Sharing knowledge

Bibliotroca, a platform for exchanging educational books

Abstract

This article presents a project developed by the students in the Cross-Platform Software Development course  at Faculdade de Tecnologia da Zona Leste: BiblioTroca, a platform which consists of exchanging educational books. Introducing the problem of the lack of reading in Brazil to justify the project’s reason to be, it is discussed how this lack intertwine with social inequalities, relying on a technological model for a possible solution to such problem: an online community library based on the principles of collaborative consumption, a trend that aims at responsible and shared consumption. Grounded on data about the country’s reading habits, on the concepts of cultural capital, from Pierre Bourdieu, of cyberspace, from Pierre Lévy, and on the recent advances in information and communications technologies, the project’s existence is, thus, theorized. Next, the methodologies used for the system’s development and the requested demands are presented, including the accomplishment of a market research, the concepts of Human-Computer Interaction, such as accessibility and user experience, and of Software Engineering, for the system’s design, and the fulfillment of UN’s Susteinable Development Goals. Then, there is a tour through the site, explaining its functioning, showing the interfaces and exihibiting the results so far achieved. Lastly, tying the project’s idea with its theorization, the importante of BiblioTroca in society is demonstrated.