Buffalo Network

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  Figma Mockup

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  Actual Visualization on our WebApp

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  Information the webapp asks from you

Inspiration

We looked at most commonly used networking websites and Linkedin comes out. Its very powerful but at the same time its very complex. A layman would not even know 50% of the features provided by Linkedin. Also, Looking at the current state of Linkedin things could be intimidating for an amateur.

The basic principle of a networking website is to help you connect with like minded people, but instead these websites are being used to showcase achievements and sending random cold emails which is not a bad thing. But where does a person views themselves in this entire network, Nobody knows and Nobody actually thought about if there is a way to visualize your position within the community/Network without any complicated filters, sign up pages, pay walls etc.

That is what our inspiration is we want people to visualize themselves within the community and help them find their network by making the entire process as elementary as possible.

What it does

Buffalo Network basically does 2 things:

• It asks you some basic information, best part you don't have to sign up anywhere or subscribe to anything :)
• We use this information to show you where you are in the community and with whom you can connect without even displaying your personal information.

That's it.

How we do it

• People come to our web app and answer some questions.
• We use these answers to build a personalized vector for each individual.
• We use our computation to find out best possible matches within the community.
• We now give you your own blob in the canvas that will be placed next to your Organization/School/Firm and most important like minded people which share similar traits.
• We also show you everything using simple shapes and arrows so that a layman can understand everything within minutes.

Best part, we do all of these things within minutes :)

How we built it

• We use Python and Streamlit to setup a small web application which takes inputs and showcases information.
• We also developed a computation engine from scratch which finds similar people in minutes.

Challenges we ran into

• How could we visualize this complex community into a 2 dimensional screen.
• What would be the best way to find like minded people.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We were able to create a working prototype which solves both the above challenges.

What we learned

• We learned how difficult it is to make complex things easier to use.

What's next for Buffalo Network

• Right now, the app has limited capability but we want to extend it beyond Buffalo, beyond a certain kind of community, beyond limited skills etc. and still be able to keep the process of connecting as simple as possible.

Built With

• python
• streamlit
• vis.js