Students, listen up! 5 Questions with ‘Walk My Campus’
Boy, times have changed since I went to university. Students today have online tools like WalkMyCampus.com, a site that not only lets you network with classmates across North America — including the ability to buy, sell and trade items — but also gives you a personalized calendar, resource centre, and more.
Sync caught up with WalkMyCampus.com‘s Bradley J, Geddes about what makes this Toronto-based site a worthy destination for college and university students.
Sync: What is Walk My Campus?
Bradley Geddes: The best way to describe WalkMyCampus.com is a “sphere” dedicated to the post-secondary lifestyle from both an inter-campus and intra-campus perspective. What we mean by that is the student being able to communicate with their new relationships at their new school while also maintaining relationships with existing friends attending other campuses.
WalkMyCampus.com gives members a chance to organize their day in private and manage their life using exclusive tools and features along with common features normally found on more basic social networking sites.
Sync: Who is for, exactly? Students, sure, but in need of what?
Geddes: The single biggest complaint we uncovered from our months of research was the desperate quest for a site of equals where parents family and basically the “home life” would not be allowed (to quote more than one user) “bug” them. We saw a need to build a social network while at the same time add exclusive tools and functions strictly for life at / on campus. This has taken us over four years to build and we have done it all in house.
Sync: How is it different than other networking sites or services?
Geddes: I have to say that we are not expecting anyone to bail on Facebook or MySpace, etc. Our community is not looking to displace the family/friends model. The marketplace has now come of age to show that our members need a “Home Social Network” just like they want to keep their old room in their parent’s house.
Sync: Fitting analogy! A place to call their own, with a focus on school life.
Geddes: Yes! We see WalkMyCampus.com as their first apartment and our members see it the same way. Personalized, secure, private, entertaining, they can invite as many over as they want and they never have to clean up after themselves.
The biggest differences are features such as our exclusive calendar. It’s a multi layered starting point for school, work and play and the security and sharing features keep private who’s allowed and who isn’t. You can invite and share inter-campus and intra-campus and it is truly a market leader. Another would be the Buy and Sell which is more local and more relevant. We imagine a student feeling better about dealing with their own.
When a site mentions “Photo Album” the first thing you think of are of course the ones we all use. Our version is bigger better and easier to use. Also, we have exclusive entertainment coming soon which will set the social network community on its ear. More to come on that.
It’s now growing in functionality and features in a way we never imagined.
Sync: Finally, please tell us about who’s behind the site. What was the inspiration or motivation to build it?
Geddes: We have a core team of four on our executive committee and make all major decisions together. I have never been a part of a team like this. It’s nice to know if you get hit by a bus that your vision is the same as your partners. In addition we are adding a board of advisors which will bring international exposure to our brand as well as a dedicated marketing team.
We have funded the entire four year project ourselves: Amir Kendic, the creative force behind the site and developed the idea of building a place for student to call home; Amela Kendic-Unsworth, the design goddess, who happens to love building award-winning websites; David Li, the technical wizard who manages our development team and keeps the site happy; and me, Brad, the gatekeeper who ensures that those who work with us are true to the culture and vision!
Sync: Thanks, Brad, and best of luck with the site.
Geddes: Thank you.
I like the thought od students being able to study in their own room, But they are about 19 to 20 years old, University is a geat place for them to ralize they will not be at home forever, grow up for heavens sake or do intend to stay at home the rest of your life. This site has other good uses than for you to simulate you are at home.
it’s amazing what we can do on the internet now. i checked out this site and it’s amazing! they have a really cool calendar that i can use to schedule my entire life!!! and what i like most is that it’s a site just for students and i’m not bombarded with a million requests that don’t apply to me.
Its fantastic!
The calendar alone is worth the trip to the site guys.
Posting photos is way easier. But the biggest thing is the privacy.
Im not dumping Facebook but I can tell you I AM going to limit whats there from UNiversity.
Do check it out!
It is very handy and really builds the campus life and community. The calender is my favorite tool the website offers. Also, if you like having privacy this website is great for you. Give it a shot I am happy.
checked it out. pretty cool. :)