A questionbecomes a project,then a resource.

An academic platform where a student’s question becomes a project with named roles and people who fill them. The funnel is the product. No skipping.

QuestionProposalAdherenceProject SpaceOutput
The problem

Knowledge scatters across three places that never talk to each other.

The question vanishes with the conversation

Someone gave the right answer three months ago. Nobody finds it. Every year starts over on the same questions.

The work moves to a generic tool

A board. A shared folder. Cut off from the discussion that produced them. Six months later nobody knows why that task existed.

Results never come back

The project ends. Someone hands in the report, and the file stays on their drive. Next year someone else meets the same problem, never knowing it was solved.

LECO closes the loop. The question, the discussion, the work, the result. Then the result becomes a public resource the next one will find.

The product

One project, four moments.

This is the only place on this page where you see the product.

The question, asked in public

A post tied to one to five topics and to one or more courses. You cannot publish without saying what it is about. The asker picks the best answer. One. A switch, not a vote count.

algèbre linéaireCours · Algèbre linéaire3 answers

Why does LU decomposition fail on this matrix?

Zero pivot at (2,2). Is partial pivoting enough, or is another method needed?

Best answer

Partial pivoting is enough here. The matrix is invertible — the failure comes from row order, not conditioning.

A. Ndione

Same case in lab 4. The counter-example is in the resource linked to the project.

M. Traoré

Edited twice — public history, not deletable

The discussion, inside the group

The public Q&A stays public. Alongside it, the group keeps internal conversations, attached to the project or to a work item. Fifteen minutes to fix a message. After that, or once the discussion resolves, it’s closed.

Internal discussionUnresolved
A. Ndione

Do we keep both methods in the atlas, or only the one from the course?

F. Kouassi

Both. The second explains why the first one fails.

Decision note

Two methods, one notation. To carry into the output.

ID98B-3Linked work item — Write the pivot section

The work, structured

Six item types and four states, seen three ways. The blocked state cannot be declared. It gets computed, from whatever blocks it.

ID98BBoard · 3 columns
To do
Collect counter-examplesID98B-7 · AN
Review the notationID98B-9 · MT
In progress
Write the pivot sectionID98B-3 · FK
Check the edge casesblockedID98B-5
In review
Atlas outlineID98B-1 · AN

ID98B-5 is blocked by ID98B-3 — the state is computed, never typed in

The output, reviewed then public

Draft, in review, approved, published. No public artefact skips review. And once it’s published, it becomes a resource the next ones will find.

Open resourceLinked to an epic

Atlas of classic mistakes in linear algebra

Draft
In review
Approved
Published

Once published, the output returns to the public Q&A as a reusable resource

The funnel

Five stages. None can be skipped.

This is the shape of the product. The interface only follows it.

A question, tied to what it is about

A public post tied to one to five mandatory topics and to one or more courses.

  • Title from 10 to 250 characters, body from 30 to 20,000.
  • Markdown, code blocks, mathematical formulas, mentions, six attachments.
  • A question can quote another, three levels deep. Once created, the link never moves.
  • Language is not declared: the system derives it from the profile.

A proposal, before the project exists

It declares a goal, an expected result, and the open roles with how many people each one needs.

  • Draft → gathering contributors → ready to activate → activated.
  • Becoming ready is reversible: if someone withdraws, the proposal steps back on its own.
  • It comes from a question, from a topic, or from itself. Never from two at once.

An adherence, to one specific role

It is a declared commitment to do one thing. Named, in one role, and accepted by someone.

  • Pending → accepted, rejected or withdrawn.
  • One live application per person per proposal.
  • A rejection does not block a second attempt.
  • The proposer reviews applications one by one.

Activation opens a Project Space

When the conditions are met, the proposal becomes a private workspace for the committed group.

  • Every accepted contributor gets the view of their role.
  • The project publishes updates, asks public questions, ships outputs.
  • The proposal page stays linked as the record of origin. It does not disappear.

The output comes back to the public

Nine kinds of output. Report, paper draft, comparison table, dataset, prototype, bibliography, synthesis, presentation, open resource.

  • Draft → in review → approved → published.
  • Internal to the group: one step. Public: review is mandatory.
  • An output attaches to an epic and nothing else.

A proposal becomes a project only when these are all satisfied.

If someone withdraws, the condition breaks and the proposal steps back down. You cannot fake being ready.

  • Goal and expected result are declared
  • Every open role states how many people it needs
  • Adherences are accepted, one by one
  • One role is still waiting for a person
“This funnel exists to avoid empty projects. Users cannot create a complete project with one click.”
— The product document, quoted as written

The create menu has two entries. No “create project” button. The column tying a project to its proposal is mandatory, and no endpoint creates a project.

Question ProjectProposal ProjectAdherence LikeFollower ContributorPrivate activity Public activity
Project Space

The work keeps its context.

An enforced hierarchy, and three views on the same data. Never copies.

Three views, the same data

List

A tree table, editable inline. The hierarchy is enforced. A subtask never floats alone.

