[3849] in APO News
Book Exchange thoughts / apocrypha article
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Melissa Dullea)
Sun Apr 4 15:53:34 1999
To: apocrypha@MIT.EDU
Cc: apo-news@MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 15:44:13 EDT
From: Melissa Dullea <mdullea@MIT.EDU>
Creating an On-Line Book Exchange
The UA has mentioned their desire to create an on-line Book
Exchange to serve as a forum for MIT students to buy and sell their
textbooks. Although previous attempts to do so in the past have been
dropped, mainly out of respect for other book exchanges run by APO and
formerly the TCA, the UA feels that there is sufficient demand on
campus to start an on-line book exchange.
The UA's model of an ideal book exchange would be a sort of
on-line "classified ads" exclusively for text books, to which MIT
students could post (for free) their books through a web-based form.
Buyers would browse through the listings, able to search by title,
author, or course (as listed by the seller), and would then contact
the seller directly to complete the transaction. For a sample of
what the UA has in mind, check out Rice's on-line "eCo-op":
http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/SA/ecoop/
The UA's model of a book exchange has several advantages over
APO's current incarnation of the project:
-It can be run 24 hours a day, year-round, instead of eight
hours a day for four days out of each term.
-Since one need only access to an internet browser and email,
this format has the potential to serve more students than our current
model, in which students need to find time to physically walk to the
student center during book exchange hours to find out what books are
available.
-Because buyers and sellers interact directly, we remove the
enormous (and sometimes overly straining) demand for APO's manpower at
the beginning of each term (this point can be seen as both an
advantage and a disadvantage.)
-We eliminate the awkward negative interactions that occur in
our current incarnation of the book exchange, for example dealing with
lost or stolen books or people who've forgotten to pick up their books
and have had their books donated to charity.
-Book sellers get their money immediately upon surrendering
their books, instead of waiting for several weeks for us to process
the funds.
Disadvantages to the on-line book exchange include:
-We may lose a revenue-generating project for the chapter.
(Assuming that an on-line book exchange and APO's current incarnation
of a book exchange cannot coexist in harmony)
-We could lose one of our most visible projects on the MIT
campus. (Although one could argue that if we embraced the on-line
exchange, we could create a positive interaction between APO and the
MIT community.)
Should our emphasis be on serving the MIT community? Can we
bear to lose another of our long-term, revenue generating projects?
There will be a meeting on Monday, April 5 at 7pm in the office to
hash out these ideas and to discuss our role in the implementation of
an on-line book exchange. Please address any questions or comments to
<mdullea@mit.edu>. Thanks!
Fraternally yours,
Melissa Dullea
