What features would you like to see on Quantnet ?

Andy,

Every now and then, I find myself bookmarking discussion pages with head hunters, just to keep tabs in case I might need to utlize their services later.

I'm proposing creating a very easy way for quantnetters to find head hunters in the quantnet commuinty.

Thoughts

  • Create a custom HH user id list somewhere..of course, HH identities would have to be verified offline

  • Access a "small fee" to HH's . This could be on a yearly or monthly basis. In exchange they get some visibility in the way of an added logo on their profile ID or something like that so that quant job seekers in the community can easily identify and contact HH's

At the end of the day, this could be a win - win. I don't know if these thoughts are inline with the Quantnet strategy (...that's if there's one ), but I think it would be a nice addition
 
doug reich said:
I don't. Where can I turn it off?
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At the risk of sounding like an AOL user, "me too". I second this question.

What we really need is a way for professors to send out *emails* to the class telling us things like "class canceled tonight" or "Assignment 3 has been posted".

Forums are an inefficient format for that kind of important time-sensitive info.

There's lots of ways we can do that, conveniently and easily. In fact, I've missed so many classes (and gone to so many canceled classes) that I would volunteer to help implement something. I'm not the world's best PHP programmer, but at the very least I'm competent.
 
Andy said:
Would a notification via SMS work? Just make sure the email address in your QN account is current and I'll find a way for those emergency messages get to you.
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Wow!!! SMS would be simply _amazing_. I think for me, this kind of rapid communication thing would be the most tangible QuantNet improvement possible. I volunteer in advance if you need an extra set of fingers that know PHP. :-)
 
I'm not sure of the legality of this, but I'll throw it out here anyhow. If it's not legal, just forget I mentioned it.

We all download journal papers through Baruch and whatever schools we came from and still have accounts at. I'm sure many of us have downloaded the same papers over and over. For example, I'm sure most of us have downloaded papers by Engle, Merton, Rolle and others.

It would be really convenient to have a repository here on quantnet where we can dump whatever we've found so that others can access it easily and quickly. A simple search on uploaded papers would either yield a quick result and we're done, or no result, in which case we roll up our sleeves and go through the process of searching for in Baruch's library, which always seems to take longer than it should.

Perhaps a "rate this item" would be nice to expose us to papers that others have found useful / understandable that we might have otherwise overlooked.

Of course we have the "files" section on QuantNet, but that doesn't appear to be quite the same thing (if it is and nobody has uploaded journal articles, let me know).

My reading of the copyright act of 1976 is that this would be perfectly legal because:

1. We are an academic institution, and specific fair-use provisions are made for us.
2. We are downloading specific papers, not entire journal books in toto.
3. We have access to these papers though the library anyhow. This would simply be a more convenient interface that allows us to share information about what we find useful.
4. None of us would buy personal subscriptions to these things anyhow, so there's no loss of revenue for the copyright holder.

Anyhow, this might be a very useful and valuable addition to quantnet.
 
Peter said:
My reading of the copyright act of 1976 is that this would be perfectly legal because:

1. We are an academic institution, and specific fair-use provisions are made for us.
2. We are downloading specific papers, not entire journal books in toto.
3. We have access to these papers though the library anyhow. This would simply be a more convenient interface that allows us to share information about what we find useful.
4. None of us would buy personal subscriptions to these things anyhow, so there's no loss of revenue for the copyright holder.

Anyhow, this might be a very useful and valuable addition to quantnet.
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I'm not so sure about your reasoning (without reading the copyright law). This is a public forum, so anyone with an internet connection can get the files we put here. Not every member even is a student, nor do those people necessarily have access to the papers; if they do, they are probably paying for it.

One other drawback is that user-created content has been a little difficult to generate here, so the rating system may just be you and me. :) But I would be happy to be proven wrong.
 
doug reich said:
I'm not so sure about your reasoning (without reading the copyright law). This is a public forum, so anyone with an internet connection can get the files we put here. Not every member even is a student, nor do those people necessarily have access to the papers; if they do, they are probably paying for it.
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True enough, but I'm pretty sure we have the concept of "permissions" on quantnet. I was a member before officially enrolling in any classes. I seem to recall not seeing the class forums before I matriculated. The first time Dan said "go to the class forum" was like ... "what class forum?" I think Andy had to add me to some group to get access to class forums.

So I think we could definitely limit the service to students.

One other drawback is that user-created content has been a little difficult to generate here, so the rating system may just be you and me. :) But I would be happy to be proven wrong.
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Heh. But even the number of downloads is telling too.

