a significant amount of time on the Internet.
Check back next week for more details about the SSMS!
