High Level Analysis - gcivil-nyu-org/team2-mon-fall26 GitHub Wiki

Connect NYC — High-Level Context Analysis

Connect NYC helps people find public Wi-Fi in New York City and use community feedback to decide which hotspot to try. It combines official hotspot records with separately identified user ratings, reviews, public community discussions and, in planned enhancements, availability reports.

Updated: October 13, 2026.

ZenHub workspace · Weekly project log

Sprint Goal

Collaborate as a team to review project documents and produce agreed-upon project requirements in the form of user stories.

For this requirements sprint, identify the main personas and epics, show their relationships in a context diagram, and define user stories for the product backlog.

High-Level Context Diagram

The diagram shows three main relationships: users access product features, administrators manage data and community content, and NYC Open Data supplies official hotspot records. “User” includes visitors and registered contributors; contribution actions require sign-in. E01–E05 and E08 are MVP capabilities; E06 and E07 are planned MLP enhancements.

User Personas

Students

Students need dependable public Wi-Fi for studying, completing assignments, attending online classes, and accessing educational resources. They may search for hotspots near their homes, campuses, libraries, or other study locations. They benefit from seeing hotspot reliability, availability, and information about whether a location is suitable for studying.

Remote Workers

Remote workers need reliable public Wi-Fi when they are working outside their homes or do not have dependable internet access. They may search for hotspots based on location, reliability, accessibility, and other characteristics that affect their ability to work.

Job Seekers

Job seekers may use ConnectNYC to find reliable internet access for completing online applications, communicating with employers, attending virtual interviews, and preparing employment materials. They need current information so they do not travel to a hotspot that is unavailable or unreliable.

Tourists and Visitors

Tourists and visitors need convenient public Wi-Fi for navigation, communication, accessing travel information, and using online services while exploring New York City. They may search for hotspots by neighborhood, borough, or nearby location and may need to view hotspot information without creating an account.

Community Administrators

Community administrators are responsible for maintaining official hotspot information and monitoring community-generated content. They may review hotspot data, moderate inappropriate or inaccurate reviews and discussion posts, and analyze community reports to identify areas with unreliable or limited public Wi-Fi access.

Personas describe users' needs. The diagram groups visitors and registered contributors as User for clarity. Their permission roles remain distinct: a visitor can search and read hotspot information, reviews and public discussions without signing in; a registered contributor can submit and manage their own contributions and participate in forum discussions; an administrator maintains data and moderates reviews and forum content. Students, tourists and other personas do not require different account types. NYC Open Data is an external data source, not a user persona.

Epics and ZenHub Traceability

The Epic descriptions below define feature ownership and link community requirements to their GitHub story cards.

Epics

E01 (Finding a Wi-Fi Hotspot) - User

This epic allows users to find public Wi-Fi hotspots based on their location and preferred search criteria. It includes viewing hotspots on a map, searching by location and filtering results by relevant hotspot characteristics.

User Stories

  • As a user, I want to view Wi-Fi hotspots on an interactive map, so that I can identify nearby locations.
  • As a user, I want to search for hotspots by location, so that I can find Wi-Fi near a specific area.
  • As a user, I want to filter hotspots by borough or neighborhood, so that I can narrow my search.
  • As a user, I want to filter hotspots by provider, so that I can choose a preferred provider.
  • As a user, I want to filter hotspots by hotspot type, so that I can find a location appropriate for my needs.

E02 (Account Registration & Access) - User

This epic covers creating and accessing a ConnectNYC account for features that require authentication, such as submitting reviews, ratings, reports and discussion posts.

User Stories

  • As a visitor, I want to create an account, so that I can contribute ratings and reviews to ConnectNYC.
  • As a registered contributor, I want to log in, so that I can access contribution features under my own identity.
  • As a registered contributor, I want to log out, so that my account is protected when I finish using the site.
  • As a visitor, I want to browse hotspots and read reviews without an account, so that I am only asked to sign in when I want to contribute.
  • As an administrator, I want my account to have elevated permissions, so that I can manage official hotspot data and moderate content.

E03 (Rate & Review Hotspots) - User

E03 — #3 covers first-hand experience ratings and reviews for one specific hotspot. It owns the star rating, optional review text, average-rating calculation and the author's review management. E01 displays that information on the hotspot profile.

A review answers “How was this hotspot when you used it?” E03 does not contain discussion threads or replies to reviews. Working/Unavailable observations are submitted separately through E06.

User Stories

Content reporting and administrator moderation use E05; they are not separate E03 stories.

E04 (Maintain Official Hotspot Data) - Administrator

This epic allows administrators to maintain accurate official hotspot information, including hotspot locations, providers, types and other relevant details.

