Every September, Northbridge prints a paper directory of incoming freshmen—the so-called “photo book.” It is a roster with names, houses, and hometowns, bound in a plastic cover and handed out during orientation week. The production costs are nontrivial. The information is stale before the ink dries. And if you lose your copy, there is no re-printing it until next year.
Three Weeks, Zero Budget
I started building an online version in early February, working from a desk in West Hall between problem sets and section meetings. The idea was simple: put the photo book on the web and let students manage their own profiles. No printing costs, no distribution logistics, and the data stays current through the semester. The first version took ten days. It handled the house system, uploaded photos cropped to 200 by 600 pixels, and ran on a single campus server with scripts and a database underneath.
The thing nobody expected was that students used it to find study partners for Intro Econ, not just party invitations on Friday nights. The directory became a utility, not a novelty. Within two weeks of launch, over three-quarters of the sophomore class had signed up and uploaded a photo.