Notemesh.com- Collaborate to Graduate

Notemesh.com is a free online forum where collage students can share, exchange, and improve their class notes. Users can share their notes with other students in the same class in a database, called ¨wiki¨, where notes can be reviewed, added, and fixed. Errors can be erased and are kept in a file so viewers can see the changes that have been made. This is a way for students to collaborate on knowledge building and keep up with the class. Students of the world can interact within this online community and compare their own understanding to that of other classmates. Registration is free for everyone.

¨Notemesh was started in May, 2006 with the philosophy that students should collaborate to graduate. The idea for the website was originated around finals time, when Ryan realized that he could put a course study guide on a wiki, and let students in the class help him fill out the missing answers. That wiki turned out to be a success, and the team soon formed to further elaborate on the idea. In late July 2006, a beta version of NoteMesh was made public to students attending the University of Texas, Austin. A month and half later, a new version of NoteMesh, featuring message boards, wiki history, and numerous other enhancements, was made public to all students, regardless of university!¨

Notemesh.com creates the ideal sharing board for college students. Everyone on a university level has a basic command of computers and that is all you need to work with this site. So you missed a class? No problem, the notes are up already! So you didn’t understand a single thing Prof. Boring was ranting about? It’s ok, someone did and they are about to post it on Notemesh.com.

Many professors will not like this. At some universities it is considered cheating to copy someone else’s notes and is grounds for expulsion. The site designers will have to figure out a way to keep students safe from self-inflicted trouble and to stay within respectful boundaries of not encouraging students to skip class and rely on notes posted by other students.