Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 1

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1 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 1 LAB 2 MonarchPress Prototype Specification Catalin Pop Old Dominion University CS 411W Janet Brunelle November 20th, 2015 Version 1

2 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction Purpose Scope Definition, Acronyms, and Abbreviations References Overview General Description Prototype Architecture Description Prototype Functional Description External Interfaces...12

3 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 3 1. Introduction In society, journalism is a constantly changing and expanding digital enterprise. Intuitive data representations and interactions are not able to be properly represented due to the constant increase of digital media, which encompasses all various forms of media that are digitized. Poor representation of digital media tends to not capture the readers attention and causes valuable articles to not be read to its full extent. Journalists are required to be technologically diverse to continue to publish competitive news. Top companies such as The New York Times, CNN, and BBC are great examples of what online journalism should look like in our modern society. However, small groups of bloggers and university journalists do not have the budget to hire website developers in order to improve the appearance of their digital media. Bloggers can pay corporations such as Wix or Squarespace for website building, which allows them a more effective and efficient online platform. However, these bloggers are at the will of the provided templates, where they do not have the freedom to incorporate their intuitive data representation and interaction ultimately limiting their creativity and their ability to appeal to their readers. Also, having a consistent template on every news article will lose the readers attention. All of these fundamental issues can be solved using a free open-source plug-in called MonarchPress. MonarchPress intends to bridge the gap between journalism and technology. It helps by providing bloggers with a tool that will allow news article publishing to appear flawless. This tool will allow university students and bloggers to focus on writing and producing highquality news without the need of experience in website development.

4 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION Purpose MonarchPress is designed to eliminate the need for website building companies and individual website developers. The user interface allows for content to be dragged and dropped addressing the difficulty of publishing an article. The user interface also allows for university journalists and bloggers to post dynamic news content. This product is an open-source plug in for WordPress Contents Management System (CMS). WordPress has been advertised to be the easiest way to create a free website or blog, but the journalists are limited to their free templates (WordPress.com). MonarchPress is an opensource plug-in that allows the journalist to post and share their news freely, with the ability to edit and manipulate their work, as well as the inclusion of social media contest such as Twitter, Facebook and other various connections. The product is easy to use for the everyday journalist and has the ability to connect multiple platforms Scope MonarchPress will be composed of three main features and capabilities. This plug in will have social media distribution and drag-and-drop features for users to create articles effortlessly. It will be an open-source CMS that will allow for documents to be changed and efficiently managed. MonarchPress will pull newsfeeds together, integrate interactive content, and allow readers to interact in an engaging way with the articles. The user interface (UI) will have features such as drag-and-drop editing for easy customization of the article. The user interface will also allow the journalist to include media elements that pull aggregated feeds into their articles. Numerous other CMS products such as Drupal, Pangae, Django, Joomla, Armstrong and Newscoop are available for use, but these CMS satisfy some but not all of the journalist s needs. A vast majority of users expect features that will boost relevant user metrics, easy-to-use layout

5 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 5 tools, and add social media plugins which can increase visitors volume, bringing more readers to their sites. Table I shows the differences and goals of MonarchPress ( Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations Admin - a person that has the rights to do anything to the software or database. Application Program Interface (API) - a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types. Content Aggregation - bringing together specific types of information from multiple online sources. Content Management System (CMS) - allows publishing, editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as well as maintenance from a central interface often used to run websites containing blogs, news, and shopping. Contributor - a person who sends in material to be published, whether it s through twitter or a researcher. Not someone that is part of the news organization.

6 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 6 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - a simple mechanism for adding style to Web documents. Digital Journalism - a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. Disqus - is a blog comment hosting service for web sites and online communities that uses a networked platform. Digital Media text, graphics, audio, and video that can be transmitted over Internet or computer networks. Editor - a person who is in charge of and determines the final content of a text, particularly a newspaper or magazine. Javascript - an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. Journalist - a person who writes for newspapers or magazines or prepares news to be broadcast on radio or television. HTML - Hypertext Markup Language, a standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages. Living Document a document that is continually edited and updated. Mace & Crown - A university news organization that is under a tight budget and looking for a cheaper alternative to their current CMS with more customization and tools. MySQL - Most widely used open-source RDBMS. Open Source - denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. PHP - is a server-side scripting language designed for web development. Plugin - a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing software application.

