About the Project

Creating 'SARS: An Open Scar' has been an interesting adventure to say the least. First was establishing the website's topic, which came about from watching the news. SARS, a world epidemic, was a hot topic in newspapers, magazines, and television, yet there were few good websites dedicated to SARS.

With that idea in mind, Van started to search for team members who were willing to create a site on this deadly disease. But this was no easy task. Looking for teammates was a slow process, as she would meet up with people, talk, and then find they would lose their communication until she found our assistant coach, Mayank Gandhi, a web developer.

"Even though we all live in different countries and different time zones, communicating through a forum was our main way of working together."

After months of searching, a team was finally established. Even though we all live in different countries and different time zones, communicating through a forum Mayank provided was our main way of working together. This was convenient as we could access the forum at a time that suited our schedule rather than by instant messaging. We were able to post our comments or suggestions concerning the design, programming, content, or anything else for every member to view.

As the content was pouring in, we realized that perhaps we needed a coach to look over the content, and Van's English teacher, Sherry Kohn, was absolutely willing to. With school, and other activities, it was hard to balance the time to work on the website as procrastination was tempting. Yet, by keeping our communication daily, we were able to finish the site on time for the deadline.