Imagine Cup

My Team



Monastery of Innovations
Poland
MashUp
Karol Kaczmarek - Politechnika Poznanska




The Team
Charliens
Politechnika Poznańska


Round Entry
MashUp-KarolKaczmarek-Charliens.zip

My entry consists of:

Popfly Block named Hospitals (It's shared on www.popfly.com - my profile there: Karloe) which gets information about more than 4500 US hospitals and consumes Hospital compare API which was also written by me.
- Masterplan is in the Masterplan-Hosp-Finder.ppt file.

 

Moreover, I enclose two web pages with description for users:

- In the "Hospitals Block doc" directory you can find web page with Hospitals Block's description and user instructions. This web page is also available on www.hospitalsblock.ocom.pl.
- In the "API's home page" directory you can find description of Hospital compare API. It's also available on www.hospitals.ocom.pl.

 

More information You will find in the masterplan.

Enjoy!

Karol

Mashup-Charliens-KarolKaczmarek.zip

My round 2 entry consists of:

- "Mashups - locations.docx" - File with the locations (URL) of three Mashups (e.g. HospFinder) which use my Popfly Block (Hospitals) from the 1st round. 
- "Hospitals.avi" - A video demonstration of the features of the Popfly Block and the HospFinder
- "Droving adoption - report.pdf" - A report that provides evidence of how you drove adoption of your Mashup via the Internet
 in a manner that addresses the 2009 Imagine Cup Theme.


HospFinder

HospFinder is the main Mashup I have created.
It allows to search hospitals by many criterions, for example by name or location.
You can obtain data like address, zip code, phone number, information about emergency service and much more!
Moreover, HospFinder provides us with information on how well the hospitals care for all patients with certain medical conditions and gives us an oportunity to compare them in these terms and in terms of payments for various types of medical operations.
Results are presented in clear way, all hospitals are located on the map, so everybody can see hospital's position.

HospFinder is integrated with Yahoo!Traffic, therefore returns also
data like information about traffic jams, street repairs or incidents.
It is very helpful in case we want to get to the hospital as fast as possible.

Moreover, I have created HospFinder's website: www.hospfinder.us.tt in order to better present it's functionality and the ways of use.
Mashup is embedded in the "HospFinder" section.


Millennium Development Goals

HospFinder gives us the opportunity to make wiser decisions about our health and improve the US health service quality.
It will contribute to the reduction  of child mortality,
amelioration of the maternal health and combating many dangerous diseases.

It's currently directed at US hospitals, but there is nothing against widen it's functionality
to other countries if only appropriate data would be shared.


Hospitals Block

In this version of Hospitals Block, additional function has been added - getByParam.
All functionalities remained the same as were projected earlier and presented in the Masterplan, but
getByParam function has been implemented in order to allow users with small or without programming skills to create
advanced mashups which use two or more Hospitals Block's functions - like HospFinder (before the implementation of this feature,
user had to make some coding in Hospitals Block's advanced view to achieve it, with getByParam it can be done with just few clicks).

Arguments:

iFunctionName - Name of the function which should be called (getByCity, getByMortality, getByPayment or getByName,
 it can be send to the Block for example from dropdown menu)
iFirst - Desired function's first argument
iSecond - Desired function's second argument
iThird - Desired function's third argument. If the function has less arguments, leave it empty.
iFourth - Desired function's fourth argument. If the function has less arguments, leave it empty.
iFifth - Desired function's fifth argument. If the function has less arguments, leave it empty.


User instructions describing Hospitals Block's functions and how to use it, can be found at: www.hospitalsblock.ocom.pl


Best regards,
Karol


Team Questionnaire
Question: Team Members Full Names:
Answer: Karol Kaczmarek

Question: Mentor:
Answer: -

Question: Title of Project:
Answer: HospFinder

Question: Project Overview:
Answer: HospFinder is a MashUp that allows to search hospitals by many criterions, for example by name or location. We can obtain data like addresses, zip codes, phone numbers, information about emergency services and much more with just a few clicks. Moreover, HospFinder provides us with information on how well the hospitals care for all patients with certain medical conditions and gives the oportunity to compare them in these terms and in the terms of payments for various types of medical operations. Results are presented in clear way, all hospitals are located on the map, so everybody can see hospital's position. HospFinder is integrated with Yahoo!Traffic, therefore returns also information about traffic jams, street repairs or incidents. It is very helpful in case we want to get to the hospital as fast as possible.

Question: Technology/Software Used:
Answer: Microsoft Popfly Visual Studio 2008 Virtual Earth Yahoo!Traffic GeoNames JavaScript XML SQL

Question: Inspiration: What inspired your team to enter the Microsoft Imagine Cup and why did you choose the MashUp competition?
Answer: Imagine Cup is one of the most challenging technology competitions. It gives students the opportunity to open their minds and improve skills in the creation of some innovative solutions which will contribute to better life of the whole community. While Imagine Cup offers many categories, I wanted to gain experience in working with Web 2.0 applications, and that was the main factor why i have choosen MashUp competition.

Question: Team History: How did your team meet?
Answer: I don't remember exactly, but I have known myself for a really long time ;)

Question: Team Experience: What experience did your team have with MashUp before competing in the Imagine Cup?
Answer: -

Question: Highlights: What has been the best part of the Imagine Cup competition to date?
Answer: My favourite part was the development of the MashUps - the entire process of putting the ideas into action and discovering the new ways of addaptation of the Block I have created during the first round.

Question: Inspiration: How did your team come up with your submission? Include which Millennium Development Goal inspired your solution.
Answer: Health is one of the most valuable things we can ever have. Therefore, I decided that medical care is that, what should be the main subject of my solution. Reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases - these three Millennium Development Goals inspired me to create my solution.

Question: Challenges: What personal or technological challenges did your team face while developing your submission?
Answer: I had to face with many challenges while developing HospFinder, however, I think, that the most difficult problem to solve was time optimization of the HospFinder. Receiving data from the external sites and displaying them took too much time when many objects were returned. Work speed is the crucial factor for the user's convenience, so the increasement of it was one of my priorities.

Question: Future Plans: What does your team plan on doing after the Worldwide Finals in Cairo, Egypt? Do you plan to use your project to launch a new business?
Answer: After Imagine Cup finals I'm going for the internship to India. I plan also to improve HospFinder in order to add more features and start preparations for the IC 2010 in Poland. Own business with my project? I am thinking about it :)

Question: Links to more information (i.e. website, blog):
Answer: my blog: www.karolkaczmarek.com

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