diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 5572a054fa..2cb1e8b358 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -4,7 +4,17 @@ If you have a product or service and offer **academic discounts**, there's a goo Swot is a community-driven or crowdsourced library for verifying that domain names and email addresses are tied to a legitimate university of college - more specifically, an academic institution providing higher education in tertiary, quaternary or any other kind of post-secondary education in any country in the world. -**Pop quiz:** Which of the following domain names should be eligible for an academic discount? `stanford.edu`, `america.edu`, `duep.edu`, `strath.ac.uk`, `wunizar.es`, `usask.ca`, `hil.no`, `unze.ba`, `fu-berlin.de`, `ecla.de`, `bvb.de`, `lsmu.com`. Answers at the foot of the page. +**Pop quiz:** Which of the following domain names should be eligible for an academic discount? `stanford.edu`, `america.edu`, `duep.edu`, `gla.ac.uk`, `wunizar.es`, `usask.ca`, `hil.no`, `unze.ba`, `fu-berlin.de`, `ecla.de`, `bvb.de`, `lsmu.com`. Answers at the foot of the page. + +### Installation + +Swot is a Ruby gem, so you'll need a little Ruby-fu to get it working. Simply + +`gem install swot` + +Or add this to your `Gemfile` before doing a `bundle install`: + +`gem 'swot'` ### Usage @@ -22,11 +32,11 @@ Swot::is_academic? 'lee@leerilly.net' # false #### Verify Domain Names ```ruby -Swot::is_academic?('harvard.edu') # true -Swot::is_academic?('www.harvard.edu') # true -Swot::is_academic?('http://www.harvard.edu') # true -Swot::is_academic?('http://www.github.com') # false -Swot::is_academic?('http://www.rangers.co.uk') # false +Swot::is_academic? 'harvard.edu' # true +Swot::is_academic? 'www.harvard.edu' # true +Swot::is_academic? 'http://www.harvard.edu' # true +Swot::is_academic? 'http://www.github.com' # false +Swot::is_academic? 'http://www.rangers.co.uk' # false ``` #### Find School Names @@ -35,7 +45,7 @@ Swot::is_academic?('http://www.rangers.co.uk') # false Swot::school_name 'lreilly@cs.strath.ac.uk' # => "University of Strathclyde" -Swot::school_name 'lreilly@stanford.edu' +Swot::school_name 'http://www.stanford.edu' # => "Stanford University" ``` @@ -48,43 +58,13 @@ Contributions welcome! Please see the [contribution guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md) **Special thanks** to @weppos for the [public_suffix](https://github.com/weppos/publicsuffix-ruby) gem :metal: -### Copyright - -Copyright (c) 2012 Lee Reilly. See LICENSE.txt for further details. - -### Pop Quiz Answers - -Hopefully, you'll be surprised by some of this: - -| Domain | Academic? | Comments | -|--------|-----------|----------| -|`stanford.edu`|:heavy_check_mark:|OK, this was an easy one so you could get at least *one* right| -|`america.edu`|:heavy_multiplication_x:| Prior to October 29th 2001, anyone could register a `.edu` domain name ([details](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.edu#Grandfathered_uses)) | -|`duep.edu`|:heavy_check_mark:| Alfred Nobel University is a *Ukranian* University *in the Ukraine* i.e. not in the USA :us: | -|`strath.ac.uk`|:heavy_check_mark:|The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland| -|`unizar.es`|:heavy_check_mark:|The University of Zaragoza in Spain| -|`usask.ca`|:heavy_check_mark:|The University of Saskatchewan in Canada| -|`hil.no`|:heavy_check_mark:|Lillehammer University College in Norway| -|`unze.ba`|:heavy_check_mark:|University of Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina| -|`fu-berlin.de`|:heavy_check_mark:|Free University of Berlin in Germany| -|`ecla.de`|:heavy_check_mark:|ECLA of Bard is a state recognized liberal arts university in Berlin, Germany | -|`bvb.de`|:heavy_multiplication_x:|It's a soccer team from Germany| -|`lsmu.com`|:heavy_check_mark:| Lugansk State Medical University in the Ukraine | - - -### Known Issues / Bugs / "Features" +### Known Issues * You can search by email and domain names only. You cannot search by IP. * You don't know if the email address belongs to a student, faculty, staff member, alumni, or a contractor. * There may be a few false positives, missing institutions... maybe even a couple of typos. Contributions welcome! -![](http://i.imgur.com/K8vsw.gif) - -### Preventing Abuse - -Just because someone has verified that they own `lreilly@stanford.edu` doesn't mean that they're a student. They could be faculty, staff, alumnni, or maybe even an external contractor. If you're suddenly getting a lot of traffic from websites like [FatWallet](http://www.fatwallet.com) or [SlickDeals](http://www.slickdeals.net), you might want to find out why. If you're suddenly getting a lot of requests from a particular school, you should look into that too. It may be good business, word of mouth, or someone may have found a loophole. - -In short, Swot gives you a high confidence level and not a guarantee. You should put some controls in place or at least monitor how's it doing from time to time. +**Please note:** just because someone has verified that they own `lreilly@stanford.edu` does *not* mean that they're a student. They could be faculty, staff, alumnni, or maybe even an external contractor. If you're suddenly getting a lot of traffic from websites like [FatWallet](http://www.fatwallet.com) or [SlickDeals](http://www.slickdeals.net), you might want to find out why. If you're suddenly getting a lot of requests from a particular school, you should look into that too. It may be good business, word of mouth, or someone may have found a loophole. Swot gives you a *high confidence level* - not a guarantee. I recommend putting some controls in place or at least monitor how it's doing from time to time. ### What is a swot? @@ -99,3 +79,24 @@ or or > [anagram] Stupid Waste of Time + +### Pop Quiz Answers + +Hopefully, you'll be surprised by some of this: + +| Domain | Academic? | Comments | +|--------|-----------|----------| +|`stanford.edu`|:heavy_check_mark:|OK, this was an easy one so you could get at least *one* right| +|`america.edu`|:heavy_multiplication_x:| Prior to October 29th 2001, anyone could register a `.edu` domain name ([details](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.edu#Grandfathered_uses)) | +|`duep.edu`|:heavy_check_mark:| Alfred Nobel University is a *Ukranian* University *in the Ukraine* i.e. not in the USA :us: | +|`gla.ac.uk`|:heavy_check_mark:|Glasgow University in Scotland| +|`unizar.es`|:heavy_check_mark:|The University of Zaragoza in Spain| +|`usask.ca`|:heavy_check_mark:|The University of Saskatchewan in Canada| +|`hil.no`|:heavy_check_mark:|Lillehammer University College in Norway| +|`unze.ba`|:heavy_check_mark:|University of Zenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina| +|`fu-berlin.de`|:heavy_check_mark:|Free University of Berlin in Germany| +|`ecla.de`|:heavy_check_mark:|ECLA of Bard is a state recognized liberal arts university in Berlin, Germany | +|`bvb.de`|:heavy_multiplication_x:|It's a soccer team from Germany| +|`lsmu.com`|:heavy_check_mark:| Lugansk State Medical University in the Ukraine | + +If you verified this by visiting all of the websites, how long did it take you? Did you have fun? Imagine you had to do this 10 - 100 times every day. Now you know a little something about the inspiration for Swot. Swot can verify them all in a fraction of a second and remove a :poop: part of someone's job.