CMCers in New York Times
With Fantasy Congress

Four CMC students are responsible for the No. 1 most e-mailed article in the Monday, Oct. 23 issue of The New York Times.
Fantasy Congress (www.fantasycongress.us), developed by Ian Hafkenschiel '08, Andrew Lee '07, Arjun Lall '07, and Ethan Andyshak '06, with counsel from faculty across the College, is featured in the Oct. 23 issue of the national newspaper with the headline: Fantasy Sports? Child's Play. Here, Politics Is the Game (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/washington/23fantasy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin).
Its local creatorsthree current CMCers and a recent graduatemodeled Fantasy Congress after fantasy football: players draft members of Congress and earn points based on metrics such as the success of their team's legislation.
"Everyone deserves to play football, as well as politics," says Lee, executive director and self-confessed "gov jock."
The foursome unveiled the site publicly last month, partly on a mission to get individualsparticularly at the high school and college levelsinvolved in the legislative process and the ongoing Congress through computer simulation.
The hope, says the group, is that the site's user-friendly consolidation of congressional information will make politically minded people out of the politically indifferent.
The students say they have benefited from numerous CMC resources in support of their entrepreneurial venture. Jack Pitney, the Crocker Professor of Politics, used his academic and real-world knowledge of the U.S. Congress to serve as an advisor for the development of the game's content, Lall and Lee say. Also helpful was associate professor of mathematics Arthur Lee's course on Distributed Software Architecture, which taught designers Hafkenschiel and Lall "core programming skills" to construct the Fantasy Congress site as a final project. The group's win of $5,000 in the 2006 CMCStudent.com Web-based Entrepreneur Competition enabled them to continue finessing the site during summer and early fall (including beta testing with Truman scholars), before the public launch in October.
The entrepreneurs also point to help from faculty members Janet Smith, the Von Tobel Professor of Economics, and Marc Massoud, the Robert A Day Distinguished Professor of Accounting, for advice in developing the business side of their collaboration, as well as assistant professor of government Ken Miller, for legal guidance.
But CMC's support mechanisms stretch beyond professors to the College's alumni base. Two of the four entrepreneursHafkenshiel and Lalltraveled to the Silicon Valley last fall to speak with alumni during the inaugural annual networking trip sponsored by the College's new Information Technology Advisory Board. Held during the last week of winter break, the trip provides students an opportunity to explore the diversity of career paths in the realm of technology through contact with CMC alumni, parents, and friends working in Silicon Valley at major companies, says Cynthia Humes, chief technology officer and associate professor of philosophy/religious studies. Participants not only tour the companies, but interact with alumni in such tech fields as law, management, finance, human resources, and programming.
Last year, Jonathan Rosenberg '83, Google senior vice president of product management and marketing, answered questions from the Fantasy Congress creators about how to bring their proposal to the market.
Specifically, Lee recalls Rosenberg's valuable advice to first be concerned with providing the public a quality product, then worry about monetizing the idea, later.
Reactions to Fantasy Congress have exceeded their expectations. "It's been overwhelming, and we're getting a lot less sleep these days," says Lall, laughing. "We didn't expect it to be this big, this fast."
In the weeks following The New York Times story, the number of registered users for Fantasy Congress has leaped from hundreds to more than 21,000. A swift response from the media has since included interviews with TIME, Reuters, Sports Illustrated, C-SPAN, CNN Headline News, and KTLA's morning news.
"It sort of validates our dorkyness," says Lee, smiling. "Really, I think it is great to have had such a great group of guys working together to achieve a dream. My advice to other CMCers out there is thatif you have an idea you think may improve the general well being of the worlddo it. Don't be afraid."