College students socialize 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and one Penn student wants to create a Web site to make interacting with peers even easier.
DormNoise.com - which will launch this June - is a college exclusive social-networking Web site created by Wharton freshman Jay Rodrigues.
Rodrigues says he is not trying to replace any of the main networking sites, even though his site's purpose shares Facebook's original mission.
"Facebook connects you to your whole world, we're here to connect you with your college world," he said.
Similar to Facebook - which was initially exclusively for college students but opened to the general public in September 2006 - Dorm Noise will allow students to post and tag pictures and send messages to friends.
What makes the site different from its predecessors is its focus on facilitating communication between college students.
Student leaders on campus can create groups for their organizations. Every group page has a built-in calendar function. When administrators post events on the group page, all members automatically receive messages and e-mail notifications.
Every college also has its own main page with a campus-wide calendar. Group administrators can post events, and all users can view the campus calendar and add events to their own personal calendars.
Penn students had mixed reactions to the creation of yet another social-networking site, even if the site is just for college students.
Wharton junior Phuong Mai said she does not think she would use a site like Dorm Noise because all her college friends are already on Facebook.
Wharton freshman Jin Joo agreed, saying, "I use Facebook because so many people have it."
She added that she has changed her privacy settings so that only certain people can access her profile, eliminating a negative aspect of public social-networking sites.
But Engineering junior Jessie Seidelman said a site like Dorm Noise could make social-networking "a fun thing."
"I'm a fan of the site," she said. "People shouldn't have to worry about who is looking at their profiles."
Dorm Noise will not include outside applications, which Rodrigues says will keep the site "clean and organized."
Rodrigues said his goal for Dorm Noise is to have 100,000 users by June 2009.
