Date
TODO	Assigned
TODO	Due
Status

Reported by The Mayor on TODO

Dear citizens of term-world, it is I, your Mayor. Having heard your deepest wants and needs, having listened to you for so long, understanding -- even if in a somewhat distanced way (you are merely the people after all) -- what it is that you most desire, the time has come to let you use some of your power (however meagre) to effect the changes you wish to see in our fair city. That is right, my citizens, I have heard you, and you want to work.

And work you must! As one of my trusted mentors in all things political once said,

nothing good ever comes.

So there's nothing to look forward to except the glow, the sheen, the aura of the work that you will complete for that very same nothing.

However, I allow that perhaps some things in term-world don't work exactly the way that you want them to. For example, our power system, while splendid for me, may not perform the same for you. Our world's inventory might not seem to function "correctly," as one with a critical eye might say. I've heard discussions of a, "mass transit" system, which is something my advisors tell me that I wouldn't like because the word "mass" means more than just me.

So begin your planning! Decipher the many systems that the world offers you! Propose whatever it is that you've been telling me that you want (and you'll need to propose it because, frankly, I've forgotten everything anyone has suggested to me). Let's get to work people! We have a new status quo to build, uphold, and leverage for my gain!

Overview

At this point, the world (to a somewhat controlled extent) is yours. The task for the remainder of your time in term-world is a grand improvement, one that synthesizes everything you've gained over the course of the semester. This is an open-ended task that can be completed individually or in "partnerships" (groups which can span neighborhoods).

While there are rules to this task, they are fewer than a traditional assignment, though the work is much larger.

Completing project content

Partnerships

All citizens must engage in a partnership with at least 1 other citizen. These partnerships can be made without neighborhood membership in mind.

Partnerships (i.e. self-selected groups) cannot be larger than 3 citizens. There will be no accommodations to this rule.

Choosing a project

World tasks are determined by the areas of work indicated below. Each partership will be offered a rank-choice vote to choose areas in which they'd like to work.

Areas of work

Below, you'll find broad descriptions of the various areas and their relative complexity. You may use this chart to determine which projects are of interest and appropriate scope.

term-world power grid

• Limited to 1 partnership

term-world possesses natural resources, but no systematic way to distribute them! While we've seen a proof of concept for power plants, the halcyon days of everyone getting as much power as they need won't last forever. To keep our world sustainable, someone has to come up with a fair model. This involves any of the following (and/or more!):

• Limiting the amount of power allocated to a user's various objects
• Using power from renewable sources before accessing the limited exhaustible pool
• Potentially developing new resources (exhaustible and not) to feed power demand
• Using a limited amount of space to allocate creation of plants, panels, or turbines

term-world transportation

• Unlimited partnerships

cding around only gets us so far. Have you ever imagined what it would look like if we could, for example, go straight from Galbee to Arago? This contemplates things like busses, rail, or even ride sharing. However, that doesn't exist in term-world as of yet. Could you be the one to bring these services? This might include:

• Timed, scheduled transportation opportunities and predetermined routes
• A train-station, bus-station or other project that displays schedules worldwide
• The ability to use these stations as a way to move between locations seamlessly
• On-demand transport from place to place (with a cost?)

term-world financial system

• Unlimited partnerships

The fate of partnerships rise and fall with the level of investment of time and resources in term-world -- the great capital cycle. Money makes the world go 'round -- of that we can be sure. Of course, no capital system exists without the reward of...PROFITS! Your task, should you take on this project is to create a market system that allows term-world citizens to partake in the riches and risks of investments. This could:

• account for the value of a given partnership's rate of development to assess a value
• create and offer investments in many of term-world's fictitious corporate entites
• assess a economic value of term-world and fix a currency to the gross digital product (GDP)
• contemplate a savings and loan system for residents to invest their hard-earned/ill-gotten gains

term-world snacks and concessions

• Unlimited partnerships

No nutritional value to be found here, folks. However, value comes in many shapes, sizes, and flavors! If you accept this assignment, your task is two-fold: developing a suite of products that appeal to fellow citizens and creating a distribution system for them via world vending machines. Here you might have to:

• create a centralized list of products to stock vending machines
• draw from the above list to present options to citizens, and
• determine the quantities and availabilities of various products (e.g. some can sell out?)
• provide a vending machine object in every neighborhood to adequately promote your product
• engage in an aggressive advertising campaign

term-world inventory

• Limited to 1 partnership

term-world has a robust sense of property management. Despite this, there are certainly ways in which it can be extended and improved. Here, you'll need to consult the current inventory system to make improvemnets. This requires reading through a code base, but also working within the "rules" and assumptions made by it. Some examples of features on request:

