Payperz,
a new Web 2.0 network for college students, enables you to start
“sharing your research and earning cash.” This network will allow
students to upload research while maintaining full ownership of their work. The quote from the press release is worth taking note of:
Until
now, students wrote a paper or essay, turned it in for grading, it sat
on their computer hard drive until that hard drive crashed. Students
would say “Well, it stinks, but I got the grade, and I graduated”. Now
students can archive their work, share it with other students, and earn
some serious gas money!
I just am amazed that this kind of network exists. Its income potential for students is exponential
considering the file is always archived and revenue sharing is always
active, plus there are many students who will no doubt be pressured by
deadlines and looking for a quick fix solution, they even say in their
press release that it is “Modeled after some very successful
self-publishing websites.” Could they be talking about Lulu, the self publishing network for authors, musicians and other creative types?
If
that is the case, how is this going to be replicated in a student based
community, for one we know that many companies had active sites that
would provide pieces of coursework for students already completed and
ready to hand in. In the UK, exams watchdogs have become very vigilant about this type of cheating in the UK GCSE exams. But is this site not surely encouraging further plagiarism in return for money, something just doesn’t sit right on that thought.
The
term “research” perhaps hints at how this site could be designed just
to share student’s notes, but that is surely enough for a student to go
on to write an A* piece of work with no effort or thought involved,
whatever the case may be it is not a very ethical education site.
However if something positive was to come out of the model, then it
would be to ditch the payments and work on a more structured
communication tool for students to actively share research, and there
should then be a limit to how long data is retained.
This isn’t much conversation currently going on about this, but let’s start one at Friendfeed on it to start getting some word out about Payperz:
