The Web2.0 era has spawned a host of applications that aim to build a community of dedicated users having some shared interests. Complore is one such product that aims to bring the academic research community on a common platform.
Complore is derived from ‘com’ (with, together) and ‘explore’ (search, research). It has been started by two ex students of IIT Delhi, Lokesh & Deepak and they describe it as an ‘Online Social Research Collaboration Tool’. Complore was borne out of their observation that, while a few well endowed institutions (like IITs) have a good research ecosystem, the same is not true for many other universities & colleges. Also many of the research articles lie buried deep in the bowels of the internet or require subscription for access, something most students can’t afford. Complore provides students & scholars, faculty members, technical experts, working professionals’ direct access to the research resources. They can ride on the crest of the Web2.0 wave to share their research materials, thoughts, and ideas and help each other in their work.
So what all can you do with Complore? You can share content (lectures, articles, projects, papers, journals) by uploading a file, bookmarking a weblink or by writing a description. Users can comment, vote or add tags to the content. There is an events section where you can list upcoming academic events. Complore is also pulling RSS feeds from various publicly available research journals and combining them under a single category. The site has been up for just two months and already has a user base of 325. Their primary source of traffic is Google/Yahoo search and their site shows up in the front pages of many academic keywords search results. Going forward, the site could possibly add a resources database for students to find universities, courses, teaching assistantships, trainings opportunities etc.
I spent some time checking out the site and here’s some quick, back of the envelope feedback that I have:
– Complore’s positioning tagline ‘Online Social Research Collaboration Tool’ seems a trifle confusing; it could do with further crystallization
– While I like the basic layout of the site, the home page looks a bit text heavy
– A few bookmarked links on the site are not related to academia (e.g. a few Indian job sites); this could dilute content integrity; while it’s not possible to control what users share, maybe a ‘not relevant’ flagging off feature could help
– It would be great if I could search articles or events by geography; surely people would want to see aggregation of research activities country wise
Overall, I like the thought behind Complore and I am thrilled to see people in India trying to push Web2.0 beyond its obvious frontiers.
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If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that you live in one of India’s metros. If so, it’s more likely that your daily commute to work takes about 30-45 minutes, you spend anything between 2000-5000 Rs every month on fare or fuel, your office travelogue is a daily saga of minor accidents, road rages and near misses, and when you reach office for work, your blood pressure & pulse rate is higher than normal. And if that’s true, I’m sure that at some point in time, you would have thought of carpools but didn’t know how or where to start. 
