While more and more universities and colleges are looking into the opportunities offered by the third-party social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook or by private social networking applications offered by vendors, Elon University has chosen a DIY approach.
Over the course of 4 months, a team of four built what now looks like a pretty good “Facebook clone,” a social networking application including networks for students, faculty and staff members, alumni and parents: E², Elon’s Town Square.
I first heard about this interesting initiative about a month ago.
David Morton, Elon’s Web Manager, will be presenting a webinar on how to build your own social networking website for Higher Ed Experts during Social Networking Week, a 5-webinar event scheduled on October 1-5, 2007 and featuring 4 other experts on the different aspects of this vast topic (if you’re interested in this event, make sure to join HEE to receive updates about the program and registration information and to get the 50% discount reserved to members on all HEE webinars. Membership is open to people working in institutions and is free. Register at www.higheredexperts.com/register).
1) What are your goals for this new tool?
Our main goal is to enhance the Elon University community, with special emphasis on enhancing alumni and parent connections with Elon. We believe E2 (pronounced E-squared), the Elon’s Town Square, will allow people to build relationships, share their interests and expertise with other members of the community, enhance their career networking and have a great deal of fun.
Specifically, alumni can reconnect with their classmates and professors, share their latest family news and accomplishments through their personal profiles, and organize alumni chapters, gatherings and activities.
Students can learn about and interact with their professors, form campus groups, plan events and use E2 connections to work with alumni and parents to find internships or career opportunities.
Parents can meet and interact with other Elon parents, learn more about faculty and staff members, create and join groups, find others with mutual interests and be a networking and mentoring resource for Elon students.
2) Why did you decided to build it yourself?
We have had great success at Elon in building custom tools that fit our specific needs and goals. We can design features that help us meet our specific goals, and then adjust and add new features as we get feedback from our users. Our previous in-house products that have been highly successful include E-Net (campus information central), E-Web – our custom-built content management system, and the new Elon athletics site.
3) How much did it cost?
All aspects of E2 were handled by our University Relations staff members: Dan Anderson (Director of University Relations), David Morton (Web Site Manager), John David Parsons (Web Applications Programmer) and Christopher Eyl (Graphic Designer). The system resides on our existing Web servers, so there was no hardware cost. There were no additional costs. The development
took about four months.
4) What are the main features? Is it integrated with Facebook or other third-party social networking websites?
Main features include personal profiles, groups, messaging, events, a community photo gallery, extensive search functions, and a resume/work portfolio system that allows users to create professional vitae and work samples and share with people outside the system (a career-networking tool that will be valuable to students and alumni). There is also a flagging system to allow all members to report objectionable content posted on the site.
The site is not integrated with any other sites. It is a closed network, open only to Elon alumni, students, parents and faculty and staff members.