ChoreoNova Ticketing System; E-Commerce and the Entertainment Industry

E-Commerce has been a growing influence in the retail market as it continues to adopt more innovations that cater to society’s interest in digitization. It has also made its way into the entertainment industry as a way to create and disperse content to consumers. My STS and technical projects both focused on e-Commerce and entertainment working hand-in-hand. My technical project produced a ticketing system that a contemporary dance company will be using to sell tickets to their events. My STS research focused on the relationship between e-Commerce and entertainment, analyzing the positive and negative effects that were produced from this relationship.
The technical portion of my thesis produced a working ticketing system for ChoreoNova, a contemporary dance company, to use. This included a display of events and showtimes, a page for consumers to input information and purchase their ticket through PayPal, a seat reservation page, and finally, a confirmation page that allows consumers to provide additional demographic information if they wish. The technical project was split into two semesters, with the first semester focusing on minimum functional requirements and the second semester dedicated to bug fixes and website design.
In my STS research, I analyzed the relationship between e-Commerce and the entertainment industry, taking a look at the positives and negative aspects of their association. I looked at e-Commerce use in the movie industry, specifically websites and applications that allow consumers to purchase movie tickets. I focused on the convenience factor that e-Commerce boasts as a shining point in the relationship between e-Commerce and entertainment. I performed a case study on Blockbuster and looked at the reasons it failed, ultimately connecting it to the rise of Netflix as well as Blockbuster’s own failure to adapt to new changes in society. Additionally, I found that subscription streaming services are a reason why more American households are choosing to cancel their cable television service.
My STS Research was inspired by my technical topic since they both relate to e-Commerce and entertainment. I have always been interested in e-Commerce and how it has altered societal patterns in shopping. After selecting my technical topic of creating a ticketing system for a dance company, I thought it would be interesting to see how e-Commerce affected different areas in entertainment. My STS Research allowed me to have a deeper understanding of what the client and users of the application were looking for in the system when completing my technical project. It allowed me to put myself in the user’s shoes while choosing a design and creating the functionalities for the system. Completing both my STS Research and Technical portion of the thesis allowed me to understand my project from both the user and developer’s point of view. This showed me that multiple perspectives should be taken into account in order to create an ethical final product.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Technical Advisor: Ahmed Ibrahim
STS Advisor: Richard Jacques
Technical Team Members: David Crowder, Eldon Luk, Jared Taylor