▲ WeSix Planning Team : Lee Donggyu (representative), Shin Seongu (vice-representative) and Development Team : Jung Hwije, Yun Hyeok, Kim Jeong Hoon, Park Min Cheol, Heo Won Young and Jung Young Bean.

New communication platform ‘Waggle Waggle’, created by ‘WeSix’ under the 2020 Start-up Club, is receiving great reviews from CWNU students. Waggle Waggle is an anonymous chat platform created for all Changwon University students to help with the lack of communication due to COVID-19, especially for freshmen. Students in CWNU can match up with other students, and have the option to choose same-sex, opposite-sex, or both sexes to match with. This platform received an enthusiastic response at Everytime (an anonymous student community platform that is commonly used in many universities), and the number of Waggle Waggle users exceeded approximately 500 on October 14th. So who is WeSix, the developmental team behind Waggle Waggle?

Q : Please introduce the WeSix development team.

A : Hello, we are WeSix, the 2020 Startup Club Development Team under LINC+ of the Office of Industrial-Academy Cooperation. We started with 6 members at first and named the team with the ambition to work on 6 big projects with 6 people. Currently, there are 8 members. The team includes students from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Computer Engineering.

Q : What motivated you to make ‘Waggle Waggle’?

A : The first reason why we thought of developing it was to practice what we had learned in class since there is a limited amount of coding projects that students work on through major lectures. To harmonize our coding and development ideas, we racked our brains on how students who had not been able to properly participate in college life because of COVID-19 could benefit from a communication platform. So, we expanded the purpose of the platform to include easy to access communication. That’s when the idea for Waggle Waggle materialized.

Q : What does ‘Waggle Waggle’ mean?

A : Actually, we started with the name 'Joo-yeon'. This is the phonetic spelling of Chinese characters which literally translate to alcohol and social connection. However, we finally selected Waggle Waggle through an open naming contest to hear the opinions of the students who would be our primary users. Waggle Waggle means ‘in swarms’ in Korean and the portal site of CWNU is named Waggle too. So, this name represents a secondary communication network for students and a nice way to make good relationships through anonymous chats.

Q : Were there any difficulties during the development process?

A : Since it was our first time building a platform, there were many challenges. The most difficult challenge was that we are not financially stable because we are all students. Server fees have to be paid even though we are not making a profit, the operation of this platform is being paid for with the money of individuals. We bought a Mac recently for the development of the mobile app, but financial support is required for continued improvements.

Q : What are your future goals as a team?

A : We want to become the representative platform of CWNU by creating an application optimized for communication. Above all, our primary motto is "Give It a Shot”. By incorporating and applying various ideas, we can observe the reactions of users and continue to learn and improve the platform. On a larger scale, we have a goal of adapting the platform for other schools. After we have reached these goals, we’ll move onto our long-term goals.

Q : Do you have anything else you want to say to the students?

A : We are so grateful for the feedback, help, and interest that we have received so far from our fellow students. We are currently developing a mobile app for Waggle Waggle. It will include an alarm function, and we plan on developing ways to send voice messages, photos, and a search function to find other students like club members. Although we are living in the era of COVID-19, we hope everyone will try to challenge themselves to continue growing as people. We grew when we faced challenges and this experience has done so much for our lives. Do the things that are meaningful to you! Thank you for everyone’s support and interest!

▲ Waggle Waggle initial screen. (http://www.xn--bj0ba637pba.net/)

Lee Yeon-Ju, Editor-in-chief  rosielee@kakao.com

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