rbth7e5 / bustythesquirrel

hack@cewit

Hack@CEWIT 2020 Submission

Agora

Agora is a web platform that creates powerful conversations between individuals, wherevever they are in the world.

• Login Page

• Landing Page

At Agora's landing page, users are able to view their own pitches as well as pitches available for them to respond to.

• Asking a Question

• Users are able to create their own pitch by asking questions using question prompts on controversial topics. This allows users to obtain a first-hand account of an incident located abroad from another user located in that region.

Responding to an Issue

• Users are able to respond to issues happening in their own country that are posted by other users

Conversation Page

• Upon responding to an issue or getting the user's issue being responded to, it brings the user to a conversation page

Inspiration

As 4 college undergraduates from Singapore, we often get questions such as “is Singapore part of China?” and “Is Nepotism present in Singapore’s political scene?” These questions made us realize how little people know about each other’s identities cross-borders. If only everyone knew others culture a little better, the world would be a greater place.

What it does

Agora is an online platform that creates powerful conversations between individuals, wherever they are in the world. Individuals can anonymously submit questions they have, and the platform links these questions with members on the platform most qualified to respond to them.

How we built it

We used the MERN stack to build our product as we felt that it was the most flexible stack that was comfortable for all our developers. We spent the night on Friday ideating and refining on our idea once we managed to think of something that everyone was happy with, then spent the next two days hacking away.

Challenges we ran into

Due to the nature of the platform, we had to make sure that we think of a product that could strike a balance between privacy and the quality of conversations held on our platform. We spent couple of days thinking of ways to ensure that users would enjoy using our platform without compromising the anonymity of the platform.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We managed to think of a fully formed idea within a few hours and hacked away without much problems! We feel quite accomplished of the full stack platform as it got to push the limits of everyone's skills.

What we learned?

We learnt the importance of having a well thought out user flow for whatever you are building, and communicating that flow effectively among the team. Doing this before diving into building the product helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and avoids situations where you have to backtrack.

What's next for Agora?

There are a number of other exciting features that we did not have time to build out in the course of this hackathon but would like to explore moving forward. Such features include having group discussions between multiple people, and customized question prompts based on the users' country.