User Stories

  • As an administrator, I want to import official NYC Open Data hotspot records and view what is stored, so that the site has a complete catalog of public Wi-Fi hotspots.
  • As an administrator, I want to update or remove hotspot records, so that visitors only see accurate, current hotspots.
  • As a visitor, I want official hotspot data labeled separately from community content, so that I know which information comes from NYC and which comes from users.

E05 (Moderate Community Content) - Contributor & Administrator

E05 — #5 provides one shared content-reporting and moderation workflow for E03 reviews and E08 forum posts, comments and replies. Contributors submit flags; only administrators inspect the moderation view and remove guideline violations. Authors deleting their own reviews remain under E03.

User Stories

A content flag reports a contribution for moderation. It does not report whether a Wi-Fi hotspot is Working or Unavailable; that belongs to E06.

E06 (Report Availability & Assess Reliability) - User & Administrator

This epic allows users to report whether hotspots are available and reliable. These reports help other users make informed decisions and help administrators identify inaccurate or outdated hotspot information.

User Stories

  • As a registered contributor, I want to report a hotspot as Working or Unavailable, so that others know its current status.
  • As a visitor, I want to see a hotspot's reliability score and how recent the reports are, so that I can judge whether it is likely to work.
  • As a visitor, I want to sort hotspots by rating or reliability, so that I can find the best options first.

E07 (Follow Hotspots & Receive Updates) - User

This is a planned later feature. It would allow users to follow specific hotspots and receive updates or notifications about changes in availability, reliability or other hotspot information. It is not included in the current context diagram or current MVP scope.

User Stories

  • As a registered contributor, I want to follow and unfollow hotspots, so that I can keep track of the ones I regularly use.
  • As a registered contributor, I want to see a list of the hotspots I follow, so that I can quickly check on them.
  • As a registered contributor, I want to be notified about new reports or reviews on hotspots I follow, so that I stay informed.

E08 (Discussion Forum & Community Interaction) - User

E08 — #15 covers Wi-Fi questions, recommendation requests and topic-based discussions. For example: “Where can I find a quiet place with public Wi-Fi near NYU?” Users browse or create topics, then exchange advice through comments and replies.

A discussion may reference a hotspot, but has no star-rating field. Posts, comments, replies and forum votes do not create hotspot reviews, change average ratings or produce availability/reliability data. Specific hotspot ratings and experience reviews belong to E03; Working/Unavailable reports belong to E06. Private messaging is outside scope.

User Stories

E08 uses E05's existing #31 content-reporting story and #29/#30 administrator moderation; no second forum-reporting story is defined.

Feature ownership across community Epics

User action Owning Epic / Story Boundary
Rate a specific hotspot and write a first-hand review E03 / #21–#24 Produces hotspot ratings/reviews and their average.
Ask for recommendations or start a conversation E08 / #38 Produces a discussion topic, with no hotspot rating.
Comment or reply within a topic E08 / #39 Produces forum conversation content; no replies to reviews.
Mark a hotspot review helpful E03 / #25 — MLP Changes only the review's helpfulness votes.
Mark a forum post/comment/reply helpful E08 / #40 — MVP Changes only that forum item's votes.
Flag inappropriate content E05 / #31 One reporting capability shared by reviews and forum content.
Inspect and remove guideline violations E05 / #29–#30 Administrator moderation, separate from an author deleting their own review.
Report Working/Unavailable status E06 / #32 — MLP Records a time-stamped hotspot observation, separate from content flags and experience ratings.

Relationship to the original team sketch

  • “Search & Browse WiFi Hotspots” and “View Hotspot Information” are combined into E01 because they form one discovery goal.
  • Account registration maps to E02; ratings/reviews map to E03.
  • Data import and administrator data management are combined into E04; moderation maps to E05.
  • Availability reporting maps to planned E06. E07 captures the PRD's planned follow/notification capability.
  • E08 maps to public questions, recommendation requests and discussion threads. E03 owns hotspot-specific ratings/reviews; E05 owns shared content reporting and moderation.

First Development Epic

Selected epic: E01 — Finding a Wi-Fi Hotspot. Discovery provides the first useful end-to-end experience and establishes the hotspot data/profile foundation for later contribution features. It needs an initial official dataset from E04, but public browsing does not depend on account registration.

Design Dependencies

  • Neighborhood filtering depends on the official dataset's field coverage or documented geographic enrichment.
  • Configurable nearby-distance/list search remains an extension to the first E01 implementation scope.
  • E06 reliability calculations depend on a defined formula, report freshness and tag provenance; E07 notifications depend on a defined delivery mechanism. Imported hotspot records and past reports do not guarantee current connectivity.

Requirements Sprint

The original team sketch is preserved above. The diagram represents the current project scope and corresponds to the main ConnectNYC epics documented below. Following hotspots and receiving notifications is planned as a later feature and is therefore not shown in the current diagram.