Web 2.0 apps at your university

Groupvine is a website service that enables students and faculty at universities to create online groups for organizations on campus. Again, we see another web 2.0 app aiming to target the needs of the university audience because they realize the inherent social nature of the U environment. If your university is not currently listed on their site, you can get Groupvine for your university by submitting it through a form on their website. I have recently submitted a request that they add Bowling Green State University to their list of supported universities. They will contact me when it is added. Some of the features of Groupvine >include the following:

• Keep track of important dates, times and locations
• Remember what has to be done and who's doing it with to-do lists
• Network & work with other groups
• Send messages to the people that want to get them
• Get instant, organized feedback with comments
• Store & archive files like notes, contracts, t-shirt designs or tests
• See what's happening across all your groups in one screen
• Keep tabs on groups in which you might have an interest

I wonder if this feature will be a better alternative to the Groups feature in Facebook. Facebook is the most popular social networking website for college students and it does incorporate a Groups function. To give you an idea of the popularity of Facebook, I did a search on people from BGSU (population 21,000 students) and over 22,000 people came up (includes students, alumni, faculty, and staff). That's some pretty powerful stats if you ask me. You can view my facebook profile by clicking the facebook link on the right hand side of this page. Take a tour of Facebook to learn more about it and if you have a college email address; sign up and add me to your "friends" network.