Syllabus Finder
From ToolCenter
The Syllabus Finder is a part of the suite of tools developed at George Mason University's Center for History and New Media.
The Syllabus Finder is an experiment in the fledgling world of web services, where computers talk directly to each other to try to solve complicated problems or complete tasks that would be difficult to do otherwise. In this case, the computers that talk to each other are the Center for History and New Media's web server and Google's web server. The Syllabus Finder sends an optimized, specially packaged version of your query to Google, which sends back information and possible matches. The Syllabus Finder then processes this information and combines it with simultaneous searches on in-house databases (e.g., a database of educational institutions, so it can tell you which university or college a syllabus comes from). It also has algorithms that try to extract additional information from matching syllabi, such as assigned books. When this complex process is finished, the Syllabus Finder displays all of the information it has found.
The Syllabus Finder uses the Google Web API, PHP, PEAR, SOAP, and MySQL.
If you have any questions about the Syllabus Finder or would like to know more, please contact dcohen at gmu.edu