Note-deprived students, look no further. A Binghamton University student has created an online marketplace for the sale and purchase of personal class notes.
Notepig.com, which currently has 150 people signed up, will fully launch on March 22. Just log on and submit your notes for sale. For buyers, look for your course to find the corresponding notes.
“All users agree to a variety of terms of use. When you sign up, you agree to terms of use as with any product you buy,” said founder Alec Hess, a senior management major in the School of Management and an art minor. “There are obvious technical limitations, but we wanted to create a system that allows the most possible number of users to acquire and distribute the most possible notes.”
The site will only accept .doc, .docx and picture files.
“We are looking to have a live market for note-heavy classes, like lectures. We are creating a free market for different sorts of distribution of the same materials,” Hess said. “Personal notes are valued in class, so there’ll be buyers.”
Quality control is set by a preview and buyer-rating system. An advisory board and a robust set of administrators look over the notes to ensure they adhere to fair-use laws, Hess said.
Prices are set by sellers, and the site will take a 12 to 15 percent commission per sale.
“It’s like an Amazon Marketplace for notes,” Hess said.
Hess, who is also the president of Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), said Notepig’s staff had surveyed professors in depth about the site.
“Some of them feared it would prepare them for a case study in a smaller class,” he said. “But we wouldn’t have too much of a problem to cease.”
When asked how this would affect the University’s Service for Students with Disabilities note-taking service, Hess said, “Hopefully we will be able to relieve the service.”
“If I had the notes of the top scorers in my classes, I think I would do better,” said Henry Cham, a freshman majoring in economics and psychology. “But, if I take my own notes, I’ll understand them. I certainly don’t want to spend money on notes.”
Cham added, “I am a student of psychology and my teacher told us of a time when she posted her notes online. Attendance dropped from 80 percent to somewhere between 10 percent and 20 percent.”
Hess chose the name Notepig because he said buyers are “pigs for notes” and for sellers, Notepig is their “piggy bank.” The site was conceived about nine months ago.
“It’s basically my baby,” Hess said. “Two and a half years of being a business student really made me question if business was my passion. It wasn’t until I started my own business and realized how much creative force can be involved in the process that I discovered I truly have a passion for business.”
At Cornell University, a similar system is in place. “Take Note” is a company in Ithaca that hires teaching assistants to take notes. These notes are then sold for a profit. According to Hess, these notes can sell for upwards of $100 and professors recommend it along with textbooks. Since Notepig operates under a free-market system, Hess believes his system is inherently “better.”
Due to the relative novelty of the company, Hess said the University has no official stance yet on Notepig.
Hess is considering having an agreement set up between Notepig and Binghamton University.
“The more access a student has to the information in a particular course, the better. That’s the Notepig philosophy,” Hess said.
“The program in Binghamton is a pilot program. It is a limited liability corporation. Students sign in with their Binghamton ID e-mail,” Hess said.
When it comes to exchanging notes between schools, Hess said he sees no correlation between good grades and notes from other schools. As of today, McGill University and George Mason University are included in the site.
“The courses are in microcosms, shielded off from each other.”
Notepig follows a trend in Internet innovations started by BU students. On the board of Notepig is another Binghamton entrepreneur: Alumnus Ian Bel started “Campus Foods” in 2007 with the idea of ordering take-out from local restaurants. Similar businesses have started up since then, like “Get Munch” in January of 2009. Hess is part of a generation that he claims is “reinventing the way people think.”