The EC Blog

The EC Blog :: New Feature Specs

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 16:25:09 -0500

New Feature Specs

AJ and I just met for lunch to talk about some of the details of our upcoming features.

Here’s the summary:

1. On-site Messaging

Basic 1-to-1 messaging system
Read, Send, Delete
Inbox & Sentbox
Read, unread, and replied statuses

2. Networks (Yay!)

3 Things:

People I know.
People I’m watching.
People watching me.

3. Groups

User-constructed and controlled
Open or Private

4. OpenID

That’s all for now, check back soon!

The EC Blog :: Alpha Launch - Welcome, Friends!

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:33:31 -0600

Alpha Launch - Welcome, Friends!

Well it’s official, Expressive Connections is now open to the public. The site is in a sort of alpha-mode right now. We think it’s got a pretty solid start – which is why we’re inviting you to take a look around, create an account and let us know what you think – if you’d use it, or what features you’d like to see added, etc. It’s still got some kinks and we’re working things out here and there. But we’ve got big plans.

Expressive Connections started out as a group project for class. Well once again, AJ and I have found ourselves in the same course (this time entailing Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Apache, and other things of the “Web 2.0” nature) Just like the last course we took together, this one has a group project – that is to develop a web site utilizing the ideas and languages learned in class. Since Expressive Connections already fits into these project requirements, we decided to ask the professor, Kurt Demaagd, if we could continue building onto the project rather than start again from scratch. He agreed and so you can expect to see a lot of new features and changes. Here’s what we’re aiming for:

On-site private messaging
Member endorsements and letters of recommendation
Ability to watch favorite users, see who other users are watching, and see who is watching you
User-submitted audio and video content for portfolios!

Right now, we’re aiming our services at artists and writers. But we’re a network for creative professionals, right? Well, what kind of network for creative professionals would we be if we left out musicians, producers, actors, directors, and everyone in between. So, we’re not going to leave you out.

This is where we stand and these are our plans for the next semester. I think you’ll see some exciting changes along the way. And, hopefully you’ll help us, too – by checking it out, creating a profile, or spreading the word around to others who may be interested.

It’s a work in progress and we want you all to help us in building the most exciting site we can, so any feedback you give would be greatly appreciated.

The EC Blog :: The Launch

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:08:17 -0600

The Launch

It’s finally here! Launch time…the moment of truth. Can a small group of three college students pull off a web site built in only one semester that will be used by a world-wide network of artists and writers? Well, we’ll let you answer that question.

Expressive Connections was an idea that came out of a Telecommunications class assignment at Michigan State University. Our final class project basically boiled down to the phrase “build me a web site”. Although this doesn’t get in the way of creativity, anyone knows that given no guidelines to follow, coming up with a suitable solution is not always the easiest thing in the world – but hey, it’s more fun that way. Being the ambitious youngsters that we are, we wanted to create something that would be used beyond the scope of the class and for more than just a grade – something that people could actually use and enjoy.

This was a lofty goal indeed, however it didn’t get us any closer to an actual solution for the project. As young adults, we’re always being told to dream big – so that’s what we did. Since I have always been sort of a lazy artist (only working on my projects when I have the free time, which isn’t that often) I have always wanted to be able to show more people what I have done. I guess you could say that this is where the idea for Expressive Connections began. So, my selfish goal to show the world my own artwork may, in fact, now turn out to work in the favor of many other closet-artists and writers just like myself.

I would like to conclude by saying that we believe this class project was indeed a huge success and that hopefully many of you can be benefited by what we’re offering as well. All I can vouch for is that we, as a group, extremely enjoyed working together and constructing this site. We hope that you will find it useful and enjoyable. If you have any problems, concerns, ideas, or compliments – please don’t hesitate to contact us with your comment. Thanks for stopping by and please come again soon.