Q1: Thanks for agreeing to an interview, James, about your highly successful new website, Learn Bites! What exactly IS Learner Bites?

Learner Bites aims to be the "one stop shop" for all things educational. The site enables its users to browse over 250 million resources and other educational pages, both on the Learner Bites site itself and the web! The search feature is safe, efficient and friendly. Registration is free and enables members to communicate via messaging and forum discussions, add timetables, manage homework, manage target grades/levels, check their planner online, get free homework help, post updates and lots more.

Q2: That sounds amazing! Why did you create Learner Bites?

The idea came for Learner Bites in the summer of 2011 when I got slightly bored on a night and thought to myself about how education could be made simpler and more "free" on the Internet. The original idea was simple – there would be a search engine and a basic member registration system. Then, as my mom works in a primary school, she put forward some issues about education online and a lack of tools that are available for free. I went away and tried to solve those problems by developing more features for Learner Bites before I finally released it little under a month ago. (March 2012). 

Q3: Did you do it on your own or with help from mates or school?

I designed and developed practically all of Learner Bites and added all content on it. However, my friend, Oliver, is a skilled graphic designer and therefore created the banner on the homepage of the site which encourages users to register an account. It is likely that most (if not all) of any future graphics work will be carried out by him.  

Q4: Learner Bites is very entrepreneurial! Have you created anything else, James?

Learner Bites is my most recent project! As for other projects, I launched a website in May 2011 called AllWhatsRock which currently posts the odd one or two articles, mainly based on rock music. However, when it was launched, it regularly posted news and reviews and members could also add their own content and have their own profiles, but those features are no longer available.

I also use to write about technology on a blog, which is no longer operational either. However, back in January, I started Boopeo, which designs and develops websites for clients. I hope to get more clients for Boopeo in the very near future though!

Other projects include a URL shortener and a number of other sites.

Q5: It must have taken a lot of courage, independence and technical skills to create learner Bites!

That's right! Learner Bites consists of hundreds of thousands of lines of code and a number of databases in order to run. It is in my personality to stay dedicated and ambitious about my projects and to, hopefully in the future, become an innovator. I enjoy taking problems and solving them, and providing solutions to people around the world.

Q6) Do you have any advice for other young people who might be thinking of creating something online like this but are hesitating?

My advice for any young people who might be thinking of creating something new would be don't be afraid of what other people say! You have to understand that some people won't like what you're doing or they may even be jealous, but that's up to them! Talk to people about your idea, see what they think! You have to listen to others in order to find out what they want. I built Learner Bites on the basis of if it works, tear it apart and make it better!

Q7) James, What next?

Me and Oliver have many ideas for Learner Bites, some of which I do not wish to share as I would like to keep them unique. Some plans that I'm happy to mention are the mobile version of the site (which will enable members to easily use the site on their phones and other mobile devices, also making "Planner" more portable and useful), a "Pages" feature (where members can create pages and post updates.

For example, a member may create a page for their school and post updates about the school! However, school pages would have to be approved to confirm they are genuine), more resources (which are added by the day) and a number of other things!

We aim to develop these features along with many more when we reach 1000 members, as we don't want to spend time and effort developing features if there is no one there to use them.

As for my education, I plan to go through college and progress onto studying computer science at university.

Thanks, James. It’s been a pleasure talking with you and seeing creativity and digital skills working in partnership to create such an incredible success.

And congratulations to Turves Green Boys School for nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit in their students! If you want to check out James site for info, news or homework help, then why not visit learnerbites.com today?