7 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 7 Reader - a person that reads and interacts with the articles posted by the news organization. RDBMS - relational database management system. UI/UX - the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product. Whitelisted - a list of people or products viewed with approval. Wordpress - Most popular open source CMS based on PHP and MySQL References Armstrong - Open Source News Platform. (2014). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from WordPress.com: Create a free website or blog. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, Bartlett, R. (2014, January 7). 10 key skills for digital journalists to hone in 2014 Media news. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from Coding Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Content Management Systems Market Report. (2015, September 1). Retrieved September 20, 2015, from Corneliussen, S. (2003). Read All About It... In The Student Paper. Retrieved September 20, 2015, from Green Team - CS 410/411w. (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, Django CMS. (2015). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from

8 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 8 Gillmor, D. (2005, February 4). Where Newspapers Can Start the Conversation. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from Glaser, M. (2004, September 10). OJR article: Collaborative Conundrum: Do Wikis Have a Place in the Newsroom? Retrieved March 6, 2015, from Krotoski, A. (2011, February 19). What effect has the internet had on journalism? Retrieved September 20, 2015, from Living document. (2015, February 12). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from Managed WordPress Hosting. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Manifesto for Agile Software Development. (2001). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Mayfield, A. (2014, September 3). SGA balances behemoth budget. Retrieved from Newscoop Sourcefabric. (2015). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from OAuth Documentation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Otto, B. (2014, June 23). Student newspapers weigh trading independence for financial support : News. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from

9 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 9 newspapers-weightrading-independence-for-financial-support/article_29150c79-624f fa1-505faa3e5b5b.html Pangea - All-in-One Solution for Journalists. (2015). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Phelps, A. (2012, January 25). The Public Insight Network, now swimming in data, launches its own reporting unit. Retrieved from Rouse, M. (2006, July 1). What is collaborative citizen journalism (CCJ)? - Definition from WhatIs.com. Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Schmitz Weiss, A., & Royal, C. (2013, July 26). At the intersection of journalism, data science, and digital media: How can j-schools prep students for the world they re headed into? Retrieved September 19, 2015, from Spinner, J. (2014, September 24). The Big Conundrum: Should Journalists Learn Code? Retrieved September 20, 2015, from Strategic Plan ( ). (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2015, from edu/about/planning/strategic-plan Thompson, M. (2014, November 25). 4 ways content management systems are evolving & why it matters to journalists. Retrieved September 21, 2015, from

10 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION 10 Twitter Search API. (2015). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from Usage of content management systems for websites. (2015, September 19). Retrieved September 19, 2015, from Viner, K. (2013, October 9). The rise of the reader: Journalism in the age of the open web. Retrieved September 19, 2015, from WordPress About» Requirements. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from WordPress APIs «WordPress Codex. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from WordPress About» Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from WordPress Coding Standards. (2011, December 13). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from WordPress Social Login. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2015, from

11 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION Overview The prototype description will show the features and functionality of the MonarchPress prototype. The second chapter provides an overview of the prototype architecture, functional description, and external interfaces. (This space intentionally left blank.)

12 Running Head: LAB 2 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION General Description The functional prototype will focus on standard content view page, notifications, content editing, submission review, and edit templates. The development team aims to present the prototype plug-in to the Mace and Crown while also making it available for the open-source community. It will be capable of drag-and-drop editing, integration of media elements, and notifications. These features will be consistent with the real world product Prototype Architecture Description MonarchPress prototype will consist of four users: editors, journalists, guest contributors, and administrators. All of the users will interact with mocked account data. Editors will be able to review content submissions, publish submissions, edit articles, manage news, and moderate comments. The journalists will be able to create new content, edit existing content, and edit visualization followed by submitting content changes for publication. Guest contributors will also be able to review content submissions and publish submissions. Finally, administrators will manage all the users roles while managing access control Prototype Functional Description MonarchPress will be capable of demonstrating a vast variety of features. It will be able to provide content editing, submission review, mobile alerts, content viewing, layout editing, and notification system. The prototype will be capable of user login, interactive data visualization elements, twitter feed aggregation, admin controls, page editing, and contact information saving External Interfaces This prototype will interact with Twitter API.