Storytelling of our project: Eurasia

Part 2

The following article is part of the #Eurasia project of the Ad Discovery Workshop of Panteion University in Greece.

Eurasia is a start-up project based on the Ad Discovery Workshop : an experimental peer-to-peer learning, hands-on workshop conducted by Assistant Professor @BettyTsakarestou of the Department of Communication Media and Culture, of Panteion University, Athens, Greece. Founded by 6 university students from 3 different countries and 2 continents, Eurasia works as an international journalistic and social platform that serves as a multicultural community that everyone from Europe and Asia can join, read articles from various perspectives, meet people from different backgrounds and write articles of their own to post on our site and social media pages. Our basic purpose is to create a better understanding of the travelling, technological social and cultural beliefs and differences between the countries of Eurasia. The following paragraphs refer to the steps that each one of our members took in order to create this project, with mentions to our sources of information, web resources and partner collaborations.

After studying the instructions and ideas proposed on OpenIdeo and creating our User Experience Map and Prototype Worksheet the next step we had to take was to get our idea of Eurasia into form and context. Being in charge of the creation of the website of our project, we first had to, as a team, conduct a research on all available site builders on the Internet, such as Wordpress.com, Squarespace.com , and Wix.com. By creating accounts on them and searching for their abilities and qualifications into creating a social, journalistic, blog-type platform and after sharing our thoughts regarding their benefits and drawbacks with the rest of the team, we decided to use Wix.com.

This specific website builder contains many opportunities for its users and it contains many advantages for the kind of project we were aiming to realize. More specifically, most of the site’s functions were available for free and did not demand acquiring and paying for a premium account. As a result we were able to achieve our targets and include all possible activities that we strived for providing for in our website. Some of the most important and most needed qualities that Wix.com provided us with were: the ability to choose from already existing templates which we could later customize to fit our style and ideas , social buttons to link our website with our social media accounts, categories to classify our articles, contact, comment, sing-up and subscription entrances to form a more interactive relationship with our users, multiple device compatibility, as well as, photo and video galleries to add extra content to our foundation.

Here is a video presenting the advantages and disadvantages of Wix.com which we also took into consideration before starting to build the site:

The process of constructing the Eurasia Website took about a week in order to raise all the required resources, separate what would be included in every section of the site and in the end improve and correct mistakes or add extra options and qualifications. Eurasia includes 6 basic sections which are named and explained below:

• Timeline: The user can find the most recently posted articles, connect with our social media platforms, subscribe to our newsletter, comment and find some introductory information into our purpose, role and members.
• Archive: The user can find all of our articles and search for them either with their titles, tags or categories.
• Photo & Video Galleries: The user can find interesting photos and videos from both Europe and Asia and acquire a more visual image into these two continents.
• Submissions: The users can submit their own articles which will be examined and corrected for grammatical and syntactical errors and later posted on our website and social accounts.
• Contact: The users can send any possible question to our team and we will respond via email.
• About: The user can find all of the information on how and why this project started as well as what possibilities they have in its use.

After building up the site and getting suggestions from the rest of the team, my next step was to construct our social media platforms which would work as communication factors to attract audience and create an interactive Eurasia community. Due to their vast reach in a worldwide scale and their various capabilities regarding social interaction I chose as our 2 basic templates, Facebook and Twitter. In more detail:

Facebook: One of the most renowned social templates that directs the users easily towards the Eurasia website providing all the necessary information with extra posts of photos, videos and events.

Twitter: The best social platform to promote Eurasia and receive public acknowledgment through followers to gain a directed and specific kind of audience.

After publishing our finished website and setting up both of our social accounts, I added the correct graphics and logos, which were provided by the rest of the team, and connected them altogether through the required links and references. Being the main manager of the page I received articles from all of our members every week, which we had already corrected together and set them in the right form and specific time for their publication. Following their publication I shared them on both Facebook and Twitter and invited our audience to explore both of them and the rest of the user possibilities available at our website. In-between the articles we also shared interesting short videos and photos that are included in our site to keep the interest of our users active and dynamic. Checking the statistics of mainly our Wix platform and Facebook i updated the rest of the team (Amanda Voulgari twnia nisotaki Ling Jin Catherine Meng Zuzana Hájková) and gave them instructions on how they could help to increase our outreach both inside and outside of the team.

You can find more info about our startup and the articles on our official website: http://eurasiaco.wix.com/eurasia

Like us on #Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eurasiaco

Follow us on #Twitter: https://twitter.com/eurasiaco

TEAM: Amanda Voulgari twnia nisotaki Ling Jin Catherine Meng Zuzana Hájková Daphne Diapouli

With the help of Assistant Professor Betty Tsakarestou of the Department of Communication Media and Culture, of Panteion Univeristy, Athens, Greece.

© 2016 by an Ad Discovery Workshop of Panteion University