• backpacks which can increase the amount of digital "stuff" a citizen can carry
• mystery boxes which act like presents: users receiving the boxes don't know what they will get!
• the ability to propose and execute trades with other users
• improvements to inventory system commands

term-world helper

• Limited to 1 partnership

You didn't know it until now, but term-world has a new helper -- a robot that can answer Python questions for citizens interested in deploying code to improve world services. While a bit limited at present, you could be part of the partnership that makes this prototype more useful. An added bonus: if you work on this project, you'll gain some experience with the elusive, controversial GPT. Some improvements:

• ability to ask helper for code review in the terminal
• stream the replies from the model instead of waiting for responses to complete
• widen the scope of examples that the helper can provide

Self-directed project

• Unlimited partnerships

If none of the above categories appeal to your partnership, you may propose an alternate project. To do this, you must gain approval from Mayoral staff. It may help you to have a discussion with world staff in order to develop your idea.

Completing project work

There are various dates for documentation, demonstration, and final submission. Refer to the table below for these dates which are hard deadlines. Unless truly extenuating circumstances exist, these dates cannot be abridged.

Work due	Date
Proposal	TODO
Progress Report	TODO
Project Demonstration	TODO
Final Report	12:00p, TODO
Final Project Code	12:00p, TODO
Final Project Presentation	TODO

Proposal

This project starts by writing a clear proposal of the work you expect to complete over the course of this extended project. This work must be completed in the docs/proposal.md file. Here, you will be expected to outline:

• the members of your partnership
• the overall concept/statement of work for the project
• a pitch for the world value of the project (i.e. why is it worth doing?)
• a breakdown of the tasks associated with the project as you perceive them now
• an assessment of the scale and schedule for the work of the project

This is similar to how you've proposed various improvements over the course of the semester, though somewhat extended. For example, this proposal has many more dimensions than a traditional improvement and, thus, has a larger expected word count (500 words).

Progress Report

As the project develops, the Office of the Mayor expects progress. You will provide a Progress Report of no fewer than 500 words which responds to questions in the docs/progress.md file. This will be accompanied by a demonstration 1 week later which should confirm or exceed expectations set by the writing in this document.

Project Demonstration

By the date provided above, partnerships must provide a demonstration of their work. This demonstration must achieve the following:

• a brief (3 minute) non-technical walkthrough presentation of how the project works
• a short (5 minute) technical demonstration of the project
• a necessarily long question and answer session with Mayoral representatives

Final Report

At the close of the work, each partnership must complete the docs/report.md file. This writing is an extended overview of the final specifications and instructions for the project. It must detail both the work completed and how to use the projects that result. This report requires a minimum of 750 words.

Final Project Code

Final project code has one Golden Rule and many supporting rules of lesser metallic lustre. Not to bury the lede, the Golden Rule:

The project code must run and achieve its intended task.

For different projects, the form that this code takes will vary widely. However, we can broadly say that every project will:

• contain the use of class files and objects
• appropriate use of new methods or functions
• demonstration of the broad array of skills gained throughout the semester

While these three criteria aren't concrete, they imply several specific outcomes. The Golden Rule applies in this case, however, to say that if the code doesn't function, the project is not complete.

For nearly every project, the code to implement a given project will exist in another repository. It is your job to provide the link to this work in documentation below and in the docs/progress.md file.

Final project presentation

During the time allocated to our course final exam, partnerships are expected to present a short (5-10 minute) talk and demonstration of the work completed. This presentation has two parts:

• Discussion
• Demonstration

Discussion

Partnerships are required to create a slide deck with a link provided to a PDF copy in the table below and link to the repository where project work was completed.

Link type	Link
Presentation	TODO
Code repository	TODO

This presentation should cover:

• the value this project adds to the world
• a non-technical overview of what the project does
  • this might be best supported by a diagram or set of diagrams
• a summary of challenges and successes experience during completion of the project

Demonstration

The above presentation should also contain a demonstration which can be performed live or as a recorded video. This demonstration constitutes part of the 5 - 10 minutes required.

Backup Policy Reminder

While we may use this server to store code, you are responsible for using GitHub as your main backup.

In the event that the term-world server goes down for any unforeseen reason, your work may be lost. Though this server is backed up on a regular (i.e. weekly) basis, there is no guarantee that up-to-the-minute data for your work will be restored.

Remember: to err is human; to back up your work is divine.