Board

Columns by state. ID98B-9 crosses the states one by one, leaving its empty slot behind.

Timeline

Bars and dependencies. ID98B-5 starts after ID98B-3, because it depends on it.

epicAtlas of classic mistakesID98B-1in review
storyPivot chapterID98B-2in progress
taskWrite the pivot sectionID98B-3in progress
subtaskCheck the edge casesID98B-5blocked
featureCounter-example setID98B-7to do

Editable inline. Item numbers are never reused, not even after a deletion.

Hierarchy

Task and bug under a story or an epic. Feature and story under an epic only. Subtask requires a parent, an epic has none. An item with children can no longer change type.

Dependencies

Two links: blocks and relates to. The blocked state follows from them. The graph detects cycles on every change and refuses the one that would create one.

Permissions

32 permissions across seven areas compose reusable role templates. Asking to transition an item automatically adds reading it and reaching the workspace. An incoherent role does not get built.

Conversations

Context travels with the work.

A public question. An internal discussion. A decision note. A work item. You read them in a row, not in four tools.

Public questionAsked to the rest of the platform
Internal discussionKept to the committed group
Decision noteWhat was settled, in two lines
Work itemID98B-3

Public project questions

The group asks the rest of the platform, choosing how much context to show: the project link, the topic only, or nothing.

Internal discussions

Attached to the project or to a work item. Never to anything else. And once the discussion resolves, it closes.

Resources

An answer from the public Q&A can become a project resource. An answer written for someone else ends up in your project.

Six surfaces

What a project holds.

Questions

The public Q&A, flat: one question, one to N answers.

Discussions

The group’s own conversations, which it can close.

Work

Items and their states. What blocks what.

Updates

Status posts on the project timeline. Public or internal, always approved.

Outputs

The deliverables and their review.

Resources

Links, files, notes — or an answer reused by the project.

The loop

The cycle closes.

This is where work becomes knowledge again.

Close an item

The state turns to done. Reopening stays possible, if you say so.

Summarise what changed

A decision note. Two lines, attached to the work it explains.

Publish an update

Followers get whatever the project broadcasts.

Keep the output

Reviewed, then published. The resource for whoever comes next.

Who it is for

Identified people, never pseudonyms.

First name, last name, bio, university, department, academic level. The profile is public, on the open web. No anonymous mode, ever.

Six kinds of people

Each one arrives with a question and a name.

01 — 06

Three primary audiences, three secondary.

PrimaryStudents

Ask the question from the course, and watch it become shared work.

PrimaryResearchers

Open a lead and declare the missing roles. The group forms itself.

PrimaryTeachers

The cohort is looking for something. Here you see it.

SecondaryResearch groups

Structure collective work without leaving the discussion that started it.

SecondaryEditorial teams

A review thread becomes a reviewed, published deliverable.

SecondaryTraining programmes

Turn a cohort into projects whose trace stays.

Out of scope

What LECO does not have. Permanently.

Votes

No votes, no upvotes

“The asker knows their question better than random voters.” Instead, one best answer, picked by whoever asked.

Comments

No nested comments

“Flat Q&A: a question has one to N answers, full stop.” Answers can answer each other. There is no comment entity.

Anonymity

No anonymity

“LECO is an educational community with real identity.” The profile is a portfolio of public contributions. Courses followed and contributor projects only appear there if you switch them on.

No leaderboardsNo reputation scoreNo badgesNo levelsNo streaks

No password, ever.

Passkey or magic link by email. Nothing else to remember, nothing else to lose.

The link does not burn itself

Opening the link does not consume the token: an explicit confirmation is required. It is a defence against mailbox security scanners. They would burn the link just by opening it. Fifteen minutes, single use.

A name, an email, and that’s it.

Principles

How the product thinks about shared work.

Nothing gets read outside its context.

A message, a decision, a task: you always see where it came from.

A rule counts when breaking it is impossible.

Eleven rules are enforced by the database, not by the code’s good intentions.

The result becomes public again.

Review is mandatory before anything goes public.

The asker decides.

And the decision stays visible: the question’s history is public.

Identity is real.

First name, last name, university, department.

Attention is asked for.

Notifications batched over sixty minutes, weekly digest off by default.

Early access. Not public yet.

Bring a workflow you’re in the middle of. A question, a discussion, work that has to end as a shared result.

What we ask

A course, a topic, and a question you would ask today.

What you get

A place to ask it when your cohort opens. No date announced.

Just a name and an email. No password, ever. How this data is handled

The button opens your email app with your request. Nothing is sent from this page.

FAQ

Five questions.

What is LECO?

An academic platform. A student’s question becomes a proposal, then a project, then a public output.

Who is it for?

Students, researchers and teachers. And the groups that make shared work out of a discussion.

Is it available yet?

No. Early access, not public yet, and no launch date.

Does it replace our tools?

LECO connects what they separate. The question, the work, the result, in one loop. And nothing imports itself automatically.

Which languages?

French as the main language, English and Italian from day one.

Bring a question that deserves to become work.