Students take care of business with Wharton's Internet Technology Lab

Michael Dell. Bill Gates. Yahoo! creator Jerry Yang. And now John Q. Wharton? A new "Internet Technology Laboratory" will give Wharton undergraduates the opportunity to become the world's next computer entrepreneurs. By the beginning of next semester, students will be able to build their own electronic storefront on the World Wide Web, conduct credit-card transactions and test commercial Internet applications, according to Wharton senior and Wharton Undergraduate Technology Group President Darin Weeks. Wharton students are currently prohibited from using the school's Internet server for commercial exchanges because of security and space concerns, as well as academic limitations. "It's a little ironic because this is a business school and we can't experiment with building a business," Weeks said. "[The] Futures [server] is limited for what you can do on the system." Proposed lab resources will include 25 megabytes of disk space, compared to the Futures accounts' current range of two to eight megabytes, as well as access to a sophisticated database and other technologically advanced features. Comparing the effort to "giving an artist paint and a blank canvas," Weeks said he hopes the project will give students a creative way to explore entrepreneurship. "We want to give students resources to play around and figure things out," he said. The idea for the technology lab was introduced at a roundtable discussion of Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity's advisory board last year. "I think it's a tremendous idea," Wharton Chief Information Officer Gerry McCartney said. "What makes [Wharton] successful is the entrepreneurial efforts of students." Members of the technology group are currently seeking sponsors for the project, which will require initial investments of between $10,000 and $15,000 for hardware and software, Weeks said. Sponsors are being asked to contribute anything from $1,000 to $10,000. Members of the group had expressed concern that the new server might not be located on campus, but McCartney said his office will help the project out by housing and maintaining the central server. Wharton Computing and Information Technology personnel will also help get the program running. Once students' Web businesses reach profits of approximately $2,500, they will be ineligible for further use of the server and will need to seek out other commercial Web providers. Wharton graduates are permitted to use the server for up to one additional year, Weeks said. The Wharton Technology Group has a current active membership of about 150 Wharton, College and Engineering students. Wharton sophomore and club member Warren Wang said the group "can go into telecommunications, fiber optics? wherever people want to go" in the future. Weeks said students interested in the project should submit a business proposal including their student identification numbers, necessary resources and software and domain requirements. Participation is currently limited to club members, but Weeks said students from any undergraduate school are welcome to join the group.

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