Since someone would have to write the code and DB support, I won't even mention the possibility that perhaps quantnet can keep track of incestuous references and cites "This paper by Carr was cited by the following papers on our journal server..." Nope. Didn't mention it.

ps - I will rate this thread. ;-)
 
As for the SMS feature, I'm not promising anything. Most likely we will make whatever current features to work unless I come across something new that I can modify.

As for the Files download section, much are in place. You can rate/comment on any papers. We do have a stats log of who download what.

As for the copyright issue, I would actually encourage more people to upload the research papers that they have. Just don't upload the ebook versions of things people can buy on Amazon. If the authors contact Quantnet to remove a certain paper, I'll take care of that.

These papers are all over the place and it would just make sense to put it here in one place. I notice a lot of people sign up on Quatnet just to download the papers which is just fine.

As for permission, yes, we do have permission setting in place to allow certain groups to download a certain kind of papers.
 
Andy said:
As for the SMS feature, I'm not promising anything. Most likely we will make whatever current features to work unless I come across something new that I can modify.
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Andy, even just a simple email will do. Doesn't have to be anything flashy like SMS. Sometimes I have to sneak out the door at 5:30 and don't have time to scour the forums to see if class is canceled. Just any way for the professor to send out class communiques. I've burned 3am oil just to find out that the professor extended the due date; checking quantnet while I'm working on a problem set at midnight isn't part of my gestalt. And sometimes messages like that can be buried deep in a thread.

As for the Files download section, much are in place. You can rate/comment on any papers. We do have a stats log of who download what.
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Oh, excellent. I didn't realize we were allowed to upload journal papers. Okay. I would actually prefer to keep my collection on quantnet than on my home computer.
 
As we are doing prep work for another round of site design overhaul, I can't help but remember the remark people gave about how to make it easier to use Quantnet at work.
Some mentioned to make Quantnet pages look like a Bloomberg terminal or better yet, an Excel sheet. While the idea is entertaining, the purpose is understandable to most of us.

I'm open to any suggestion on to make Quantneting at work more practical and efficiently.
 
maybe you can implement a work mode and give users the ability to toggle between the regular mode and work mode...

Andy said:
As we are doing prep work for another round of site design overhaul, I can't help but remember the remark people gave about how to make it easier to use Quantnet at work.
Some mentioned to make Quantnet pages look like a Bloomberg terminal or better yet, an Excel sheet. While the idea is entertaining, the purpose is understandable to most of us.

I'm open to any suggestion on to make Quantneting at work more practical and efficiently.
Click to expand...
 
Now that's an interesting concept. What I'm striving for is something that is common place. It would be odd to make it a Bloomberg screen when you don't have BB at work. And a putty would look weird for some non technical users ;)
 
OK, here's my wish list:

1. We need a mobile version of quantnet that makes navigation easier for cellphones. Sometimes I have to "sneak" out of work to make a class, and I completely forget to check the course forum to see if the class is canceled.

Running to the 4-train at full speed, fumbling with my cellphone, frantically trying to check if class is canceled or an impromptu class is scheduled is just miserable. A mobile version of quantnet would be very convenient.

2. Get rid of the shoutbox or put it to good use. At only 4 threads, it is a sad forum, yet it could be put to REALLY good use.

Force professors to post important class announcements ("I will be 30min late", "HW 3 can be turned in next week") to the shoutbox and allow us to "subscribe" to the shoutbox so that we're emailed these messages.

Or figure out some other way for professors to email or SMS students in their class and get rid of the shoutbox.

4. Is there a way to render quantnet pages for printing without all the surrounding stuff? Sometimes I print stuff out so I can read it on my commute. A nice clean printable version of these pages with no graphics, margins, graphics, etc would be nice.

5. Don't do the Bloomberg / Excel sheet thing. There are too many really useful things to do. If anything, thinking of ways of simplifying the interface would be much more important. Quantnet is becoming a "wall of ink"-- too many features, bells, and whistles. The UI should be streamlined and simplified. For example, there are (at least) 4 ways for me to see "new posts". Perhaps give us more of an option as to what should be displayed and what shouldn't so we can configure our own "look and feel"?

6. A section for us to post resumes that can be searched by headhunters and companies (perhaps they have to pay a modest fee to quantnet for searchable access?)

7. irc.quantnet.com might be nice. Or maybe I'm just getting long toothed? Does anyone besides me use IRC?

8. Does anyone really ever use "Quick Links"? Make it work for its prime real estate. Put some links that are really useful. Some ideas:

a. Link to esims
b. Schedule of courses (Schedule of Classes - Baruch College)
c. Isn't there some thread that has the list of required books for our courses?
e. User defined links would be snazzy.
 
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