About one year ago, just before the summer, I noticed that the number of science related social networks popping up was increasing rapidly. There seemed to be a niche needing to be filled and everyone was putting together a network of sorts with their own twist. Hoping to fill it.
Although it’s not a science social network, I recently came across a new site called Lappiz which presents the tagline “Learning has evolved“.
From the official about page, Lappiz is:
“… a collaborative web tool that allows students, especially those in higher education, to share academic content between them. Its purpose is purely educational, providing students universal access to all kinds of documents that might be interesting in a particular area of study.”
Rui Marinho, co-founder of Seegno, the Portuguese company that created Lappiz, was kind enough to answer a couple of my questions:
You’re a biomedical engineering student, right? How did you get involved into creating Lappiz?
I am currently attending the 4th year of the Integrated Masters in Biomedical Engineering, at University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. I have chosen to specialize my studies in the Medical Informatics branch, one of the four available in this Masters.
Lappiz was developed at Seegno, a startup based in Braga, Portugal, which I co-founded with Jorge Pereira and Tiago Ribeiro. My involvement on the idea that made Lappiz what it is today started within my academic life at University of Minho, where the concept was firstly tested. It then became our pet project at Seegno and followed a partnership with Innovation Point – with which we had already cooperated in developing the Gasmappers application.
How did the name Lappiz come about? What does it mean?
Nowadays, a meaningful name and a valid international domain are a difficult pair to get together. Specifically, working on this service as a brand is a demanding effort. We had several brainstorming sessions to come up with a simple and somewhat meaningful name.
We wanted something that could vaguely relate to being a student. In Portuguese, Lappiz is pronounced “lapis”, which means “pencil” in English. It is also vaguely recognized in the english language through “Lapiz Lazuli”. Since Lappiz is all about the academic life where the process of handwriting and taking notes is common, we found it to be an appellative name, while still being able to have a qualified international domain.
Did the idea to create Lappiz come out of necessity or was there a niche you noticed that needed to be filled?
In a way, it came out of necessity, since none of the existing systems at the time actually matched what we had in mind. The idea of Lappiz was born in University of Minho, where the concept was initially tested on a more restricted set.
Some of us, at Seegno, while students at University of Minho, ran a first test between students of Informatics Engineering and, later, Biomedical Engineering. We then approached Innovation Point to see if they were interested in participating on the further development of this idea. After founding Seegno, the partnership came to life in order to launch Lappiz on a global scale.
There are (a lot!) of social networks out there, what makes Lappiz stand aside from the pack?
Most social networks have a high relevance and penetration on a global level, but they are generalist in nature, as they focus on bringing in large quantities of people. Lappiz targets a more specific audience, with a purpose in mind that goes beyond simple socializing,befriending strangers and putting yourself out to the world. It has an associated concept that responds to a concrete need, namely in terms of presenting each participant as a valid source of academic information.
Although Lappiz has some features found in other social networks, it is particularly focused on sharing information resources like study notes, exercises, trials, exams, practical works, reports and thesis. There are several features available for this very purpose, and many more are planned. Dynamic organization, personal activity follow-up, feedback, peer review procedures, resource management, bulk uploading and tag assignment are some of the distinctive functionalities of Lappiz. Also, in the near future we plan to expand the platform and its functionalities in very significant ways.
Facebook integration is also a key feature of Lappiz, and as a member, you have immediate access to Lappiz, without the need to register, bringing with you your personal friends’ network. After this step, you can then enjoy an academic trip without the rigidity of the institutional platforms. Discussing topics or asking questions to the community are now simple and intuitive processes. In a way, our focus on integrating with other platforms is a statement on our intent not to compete with other social platforms, and rather be a complement to a specific population – students and ex-students – which is already typically a user of those platforms.
From a quick first glance, Lappiz seems to provide some of the functionalities that social networks like Epernicus already provide, how do you think your site differs?
There are many social networks available worldwide, and many more are emerging. Our approach, since the initial prototypes, was to position Lappiz as a tool to explore the overlaying of students and their learning interests and not as competitors to world-wide social platforms. This is one of the reasons why we have such a deep integration between Lappiz and Facebook.
Unlike Epernicus, Lappiz’s social tools work as a complement to the fundamental collaboration effort for a better academic success, and not as a professional network constructor.
Lappiz is available in English and Portuguese. Being from Portugal, knowing the Portuguese education system and the average Portuguese students, what do you think the uptake will be?
The idea of having both languages demonstrates our effort to captivate the attention of both foreign and Portuguese students, including those in programs like Erasmus. We have an ambitious plan that aims to register 10.000 Portuguese students in the first few months, and 100.000 students until the end of the year, between Portuguese and foreign students. We believe Lappiz will become a reference in the academic area.
These estimates are a result of the number of students that enter higher education institutions in Portugal and foreign countries. In Portugal, about 70.000 new students join these institutions every year, contributing to a universe calculated to be of around 300.000 students. Abroad, every year more than 4 million new students also enter higher education institutions.
One of Lappiz’s goals is to “simplify students’ lives”. What particular tools does Lappiz provide to do so?
We have built several tools that simplify students’ lives. For instance, they may keep track of the activity in their university, course or subject, in order to be always alert of new resources, replies to questions they made, new discussions and so on.
As you are aware of, academic studies often rely on numerous digital documents. Students using Lappiz are likely to submit these files to share with their colleagues, additionally including work of their own. We have implemented a bulk uploading tool which allows students to submit several simultaneous files in a painless way, with built-in features like tagging, which will facilitate future searches.
It is also important to distinctly identify the best content available. As Lappiz grows, it is expected that the available resources increase largely. By integrating feedback and peer review procedures, we are allowing students to identify the most interesting, informative, important and helpful resources.
Lappiz’s also has a simple filtering system which allows users to select criteria such as Most Recent or Popular entries, and it is also possible to filter it by type of content, such as resources, questions or discussions. For instance, one can choose to see what are the most popular resources on a university or the most recent questions on a subject.
Have you had support, financial or other, from your University or any other institute to create Lappiz?
Lappiz is the result of a partnership between Seegno and Innovation Point. We haven’t had any support, financially or other, from University of Minho or any other institute.
Is there a defined business model already set up for Lappiz? Publicity, premium features, etc?
The current business model predicts an advertisement-based support. We are confident that in the near future we will be able to provide services of added-value that are useful and interesting for Lappiz’s community. On the other hand, we do not want to fill the platform with intrusive elements just for the sake of generating revenue. We expect to deliver highly targeted advertisements and services.
Online business models are complex and we are still studying this matter. However, Lappiz will remain a free platform for the purpose it was built for, independently of the revenue model applied in the future.
Is there anything else you’d like to let my readers and/or Lappiz users know?
I want to thank everyone for their effort on testing Lappiz since its early stage and to all the people who have submitted feedback about it. I would also like to let your readers know that Seegno focus in exploring innovative ideas and in the development of Information Solutions, meeting the higher standards in technical quality, simplicity, aesthetics, robustness and user experience. As an open company, we are interested in new ideas and in bringing projects to life – you may reach us at any time – we would love to hear from you!
Search terms: DNA sequence
Search terms: Genomes
Search terms: Genetic Diseases
Search terms: Genes
And now, let me just put in my quick 2 eurocents (roughly 2.84 US cents) regarding Wolfram|Alpha.
Everyone knows that Twitter is hot, red hot. It’s growth curve is soaring and as more and more people join the service, new and innovative uses seem to pop up.
