igneous
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- Joined
- Mar 28, 2013
- Messages
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Hello, long time no see.
I have recently come upon what I think is a great idea - though sure, a core tenet of the Fastlane is that ideas aren't worth much by themselves - for a website that collates data on a particular market where there is large scope for arbitrage. The idea being that the entrepreneurs involved in that market would be well-served by paying a subscription fee for the data and its visualization/sorting so that they can maximize their arbitrage opportunities.
The stumbling block? I have virtually zero experience in web programming. That is, HTML/CSS, and some very basic PHP knowledge. That's it.
What the site is about
No. First of all, I don't have the spare cash lying around, and second, even if I did, I would not wish to risk a lot of my own money on this venture. Besides, I have long wanted to develop web programming skills anyway, so this is a good opportunity to follow through with that anyway.
Of course I don't expect to build anything particularly slick and professional, it will of necessity be a jerry rigged job. But it would be proof of concept and once that's in I could go to places like Kickstarter to try to get it funded. After that, professional programmers can be hired.
What I need right now
The problem is that the skill sets relevant to this project are pretty specific. I really wish to avoid the situation of going off on a tangent that I later find to be useless to the task at hand.
My initial thoughts, well guesses, is that it would be best to use Python for the scraper (they have an open source framework for one) while the website itself would be built with Ruby on Rails. I also imagine some level of proficiency with MySQL would also be required. I have not the slightest idea of how to integrate all that. I will need to study these issues, but in a highly focused and intense way that is relevant to the task I've set myself.
How would you proceed forwards in my shoes?
Thanks in advance.
I have recently come upon what I think is a great idea - though sure, a core tenet of the Fastlane is that ideas aren't worth much by themselves - for a website that collates data on a particular market where there is large scope for arbitrage. The idea being that the entrepreneurs involved in that market would be well-served by paying a subscription fee for the data and its visualization/sorting so that they can maximize their arbitrage opportunities.
The stumbling block? I have virtually zero experience in web programming. That is, HTML/CSS, and some very basic PHP knowledge. That's it.
What the site is about
- Web scrapers that will harvest data from online sites with price listings. E.g., scour Craigslist rental prices for different locations and types of housing/# of bedrooms; scour average hotel prices by different locations; etc.
- Assemble the data gathered above into a searchable, constantly updating database.
- Means of manipulating said data, e.g. calculating rental price/hotel price ratios, and displaying them in a nice graphical format, including over time. (This is given just as an example).
- A way for users to interact with the data and tailor it to their particular circumstances/preferences. [This is far more complicated than the above, and I doubt I'll be doing this myself].
No. First of all, I don't have the spare cash lying around, and second, even if I did, I would not wish to risk a lot of my own money on this venture. Besides, I have long wanted to develop web programming skills anyway, so this is a good opportunity to follow through with that anyway.
Of course I don't expect to build anything particularly slick and professional, it will of necessity be a jerry rigged job. But it would be proof of concept and once that's in I could go to places like Kickstarter to try to get it funded. After that, professional programmers can be hired.
What I need right now
The problem is that the skill sets relevant to this project are pretty specific. I really wish to avoid the situation of going off on a tangent that I later find to be useless to the task at hand.
My initial thoughts, well guesses, is that it would be best to use Python for the scraper (they have an open source framework for one) while the website itself would be built with Ruby on Rails. I also imagine some level of proficiency with MySQL would also be required. I have not the slightest idea of how to integrate all that. I will need to study these issues, but in a highly focused and intense way that is relevant to the task I've set myself.
How would you proceed forwards in my shoes?
Thanks in advance.
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