It is a little bit more than a forum, you could do it pretty fast in Drupal or Joomla or some other CMS. I'm surprised there isn't something like this in the UK.

The tech side is very simple. For revenue, I don't see any model other than advertising. Users aren't going to pay to post comments and I don't think you'll ever get universities to pay for access to the data when it's taken in such a haphazard fashion (not a good sample, no authentication that the person posting the comment actually knows the facts or is unbiased).

Micco said it right!

Well if the professor is curious and wants to opt-in, i'd expect easier traction on existing social networks (LinkedIn, FaceBook) as an app. I think if the primary utility of the site is voting on teachers, it won't be enough of a thriving community to maintain interest. It sounds like something I'd have maybe participated in 1x as a student, then never used again.

How about a FaceBook app? So that implementation is easier and you can focus on questions about how to identify teachers, secure private votes and comments, yet try verify the people are actually students in the class. And not re-inventing the broader social networking wheel.

It can be an interesting idea if you go deep enough, but I expect based on your brief proposal that you don't want to put too much thought into it, nor do you have any time to pursue it.

What keeps the UK from using sites in the US? This is the internet we are talking about right. Do the other sites block schools from outside the US?

Kevin_Cox: in my experience, many US sites aren't interested in the much smaller number of UK users so don't include UK schools. This was the case in the early days of facebook, and even now UK users have to put up with US terminology (US college = UK university, or something like that).

Graperoo: before you start this, be very careful to check out the legal implications. If a lecturer/professor takes offense and decides to sue, what happens? If you are liable then you're in big trouble. If your users are liable, you need to make that clear before they post (otherwise THEY'll sue you!); this won't help your user numbers.

It's also worth pointing out on the site that most universities have mechanisms by which students can provide feedback for their lecturers, and that students should not see the site as a replacement for that proper procedure.

How would this be different then Rate My Professor's UK site?

As a popular professor (bow, applause, thank you), I couldn't wait to see my rating on the Student Senate Poll. I mean, I couldn't wait -- I had to leave for financial reasons before I ever read it. I'd have welcomed this! It would have to be, well should be, well monitored. I had a couple of psycho students, one literally so, and I shudder to think what they would have posted on a rating blog. God luck.

"US college = UK university"
Well in the US its university or college. There is no singular terminology. From a technical stand point a college is a part of a university offering a specialized group of courses.

"facebook"
FaceBook runs on a upscaling model that is ever expanding. They did note even use to include all US schools.

Since this is the only different feature why not just ask the Admin of one of the sites to include UK schools? That or affiliate with them to cover UK schools. Because all this seems to be is asking them to add to the data base a little or add a scalable database. By letting users add on there own schools.

Rate My Professor has England, Scotland and Wales covered. Seems like if the demand increases they simply add new areas already.

If that is so, it's done

Bo-ya then for me predicting that it was there already =)

Bo-ya Kevin_Cox... bo-ya.

Exists in France, has been constrained to hide every personal information about each teacher, name, etc. (wasn't respecting the The French data protection agency's rules)

why only in UK?